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__label__cc | 0.602564 | 0.397436 | Born September 20, 1990 in Miami, Florida as Evan Prescott Thompkins-Ayala a.k.a SE7EN was born for the first time. His family moved to San Bernardino, California before moving to Mulkilteo, Washington. Finally setting in the Bellevue-Kirkland area (... Read More
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SEVEN7 Music Style
Born September 20, 1990 in Miami, Florida as Evan Prescott Thompkins-Ayala a.k.a SE7EN was born for the first time. His family moved to San Bernardino, California before moving to Mulkilteo, Washington. Finally setting in the Bellevue-Kirkland area (a suburb on the East side Of Seattle). His parents split up and even with only one parent, SE7EN was still instilled with strong morals by his mother. It still didn't stop him from trailing off and hanging with the wrong crowd. Being brought up in Church he knew right from wrong but chose to walk down the path of destruction. Influenced by rappers like 2pac, Notorious B.I.G, The Game, D12, Obie Trice, Jay-Z, Juelz Santana, Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross etc. He wanted to be like them in every aspect from the fashion all the way down the Cars and women. At the tender age of 13 he chose to run with the profession of and Emcee. Music became the heart beat of his life and he soon started doing criminal acts to get his street credit up, even if it meant hanging on the wrong side of the tracks. By early 2010 he came to another crossroads after almost taking a fatal shot to the head after committing a robbery. He decided that that life is too short and precious to have to die at the age of 19 over foolishness. Even though he was raised in Church all of his life, he finally turned is life to the Lord on the day before the Super Bowl of 2010 and was born again. Finally for once and for all he faced his Demons within, casting them out for good. Even though Jesus became his savior and heartbeat, music is not too far from the blood pumping organ. Instead of going hard for the secular world of Hip-Hop, he goes hard for the Lord and return God blesses him every step of the way. In conclusion the question is Who You Riding For?
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__label__wiki | 0.827402 | 0.827402 | Christian groups still promoting ‘gay conversion therapy’
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The idea that to be gay is to be sick and in need of a cure might seem archaic and bizarre by mainstream standards, but among a few fundamentalist Christian groups, it lives on today.
Recently, one such group, the Core Issues Trust, booked a cinema in London’s West End for a film screening event which advocated conversion from homosexuality. The film, Voices of the Silenced, promotes the idea that people can be “rescued” from homosexual impulses and practices, and was also supported by representatives from Christian Concern. After an outcry, the screening was ultimately cancelled by the cinema, where the group staged a public protest on February 8.
This was an unusually conspicuous appearance by what remains a relatively fringe organisation. Core Issues Trust, Christian Concern and similar groups claim that people identifying as non-heterosexual can be “converted” into heterosexuals. Presently, there is no ban on gay conversion therapy in the UK. But whereas “ex-gay” ministries have received plenty of coverage in the US, it’s unusual to see a Christian group like this operating visibly in the UK.
For many, non-heterosexuality and Christianity are still hard to reconcile. This is largely due to the long history of negativity towards non-heterosexuals from Christian groups. Today, the Church of England’s position is much more promising: in 2017, the General Synod voted in favour of not continuing with its ban on blessing or marrying same-sex couples – a major rubicon in its journey towards full inclusiveness. What’s more, the Church of England General Synod has also called for a ban on gay conversion therapy.
But while it might sound like a sea change is underway, there’s still a way to go. While the Core Issues Trust’s values and actions are clearly out of date and largely out of favour, they still find enough of an audience to sustain themselves.
Clash of identities
Some Christians find it hugely difficult to reconcile their non-heterosexuality with their faith. This often leads to negative feelings of fear, anxiety, loneliness, confusion and self-hatred. Conversion therapies recognise and exploit the resulting negative emotions and internal conflict, and offer to resolve the clash of identities by “freeing” people from homosexuality.
In my book Undoing Theology: Life Stories from Non-normative Christians, I spend a chapter exploring the emotional roller coaster of one individual’s journey with Christian “conversion” therapy. Desiring release and repair from negative, internalised feelings, non-heterosexual people essentially find themselves forced to bargain – challenged to accept such a “cure” in exchange for a better life.
Despite the progess made by gay rights activists, ‘gay conversion therapies’ still exist (Photo: Getty)
While being involved in communities which offer such a “cure” can provide a space for the two incompatible identities of non-heterosexual individuals to temporarily coexist, the long-term consequences are damaging. Of course, throughout history, similar non-religious based “therapeutic” methods have been tried, among them extreme physical medical procedures: castrations, lobotomies, clitoridectomies and shock treatments. Then there are “psychiatric” procedures to deal with the mental state of the “sick” gay person, chief among them hypnosis.
As the protagonist in my book affirmed after spending 18 years within the ex-gay ministry, these extreme physical, psychological and spiritual attempts do not work. They are highly destructive and often painful – and their failure indicates that the very possibility of conversion is a lie.
Even for those who don’t undergo therapy themselves, the lie has pernicious impact. Proposing to “cure” or “convert” non-heterosexual people is a form of delegitimisation. It is wholly unethical. It is a denial of human rights. It encourages internalised homophobia and self-hatred. In the UK, both religion and sexuality are included in equality legislation as protected characteristics – but the screening in London shows that extreme religious views on sexuality are still being asserted in public.
Fortunately, a large proportion of both the clergy and the faithful who remain in the pews share inclusive, accepting attitudes more in step with the mainstream. And inside many Christian communities, efforts are underway to improve the situation further. Open Table offers an inclusive worship community and a safe sacred space for non-heterosexual and non-cisgender Christians. Many more groups offer bespoke opportunities for people to come together and practise their faith without negating their identity.
While the small minority of Christian groups spreading this negativity has not gone away, thankfully there are fewer examples of such hostility. (The Student Union at my own university recently celebrated pride week, and the Christian Union group publicly announced its solidarity.) Sexuality remains a controversial issue for the churches, but it also serves as a measure of inclusivity.
Evidently, some fundamentalist Christian groups remain obsessed with non-heterosexuality, and put considerable energy into railing against it wherever they can. The cumulative impact of their actions is highly damaging and toxic to the people they reach. A broad ban on conversation therapy – whether relating to sexuality or gender identity – is long overdue.
Chris Greenough is a Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religion at Edge Hill University. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5822 |
__label__wiki | 0.535078 | 0.535078 | Home » Resources » State Regulation of Private and Home Schools » Alabama State Regulations
Alabama State Regulations
Updated April 30, 2013 Note this is a stand-alone state chapter. State Regulation of Private Schools (Revised July 2009) is the last full report.
By definition, a private school, but not a church school, holds a certificate issued by the state superintendent of education showing that the school conforms to the following requirements: (1) instruction is given by persons holding certificates issued by the state superintendent of education; (2) instruction is given in the several branches of study required to be taught in the public schools; (3) the English language is used in giving instruction; and 4) a register of attendance is kept indicating every absence of each child from school for a half day or more. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-1(1).
Registration is mandatory.
All private schools, except church schools (for definition, see Home Schools section) must register annually on or before October 10 with the Alabama Department of Education and report on the number of students and instructors, enrollment, attendance, course of study, length of term, cost of tuition, funds, value of property, and the general condition of the school. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-1-11. The state superintendent of education furnishes the necessary forms for reporting. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-4-16.
No requirements for Licensing
Teachers instructing in private schools, but not church schools, must hold certificates issued by the state superintendent of education. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-1 (1)a, (2).
Every child between the ages of six and 17 is required to attend a public school, private school, church school, or be instructed by a private tutor certified by the state of Alabama for the entire length of the school term in every scholastic subject under the compulsory attendance law. Students enrolled in a church school before their 16th birthday are exempt from the new (2009) compulsory attendance law and may withdraw at age 16. Code of Alabama 1975 §§16-28-3, 16-28-1, 16-28-7.
Each private school’s purpose and objectives shall be stated in the catalog, bulletin, or brochure of the institution. Ala. Admin. Code r. 290-030-050-.05.
Private schools, but not church schools, are required to use the English language in giving instruction. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-1(1).
Private schools, but not church schools, are required to offer instruction in “the several branches of study required to be taught in the public schools.” Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-1(1).
Private schools, but not church schools, must provide a physical education program that conforms to the program outlined by the Alabama Department of Education. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-40-1.
At the end of the fifth day from the opening of the public school, the principal teacher of each private school, but not church school, must report to the local superintendent the names and addresses of all children enrolled; and thereafter, at least weekly the names of students absent without excuse. Code of Alabama. 1975 §16-28-7.
The principal teacher of private and church schools must keep an attendance register showing the enrollment of the school and every absence of each enrolled child from school for a half-day or more. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-8. The registry is admissible as evidence in compulsory attendance hearings. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-23.
Private schools, i.e. a profit or nonprofit entity as opposed to publicly owned or operated schools, which cease operations shall place student academic attendance and financial aid records in the following repository: (1) if merged, consolidated, or change of ownership, in the continuing school; (2) if part of a system, organization, franchise, or church ministry, in the administrative office; (3) if without system support, with the local superintendent of the public county or city. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-46-3(e).
A certificate of immunization or testing for the prevention of communicable diseases designated by the state health officer is required prior to admittance to a private school. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-30-4.
No teacher or school administrator employed by a nonpublic school is excluded from participating in in-service teacher education institutes or curriculum development programs for drug abuse prevention provided under Chapter 41, Drug Abuse Education. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-41-5.
An additional penalty of 5 years incarceration, with no provision for probation, is imposed for the unlawful sale of a controlled substance on the campus of a private school or within a three-mile radius of the campus. Code of Alabama 1975 §13a-12-250.
Alabama requires all private schools to conduct monthly fire drills and to have all doors and exits open out, and that all such doors and exits be unlocked during school hours. Code of Alabama 1975 §36-19-10.
A nonpublic school must seek and obtain a criminal history background information check on all “applicants seeking positions with, and on all current employees and current employees under review employed by any nonpublic school, who have unsupervised access to or who provide education, training, instruction, or supervision for children in an educational setting.” Chapter 22A, Alabama Child Protection Act of 1999. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-22A-5(b). Criminal history background information reports are to be sent from the Department of Public Safety to the State Department of Education. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-22A-5(d).
Private schools must fully meet the building code requirements unless the building was used for that purpose prior to the effective date of the code. Code of Alabama 1975 §41-9-163(c).
A license tax or registration fee of $13.00 is imposed on motor buses owned by a church or a private school that are used only for the purposes of the institution. Code of Alabama 1975 §40-12-246 (d).
In any public place, including private schools, service animals are permitted to accompany any person with a disability (including a person who is totally or partially blind, hearing-impaired or diagnosed on the autism spectrum). Code of Alabama 1975 §21-7-4 amended.
The Alabama state legislature is prohibited from taxing school property, real or personal. Alabama Constitution, Article 4, Section 91.
Constitutional Provisions: No money raised for the support of the public schools can be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian or denomination school. Alabama Constitution, Article 14, Section 263.
Programs for Financial Assistance for Attendance at Private Schools: There are no such programs at this time.
A home school can seek qualification as a private school, church school, or under the private tutor option. Code of Alabama 1975 §§16-28-1(1), 16-28-1(2), 16-28-5.
Private schools must hold a certificate issued by the state superintendent of education that shows the following requirements are being met: 1) any teachers are state certified; 2) subjects mandated by the state are included; 3) instruction is in English; and 4) regular attendance is kept. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-1(1).
A K-12 school or school with any combination of these levels “operated by a local church, group of churches, denomination, and/or association of churches on a nonprofit basis which do not receive any state or federal funding” is defined as a church school. Code of Alabama 1975 §§16-28-1(2), 16-46-1(3).
Instruction as a private tutor is defined as instruction by a state certified teacher who teaches in English state required courses between 8:00 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a minimum of three hours per day over the course of at least 140 days during the calendar year. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-5.
Documentation of the enrollment and attendance of a child in a church school must be filed with the local public school superintendent by the parent or guardian on a form provided by the superintendent. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-7.
By the end of the first week of instruction for a new school year, the principal private school teacher of a home school qualified as a private school or any state certified private tutors who are working within a home school setting must submit paperwork with the county superintendent of education. The paperwork states the child or children to be instructed, the subjects to be taught and the period of time instruction is to be given. In addition, throughout the compulsory attendance period a register of attendance shall be kept on each child. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-7.
The registry of attendance for any church school or private tutor in compliance with the provisions of law or any rule and regulation promulgated by the State Board of Education is admissible as evidence in compulsory attendance hearings. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-23.
At church schools, enrollment and attendance must be reported to the local public school superintendent by the parent or guardian on a form provided by the superintendent. The administrator of the church school countersigns the enrollment form. If a child leaves the church school, the church school will notify the local public school superintendent, by prior consent of the parent or guardian. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-7.
A private tutor (holding a state superintendent of education issued certificate) offers instruction in the several branches of study required to be taught in the public schools of this state; for at least three hours a day for 140 days each calendar year, between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M., and who uses English language in giving instruction. The tutor shall keep a register of work that includes attendance and hours of instruction. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-5.
If a home school is qualified as a private school, the school must provide a physical education program that conforms to the program outlined by the Alabama Department of Education. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-40-1.
A church school includes only such schools that offer instruction in grades K–12, or any combination thereof including the kindergarten, elementary, or secondary level and are operated as a ministry of a local church, group of churches, denomination, and/or association of churches on a nonprofit basis and which do not receive any state or federal funding. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-28-1.
If a home school is operated as a ministry of a local church, there are no legal requirements for instructors. Code of Alabama 1975 §§16-28-1, 16-28-5.
High school graduation examinations, though not required by the state for homeschooled students, are available to nonpublic school students in the state. Interested students who seek this option may contact the local school district for timeframes and any reasonable fees associated with covering the costs of providing the examination. Code of Alabama 1975 §16-3-40.
There is no state policy at this time. If a homeschooled student seeks to participate in public school classes or activities, the student can seek permission through an individual school or school district.
Alabama State Department of Education: Private School Licensure in Alabama
Alabama State Department of Education: Legislative Tracking
Alabama Legislative Information System Online (ALISON)
Title 16 Education
Alabama State Department of Education: Application for License to Operate a Private School in Alabama
Contact Information —State and Federal Departments of Education
5227 Gordon Persons Building
50 North Ripley Street
Montgomery, AL 36104-3833
Private School Registration: (334) 242-9960
Homeschooling: (334) 242-8165
Website: http://www.alsde.edu
U.S. Department of Education, Alabama | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5824 |
__label__wiki | 0.627625 | 0.627625 | Culture, Everyday Life, Identities, Left watch, Politics
A Non-Obituary – Life and Times of an Insaan: Bobby Kunhu
17/07/2016 Aditya Nigam 1 Comment
Guest post by BOBBY KUNHU
“To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn’t know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn’t even know how to be dead.” – Milan Kundera, Immortality
Insaan was a person who deliberately and desperately sought to mortalise himself in a world obsessed with immortality. He was very clear that he did not want to leave any footprints of his life when he died, no children, no money, no property, no awards, no monuments, no records, no pictures – except for those inevitable because of State restrictions that could trouble people who handled his death – like death certificate. He was working hard since his retirement towards his death fighting his way through the bureaucracy for anonymity in death! Then why am I writing about him disregarding his long cherished wish? Firstly his life was too important not to be chronicled; secondly whenever we joked that we would make a saint of him after he died he responded that he did not believe in an afterlife and what people did after he died was not his concern and finally, this is my way of grieving the loss of someone who was dear to me and whose relationship with me is not at all definable!
Insaan was not new to obituaries. In fact it was an obituary that brought him into my life. The story dates back to 1982, when Advocate P. M. Padhmanaban was visiting his relatives in Bombay. My grandfather, M. Rasheed had asked him to look up Insaan, his political co-traveler and fellow trade unionist from whom he had not heard in a while. On enquiries Padhmanabhan was informed that Insaan had succumbed to a long bout of jaundice and was no more. Dutifully he passed on the information to my grandfather, who wrote a long obituary in the Sunday edition of the Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi. The following Sunday as my grandfather was sitting with his cup of tea and perusing his morning newspapers at the Verandah of his Calicut house, Insaan walked in with a copy of the newspaper that carried his obituary!
It was true that he had suffered a long bout of jaundice – but he had not died, he had shifted to his native village in Kannur district. But, for a man who jealously guarded his solitude and was completely used to doing all his chores by himself, he was unhappy. For, in the traditional set up of his ancestral village gender roles were strictly defined and he was not allowed to be himself – which for him meant that he had to do his own cooking, washing, cleaning and everything else. He told my grandfather that he was looking for a place to reclaim his solitude and lead his life by himself and asked him if he knew of any such place. My grandfather wrote to my father asking him whether Insaan could be accommodated in the compound of the tile factory that my father used to run at that point of time in Salem – my father agreed and Insaan came into my life when I was hardly 10 years old.
Physically diminutive at 5 feet and 40 Kgs with a sinewy physique – Insaan could have been mistaken for a teenager if only he had more hair and it was dyed black when he arrived at Salem. He led an ascetic and sedentary life. Waking up at 5, he would do his yoga, followed by preparing breakfast, which was always some form of Upma. That would be followed by his daily chores including cleaning his quarters, washing clothes and a little bit of gardening. Lunch was always a frugal affair of boiled rice and vegetables – with hardly any spices. In the evening, he would offer free tuitions to the children in the village. He would offer the children tea and biscuits as an inducement to come and attend his classes. His stint at moblising in Dharavi had equipped him with Tamil reading and writing skills. Well, the man knew to read, write and speak English, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi and Tamil. He took his retirement seriously, for him he had not retired from his working life, but he had retired from all activities that was associated with his work including his union and acquaintances. He had retired and wanted the world to let him be – as a retired person. In that sense, he had no curiosity in knowing what was going on around the world, at the same time he was also not averse to getting information – but never pursued it actively. He never subscribed to any newspapers. But, would gobble up newspapers for the month when he came to the city once in a month for his bank transactions and visited us for the entire day. A couple of years later, we gifted him with my two-in-one cassette player – which he used to tune into All India Radio news. Much later, in 1998 my parents gifted him with a small television set that they had bought when visiting me in Delhi. He would only watch Doordarshan news, rest of the time the television was for the consumption of anyone who was interested. He was also not keen to have visitors, unless they had work with him. He even discouraged his relatives from visiting him. The only person whose visits he looked forward to was my grandfathers.
There was one impact that he had on our family with his moving in with us. Most people in Salem had no clue about our religious identity by birth. This had to do with the fact that we never wore it on our sleeves, our names and moreover both my father and I are atheists. None of my certificates carry my religious identity (this is yet another story that I will narrate elsewhere). However after Insaan moved in with us, his name and his sartorial sense which was impeccable khadi (handspun) white veshti (wrap around), half sleeved kurta (collarless shirt) and a white skullcap and the fact that he was living with us – led to the presumption that he was a relative, led to wide spread speculation that we were Muslims!
His battles started very soon after he moved into Salem. Insaan had to preserve his money, for at that point of time, he was living at a monthly income of INR 150. So, one of the first things he attempted was to try and get an LPG connection for himself. To get an LPG connection in Salem, one needs a ration card and that was a point of time that agents of the state refused to recognize single person families for the purpose of ration card, though there was no written rule saying that. It would have been easier to entrust the job to an agent, but he would have none of it. He applied for the ration card himself. He would go from the Tehsil office to the collector’s weekly public meeting regularly with a new petition each time – and demand for information on what law stopped the administration from giving a single person a ration card. Finally his persistence paid off he got his ration card and as a consequence his LPG connection.
His next battle was with the administration of the then newly established Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College at Salem (1986). Thirty years before he died, he wanted to be officially registered with the Government Medical college that his body would be taken by the college in case of his demise. Donating corpses for medical purposes had still not come of age in Salem particularly and the administration of the Medical College had no clue as to what to be done in this case of what they saw as a cantankerous demand. But, his persistent badgering paid off, the Medical college was forced to create a protocol for accepting post mortem donations of bodies and organs. Soon body donations started getting popularity and many others would benefit from this protocol that was triggered by one man’s thirst for complete mortality in Insaan’s lifetime itself. But as fate would have it, this Medical college did not have the fortune of receiving either his body or organs – we will discuss that later.
For the villagers in Pazhayur Sathiram, the village he settled down in, the man was a mystique. No one knew what to make of him. Always impeccably dressed in khadi (handspun) white veshti (warp around), half sleeved kurta (collarless shirt) and a white skullcap, speaking Tamil without an accent, but, reserved aloof and non-interfering in their day-to-day lives – he was looked up as a semi-saint. But he was also very vocal about his lack of faith in God and contemptuous about superstitious practices in the village. He was a puzzle that no one was keen to solve and at the same time he was part of all their lives. There was a side to his life that he rarely showed people – the life he led before moving to Salem, the life he led in Bombay. The life he led before Bombay. He found no reason to share it with anyone, unless someone asked him. He was not trying to hide any skeletons – it was just part of his quest for mortality – erasing from personal and public memory his contributions. The result is that there is no single person alive who can reconstruct his entire life – or even parts of it. Not his relatives, nor friends. With a little bit of arrogance and lot of pride, I must admit that I am the only person who can do it and why I undertake this personally painful and pleasant exercise.
Insaan was the youngest of three children born to an Indian Railways employee in the 1920s. Hailing from Kodiyeri, in Thalassery of Kannur District, he lost his mother at a very young age and grew up between Mangalore and Kannur depending on his father’s posting. He matriculated from Kannur, by which time his sister Lakshmi was married to Krishnan, a restaurateur from Matunga, Bombay. After matriculation, he finished his higher in typing.
Even as he was in school, he got into active politics. Initially it was Gandhian politics that attracted him. Later he got acquainted to M. Rasheed during the Quit India Movement in August 1942. Insaan was one of the leaders from his part of Malabar. M. Rasheed drew him towards Marxist politics and hugely influenced him with his critique of Stalinism and admiration for Trotsky. They forged a friendship that lasted 74 years till Insaan’s death.
Insaan needed to find a livelihood. In those days, Bombay was the window to the world and Malayalees flocked to Bombay in search of livelihood. It was also the pit stop before they ventured into the wider world, be it Karachi, West Asia or South East Asia. Many had already made this trip and returned prosperous. So, it was also a well tested route. His brother in law took him to Bombay to help negotiate a livelihood. Already influenced by Gandhian and Marxist politics, he was not interested in getting involved with his brother-in-law’s business and looked for a “job”. The first time around he was unsuccessful and soon returned back to Kannur. However, his father, brother and the larger family were unhappy with his political activities and forcibly shipped him back to Bombay. This time he was luckier. He started with a string of minor temporary jobs until he finally landed in the historic Kamani group of Industries at their Kurla unit in Bombay as a typist where he remained till his retirement.
At the Kamani group of industries, he was one of the people that mobilized the workers to form a union. Ramji Hansraj Kamani – the founder of the group – being a Gandhian and a benevolent philanthropist – provided a conducive environment for the formation of the union. In 1948 two landmark and pioneering achievements were garnered for the workers – on 23rd March canteen and medical facilities were started in the Kurla unit and on 22nd April provident fund and gratuity schemes were inaugurated. As an ardent Trotskyite and democrat, he is credited to have ensured that the Kamani Trade Union did not affiliate itself with any of the umbrella trade unions floated by political parties. But this does not mean that he was aloof from the general trade union scenario in Bombay. He was very active and spent a lot of his time with like-minded fellow travelers like S. B. Kolpe and building solidarity with like-minded trade unions such as the Bombay Dock Workers Union.
Insaan had an insight of the deep disconnect within the existing leftist and congress trade unions and the workers – at the time of the formation of the State of Maharashtra – largely textile workers. So when Shiv Sena loomed in the horizon with their ethnic agenda of Marathi Nationalism – at that point aimed at “South Indians” – he was wary and warned his Trade Union co-travelers of things to come and disastrous consequences of making convenient opportunistic alliances with the Sena and its union Bharatiya Kamgar Sena founded just two years after the Shiv Sena in 1968. While he managed to steer the Kamani Workers Union away from the sectarian politics of the Sena – his influence did not extend to the larger trade union movement of Bombay. But he was vocally and vehemently critical of the opportunistic politics of the Congress and the organized left that facilitated the growth of Shiv Sena in Bombay. Today his fears are vindicated!
His politics extended beyond workers issues. And he practiced the politics that he believed in. During the enumeration for the 1981 census, the woman official asked Insaan for his religion, he said that he had no religion and given his name by birth – Balakrishnan – she enumerated him as Hindu despite his protests. Peeved, he advertised in the gazette and changed his name to Insaan. After which he always introduced himself as Insaan to everyone he met. It was Balakrishnan who arrived at Bombay and it was Insaan that left Bombay.
When he retired from his job at Kamani, he also retired from all the sundry activities associated with that job, including trade unionism. To him retirement had to be complete and only workers could represent themselves – and he decided that he had no role and space there. For him his unionism was part of his work and nothing special, he did not yearn for any recognition or record on that count – rather he detested any recognition on that count. It is also paradoxical that the Kamani Group of Industries started collapsing shortly after his retirement and interestingly the only profit making surviving unit of the group Kamani Tubes Ltd. is owned and run by a first generation Dalit woman entrepreneur Kalpana Saroj!
Shortly after he moved to Salem, my father sold his factory and bought a farm, Insaan moved into that farm, settling into a more rigorous agricultural life with his own kitchen garden. His relationship with me was special. He had come into my life as I was entering adolescence – but unlike other elders I had so far encountered in my family and my parents’ friends circle, he gave me no sense of our age difference – he treated me as an equal and I was comfortable with him – asking him any question about anything. As a teenager with raging hormones, studying in an all-boys school with all the problems related with a typical male adolescence – I could not imagine a man who had led his entire life without desiring sex at any point. I could not contain my curiosity and blurted out the question to him once. He answered that it was not because he had no desire that he remained celibate – but it was his shyness and lack of confidence around women. With an impish smile he continued as nonchalantly that once to rid him of his shyness some friends took him to a brothel – but the madam threw him out on the presumption that he was under-age because of his boyish looks.
He was very particular that he could not be photographed – the pictures that we have of him were taken either furtively or when he was unwell and gave consent to be photographed. Given his obsession with mortality, my mother would tease him saying that he obviously wouldn’t know what happens to him once he is dead and given his reputation in the village as a mystique – we would build a mausoleum over his grave and make it a temple after Sri Sri Balananda. He would give us a toothless laugh – and brush the tease aside.
In the last six years, he was getting increasingly physically unwell needing personal care very often. But he had to fall completely ill for us to be able to get him to acquiesce to shift to our home. However the moment he could start walking and operating on his own, he would insist on returning to his life of solitude. In the last one year, he became very weak and unfortunately because my grandparents had also moved in with us – it was becoming difficult for us to do justice giving all three of them care. His nephews and niece came to our rescue and he shifted with his nephew at Nettur in Tellicherry. In the third week of May he fell ill with acute pneumonia and was admitted to the co-operative hospital in Telicherry – where he peacefully breathed his last on the 20th of May. His body was carried away to the Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur. And all that remains is this non-obituary.
(Insaan’s life was reconstructed based on my recollections of what he said to me over the years and inputs from my grandfather, M. Rashid, Insaan’s comrade and co-traveler, Thankappan from the New Trade Union Initiatives and Geetha, Insaan’s niece who is a special educator for mentally challenged children in Bombay)
Bobby KunhuInsaanKamani Tubestrade union movement
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K SHESHU BABU says:
Nissan has done what few ‘ Insaan’ can do. But Insaan’ has reminded what ‘insaan’ should do in life. Long live the spirit of INSAAN …! | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5827 |
__label__wiki | 0.720768 | 0.720768 | FREE E-BOOK: 15 WAYS TO KNOW YOU'RE DATING A GENTLEMAN
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James Michael Sama is an internationally recognized speaker and author, widely referred to as America's leading relationship writer. With over 37 million pageviews accumulated on his website and a collective social media following of over 400,000. James speaks at live events across the U.S. and has become a go-to expert with media outlets such as CNN, Bravo, The New York Post, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, CNBC, and more.
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__label__cc | 0.594432 | 0.405568 | Catching Up with Nine of Cups and the Crew
July 02, 2013 / Marcie
You're probably wondering what's become of Nine of Cups and her crew. We're doing a lot of writing, reminiscing, off-the-wall blog posts and Blue Views, but we're not doing much traveling or sailing lately. It looks as if this trend might continue for awhile. Our time in the States has been fraught with emergency, tragedy, sadness and just plain bad luck. Or perhaps, all that good luck we've had for the past decade is now looking for some pay-back. In a nutshell ...
Marcie came home last February from South Australia to Boston to take care of her ailing mom (86). We didn't think she'd make it out of the hospital with her diagnosis of congestive heart failure, but she did. She recouped, had a relapse due to COPD in April and, while in hospital, fell and broke her hip. We've muddled through surgery and the subsequent rehabilitation process with her. She continues to do well, but is unable to live alone. David finally joined Marcie in April and we are living with Bea in her 2-bedroom apartment not far from Boston.
Midst this turmoil, David's mom (95) was hospitalized and he planned to head out to help her in Las Vegas when she returned home. However, our daughter, Casey, died unexpectedly at that same time in mid-May, leaving four kids, our grandchildren, behind. Things are settling down to whatever normalcy they can, but all of our lives have been thrown upside-down. It's not the end of the world; it just seems like it some time.
Our niece took David's place in Las Vegas to help out her grandmother and mom. But it's not over yet, it seems. We received word that David's sister, sole caregiver for his mom, fell and broke three ribs the other night. David left for Las Vegas on the first available flight and has stayed until Mary recuperates a bit, helping out where he can. He'll return to Boston and Marcie soon. What's next? Lord only knows, but we hope things will begin to turn around soon. Our son has dubbed this “the Spring of eternal suckitude”. We tend to agree.
David plans to return to South Australia in mid-July to check on Nine of Cups and finish up the refrig/galley project. Cups will be complaining about her abandonment soon and David needs to give her a little TLC.
We are fortunate to have a strong family and a good support network to help us through. We've received countless words of condolence and consolation from friends, family, and readers, some of whom we've never even met. These bad times, too, shall pass. We look forward to returning to Nine of Cups and resuming our life of sailing … when the rough seas calm down.
July 02, 2013 / Marcie/
Lobstah
Signs...Don't Beat Around the Bush! | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5839 |
__label__cc | 0.67658 | 0.32342 | The diet plan last a full week, though some only to the three days of planned meals and others do a 10-day military diet. But the experts say it's not something that anyone should be on for very long. "It's probably safe for most people for a week," said Professor Jibrin, but recommends that people shouldn't be on it for any longer. Palinski-Wade agrees: "Following a plan such as this for 3 days will most likely not lead to significant nutritient deficiencies." The author worries, however, about the overall effects. "It sets the patterns for yo-yo dieting and restrictive eating that result in weight regain as well as impairing your relationship with food."
Cooking is probably the hardest part of the DASH diet. Otherwise, it’s pretty unrestrictive, you don’t need to buy anything special to follow it and everyone in the house can enjoy it. “It will likely help the whole family support good health, and since it’s based on whole, lightly or unprocessed foods, it’s more of a long-term eating style rather than a diet,” Ward says. That means you’re more likely to stick with it.
The diet doesn't offer balanced nutrition: some of the recommended foods are high in sodium, the reduced calorie intake is below the recommended allotment for both men and women, and you may not receive sufficient fiber, vitamins, and minerals during this three-day period. Prolonged application of the diet may weaken your organs and immunity as well as increase your risk of heart damage.
The South Beach Diet, while mainly directed at weight loss, may promote certain healthy changes. Research shows that following a long-term eating plan that's rich in healthy carbohydrates and dietary fats, such as whole grains, unsaturated fats, vegetables and fruits, can improve your health. For example, lower carbohydrate diets with healthy fats may improve your blood cholesterol levels.
Abby and Joel find another person from the Japopo's receipts who ordered the clam dish. Joel goes to stake out Colonel Ed Thune's house while Sheila attends a work meeting. To be consistent with a previous lie, Joel agrees to give Anne dance lessons. Abby tells Eric she has a date with Sven. Sheila's eye pops out at the meeting with Carl due to the frustration of not killing him. Joel goes to Ed's house undercover to confirm that Japopo's clams are the cause of the undead epidemic. Eric helps Sheila with her eye. Abby goes on a date with Sven but they don’t connect. Joel questions Ed and searches his things. Sheila and Carl attend a meeting with an investor, who hates Carl's idea, prompting Sheila to offer her own. Carl berates Sheila, who accidentally bites off her own finger. The skin of Ed's hand slides off during a handshake, proving that he is undead. Joel kills Ed, who had already gone feral, as well as his ball creature. Abby tells Eric about her extreme plan to stop local fracking. Joel comes home to find Anne, but gets her to leave. Sheila shows Joel her mangled finger.
While there’s still a lot of room for improvement, the military diet meal plan includes veggies daily like carrots, broccoli and green beans. You can also substitute these for other types of non-starchy veggies that you enjoy more, such as leafy greens/lettuces like spinach, tomatoes, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, asparagus, peppers or any other green vegetables. The same goes for bananas and apples; if you prefer, substitute these for other fruits, such as two kiwis, berries, papaya, pineapple, melon, or two small figs or apricots.
Those were never satisfying, so I’d also end up also having a spoonful of peanut butter and a glass of skim milk. That would last me about an hour, then I’d turn to mini peppers and hummus. If you couple that with my inability to move my arms and legs due to overwhelming fatigue, my snacking situation was probably bringing in way more calories than I was burning.
The focus of the DASH Diet is more about what you can eat, rather than cutting foods out (like many trendy diets do these days). The basic idea is to load up on fruits and veggies, choose whole grains over refined, include calcium-rich low-fat dairy items, and eat modest amounts of lean meat and fish. Pretty straightforward, right? With this week's meal plan, we make it even easier to follow the DASH Diet with 7 days of healthy and delicious dinners.
We reached out to two experts to see what they thought — and if the diet works. "It’s a low calorie diet that includes typical American foods," said Janis Jibrin, MS, RD, an adjunct professor of Nutrition at American University. "It’s nutritionally deficient, but not as crazy as some (i.e. juice fasts)." When it comes to the meal plan, she's not a fan. "It’s too low in many nutrients," she explains. Day 2 alone is "so low in fiber, iron, calcium and other nutrients, yet it manages to hit the daily sodium max. (Actually, most health authorities recommend 2,300 mg as a max, so this diet exceeds it.) Sure, the other four days offer more calories and nutrients, but even so, you’re still skimping."
Sheila and Joel decide they need to kill the zombified Gary. Gary agrees, but asks them to bring the deed to his Michigan lake house to his niece Kayla. Sheila and Joel decide to honor Gary's last request. Eric finds a corpse in Ramona's bathtub and calls Abby, who sets out to rescue him. Sheila and Joel bring the deed to Kayla, but she still needs her car, which is with her ex-boyfriend, Boone. Sheila volunteers herself and Joel to retrieve the car. Abby bursts into Ramona's apartment but realizes that Eric and Ramona actually had sex. Ramona discloses that she is also deteriorating and Eric offers to help her. At Boone's house, Sheila and Joel discover that he is the "young, single Hitler" type that Sheila can eat guilt-free. While debating whether they should kill again impulsively, Boone's friend AJ shows up and offers them a raffle book for the Nazi softball team. Sheila buys one as a future kill reference. After Eric gives Ramona the serum to halt her deterioration, she admits that she was just using him for his ties to Abby's mother and they break up. Abby discovers Gary in the basement.
As with other types of extremely low-calorie diets, regaining the weight is almost guaranteed as soon as you stop the diet. “My own advice,” says Rothenberg: “Don't compromise for a big event! That often leads to weight gain and binge eating. If you want to change your diet, change your lifestyle. Studies actually show that ‘safe weight loss’ results in 1 to 2 lbs per week only,” citing recommendations from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.” And that still is hard work,” she adds. Fad diets like the Military Diet put you at risk for regaining weight that is lost from muscle and water in particular.
This content is provided as a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. The NIDDK translates and disseminates research findings through its clearinghouses and education programs to increase knowledge and understanding about health and disease among patients, health professionals, and the public. Content produced by the NIDDK is carefully reviewed by NIDDK scientists and other experts.
Season one ends with a cliffhanger: Sheila’s condition is deteriorating, and the family chains her up in the basement for fear that she’ll run wild and infect others. This is standard zombie procedure — the uninfected are always quarantining the infected in a futile effort to prevent the spread of the disease. For a second, it looks like Santa Clarita Diet is going to become a more standard zombie narrative, all about the danger of contact and the struggle to keep people apart.
No clear proof exists that taking dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals, herbs, or spices can help manage diabetes.1 You may need supplements if you cannot get enough vitamins and minerals from foods. Talk with your health care provider before you take any dietary supplement since some can cause side effects or affect how your medicines work.2
The second step lasts much longer. Individuals who do not need to lose much weight can skip the first step and go directly to the second level. Here you can eat everything allowed in the first step and “good” carbohydrates like whole grain bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, fruits, vegetables, sweet potatoes and green beans. It is emphasized that you eat healthy desserts and snacks of all kinds, even dark chocolate.
Thank you so much for creating such a convenient layout! The shopping list and substitute options are perfectly stated and organized and made starting this process so easy. I'm so excited to try it and hopefully see results! I've lost 25 pounds on normal diet and exercise (a combination of paleo and calorie counting), but I'm looking to change it up with slightly faster results. Thanks again!
According to registered dietitian Libby Parker, MS, RD, the foods in the military diet plan are not the most healthy or nutrient-dense, as processed foods like hot dogs and ice cream are definitely encouraged for consumption on this crash diet plan. Parker explained to INSIDER that other items like canned tuna, eggs, cottage cheese, and saltine crackers can also be eaten on the diet.
It views the diet as generally safe, but cautions against restricting carbohydrates too severely. This can cause ketosis, a process caused by insufficient sugar in your body. Without enough sugar to use for energy, your body will break down stored fat, and you can experience ketosis and its side effects, including nausea, headache, mental fatigue and more.
As Michael Dansingel, MD from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics said: "First, if a diet sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Second, if you can’t see yourself following the diet for the rest of your life, it’s not for you." This basically holds true to the 3 day Military Diet: it sounds magical, yet when you take a closer look, you realize its pitfalls.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends lean proteins low in saturated fat for people with diabetes. If you’re following a vegan or vegetarian diet, getting enough and the right balance of protein may be more challenging, but you can rely on foods like beans, nuts, and tofu to get your fix. Just be sure to keep portion size in mind when snacking on nuts, as they are also high in fat and calories.
Note: Type 1 diabetes must be treated with insulin; if you have type 2 diabetes, you may not need to take insulin. This involves injecting insulin under the skin for it to work. Insulin cannot be taken as a pill because the digestive juices in the stomach would destroy the insulin before it could work. Scientists are looking for new ways to give insulin. But today, shots are the only method. There are, however, new methods to give the shots. Insulin pumps are now being widely used and many people are having great results.
Phase 1. This two-week phase is designed to eliminate cravings for foods high in sugar and refined starches to jump-start weight loss. You cut out almost all carbohydrates from your diet, including pasta, rice, bread and fruit. You can't drink fruit juice or any alcohol. You focus on eating lean protein, such as seafood, skinless poultry, lean beef and soy products. You can also eat high-fiber vegetables, low-fat dairy and foods with healthy, unsaturated fats, including avocados, nuts and seeds.
The military diet is also sometimes called the “3-day military diet” due to how it restricts calories for three days of the week. The diet is split into two parts over a one-week period: for three days straight you limit your calorie intake while you adhere to the diet’s strict meal plan, and then for the next four days you “take off” from the diet and eat normally.
Starvation mode is the term for a metabolic state in which the body starts to slow down and burn less calories because it recognizes that calorie intake is very low. Trying the military diet for several weeks might not do any real damage, but sticking to it longer than this definitely can. In order to try and prevent further weight loss when calories are severely restricted, which the body perceives as a threat to survival, hunger increases while fewer calories are used on important bodily processes like repairing tissue, producing hormones, supporting cognitive functions, physical activity, digestion and libido.
A low carbohydrate eating pattern focuses on non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, green beans, kale, salad greens and protein foods like meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, nuts and seeds, fats (oils, butter, olives and avocado). Highly processed carbohydrate foods and grains are limited or avoided in this eating pattern. There is no standard at this time for the grams of carbohydrate in a low-carb eating pattern and research continues to look at the effects of this eating pattern on diabetes. Work with a registered dietitian who can talk with you about your current eating habits and help you figure out the plan that will work best for you.
You won't find any of what could traditionally be labeled social commentary on Santa Clarita Diet, but it's clear where the characters stand. In Season 1, Joel and Sheila describe their ideal kill as a young, single Hitler. In Season 2, they find a group of Nazis that Sheila wants to snack on like her own personal lobster tank. When one of them turns out to be in a wheelchair, the Hammonds panic; Is it a hate crime to kill him? Has he committed a hate crime? Would it be discriminatory to not kill him when they've chosen the Nazis as their targets? The moral dilemma plays out in furtive whispers in their "kill room"; again, irony strengthens the whole scenario and leads to a satisfying conclusion.
Finally, lunch on day 3 is very light, consisting of only toast and an egg. You still get a small amount of protein from the egg as well as a smattering of vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A, D, B-6 and B-12, and iron, all from the egg. You’ve now received an overview of the functions of all of these vitamins except for Vitamin D- which helps the body absorb calcium (1).
There are those out there that say you can substitute an orange for a grapefruit. Although the orange has more fiber than a typical grapefruit it has a lot more sugar. A 1/2-cup serving of raspberries or blackberries offers almost four times the fiber of one-half of a grapefruit. Berries also don’t have the sour aftertaste that some hate with eating grapefruits. Choosing raspberries or blackberries also keeps your carbohydrate and sugar grams in check. They’re not as good as grapefruits but they will work.Have you heard of using Baking Soda to replace grapefruit?: pH levels are either alkaline or acid. And your body will be one or the other. Some believe that fat flourishes in an acidic environment. Foods that make the body more alkaline will help the body’s pH balance. Grapefruit and baking soda happen to be two of the items that make the body more alkaline and burn fat.
By the time you reach dinner on the 3 Day Military Diet, you’ll be relieved to see the feast you’re allowed to enjoy. The dinners are the heaviest meal of the day- offering the most calories- and also including more fruits and vegetables than the other meals. Ice cream is also featured in all three dinners: a much-needed treat while you’re dieting hard. This food often gets a bad rap for its poor nutritional content. Although it’s true that it contains an overdose of sugar, it also has plenty of calcium and vitamin B-12. The fat content is also important- since the rest of the diet is very low on fat. Fats, contrary to what many people believe, actually play an important role in our bodies. They are a source of energy and also help your body to absorb essential vitamins and minerals. However, there are different kinds of fats. Some are healthy, while others aren’t. The fat in ice cream is saturated fat, and is considered an in-between fat, meaning it’s not particularly good or bad. When consumed in moderation, it won’t do you much harm. However, it’s preferable to consume polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats which are typically found in vegetables, nuts, fish and seeds. Now that you understand the role of the ice cream; let’s discuss the nutritional value of the rest of the foods in the dinners.
Because physical activity lowers your blood glucose, you should protect yourself against low blood glucose levels, also called hypoglycemia. You are most likely to have hypoglycemia if you take insulin or certain other diabetes medicines, such as a sulfonylurea. Hypoglycemia also can occur after a long intense workout or if you have skipped a meal before being active. Hypoglycemia can happen during or up to 24 hours after physical activity.
While the DASH diet was originally developed as an eating style to help lower blood pressure, it has been found to be a fabulous plan for weight loss. The DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution turbocharges weight loss with a powerful plan based on previously overlooked DASH research. And the new book The DASH Diet Younger You is more pumped up on plants to help you become healthier, lighter, and actually physically younger, from the inside out. With 14 days of meal plans for vegetarians, and 14 days of plans for the meat-eaters. And it relies on all natural foods, without artificial additives.
DASH is based on the following foods: fruits, vegetables, low fat milk, whole grains, fish, poultry, beans, and nuts. It recommends reducing sodium, foods and beverages with added sugars, and red meat. The diet is heart-friendly as it limits saturated and trans fat, while increasing the intake of potassium, magnesium, calcium, protein, and fiber, nutrients believed to help control blood pressure. [1]
Some studies have found that consuming inadequate protein while dieting leads to appetite changes that may promote increased food intake, and having a high-protein meal usually leads to eating less calories (about 9 percent less on average) at the next meal. (5) The military diet isn’t unique in that it includes several protein-dense foods per day (like meat, eggs or cottage cheese), but this is one advantage when it comes to controlling calorie intake.
The primary outcome of the DASH-Sodium study was systolic blood pressure at the end of the 30-day dietary intervention periods. The secondary outcome was diastolic blood pressure. The DASH-Sodium study found that reductions in sodium intake produced significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures in both the control and DASH diets. Study results indicate that the quantity of dietary sodium in the control diet was twice as powerful in its effect on blood pressure as it was in the DASH diet. Importantly, the control diet sodium reductions from intermediate to low correlated with greater changes in systolic blood pressure than those same changes from high to intermediate (change equal to roughly 40 mmol per day, or 1 gram of sodium).[13]
Joel and Sheila discuss balancing killing people and being parents. Abby is grumpy with them for being overbearing. They make a plan to find a bad person to kill. Dan talks to them about never having a sloppy kill referring to the ants. They get supplies for killing people. Joel smokes pot in the bathroom to calm down. Eric and Abby have lunch while ditching school where Abby’s friend leaves with her 26-year-old drug dealer boyfriend, but he breaks up with her. Joel and Sheila talk to Rick, their other neighbor who is a cop, looking for where to find people to kill. He says that a pedophile lives in the area and the couple consider killing him. Sheila and Joel overhear the teenagers talking about how bad the ex-boyfriend was and decide to kill him. Once Joel talked to him he decides to let him go much to Sheila’s annoyance. The teenagers go to the ex-boyfriend's house; one of them teargasses it and retrieves her friend's sweater. On the way home, Sheila and Joel have a road rage incident then Sheila kills the driver of the other car. They put him in the freezer in their storage unit hoping he will not be missed. They go to family dinner and all three of them tell the others how wonderful everything is. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5840 |
__label__wiki | 0.799097 | 0.799097 | New wave of solar plants could worsen air quality
STEVE MARCUS / LAS VEGAS SUN FILE
This solar field is part of the Nevada Solar One 64-megawatt solar thermal power plant in Boulder City’s Eldorado Valley Energy Zone.
By Stephanie Tavares
Monday, April 26, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Solar Solutions in Amargosa Valley?
The residents of nearby towns are warming up to the newest proposed solar plant, which would be built on land between U.S. 95 and the Big Dune recreation area on the north end of the Amargosa Valley. But environmentalists and off-roaders still have their doubts.
Sun Archives
Amargosa Valley solar power plant plan clears another hurdle (3-22-2010)
County OKs plans for solar power plant near Primm (3-18-2010)
Expert: Climate change effort will take centuries (3-2-10)
Amargosa Valley warms up to solar plan (1-21-2009)
Storing the sun’s heat (12-31-2009)
NV Energy agrees to purchase Crescent Dunes solar power (12-22-2009)
Amargosa Valley solar plant to use less water (11-17-2009)
Vision for desert solar power plant expands (9-23-2009)
Dirty detail: Solar panels need water (9-18-09)
Latest obstacle to rural solar plants a tiny toad (9-11-2009)
The cost of building a solar powered economy (8-16-2009)
Small town making hay (3-8-2009)
Another solar power plant in the works for Boulder City (1-19-2009)
Solar power plant opens in Boulder City (1-5-2009)
Solar firms seek land (12-24-2008)
Solar power is the green energy darling of the Southwest.
It could create an entirely new economy for downtrodden Southern Nevada, help free the nation from its dependence on foreign oil and allow for the phasing out of power plants that are polluting the air and contributing to climate change.
But the most popular type of industrial solar technology has a dirty little secret: Many of these plants are not emission-free.
Solar thermal plants concentrate the sun’s heat to boil salt water or oil to run a steam turbine. The technology is more popular for large-scale energy generation than photovoltaics, which convert the sun’s rays directly into electricity. Solar thermal creates more electricity for the investment and has the potential to store the heat to create electricity at times when photovoltaic can’t, such as at night or when the sun is blocked by clouds.
The problem is some solar thermal power plants release greenhouse gases and particulates into the air.
The amount is minuscule compared with what is spewed from natural gas-fired power plants of the same size. But with potentially dozens of solar thermal plants expected to be built across the Southwest in the next few years, the cumulative effects could be problematic.
Nevada Solar One, among the first to be built in decades, has been operating in Boulder City since June 2007. The 64-megawatt power plant is the only solar thermal plant operating in the state, and it is emission-free.
But a new generation of larger and more powerful solar thermal power plants is planned for the Southwest. Unlike Nevada Solar One, many of these plants would need to be jump-started each morning by natural gas or propane gas-fueled heaters and boilers.
And that’s where the air pollution comes in.
Environmental impact statements for two projects planned near Las Vegas — BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Field and Solar Millennium’s Amargosa Farm Road solar project — note that those boiler-enabled solar thermal power plants will send carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and particulates into the air.
Together, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide are the major components of ozone or smog. Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, permanent scarring of the lungs and congestion. It’s particularly problematic for children, whose lung tissue is still forming, and for the elderly. The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing more stringent regulations regarding how much ozone can be in the air.
Solar thermal plants can emit particulates, microscopic particles of liquids and solids, from heaters and boilers and from maintenance vehicles used on site.
Exposure to these particles can be bad for lungs and hearts, according to the EPA. Scientific studies have linked exposure to particle pollution to respiratory problems, decreased lung function, chronic bronchitis and heart attacks.
The bright side of the solar thermal plants for the region is that individually they will create less air pollution than comparable-power fossil-fuel plants, says Ben Machol, who manages the clean energy and climate change office for EPA’s Region 9.
The 400-megawatt Ivanpah project, for example, is projected to emit 33 tons of carbon monoxide a year. A combined-cycle natural gas plant putting out the same amount of electricity would release 400 tons a year.
The 464-megawatt Amargosa plant would emit about 15 tons of nitrogen oxide a year; a comparable natural gas power plant would send 100 tons into the air, Machol says.
According to the developer, the Amargosa plant would produce about 4.9 pounds of carbon monoxide per megawatt hour of electricity produced, compared with 822 pounds per megawatt hour for a natural gas plant.
They say their facility generates only 6.5 percent of the particulates of a natural gas facility on a per-megawatt-hour basis.
The Ivanpah plant could emit about 8.5 tons of particulates a year, compared with 54 at a natural gas plant of the same size, Machol says.
Tiffany Brown
The Sempra Energy solar plant, shown here, will be joined by yet another solar company after the Boulder City Council finalized a deal to lease about 1,150 acres in the El Dorado Valley to NextLight Renewable Power. The NextLight plant, which would be the third in Boulder City, is expected to be up and running by 2011.
So if it were a choice between a solar plant and a natural gas plant, solar wins the air quality category.
But no one is proposing dozens of new natural gas plants across the Southwest. The Obama administration and California are hoping solar plants can be built to meet anticipated demand for electricity to power household electronics, economic growth and electric vehicles. That is going to take a lot of renewable energy.
The Amargosa and Ivanpah projects are not the only solar thermal plants planned for the area.
Developers have about 60 solar power projects slated for federal land in Southern Nevada. Bureau of Land Management’s records don’t indicate how many of the projects would use boilers, but 32 are identified as either solar thermal or concentrating solar power, which includes both solar thermal and advanced solar photovoltaic technologies.
A few solar thermal projects also are planned for private or municipal land in Southern Nevada and several are planned near the California and Arizona borders.
The sheer number of applicants for industrial-scale solar thermal plants in this area has some environmental activists worried that Southern Nevada’s poor air quality could get worse.
A dozen projects such as the Ivanpah one would emit the same amount of ozone pollution as a full-scale 400-megawatt natural gas power plant. Six similar solar thermal plants could create the same amount of particulate emissions as a natural gas plant.
Exactly how the large number of solar thermal power plants could affect Southern Nevada is not quantifiable, according to the EPA. That’s because each one uses a slightly different technology and it’s hard to demonstrate where their emissions will flow once they hit the air.
The BLM has to consider these cumulative effects during the environmental review for each plant, but it has little research to base its decisions on. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5847 |
__label__wiki | 0.828457 | 0.828457 | Filed Under activism, citizens, Corey Branch, Kroger, Longview, Raleigh, Southeast Raleigh
In a move that shocked residents of Southeast Raleigh, one of the nation’s leading grocery chains, Kroger, announced it is shuttering two stores in the area.
According to a press release from Kroger, the stores at 1610 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 4111 New Bern Avenue have not been profitable.
“Although Kroger has continued to use its resources to improve each location, both have been unprofitable for the company,” the release said.
The closures were first reported in The News & Observer. Prior to the article’s publication on Nov. 18, no residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the stores were notified.
Lifelong Southeast Raleigh resident Corey Branch saw his neighbors reeling from the information and saw he had to do something to help. He did some research and found out that Raleigh contains about 10 food deserts, four in Southeast and West Raleigh.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines food deserts as “areas that lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lowfat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet.”
The Committee to Respond to Raleigh Food Deserts, headed by Branch, had its first community forum Monday at Martin Street Baptist Church to get community feedback on the store’s closing. The Rev. Earl C. Johnson, president of the Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, is the pastor at the church.
“When it first came to my attention, I was like ‘Why? What happened?’” Branch said. “Then, I wanted to focus on my community. I’m a native here, but it’s grown so much and changed so much that I wanted to make sure I had as much information as possible when we presented it to our citizens.”
Branch said during his investigation, he found the areas where the Kroger stores are leaving are already considered food deserts. With the grocery chain pulling out, the situation may get worse.
The meeting drew more than 100 residents. A quick poll of hands at the beginning showed that roughly half regularly used one or both of the locations, and that no one received any information prior to The News & Observer article.
The new committee invited Raleigh City Council Councilman Eugene Weeks, Wake County Commissioner James West and North Carolina House Representative Yvonne Holley to offer their insights into the community challenge, as well as land developer Craig Ralph, who owns the shopping center at MLK.
Weeks said he tried repeatedly to contact Kroger and was denied. A letter from Mayor Nancy McFarlane sent Nov. 27 has gone unanswered, he said.
After the opening statements by the politicians and developer, residents were invited to voice their concerns. Many said the quality of the produce as well as the customer service at the locations was not up to par, so they chose to shop elsewhere.
“When I go into the store, and the produce is wilted, and the produce looks worse than what is donated to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, I’m not going to buy that produce,” said Kia Baker, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Director of Food Recovery & Distribution. “But there are others of us who don’t have that option.”
She added that the response needed to be finding a grocery store that kept its store clean, its food fresh and its employees trained well.
“I don’t buy the idea that we’re not buying product,” Baker said, “But the question is, can you sell the product?”
Developer Ralph said there are up to three other grocers eyeing the property Kroger will vacate, but due to business confidentiality, he was unable to disclose which ones.
After attendees voiced their grievances, Johnson said this meeting was just the first of several to address community needs in Southeast Raleigh.
“We did this with the YWCA when it closed down the street,” he said. “We had no follow-up. We got together one meeting, but it went nowhere. My hope is that we can bring community leaders together, business leaders together, the landlords of Kroger together to try to sit down and figure out where to go.”
See the full story at RaleighPublicRecord.org
« Dix to become Raleigh city park
Wake County Board of Education Starts Year With Full Agenda » | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5851 |
__label__wiki | 0.953506 | 0.953506 | Anthony Joshua On Boxing, Brexit And His Nigerian Roots
The undefeated champion in the professional game is credited with saving the heavyweight division but he is still not content.
The British boxer, who holds three of the sport’s four major world title belts, is not yet satisfied with a life that has already defied the odds.
“I’m still tired now and again, I don’t wake up every morning feeling fresh, my bed’s not as comfy as it should be,” the 29-year-old told CNN World Sport in an interview. “Things aren’t social media perfect for me.”
But things not being perfect is just how Joshua likes it; it keeps him hungry. It’s a hunger that’s helped him achieve such success in a relatively short amount of time.
‘I went to the school of boxing’
Joshua only started taking boxing seriously when he was 18 – a defining moment in his life. “I never knew I wanted to be a boxer,” said the Briton, who was a keen footballer and promising sprinter as a child.
“When I was younger, I used to smoke, I used to obviously go out, stop off at the kebab shop, and I wanted to change that.”
Joining a local gym helped Joshua take a more regimented approach to life. He started to watch what he ate and was more careful with whom he spent his time.
Getting fitter became an addiction that steered him clear of unhealthy temptations and kept him on the right side of the law.
“Where I spend most of my time is what I’ll become,” said Joshua, the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion.
“I didn’t go to university, I didn’t go to college, I went to the school of boxing so I had to educate myself.”
Meteoric rise
Just like his neat footwork and powerful right fist, Joshua’s career has been all about timing.
After finding sanctuary in the gym, he began a successful amateur career which reached a pinnacle at the 2012 Olympics Games in London.
Despite being a relative novice, Joshua won the super-heavyweight gold medal in a city where he had previously been arrested for drug and speeding offenses.
The country fell in love with its new sporting heroes, and Joshua began the next stage of his meteoric rise.
He signed a professional contract in July 2013, winning his debut fight with a first-round knockout. Such emphatic stoppages would become his specialty – Joshua now has 22 consecutive wins.
Many have credited the Briton for saving the future of heavyweight boxing and reconnecting the sport with the public.
His fight against Wladimir Klitschko in 2017 broke box-office records in the UK, with more than 1.5 million people buying the fight.
“I can’t do it alone, I think we’ve added to it,” he admitted.
“I was always honest and true about who I was. I never hid anything so I think it was relatable, and the fact is I could fight as well so that sparked an interest.”
Nigerian roots
Joshua was born in Watford, North West of London, to Nigerian parents, and the African country has been a strong influence throughout his life. The fighter has a tattoo of Africa etched on his right shoulder, with Nigeria visibly outlined.
“I’m the first generation here – the connection is still thick,” he said.
“There have been a few famous Nigerian boxers as well so the support out there has been really nice.”
Despite this, he concedes his parents initially “frowned” at his decision to pursue a career in boxing, wanting a more traditional route for their son.
But boxing has given Joshua much more than just material gains.
He has developed an understanding of different cultures and an acceptance of people coming to the country for a better life.
“Whether you call them ex-pats or call them immigrants, it’s all just in the search of work and for a better life so I really just respect anyone who is trying to do that for their family,” he said.
“I feel like the world offers enough for everyone to get a piece.”
After his boxing career is over, Joshua is keen to use his platform to help charities looking to support vulnerable people and is also keen to engage more with politics.
Like everyone in Great Britain, Joshua is keeping a watchful eye on Brexit negotiations. He’s hoping for a good deal for the next generation.
“Let me get post-career and I’ll deal with all that stuff,” he laughed.
“It was a tough time to be involved in that so you could have put any politician in her (Theresa May) place and they would have dealt with it in the same manner, so she’s doing the best she can.”
Fighting for a better future has become more important since the birth of his son, who is now three. Balancing training with fatherhood has been a predictable challenge but one he’s embraced.
“My time isn’t my time anymore. Before I could go home and put my feet up and it was about me, now it’s about my son,” he says.
“He tries to beat me up and I can’t really give him a body shot back so I just have to take it.”
Much like his sporting career, Joshua is determined to be the best father possible. He hopes to teach his son lessons that he learned while growing up in humble surroundings.
“I think the goal for me is to help him mature,” he said.
“I want my son to always have that bounce-back mechanism no matter what, I don’t want to shelter him too much, I want him to learn from his mistakes as well.”
Fury or Wilder?
Joshua’s next fight will take place at Wembley in April but he is currently without an opponent for the showpiece event.
There was speculation he would face either Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder, but the issue is still unclear after the pair slogged out a stunning draw in Los Angeles Saturday.
Either way, Joshua is eager to keep learning and is staying true to the values which made him a champion in the first place.
“Even though I’m not training for a fight, I’ll remain training,” he says.
“I always tick over because that’s the main reason I got into boxing. It’s lifestyle reasons, fitness, gym and strength. It wasn’t really to be a boxer.”
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Joshua Vs Povetkin: Pair Line-up Sparring Partners | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5853 |
__label__cc | 0.749259 | 0.250741 | 0.11 Acres Of Land For Sale In Bay City, Oregon
CLAM ST 12
BAY CITY, OR 97107
TILLAMOOK COUNTY
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate
9600 SW Barnes Road, Suite 100
Pamela Zielinski
pzielinski@bhhsnw.com
BAYSIDE LIVING in beautiful new community, Goosepointe, by Tillamook Bay. Build now or you can hold the lot till you're ready. Bayfront lot adjacent is also for sale at 115K. Flat & ready to build. Utilities in street. Excellent location for water lover's lifestyle: fishing, clamming, boating, crabbing, kayaking, beach combing. 75 ft to Tillamook Bay's pebbly beach which leads to mouth of Kilchis River... fish from bank!
LAND FOR SALE IN BAY CITY, OR
You have found this lot for sale in Bay City, OR, which is in Tillamook County. Whether you are a potential homeowner looking for a lot for sale or a builder or developer seeking land for sale for your next project, the perfect property for you may be found in Oregon. The Beaver State, located in the Pacific Northwest region on the Pacific coast, is bordered by Washington, California, Nevada and Idaho. The Columbia and Snake rivers form much of the state’s boundaries to the north and east, respectively. The most populous cities in this coastal state are Portland, Eugene and Salem, followed by Gresham, Hillsboro and Beaverton. Portland not only is Oregon's most populous city, but ranks third in the Pacific Northwest region, after Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Portland also is known for its plentiful outdoor activities, liberal politics, and passion for beer and coffee. The city’s unofficial slogan is "Keep Portland Weird". Eugene is home to the University of Oregon (go Ducks!), and is a city known for its natural beauty, interest in the arts, outdoor recreation (particularly cycling, running, rafting and kayaking), political activists and “alternative” lifestyles. Salem is Oregon’s state capital and is where both Willamette University and Corban University are located. Not surprisingly, the largest public employer in the city is The State of Oregon and Salem Hospital is the largest private employer. Willamette Valley in western Oregon is the state's most densely populated area and is home to eight of the ten most populous cities. Residents and visitors of Oregon enjoy the many offerings of the state’s diverse landscape. Oregon has a beautiful Pacific coastline, the rugged Cascade Mountain Range with its volcanoes, gorgeous waterfalls, a variety of forests, including evergreen, mixed and deciduous. The eastern part of the state includes high deserts extending to the Great Basin. The rainy Western Oregon coast gives rise to firs and redwoods; then semi-arid shrublands, prairies, deserts, steppes and meadows spread from central Oregon to the east. Adventure to Mount Hood – home of 12 named glaciers and snowfields – and explore the natural wonder of Crater Lake National Park. With the variety of natural beauty and geographic offerings, Oregon is an outdoor paradise, hosting a plethora of options for camping, fishing, snow sports, whitewater rafting, world-class windsurfing, cycling, golfing and even skateboarding. Oregon has more than 100 state and federal parks. Some of the popular attractions in Oregon include: Multnomah Falls; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Seaside, Oregon (the official end to the Lewis and Clark Trail); Oregon Museum of Science and Industry; Crater Lake National Park; Oregon Zoo; Oregon Coast Aquarium; Portland Classical Chinese Garden, and the historic Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood. If you like nuts, wine and beer, Oregon is the state for you! Oregon grows 99% of the U.S. commercial crop of hazelnuts, is one of the top wine-producing states, and is home to the city with the largest number of breweries in the world: Portland. Oregon also is the top softwood lumber producer in the U.S., and has one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world. Athletics giants Nike and Adidas are both headquartered in Oregon, as are Harry and David, and several Fortune 1000 companies, including Intel and many other high technology industry and services companies, publishers and others. If you are seeking property in Oregon, you will find a wide variety of choices from waterfront property for sale, lake property for sale, riverfront land for sale, oceanfront property for sale, golf-course lots for sale, mountain lots for sale, vacant land for sale and even cheap land for sale.
GIVE AWAY Price $2173/acre - 46 Acres in Washington County, GA - Desperate - Great for Home(s) or Hunting
46 Acres $99,958
Golf course owners selling 2nd parcel and 3rd parcel of adjacent land
Edinboro, PA
53 Acres $1,400,000 | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5857 |
__label__cc | 0.615672 | 0.384328 | Posted on February 7, 2018 February 9, 2018 by susanwbailey
Reaching Across Generations of Women: Louisa May Alcott’s Impact on Sylvia Plath
I am pleased to present a guest post by Julia Gordon-Bramer, a scholar of Sylvia Plath. This post is an excerpt from her upcoming book titled The Magician’s Girl: the Mysticism of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Bramer writes, “It is my goal to teach the world more about Plath’s transcendentalism, where it comes from, etc. Alcott was a small part of it!”
Personal connections
Before presenting Bramer’s post, I must share something. In emails back and forth with Julia, I found out that my path has crossed the path of Sylvia Plath’s in several places although not in the same time period. I grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts as did she. We both went to the same grammar school. We both attended Wellesley High School and had the privilege of being taught by Mr. Wilbury Crockett, Plath’s mentor. Furthermore, Plath lived on Elmwood Road, the same road where a brilliant musician (one of my all time favorites) who also died young, Mindy Jostyn (a classmate of mine at Wellesley High) lived.
Too many coincidences. Time for me to get to know Sylvia Plath! Here is the connection that Bramer draws between Plath and Alcott.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
from “Recollections of Louisa May Alcott” by Maria S. Porter
To the writer Sylvia Plath, Louisa May Alcott was in her genes. On Plath’s mother’s side of the family, the Greenwoods and Schobers were a family of readers. As a young girl, Plath’s mother, Aurelia Schober, had inherited a treasured copy of the novel Little Women which had been annotated by the author, Louisa May Alcott. Alcott’s historic home, Orchard House, is only a half-hour away from Boston, Massachusetts, in Concord, and just fifteen minutes from Wellesley, where the Plath family eventually settled. The brown clapboard Orchard House, built in 1690, was the setting of Little Women. Between the convenience of its location and historical/literary importance of this national landmark, as well as their appreciation for Alcott’s work, the Schobers and Plaths were likely to have visited there.
As well-read as Plath was, and given her family history, it is unlikely that she did not read Little Women, although the only Louisa May Alcott book listed in Plath’s personal library is Eight Cousins or the Aunt-Hill, which we know she read in the sixth grade. She also read Invincible Louisa, a biography of Louisa May Alcott by Cornelia Meigs, in the eighth grade. The chances of her reading the lesser-known Eight Cousins without exploring Alcott’s most popular work are slim. We can also be sure that Sylvia Plath knew of the importance of the Orchard House as a historic landmark from Alice Dalgliesh’s children’s novel, The Silver Pencil (Puffin Newbery Library, 1944, p. 130). Plath read that book in December 1944 and again in August 1945, as noted in her childhood journals held in the Sylvia Plath archives of the Lilly Library, at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Jo March, drawn by Frank Merrill
The autobiographical novel Little Women, a coming-of-age story, was probably both Aurelia Plath’s and later, her daughter Sylvia’s, first introduction to both fictionalized memoir and the politics of feminism. Little Women’s beloved and feisty character “Jo,” modeled after the author, finds her place in the world through writing and literature.
It was surely noticed that Little Women is an interesting mirror of Aurelia Schober and Sylvia Plath’s life: one might easily compare Alcott/Jo’s father, the fictional Robert March, to Aurelia’s father, Frank Schober. Both men were scholars and spiritual, loving and kind. In the novel, Jo meets and marries Friedrich (“Fritz”), a German professor much older than she, in a way that the younger Aurelia would repeat. Already middle-aged to Jo’s teen, Fritz is a penniless immigrant to America via New York, a master of languages, a writer, and “philosophically inclined.” Aurelia Schober married a Friedrich of her own in Otto Plath, Sylvia Plath’s father, who met this description perfectly.
Otto Plath, also like Mr. March in Little Women, spent most of his time recuperating from illness, or else he was away on scholarly endeavors.
Little Women explores ideas of transcendentalism because Alcott and her family had belonged to the historic Transcendental Club, now affiliated with the Unitarian church that would become the spiritual home for the Plaths. Members of the original Transcendental Club included literary luminaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau.
The Little Women-reading Aurelia Schober came of age during the women’s suffrage movement, when twenty million American women were denied the right to vote under President Wilson’s administration. Suffragettes of the time called the president “Kaiser Wilson” in a parody of Germany’s emotionally unstable Kaiser Wilhelm II, and they likened American women to “poor Germans” who were not allowed the liberty to be “self-governed.” Aurelia Schober, bearing the double curse of being both a German during the World Wars, and a woman in her Irish-Catholic neighborhood, felt the social and political sting.
With so much new information coming out on Sylvia Plath over the last few years, between details of her abuse and many unpublished letters since girlhood, readers can see Plath’s forced suppression of the negative, and the perpetual smiles that might have been the reason she snapped. She had learned it from history, from her American culture, and from her literature. Readers of The Letters of Sylvia Plath might easily believe that these words by Alcott were Plath’s own:
“I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it. … I’ve learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.”
– Mother (“Marmee”) March to Jo, Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. Chapter 8: “Jo Meets Apollyon.”
Plath’s mother Aurelia Schober may or may not have been conscious of her own emerging feminine independence, but her actions echoed the changing beliefs of the times, and these ideas would later influence her future daughter, Sylvia Plath. And books like Alcott’s Little Women, Dalgliesh’s The Silver Pencil, and many others, would have eerie similarities with Plath’s life and lessons to shape this great author’s life forever.
Julia Gordon-Bramer is the author of Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath (2014, Stephen F. Austin State University Press), the Decoding Sylvia Plath series (Magi Press) and the forthcoming The Magician’s Girl: The Mysticism of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, from which this article is excerpted. For more information, visit www.juliagordonbramer.com.
CategoriesBooks by Louisa May Alcott, Jo March, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott's feminism, Marmee, Marmee, Orchard House Tagsanger, feminism, influence of Louisa May Alcott on Sylvia Plath, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Sylvia Plath, Women writers
4 Replies to “Reaching Across Generations of Women: Louisa May Alcott’s Impact on Sylvia Plath”
annephillips2 says:
Cant wait to read the book. Taught Plath and Hughes poetry as comparison texts until this academic year. When I was last in Swampscott I took a walk and found where Plath would have babysat the Mayo children. NE is so steeped in literary heritage which speaks to women…. Perhaps there is a bit of Jo and Marmee still in all of us. Theres a line in the Plath film where she says something along the lines of, “But what about me? What about my writing?” I suspect that it is a question women still have to negotiate.
Swampscott? Yet another connection for me — my mom grew up in Swampscott. And of course we know the Alcott connection. Yes, I must find out more about Ms. Plath!
I highly recommend reading Julia’s most recent essay on Sylvia Plath and the #metoo movement — it’s quite thought provoking. You can find it here: “Sylvia Plath’s #MeToo Stories.” http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/02/02/sylvia-plaths-metoo-stories/
thank you for the link – I shall read it this week. best wishes Anne
Pingback: Catching Up and Returning to Myself – Julia Gordon-Bramer
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__label__wiki | 0.688185 | 0.688185 | Over Half of Republican Jewish Coalition’s Revenue: One Donor
June 24, 2015 Eli Clifton 1 Comment
by Eli Clifton
Since nuclear diplomacy with Iran heated up, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) has played an important role in organizing Republican opposition to a potential deal between the P5+1 and Iran. The RJC, for example, endorsed John Boehner’s (R-OH) unilateral invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (even running an ad campaign promoting the speech before Congress earlier this year). It also vetted potential Republican presidential candidates at the organization’s annual convention held at billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas two months ago.
In this opposition, the RJC represents a minority of Jewish Americans (59% support a nuclear deal with Iran and 46% view the Democratic Party favorably while only 20% view the Republican Party favorably, according to a nationwide poll released earlier this month). But the group’s name implies that it represents a cross-section of Jewish Republicans. Documents reviewed by LobeLog, however, reveal that the RJC’s budget during the 2012 calendar year was overwhelmingly funded by one $5.1 million contribution. That contribution accounted for more than half—54 percent—of the group’s grant revenue during the last presidential election year.
The remaining contributions were far more modest. The next largest contributions came in at $700,000, $300,000, $275,000, and $105,000, respectively.
So who is the mystery donor providing over half the budget to the RJC’s efforts to “sensitize Republican leadership in government and the Party to the concerns and issues of the Jewish community,” as the group’s mission statement reads?
Sheldon Adelson, the RJC’s wealthiest “director” and figurehead at the annual conference, seems like a likely candidate. Adelson is vociferously opposed to a nuclear deal with Iran—even going so far as to reject negotiating with Iran in favor of firing nuclear weapons at them. He’s a major funder of other groups opposed to the deal, including but not limited to United Against Nuclear Iran, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the Zionist Organization of America. Adelson also supports Netanyahu and was treated as a guest of honor during his controversial address to congress.
When I asked if the massive donation came from Adelson and his wife, Miriam, RJC communication director Mark McNulty told me, “We don’t comment on anything concerning our donors. I’d refer you to the [sic] Sheldon’s folks for comment.” Adelson’s family foundation didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether he made the contribution.
The RJC’s list of contributions, with names removed, can be viewed here.
Photo of Sheldon Adelson via Flickr (courtesy of East Coast Gambler)
Iran Benjamin Netanyahu, Eli Clifton, Iran, Mark McNulty, Miriam Adelson, Republican Jewish Coalition, Republican party, Sheldon Adelson
Eli Clifton
Eli Clifton reports on money in politics and US foreign policy. He is a co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Eli previously reported for the American Independent News Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.
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Labs, Love, and the Sweet Iron Odor of a Sheared Lawn: An Interview with Andrea Rothman
by Cameron Finch
March 22, 2019 /in Interviews /by Cammie Finch
A scientist and a writer, Andrea Rothman knows more than a thing or two about smell. She was a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Rockefeller University in New York, where she won two individual grants from the National Institute of Health to study the neurobiology of olfaction. She went on to earn her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and served as our very own Assistant Fiction Editor here at Hunger Mountain for five years. It was my great pleasure to chat with her about her debut novel, The DNA of You and Me (William Morrow, March 2019).We talked about women in the sciences, smell as metaphor, and much more!
You come from a scientific background of studying the sense of smell. How did you first get the inspiration to write a book about this topic, and a fictional novel at that?
The neurobiology of smell is a fascinating topic, but that’s not what my novel is really about. The science of the novel frames the story and serves as a metaphor for the larger themes, which are mainly choice and identity: the choices people are faced with at key moments in their life, and who they are at the time. It takes a lot of self-knowledge to choose wisely, and many people, especially young ambitious people starting out in their careers, don’t know themselves well enough. Even if they did, who is to say in the long run that the best road was taken, or that a better destination did not exist? The science behind the sense of smell lends itself metaphorically to this kind of story because what makes smell possible is that sensory nerves from the nose need to reach and connect with particular targets in the brain. During the journey to those targets, the neurons are aided by guidance cues that hem them in their path towards the final destination. The story’s protagonist, Emily Apell, who is at a crossroads in her life, discovers a new guidance molecule, and coins it Pathfinder, which incidentally was also the original title of my novel.
In the Author’s Note, you mention that the research projects and findings in The DNA of You and Me are fictional, but are based on established scientific principles and other examples. What was the research process like for you?
Because I have a background in science and worked for many years in olfaction, this aspect of the research was relatively straightforward. The more difficult part was tying together all of the scientific knowns and unknowns in a coherent fashion and coming up with an important scientific question and a plausible research project for Emily: mainly, is there a new and, as yet, undiscovered family of guidance molecules out there, specific to the sense of smell? This question (and its plausibility) required some extensive reading on existing axon guidance families and their role in olfaction. Because the novel is set in 2003, most of the scientific papers I probed are from that period. In addition, I also did some extensive research on Anosmia, defined as a total or partial loss of the sense of smell, and read the memoir Season To Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way by Molly Birnbaum. Another book I read that helped me write about the sense of smell was the novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
Was there anything you learned about olfaction that surprised you, or that you hadn’t thought about until writing this novel?
Until I wrote The DNA of You and Me, I had never appreciated the significance of our fifth sense. Most people believe that smell is important because it enables them to smell the roses, perceive flavors, and avoid rotten food or a potential fire, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, because of the way olfactory neurons are wired in the brain, our sense of smell is our strongest, most faithful portal to the past. Smells can trigger the recollection of autobiographical memories in a way that none of our other senses can. It’s little wonder that Proust’s madeleine-dipped-in-lemon-blossom-tea passage from Remembrance of Things Past is so ageless and also so steadfastly true to the human condition.
You deftly weave hard scientific language with the dreamy lyricism that describes the feeling of falling in love. How did you achieve this balance of seemingly disparate dictions?
I think the balance you describe is achieved through the use of science elements that resonate with Emily’s formative years and with her state of desire at different stages in the novel, in particular during her time in Justin’s lab. Describing the database of the lab for instance, and the gene she hopes to find, Emily equates finding the would-be gene to finding a bird in a forest. Birds, the reader discovers several chapters later, symbolize truth and hope for Emily. The importance of the gene she eventually finds in the database rests in a sequence deep in the DNA strand of the gene that contains mirror repeat letters. It’s kind of like a palindromic word that reads the same backwards and forwards, MADAM, but with the 4-letter DNA alphabet instead: …ACTGC:CGTCA… Emily envisions the mirror-image sequence as two halves of a bridge, which resonates with her desire to connect with other people, in particular Aeden in the lab. The contrast between who Emily is as a person and what she hopes to achieve in her personal life is what drives the forward movement of the story and defines the urgency of the voice in the novel.
In the novel, Emily must choose between her love for Aeden and her love for her scientific work. This need to make a choice between work and love is a deeply-rooted historical (and I think, problematic) issue for women, perhaps no matter the field of study. While I do believe this attitude is changing, can you talk a little more about this pressure put on female scientists specifically? And what has been your own experience as a woman in the lab?
While I agree that this gender-biased attitude in disfavor of women is changing in many highly competitive careers, including sports and politics, I also think that science and STEM-related fields have been slow to catch up with the trend. The leaky pipeline is all too real; while most students pursuing a PhD in science are females, most people who end up actually staying in academia and having leading roles in science research are males. This is due in part to old school biases and expectations passed down from an era when the scientific workforce in the lab was predominantly male. Early-career scientists, leading up to a faculty position, are expected to work at minimum sixty-hour weeks, which runs contrary to being a mother and having a family. If this weren’t the case, I might not be writing these words right now. I am one of those women who left a career in science after I realized that being a working scientist and a mother would be too difficult. In the end, it’s a personal choice. There are plenty of women scientists who run research labs and have young children at home, but the fact that there are so few in relation to men speaks volumes. I think what needs to change in order to help women stay in science is mainly the culture of science. Taking time off for family care should be viewed as a normal and acceptable part of the science career path, and funding policies from both private and public sectors should run in favor of this view.
Because this is a story concerned with ‘the smell of things,’ let’s talk about how to write using the olfactory sense! In Chapter Three, you describe the “sweet iron odor of a sheared lawn,” which intrigues me. I’m a writer too, and for me, smell is often the most difficult sense for me to write, as I always have to use other smells and materials to describe the sensation before me. In other words, smell seems to be inherently metaphoric. As a writer, how do you continue to find new ways to describe smell, without recursively saying, say, “The orange smelled like an orange.”
I think what helped me as a writer to describe smell is being in touch with the state of the main character’s desire. I needed to understand who the protagonist is and what she wants, and then infer from this how she would perceive a particular smell at any given moment in the narrative. For instance, in Chapter Two, when Emily is recalling her father and their home in Rockford, Illinois, she describes the smell of laundry detergent as clean and comforting. Many chapters later, after a brief sexual encounter with Aeden in the lab, Emily describes the smell of his shirt as having the smell of sea breeze, which is a more ephemeral and dreamy way of describing the same thing.
When trying to find words to describe a particular smell, it also helps me as a writer to break down the source of the odor into its essential components, so as to better understand where it’s actually coming from. For example, I learned that grass, when it is cut, exudes volatile organic compounds, known as distress signals. The idea of a freshly mown lawn therefore is suffused with trauma, but also with resilience; hence the “sweet iron odor” of a sheared lawn.
Let’s end with some fun! In your opinion, what is:
A delicious smell? Undoubtedly, the smell of ground coffee beans!
A nostalgic smell? The smell of the pages of an old book that hasn’t been opened in a while.
The worst smell ever? The smell of a mouse room in the lab after a long weekend. Fortunately, most people never come across this smell, but as a former research scientist, I did much too often.
Learn more about Andrea Rothman at andrearothman.com, or on Twitter @rothmaa.
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cherry-blossom-1200x800.jpeg 800 1200 Cammie Finch https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Cammie Finch2019-03-22 12:04:282019-03-24 19:37:59Labs, Love, and the Sweet Iron Odor of a Sheared Lawn: An Interview with Andrea Rothman
For Folk’s Sake: In Brief with GennaRose Nethercott
by Desmond Peeples
June 3, 2018 /in Interviews /by Bianca Vinas
This fall will be many readers’ first introductions to GennaRose Nethercott’s potent, monstrously creative poetry. Her debut book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, has earned the loyalty of Louise Glück, queen of night poems here in America, and will be published in October as a National Poetry Series winner. If you don’t know GennaRose yet, you can find her poems all over the internet—but your paths may have crossed already.
More than any other young poet I know, GennaRose has worked to spread her writing’s reach far and wide, body to body. She’s busked custom poems-to-order in cities across America and Europe (you can order online, too); architects and small business owners have commissioned her words, paired them with million-dollar homes and displayed them as product copy; she is in constant collaboration, always crossing her work with other creative disciplines; she winters in New Orleans, has slept on a bookshelf in Paris.
GennaRose is an old friend, a co-conspirator—we ran a ruthless kindergarten gang together, and more recently an indie lit mag—and a fellow Vermonter. Over the long, storm-addled winter, we paper airplaned this brief interview between New Orleans and Montpelier:
From the passersby who prompt your poems-to-order to the musicians featured in your recent album of ballads, a diverse array of perspectives, both artistic and otherwise, have been welcomed into your creative process. As a poet, what is the significance of collaboration and community to your work?
On the purest level, my collaborative work stems from loneliness. Being a writer is often immensely isolating, and I’ve long struggled with how to maintain my creative practice while still being a member of society, still connecting with other people. Often, I fail at balancing the two. However, with collaborations such as the ballads or the poems to order, I’m able to escape that isolation—and allow forging relationships with other people to be not a distraction, but rather an essential part of the creative process.
Beyond that, working with other people and other artists allows my work to transcend my own limitations. Take the Modern Ballads album, for example: I wrote a series of narrative ballads that I wanted to take the form of songs. I’m not a skilled enough musician or singer to lend them the sounds I desired for them, so I partnered with a team of professional musicians who set the ballads to music and performed them. Thus, the lyrics were able to far exceed the limits of my own skills, and become better works of art. Other creators are amazing! Don’t get so bogged down by a sense of do-it-yourself egoism that you prevent your work from being as good as others might help it grow to be.
Could you talk a bit more about what inspired the Modern Ballads project, and what drew you to the ballad form in general?
The idea for Modern Ballads first materialized when I was living in Scotland, studying oral folk traditions as part of my undergrad. I became infatuated with the work of ballad collector Francis James Child, who traveled England and Scotland in the 1800s, gathering and transcribing traditional songs and poems. At the core, I was mainly drawn to the storytelling aspect—ballads, by definition, are poems/songs that tell a story. They’re narrative, telling of illicit love affairs and murders and rogue fairies. They have a mystical quality to them that enchanted me. I thought, How cool would it be to write a series of new ballads, based on, and slightly subverting, those traditional forms? To study the Child Ballads, and create something contemporary? And then have a bunch of bands set them to music? At the time I tabled the idea, because I didn’t know any musicians. Then four years later, I moved to Boston and fell in with the folk music scene—and now I know too many musicians. So figured I may as well make use of ’em.
Your work as a folklorist clearly influences the majority of your poems and stories. In your writing—and in the writing world at large, if it’s not too much—what are some essential ways that folklore and literature intersect? And for that matter, have you encountered any fundamental conflicts between the two fields?
At the core, folklore and literature are both about reflecting the society which creates them—designed function as a mirror of the time and environment in which they were born. But where they differ is largely in process: Literature is single-authored, written down, and static, while a folktale is authored by many voices, passed through oral storytelling, and changes with each telling to adapt to whatever time and circumstance it’s in. Those differences aren’t in conflict, however—they just both fulfill different roles in the world of storytelling. And for me, it’s the storytelling ability of each that’s fascinating. The potential to snatch away a reader/listener and deposit them in some other life.
Your forthcoming book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, tells the story in poems of a lumberjack whose hand, when chopped off, becomes a dove. The idea reminds me of a quote from the folklorist and fairy tale scholar, Jack Zipes: “If there is one ‘constant’ in the structure and theme of the wonder tale, it is transformation.” To you, what is the greater significance of transformation within folklore, and within your own writing?
Shapeshifting is my ultimate obsession in storytelling. Because as we all know, change is unyielding and constant. It never sleeps. Shapeshifting stories allow this truth to manifest literally—so ultimately, transformation is ever-present in lore because it is ever-present in life. In shapeshifting lover tales, for example, where a sweetheart morphs between an animal and human form, it forces us to ask ourselves: Do we truly know those we love? Can we be sure they will maintain the Selves we know them as? At what point do we stop recognizing our dear ones? Ourselves? And in the case of Lumberjack, in which a part of his body, a part of himself, is severed and transformed, it speaks to how once something, even something we consider fully ours, is taken away, it belongs to itself. It becomes something new. And once something changes, truly changes, to the point of sprouting wings or fangs or scales, nothing can ever return to what it was.
As a winner of this year’s National Poetry Series, The Lumberjack’s Dove marks your arrival on the national literary scene. What’s your ideal public role as a writer with national readership?
I’m still figuring this out, since that position is so new and strange and surprising for me. But ultimately, I just want to be able to continue writing and have my work connect with readers in a way that offers some sort of solidarity and giddiness. I want readers to feel seen when they encounter my work. And personally, I want to be on the road as much as possible, touring my writing, doing readings, meeting people in-person. I’ve always been drawn to the traveling bard archetype, so part of me wants to embody a modern version of that—to serve as a sort of footsoldier for language and story, an ambassador.
Here’s a quickie—what have you been reading lately? What literary happenings have you excited?
I just read The Bear and the Nightingale, which is a beautiful Russian fairy tale by Katherine Arden (the sequel was just released, as well). Before that, I gleefully shimmied my way through Before the Devil Breaks You, the third book in Libba Bray’s The Diviners series, which are YA books about teen psychic flappers in 1920s New York City who fight ghosts and investigate occult murders. All the best things! And I’m always re-reading everything Kelly Link ever wrote. I’m super into contemporary fabulist fiction writers. If you’ve ever been near me when I’m tipsy at a party, you know this, because I basically just ramble the words, “Kelly Link! Aimee Bender! Karen Russell! Angela Carter! Helen Oyeyemi!” on repeat like some kind of sports chant. Oh, and I just got Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, which I haven’t started yet but am very excited to dive into.
Care to share any new projects you’re working on?
I’ve been chipping away at a book of spooky short stories (possessed roosters, paper children, women turning into houses, etc…), and agent-hunting for another manuscript of mine which is a bestiary of imagined creatures. Otherwise, prepping The Lumberjack’s Dove to come out in the fall, and Modern Ballads to drop in the early spring.
GennaRose Nethercott is the author of The Lumberjack’s Dove (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2018), selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. Her other projects include A Ghost of Water (an ekphrastic collaboration with printmaker Susan Osgood) and the narrative song collection Modern Ballads. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Rust & Moth, PANK, and elsewhere, and she has been a writer-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, Art Farm Nebraska, and the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris.
She tours nationally and internationally composing poems-to-order for strangers on a 1952 Hermes Rocket typewriter—and is the founder of the Traveling Poetry Emporium, a team of poets-for-hire. Nethercott holds a degree in poetry, theatre, and folklore from Hampshire College. A Vermont native, she has lived in many cities across the US and Europe, but is always drawn back to the forest.
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Ruben Quesada Talks Poetry, Translation, and Neck Tattoos
by Blake Z. Rong
May 16, 2018 /in Interviews /by Bianca Vinas
Ruben Quesada & Miciah Bay Gault in Cafe Anna
On the right side of his neck, just below his ear, poet and professor Ruben Quesada has a tattoo of the Chinese character 晨, set within a thick black circle, which he tells me means, “early light.” Quesada was born on an early morning in a late summer day, in August in the 1970s. “I feel that idea of light embodies who I am, and my personality,” he said. Getting that tattoo “seemed like the right thing to do.”
Quesada (MFA, PhD) grew up in Bell, an oft-overlooked city tangled within Los Angeles’ grid-like boulevards, five miles southeast from downtown, close to where the 5 and 710 Freeways converge. His mother immigrated from Costa Rica just before he was born. With the help of relatives she left Quesada’s father and an abusive relationship to move to Southern California, where she worked to raise Quesada and his two sisters. Next door was a Chinese family that had come from Nicaragua. They had six children, five of them daughters. The son was just a month older than Quesada.
“We became best friends,” said Quesada. “From kindergarten to high school we were practically inseparable. I was at their house daily. I learned so many things I would have never learned within my own family. I learned about pop culture, about computers, about nature—I would go camping with them, to Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Joshua Tree. Because my mother had to work, she couldn’t take any time off to take us on vacations. I learned about their culture, their daily way of life. This family took me in.”
When Quesada completed his MFA, he sought a reminder of the past. In many ways, he said, earning graduate degrees in the arts severs you from this personal history: you either have to let go of it, or find a way to integrate it into your work. “I knew there was a lot that I had to let go,” he said. “But growing up with that family was something I wanted to hang on to, and to be physically a part of me.”
Quesada’s debut poetry collection, Next Extinct Mammal, was published by Greenhouse Review Press in 2011. He is the translator of Spanish poet Luis Cernuda’s work, Exiled from the Throne of Night. When he is not teaching, he serves as Contributing Editor to the Chicago Review of Books, Senior Editor at the UK-based Queen Mob’s Tea House, and the moderator of the AWP Conference’s annual Latino Caucus, which he founded. He earned his MFA at the University of California Riverside, then a PhD at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, a town he recently immortalized in verse.
On the cusp of debuting his second collection of poetry, Quesada sat down with me at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he’s teaching a course on poetry and translation. We spoke in Café Anna, on the ground floor of College Hall, named after the ghost that still haunts the building.
Do you still talk to your friend?
Not regularly. After high school, he did what many people you grow up with do—people move, people get married…we lost touch just after graduate school. Almost 30 years after we met.
So he doesn’t know about the tattoo.
But he’d probably be pretty excited.
I think his whole family would be! I think of them often.
Were you able to find a unique identity as a Central American in California, within the Hispanic and largely Mexican community?
That’s a good question. In the Los Angeles area there are predominantly Mexican people, and in the city of Bell, there were a few other Central Americans. I remember knowing a handful of El Salvadorian people, maybe one or two from Nicaragua. Early on, I knew that Latino culture was quite diverse, that there were others who spoke Spanish like me, but maybe not held the same ideas about food, or ritual, or tradition. The unifying factor was language. We understood that our way of life was different. But we all could speak to each other in Spanish.
How did you come to poetry growing up?
My mother encouraged me to read early on, read widely and broadly. She gave me a book of poems by Pablo Neruda that she had brought with her from Costa Rica. That was my first exposure to poems. But I didn’t really think I could make a life with it.
It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started writing letters, which was cathartic. I didn’t understand that writing letters could be a form of poetic expression until high school. My school offered college guidance, but the resources were minimal: I didn’t know that I could go to college and study poetry. I was very good at math and science, and I was going to major in physics, but at the very last minute I discovered that if I majored in English, I could still have access to poetry.
Ultimately, I ended up going to a community college and taking classes in poetry writing before transferring to Riverside, because it had a department of creative writing that was separate from English. It was then that I knew that I could major and focus in poetry, and I learned that I could make a living teaching poetry.
When you graduated, you said: “I knew that I wanted to lead a life in the arts.” Did you ever have any doubts?
I had doubts because I heard that it was difficult to get a full-time job teaching poetry with just an MFA. Even now, with a PhD, it’s still quite difficult. I wanted to do it full-time. So it was a really interesting psychological change—but also, the tattoo was a bodily change, right? Having changed my appearance in this way immediately limited the kind of work that I’d get. In many ways, it forced my hand.
I doubted whether I could make a living mostly because I didn’t have any models. I didn’t know anyone who did it except for the professors that I had. And none of them looked like me. None of them had the same background that I had. It became critically important to me that I ensure that the visibility and presence of people of color, and queer people were in the literary community in the arts. And so that is one of my passions: not only to create space, but to feature their work.
Ruben Quesada reading at Cafe Anna
Translation must have been inevitable from the study of poetry.
I believe that any time we speak, it’s a form of translation. Any time we’re trying to convey the ideas that we have in our own head, and we put those ideas into language, it’s a form of translation. But what really draws me to poetry is that initial interaction I had with it when my mother gave me that Neruda book as a child. While I grew up speaking Spanish and learning to read Spanish, it always felt like something that I wanted to share with others in my life who didn’t speak Spanish. I knew that the best way to do that is to interpret those words into a language that was familiar to those I knew.
If you could convey one thing to our translation class you’re teaching this semester, what would it be?
Over time, the concept of translation has changed for me. In recent years, I started putting words to images, to sound. There’s an interesting take on a biblical passage from Genesis that is on my Soundcloud page. I translated Genesis into the sound of gunfire and also into the sound of a harp. Like language, it’s a really interesting performative aspect to translation. I continue to challenge my own notions of translation. Now that I have a chance to teach it, I have a really interesting, challenging thing to do. But my hope is to show others how translation can live in these multiple forms.
I think there’s certainly an academic notion that translation is a lexical exercise where you’re translating something word for word, or sentence to sentence, but what I believe is important is being able to convey an idea or an emotion that might bridge or transgress language or culture.
An alum from this program recently founded their own journal, and you’ve had your hand in two: Codex Journal and Stories & Queer. It seems to be something that a lot of us might pursue.
I started Codex in 2011, during my final years at Texas Tech University. I wanted to find a way to integrate tech and also create a space for people who weren’t visible, including an annual queer people of color issue that ran once a year.
Stories & Queer is a traveling reading series that my partner and I started in 2013. Its aim is to travel to rural areas where there’s a lack of visibility of LGBT people—we find a space and we create a literary event, so people there have an opportunity to tell their stories. In Montpelier I’m currently organizing a literary event with a Vermont group called Outright.
What are some things that surprised you when you launched a journal?
Codex has been on hiatus for some time. But toward the end, I found guest editors. It takes a lot of time to curate an issue—this was a quarterly journal, and even four times a year, it was a lot of time to try to either solicit or go through submissions and create a cohesive idea for each issue. Even though I found guest editors, trying to find a guest editor who was passionate about a particular idea also took a lot of time. It’s a digital journal, and that also takes some financial backing. To ensure that all the work I publish lives online, I have to continue hosting that URL. There are so many small journals I see disappear in a year, mostly because people don’t have the time and money to ensure that it’s gonna be around. The long game is important. If you’re going to feature people’s work, you owe them the space to ensure them that their work will survive.
Maybe it didn’t necessarily surprise me, but I don’t know if surprise is the right word—it renewed my respect for literary institutions that have been around for decades.
What drew you toward Luis Cernuda and his work?
I was drawn to Spanish language poetry because of my background. The most recognizable poets of Spain might be those of the late 19th or early 20th century, a group known as the Generation of ‘27. That includes another recognizable name: Federico García Lorca. Cernuda was a contemporary. They were the only two gay poets of that group—Lorca was not out, but Cernuda was. In many ways, his openness with his sexuality may have hindered his success. I started studying Cernuda during my MFA program, and began to translate my work then. There are three American poets who have translated most of his work—Reginald Gibbons, Derek Harris, and Stephen Kessler who’s won many awards for his translation of Cernuda.
But there is one collection by him that has not been completely translated. When I was in graduate school I reached out to his family and acquired rights to translate his work. It’s his collection called Las Nubes, or “The Clouds”, that I’m currently working on. As I finish my second collection of poems, I’m slowly returning to Cernuda.
How does Las Nubes fit into his overall body of work?
This collection was written in exile. Cernuda self-exiled in 1937 and he never returned. So these poems were written during his time outside of Spain. He taught at Columbia University and at UCLA, and it’s during his time at UCLA that he died. So it’s interesting to translate these poems that were written in his native language, while he was outside of his home country.
The poems align themselves with most of his other work, which is spare, influenced by surrealism, and focused on love and desire. Throughout his body of work, he’s wrestled with his homosexual desires and how that fit into his world. He does that through the implication of the body and nature.
Tell me about your second collection of poetry.
The second collection is a departure from my first. My first collection is focused on my time in LA, my childhood, and my family. I think place and family play a prominent role in that collection. If someone was to examine many first collections of poetry by Latino writers, they might find that those are pretty common themes.
The current manuscript is focused on desire and religion. The book is organized by different Catholic sacraments—there’s a section on communion, there’s a section on confession, and the poems are organized in parts. One section might have a title, but poems in that section are numbered. What’s different about the way they look is that they’re laid out in blocks of text with no punctuation, so they appear to look as tablets.
The idea for that really came to me when I was reading at the Art Institute of Chicago. There was a Mayan stone in the shape of a square. The stone itself tells a story in hieroglyphs. Those glyphs reminded me of contemporary use of images to convey ideas, emojis, and I began to think of my use of imagery in a similar fashion.
You said you live in Chicago. How do you like the city?
I love Chicago. I’ve been in the Midwest five years, but I’ve lived in Chicago just over two. There’s many things I like about it. Its public transit, the skyline, the lake, the weather. The way the city is laid out reminds me of Los Angeles in many ways: the city spreads out into little neighborhoods just the way Los Angeles does. So in many ways it feels like home.
I’ve considered living in cities like New York City and I still think about it sometimes, but the pace of New York makes me a bit nauseous. There’s just too much happening at once. Los Angeles is in retrospect too spread out. Chicago is busy enough and there’s enough culture that it feels like a middle ground.
How do you write? Do you write at home, in a coffee shop, etc?
I write anywhere I can, at any moment. Revision is a different story. When I revise, most of the time I’ll revise at a desk, at a table.
I love revising, I think I do it too much sometimes. You know, I’m reminded of Walt Whitman’s incessant revisions of Leaves of Grass and I have to remind myself to step away and not labor so much over an idea or a moment in a poem. I try to step away from something as often as I can.
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Silhouettes of a Vermont Poet at Home: An Interview with Kerrin McCadden
by Valentyn Smith
March 7, 2018 /in Interviews /by Bianca Vinas
In an ideal world, Kerrin McCadden and I have found ourselves sunken into the velour armchairs of some vintaged cafe and have spent the last hour huddled over our steaming teamugs, deep in conversation. We’d be talking poetry—especially because Kerrin McCadden’s poetry earned her the 2015 Vermont Book Award, as well as the 2013 New Issues Poetry Prize. Alas, in the real world, Kerrin is as incredibly busy as she is incredibly accomplished. Over this fall, she was on a deadline for a magazine while judging a book contest and guest teaching at UVM. All this in addition to the balancing act that is her life as a full-time Vermont writer, teacher and parent. Yet there’s still more to what makes Kerrin so fascinating. And it’s the other life Kerrin lives that intrigues me, the life of a poet at the desk with her pens, dreams, words; a poet at home.
The first time I saw Kerrin, she was spotlighted at the 2017 Vermont Book Award Gala as the 2015 winner for Landscape of Plywood Silhouettes, a collection of poems. As a current MFA candidate, I have been curious about the creatures of habit that are writers, about their ghosts, their portals and their story-telling origins. Here, Kerrin granted me the tales of her own storytelling origins as well as the art of multitasking while sneaking a peek at her nightstand. Fortunately, she carved out some time to share her writing chops, warmth and artistry with me as she juggled la vida loca as well as treated me to her sagey insights and poetic word-smithing and, wisdom-wise, it reads like a string of pearls.
Valentyn Smith: We’re going to dive into portals—great writing that triggers our imaginations with inspiration, gets our creative juices flowing and (vicariously) transports us. I’m curious about the books on your nightstand (could be a proverbial one), as well as favored books on your shelves, and favorite poems and poets. For starters, what is a book that you’ll turn to for inspiration, time and time, again? What books or writers are your “portal-reads,” transporting you to times, places, memories or worlds that bring you back to the now and then to the page, ready to write?
Kerrin McCadden: Weirdly enough, on my nightstand is the 1912 edition of the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by P. M. Roget, a beautiful little pair of books full of common and not so common words and phrases. There are some real gems in there—words and phrases no longer in circulation. It’s both a soporific and an imagination agitator.
I also have my travel journals from recent trips (France and Ethiopia), the novel Grace, by Paul Lynch.
On my proverbial bookshelf, re: books I return to, is a pile of The Art of books, including The Art of Syntax, by Ellen Bryant Voigt, The Art of Recklessness, by Dean Young, The Art of Description, by Mark Doty. There is also Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s Song, which stands as a sacred text. I mostly only read poetry these days and have collected hundreds of contemporary collections, which I cycle through—moving a new handful of them to my table periodically to revisit.
VS: Who is a writer and/or what is a book that you believe everyone should read in their lifetime? In that same vein, what other book(s) do you highly recommend to young writers and poets?
KM: I know my reading history is skewed, as is everyone’s. We are pushed toward and away from books according to our education systems, our circumstances and our tastes as they emerge. I’m hesitant, ever, to say who should read what (though telling people what to read has been my life’s work—so, irony, yeah), but in any context, I can only say why I’ve chosen a book for the moment of my recommendation. I’ll say that for myself, a seminal work was Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. I don’t know if everyone should read it. I read it by accident, and it rocked my young world.
For young poets, I want them to read the poets writing now—otherwise they insist on writing with all kinds of old-fashioned flourishes (grammatical inversions, clunky rhyme, forced patterns that are not consistently deployed). When I show them what poems are doing now, they can gain a sense of how to invent a poem, which is what we are all doing with every poem we write. I show them literary journals online. Most of them don’t know what a literary journal is. I have them sign up for the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series—anything to put contemporary poems in front of them. Once young people start to read contemporary poetry, they can begin to know what the conversation is that they are trying to enter.
VS: What is the best piece of advice on writing (or piece of writerly advice) you’ve been given?
KM: I think across the board, it is the learned willingness to keep at the page—both to create new work and to revise what I’m building. One time at Bread Loaf, Ed Hirsch gave a lecture in which he said that writers need, primarily, to show up at the page. He exhorted us to bump our heads against the ceiling of our abilities, not our willingness to show up at the page. By which he meant you can’t know what you can do unless you continually practice. Showing up at the page is the magic answer. Show up again and again, or lose hope, really, of being a writer. If writing is how you process the world, then you need to have the practice of writing. I can’t stand it when students of mine say, “I just couldn’t come up with anything.” Any human can come up with something. Imagination is our central gift. I’m pretty sure imagination is how we first figured out how to use tools. We could imagine something we couldn’t see. What they really mean when they say, “I just couldn’t come up with anything,” is that they don’t like what they wrote, or they didn’t come up with anything. Just keep putting the words together.
VS: Storytelling has its origins in the oral tradition. How much of your work do you write by ear and how would you describe your work’s relation to sound?
KM: This is an interesting question, and, I think, goes back to my response about practice. When I first started putting poems out into the world, one consistent response was about musicality in the poems. I know that when I write, there is a certain moment when I discover that the language has settled into what I want, but the toggle switches that I throw to decide are many, and it’s a process that’s become largely intuitive. I also know that all my early memories of poetry were the language of the Catholic mass, which I had memorized by the time I left for college. The mass is designed to be effective to a listening audience that may or may not be reading along. It’s a collective language experience, so the language is heightened in importance not just because it’s about God—but because a huge number of people are sharing it. Church was where I experienced formal language, language as an act of performance, language that transcended daily language—and I memorized it through sheer exposure to it. I know that musicality in language is part of the pattern of how I think. And before I read contemporary poets, I read the Romantics and the Modernists, who also teach line by line how sound can work in poems.
I’ve also always been a mimic, picking up accents in ways that are sometimes embarrassing. I catch on to phrases I like and use them repetitively in spates. I catch on to patterns obsessively. I’m really in love with sound, which is tough, because I’m losing my actual hearing. Good thing, I guess, that language happens inside the mind as well as in the ear!
VS: What was the first poem you read (or heard) that blew you away and lit your fire? Why?
KM: It was probably “Marriage,” by Gregory Corso. I read it during high school, and it was unlike anything I had ever read in school. I loved how unhinged the speaker was and how highly tuned Corso’s imagination was—how ranging and wild it all was. I think this is the first poem that taught me what poems could do in our time.
VS: Are you into form? If so, which and why, or why not? Details, please!
KM: I’m totally into form, structure. Every poem invents its own form even if the form of the poem is received. Regardless of the fixed nature of a form, of course, there is always invention—even on the obvious level of sequencing words. By which I mean to say every poet is into form. For me, I don’t revel in received forms, but I do love watching a poem as I’m writing it and making the formal decisions that are good for the poem. When a poem is drafted, one of my favorite editing sequences is moving it into and out of various shapes and forms. Shifting a poem from long lines into short lines, for instance, tends to expose baggy phrasing—and that’s how I tend to find it, when a line is shortened and I realize there’s nothing necessary in it. Shifting between different forms, even ordering of the lines, helps expose what should be cut. I’m a poet who errs on the side of too many words, and it takes me tricking myself to see where I should lose any of them.
VS: What was your very first encounter with poetry? What inspired you to write your own, and at what point in life was this? Also, how would you describe your current approach to writing poetry, compared to when you first started writing? What compelled you then versus now?
KM: I have some ridiculous snippets I wrote when I was little, in grade school. What is clear in them is that I was already interested in making connections that were not ready-made. I love to think associatively. In fact, one thing I struggled with when I was a young student was the idea of outlines. I had no idea how to plan what I was going to think. Writing was the act that made the ideas show up at all. I’ve always written to think. So, I wonder early on if my corrections on my papers regarding “organization” were actually not weaknesses but the beginnings of poems or poetic thinking. I was never effectively able to fight my interest in letting my ideas wander. I could always write good sentences (the “Test of Standard Written English” was the only part of the SAT where I earned a perfect score), but they were always serving different gods than the outline, or the prescribed sequence. Now that I actually get to be a poet, I’m glad I resisted. I just wish that someone had seen the way my mind worked as a potential strength.
My current approach to writing poetry is pretty sturdy, by which I mean it hasn’t changed very much. I walk about in the world like a collector, looking for images and ideas that I want to put into poems. My daily life is full of this kind of walking meditation. I keep notes, I worry an idea for a poem until I know what I want it to feel like once I’ve written it. At some point, I make the time to sit and write. I just start, because I know that later on I can improve the beginning. I let the first draft just come out. Sometimes I let it be a “talking” draft that just explains the ideas, allowing clunky phrases to be there. On a second and on subsequent passes through the poem, I clean and move, clean and move. Then I usually put the poem away for awhile, so that next time I see it, it isn’t familiar. I fall in love with every draft still—thinking this is my best poem ever. Which it never, ever really is. So, I wait, and then I take it back out, show it maybe to a good friend who knows my poems so they can tell me what moves I just keep making, or can push me toward a core issue in the poem. Most poems take months and piles of drafts. This plays out over and over again! I know I learn and change over time—for instance right now I’m uncharacteristically attracted to making shorter lines and altogether shorter poems.
VS: What does your ideal place of work look like? Where and when do you write? How—longhand or screen? Also, how do you go about insulating yourself while in craft mode?
KM: My usual place of work is the red sofa in the living room. I have had various office spaces, but I like to work in the living room. I like good light and windows and a fire during winter. When people are around, I tune them out, or am just really clear that I’m working, or I wait until I’m alone for a number of hours. I also have a right hand man in my little poodle. He’s been next to me when I’ve written almost anything. He’s next to me right now! I write on my computer. I’m old enough that I learned to touch-type, so I don’t need to look at the keys and I type really fast. The beauty in typing quickly is that making the words appear is not the chore. Being a good typist means there is one less thing in the way when building a poem. But the speed at the keyboard does not mean I write poems quickly, as I said earlier. They take so many visits to get anywhere close to finished. I’ve learned to be very patient. Right now, though, I’m almost five years away from when my first book was accepted for publication. I’m getting antsy to finish this next collection. Patience isn’t feeling like a friend in that department.
VS: What are the lessons and perks or roots that living in Vermont has offered your poetry?
KM: Well, one perk is material support. There are a number of agencies in Vermont that have supported my work, from the Vermont Arts Council to the Vermont Arts Endowment Fund, to Vermont College of Fine Arts through the Vermont Book Award, to a fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. I am also a public school teacher at Montpelier High School, and it needs to be said that my school is a great supporter of my work as a poet—even when it means leaving the building to read or travel or teach. I’m surrounded by support. Almost every college and university has invited me to come read, and many bookstores. Vermont loves its poets. And Vermont’s poets find each other. My writing group has been meeting for almost a decade and is like family.
There is also the way the cold seeps into our lives—making everything a little treacherous. In Vermont, neighborliness is a survival strategy. No matter who is in your community, you’d better remember that each person might be someone you need, whether you are in a ditch, or suddenly sick, or suddenly can’t heat your home. By this I mean to say there is a fluidity between people—a willingness to honor and see each other with generosity. Sometimes this makes its way into my poems. I am also entirely in love with the hardscrabbleness of Vermont, how nothing is a given and luxuries are to be revered. God, it gets cold here. And you can’t go anywhere without knowing people. So, if you are a poet who is inherently interested in people, they come out in droves to things. There is so much to see, everywhere, be it landscape or human landscape. And the plants and animals have beautiful names: jewelweed, ermine, aspen, pig week, lambs quarters, Winooski River, Camel’s Hump, Mount Hunger, Eden, Moscow, Buel’s Gore, Hardack Mountain, lynx, fisher cat, coyote, great blue heron, bobolink, june bug, mayfly, etc.
VS: Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes is a delicious title. Absolutely delicious. Many titles in the collection were great—”Elegy for the Woman Who Became a Chair”! How do you create titles? Do they come before the poem, created during or afterwards? And when do you know it’s “the one?”
KM: Thanks! I don’t think much in poetry comes sequentially. I think everything comes out of order, all the time—that’s the beautiful nature of this art. Titles usually come before the poem, to create a working frame for what I’m doing, then, after the poem is written, the title is the last thing to be solidified, most times. I usually change a title a number of times. In fact, there are a few poems I am convinced are finished except for the title. I’m stuck at the title!
VS: If you could offer young writers a recipe consisting of what they’ll need to sustain them for the writing-life, what “ingredients” would be called for to serve them in the seasons to come?
KM: Well, again, just to always show up at the page. I think a lot of young writers think writing is some strange gift—either you have it or you don’t. Sometimes young writers can’t figure out a poem and so they give up, assuming they just don’t “have it.” I often hear young writers say things like, “I couldn’t think of anything to write,” or, “I had writer’s block.” Young writers may not know precisely how to make a poem work, and this is I think what they mean when they say they have writer’s block. Writer’s block to me seems a luxury—I mean, if a person can put another word next to the words that are already there, then there is no such thing as being “blocked.” What writer’s block means is that the writer is afraid they can’t write anything good—that they are self-policing and stopping themselves from experimenting, from throwing words on the page, from even trying. Since poems in our age are invented as we build them, the only way to know how to write a poem, or how to make a poem “good” is to practice. Practice means two big things, two big commitments: reading poetry (contemporary poetry, traditional poetry, poetry in translation, etc.) and drafting. Drafting means sketching, trying, experimenting, learning how the poem can work. It means being willing to unseat the poem, move the lines around, change the words, write the poem the way it begins to want to be written. I like to write poems until it feels like the poem is taking control. I know a poem is “done” when the poem resists change. Getting to a place where your practice is codified in any way means screwing it up so many times you can’t count. Young writers need their 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, too.
VS: What is your writing practice and process? What is a writing ritual that you have that continues to encourage your growth as a writer and keep you writing?
KM: Right now I have 107 students in my course load. Despite my job, I’ve always felt compelled to keep writing, so I encourage looking at the vocation of writing as a compulsion, or else, in these busy times, it will never happen. I’ve learned to carry ideas for poems around in my head—roll them around, play with them until I can make (not find…make) time to sit and work the poem out of my head. I dream up poems while I’m driving, while I’m teaching (bless “free write time”) and while I’m falling asleep. I have really good “critical friends”—writers I can bring poems to, or complain about poems with, or work through how a poem works with, or just piss and moan with. There is nothing like finding, nurturing and keeping friends in this art—otherwise it’s a lonely business. Some of my friends and I have a weekly writing workshop—it’s highly ritualized and ends up being possibly the most fun I ever have during most weeks, which is not to trivialize my life but to celebrate the great luck through which I found them. We have a blast and we also blast the poems we bring with our poet lasers. I learn so much from them.
VS: What words of wisdom or anecdotes would you offer to other working writers regarding project design and organization? What are specific things you do, in order to efficiently and productively manage your time? How do you make sure to allow yourself time to write, revise and hone your craft even when you are extremely busy?
KM: I make dates with myself—carve out blocks of time. I take myself away from my house—to my husband’s airport, maybe—although it’s been forever since I’ve done this. I fantasize about going to stay in a convent for a weekend, or renting myself a house somewhere with some poets (something that’s in the works right now). I mean to say there is no way to productively manage time. I think one needs to make time. Carve it out.
VS: My absolute favorite poem in Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes is “Skeletons.” Its speaker describes a scene from a dream, but the effect of your language does so much more. What dream or dream scene have you vividly experienced that has inspired you to write?
KM: Thanks! I love that poem, too—especially how it turns around inside itself. There are moments of language in that poem I loved discovering. Actually, though, I haven’t ever written from dreams! Any poem of mine that claims to originate in dream is lying, or feinting. I’m primarily interested in imagination, which is itself a kind of dream… day dream. I think all poets enter a dream state when they write, a place where nothing is quite as precise as our waking lives, but everything is also more precise and pointed. In poems, letting the imagination loose is a way of dreaming.
VS: How does your environment, both past and present, influence you as a writer? How has your life’s landscape inspired your writing?
KM: In Vermont, I’ve lived on a farm and in an actual village—one of the very few that was not run through by a state road. People actually walked around in it, from place to place, and I lived right on the sidewalk. My front yard was about eight feet deep. People’s heads bobbed past my windows in my living room all day and night. There was always someone doing something, someone to observe, someone to get to know, and many of my poems have come from the ten or so years I lived in that place. I think my book is practically infused with Plainfield, Vermont.
When I go to Ireland, my language and phrasing get different. It’s strange. I think my speaker, too, is very different. I’m a different person in Ireland. I spent my whole young life daydreaming about this place we had come from, and when I finally went back to find it, it was a mythical place in my mind, but I had to reconcile the myths with the terrifically real place I found. I am always doing the math of who am I? when I’m there, pushing my speaker more off-kilter. I’m also so fascinated when I’m there, like a toddler, by naming things, asking what everything is called.
VS: In an interview with Rachel Contreni Flynn, you were in Ireland, “home on holiday,” and you stated that being in Ireland put your family’s ghosts in front of you. What did you mean by that? I just love the sound of that statement, and it reminded me of your poem, “Little Ghost Girl.” What are your thoughts on the idea of us travelling through life with our family’s ghosts? Do these ghosts enter your writing and, if so, what is that like for you?
KM: Poems collapse time, don’t they? They are artifacts of memory pretending to live in the moment. They collect and collect and sort and sift. What else is there to put in poems but ghosts? Everything we remember is a kind of ghost—as is everything we imagine or send into the future. Our imaginations are machines that fabricate reality. Everything is exactly as it was, and nothing is. So, I’m comforted, really, by the idea that ghosts are what populate our poems, inasmuch as ghosts are shadows of what really was, who really did what. Maybe our ghosts are the antidote to the young person’s requirement that a poem represent “what really happened.” Every time a young person, just to circle back to the younger ones one final time, insists that a poem needs to represent what “really happened,” or every time a young person resists revising a poem because then the poem will no longer be a record of what “really happened,” what they really need is ghosts—entities that can float through anything, be anything, capture anything and stir anything.
VS: And lastly, what’s next?
KM: What’s next? Finishing my second book of poems. That would be the best next thing. I have a monster pile of poems. Maybe I’ll find two collections in the pile!
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/screaming-1200x800.jpeg 800 1200 Bianca Vinas https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Bianca Vinas2018-03-07 15:46:412019-03-25 11:13:27Silhouettes of a Vermont Poet at Home: An Interview with Kerrin McCadden
The Art of Interviewing
Josh Dudley
May 9, 2017 /in Craft /by Miciah Bay Gault
I’ve had the good fortune to interview several podcast hosts for the New York Observer, most recently James Urbaniak. I’ve also talked to Russ Haven, legislative counsel for The New York Public Interest Research group and a very independent film director. The first interview I had was with Scott Bateman, the film director. Now, even though I was friends with the guy, I was scared, nervous, and intimidated. In my head, I thought I was trying to bridge a divide that I had no business going near.
After conducting several interviews, I realized that having the interest, the opportunity, and the desire to put the work into perfecting interviewing skills means I do belong in the same level as Bateman. I think Bert Cooper’s quote from Mad Men is particularly relatable: “The Japanese have a saying: a man is whatever room he is in, and right now Donald Draper is in this room.” If given the opportunity and time to prepare, you can successfully interview anyone.
HOW DO I DECIDE WHO TO INTERVIEW?
The best interviews come out of passion for the interviewee and their craft. You are providing a conduit for them to expand or reach their fan base, and the best way to do that is to be a fan yourself. You don’t necessarily have to agree with them on everything, but if it’s a major issue that hinders you from appreciating them, put it aside and try to examine it in context with everything else they’ve produced. If you still can’t get behind it, or at least compartmentalize it, then you may need to accept that you are not the right person to conduct the interview.
HOW DO YOU STOP YOURSELF FROM BEING SO NERVOUS BEFORE AN INTERVIEW?
Immerse yourself in your interview subject’s world. Watch, read, or listen to what they have created until you understand their point of view. If you don’t understand where they are coming from, your questions may come off as ill-informed, wrongheaded, or even combative.
Take copious notes on everything until key themes emerge. Even if you’re interviewing people who have a wide range of interests, if you really study them, you will notice patterns and themes that repeat themselves. It’s from those themes that you will develop inferences, and from those inferences that your best questions will come.
When you have a good understanding of the subject and several questions to ask, keep researching their work right up until the interview. You never know what new insights you might glean. The more comfortable you feel about their material, the more comfortable you will feel around them.
You need to be comfortable to make them feel comfortable talking to you. If your interview is over the phone, be prepared to be in your room or a quiet workspace for as long as you think the interview will last. You don’t want to be interrupted or distracted. Give yourself a glass of water, but no food, and be ready to put yourself in their headspace.
WHAT DO I DO DURING THE INTERVIEW?
Treat your guest like a friend by asking first about their wellbeing and what they’ve been doing this week. Don’t rush right into your questions. You don’t want to sound forced and/or canned. In addition to ingratiating yourself, it can also serve as an excellent segue, as their answers might very well be relevant to your interview questions.
Keep an eye on verbal or visual cues that they give you, as this may give you an idea for a follow-up about their response. Do your best to make your questions short and efficient. Your guest’s time is valuable, and you need to treat it like gold.
Hopefully, your new friend is passionate and connected to what you are asking them about, in which case the natural course of the conversation may flow out of that. Keep your questions and notes handy during the interview. Think of them as guidepost markers to keep you on the trail should you wander too far off.
WHAT TO DO AFTER THE INTERVIEW IS OVER
Thank them again for their time by text or email, and try to give them an idea, if you have one, of when the interview will be published. If your talk lasted for an hour, and you have it recorded and transcribed, then you may be looking at several thousand words more than you want in the final product. You will need to do some severe cutting.
What you are now creating, in effect, is a commentary of what you believe happened. You want this commentary to be the most interesting and informative version of the event as possible.
Your original notes and questions had a theme, and you will soon discover that the answers you received have one as well. When choosing what to reduce or eliminate, look for things that are farthest from that theme as well as obvious redundancies. It’s your job to put the interviewee in the best light possible, so use care. You don’t want lack of time to be the reason for cutting an entire paragraph.
When you’re finished, give them a heads up, and consider sending them a copy in advance to avoid embarrassing revisions or retractions after your story is published.
Congratulations! You’ve told the world about someone, and their work, that you find interesting. Hopefully, you’ve also made a valuable new friend.
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/neon-1200x800.jpeg 800 1200 Miciah Bay Gault https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Miciah Bay Gault2017-05-09 09:00:382019-03-25 13:15:39The Art of Interviewing
Comics = Cultural Criticism: An Interview with Bill Kartalopoulos
by Gina Tron
April 27, 2017 /in Interviews /by Miciah Bay Gault
Cartoonist Bill Kartalopoulos.
Bill Kartalopoulos once lived in a large apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, known as the Cartoon House. In 2012, VICE called the home “a giant flophouse where cartoonists live.” Cartoon House was full of goodies: crazy art on the walls; easels and cartoonist’s desks; a giant bubble-letter neon sign that read “CARTOONS”. It was a space where the big names in the art world often came to hang out and drink wine (or more likely, Pabst Blue Ribbon).
In addition to cartoonist parties, the space hosted numerous creative theme parties, including one inspired by the Harmony Korine film, Spring Breakers. I had the luck of attending a few of these soirees, which is how I first met Bill. He was always pleasant, seemingly unfazed as he spewed dry humor with ease. When I think of him, I imagine him as he looked then: clad in a sweater and circular-framed glasses, always appearing effortlessly cool.
Kartalopoulos is a critic, teacher, and author, as well as the editor for Best American Comics, the #1 New York Times best-selling series published annually by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. In addition, he is writing a history book about comics to be published by Princeton University Press. Kartalopoulos has written on the topic of comics for publications such as The Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, World Literature Today, American Book Review, The Comics Journal and others. He teaches Comics History in the MFA Visual Narrative program at School of Visual Arts, and Graphic Novels at Parsons’ The New School. Currently, he is the programming director for the MoCCA Arts Festival.
GT: Do you still live in the Cartoon House? I love that place.
Kartalopoulos: No, I left it about three years ago and it got turned into a nicer, more expensive apartment — like most places in Williamsburg.
GT: How did you become the series editor for the Best American Comics?
Kartalopoulos: The Best American Comics series has been running since 2006. It’s part of a bigger line of titles, such as Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, et cetera. They all pretty much follow the same model where there are a series editor and an outside person who doesn’t work at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt who works on the books for a certain number of years but also collaborates each year with a special guest editor, typically a more well-known person in the field.
Matt Madden and Jessica Abel — a husband-and-wife team who are both comic artists but also teachers — had that [series editor] job for six years, but they left because they got a residency in France. I guess they recommended me to the publisher and I went in and interviewed. It worked out well.
Working on the book has been interesting and enriching in a lot of different ways. It’s also a very visible project.
Comics can respond quickly to an event and communicate a response.
GT: What are the responsibilities of a series editor?
Kartalopoulos: The way these books work is that they each have an open submission process. There is an address that anyone can send work to. An author or comic artist can send their work in and it doesn’t matter if it’s been published or self-published. On top of that, it’s my job to, in essence, make sure that we get everything that we should be getting. So, in addition to the large volume of stuff that comes in through the open submissions process, I also do a lot of outreach.
If I see that an artist has posted something about a comic or zine that they have self-published, I may individually email them to ask them to send their stuff in. I spend a fair bit of time just looking around at comic book stores and comic shops to see if there is anything that is not in the submissions pile that I should have. I go to festivals and walk around and ask people to submit their work. I also talk to colleagues and friends who know a lot and they sometimes have been really helpful in recommending work that may not have been on my radar. So, I end up with a huge quantity of comics. I also look around online because there are so many people posting comics online. It’s not possible to keep up with all of it but I at least make an effort.
I spend a ton of time reading through the various works I’ve accumulated then I make a pre-selection of about 120 pieces that I think are the most outstanding pieces to send to the guest editor. Then, the guest editor makes the final choices about what goes into the book. They have some latitude, too, to bring in some material that they have discovered on their own. I’m always surprised in a good way to see the final choices the guest editor has made.
Once they have made their choices, then I have to reach out to all the artists and get preliminary formal permission to include their work in the book. I write a foreword to the book every year and the guest editor writes an introduction. I also compose a list of about 100 notable works that we also list in the book in addition to the work that we are printing. That is a place to at least mention the work that I saw and appreciated but didn’t make it into the final volume.
I also have to communicate with the art director at the publishing house and the designer. We deal with decisions that come up in the course of figuring out how to design and organize the book. We find an artist to draw the cover for the book. We’ll also commission some original art for the book, even though much of the art is already published.
GT: Are there any factors you consider when making your choices on the art?
Kartalopoulos: During my conversations with the guest editor, I try to feel out the kind of work they like to see and if there is anything, in particular, they are interested in so I’m not wasting their time.
GT: What kind of influence does your past work with Art Spiegelman have on your work with Best American Comics today?
Kartalopoulos: Working with Art was a huge education because he has a real encyclopedic knowledge about comics. On top of that, he also has a really strong analytical and critical point of view. Spiegelman — together with his wife, Françoise Mouly, who is the art editor of the New Yorker (and has been since 1993) — edited in the eighties and early nineties a comics anthology magazine called Raw, which has a reputation for being one of the best comics anthologies of all time. They were very selective about the material that they chose and were attentive to design and presentation.
The standard that was exemplified in Raw persists in Art when he is looking at new work. He is always interested in knowing what is new in comics, but at the same time, he also has a real high standard for excellence. On top of that, Art works very hard; he has a perfectionist tendency towards the projects that he gets involved in. So, all of those things have, to a greater or lesser extent, informed a lot of the projects and work that I have gotten involved with.
Working with Art Spiegelman was a huge education because he has a real encyclopedic knowledge about comics.
GT: Tell me about your upcoming book.
Kartalopoulos: I’m writing a general history of comics for Princeton University Press, focusing on North American comics. It’s a book that is badly needed, I think. It’s something that comes out of my teaching. This book would certainly be useful for me to have in my teaching, but it would be of interest to general readers too.
There are a lot of books about individual subjects in comics that have come out in recent years, ranging from multi-volume reprints of well-known comics like Peanuts or Little Orphan Annie to biographies of comic artists, like the creator of Wonder Woman.
There are also a number of books about specific subjects such as American comics in the 1950s. The list goes on. But there isn’t a Comics History 101 book for someone who just wants to understand the broad overview of the story and to see how all those other pieces fit together in a sort of narrative. So it’s a little backward, in the sense that we have all these very specialized books, but we don’t have a book that should function as a starting point.
GT: Why are comics so important right now?
Kartalopoulos: There are a lot of reasons why comics remain relevant. For one thing, I think they are unlike a lot of other visual media — ones that require budgets; a lot of people; access to technology, or all of the above. Somebody can make a comic with pretty modest means. It does not take a lot to make a comic. It’s basically just pen and paper. In theory, you can do anything with that. You can create an entire visual world that way, whether it’s a personal world or a fantasy world.
I also think that we live in a visual culture. I don’t really think comics are necessarily on the cutting edge of that visual culture like they used to be because technology keeps moving forward. I think that comics at one point seemed like a step beyond prose towards a more visual narrative, but now we have so much video and interactive online content. Comics start to look more traditional somehow by comparison.
Comics take a bunch of images and put them together in a coherent and articulate way, where you go from image to image, and from text/image combination to text/image combination. Then you look at it all and it all adds up to something. If there is an intelligent cartoonist at work then there is a design behind it all. By the time you get through reading it you can comprehend the design and see that there is maybe a larger concept behind it. I think that that in a way is almost like the equivalent in poetry relative to our visual culture, which is so incoherent. We just go from web page to web page, from video to message, from this to that to the other thing. You can get really drowned by this mosaic of stimulation over the course of the day as you consume media, but by the end of the day, it may not add up to anything or you may have to struggle to make it add up to anything.
It does not take a lot to make a comic. It’s basically just pen and paper. In theory, you can do anything with that.
Artist Nadja Spiegelman with “Resist!” at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington.
I feel like comics process all those elements and present them in a coherent design. It models a deeper understanding of fragments of text image combinations. I think, from a media studies point of view, there is something to that because it is a very direct medium and should have an ongoing grassroots appeal as a way to express oneself visually.
GT: How can comics be utilized in our current political climate?
Kartalopoulos: There is a newspaper that just came out called RESIST! that was edited by Françoise Mouly and her daughter, Nadja Spiegelman. It was full of comic strips and cartoons — mostly drawn by women — initiated after the presidential election and published in Time for the Women’s March on Washington. They made thousands of copies of it and gave it away at the March. That shows how comics can respond very quickly to an event and communicate a response, a point of view.
Other work can be much more considered. There’s an artist called Joe Sacco who creates book-length journalistic comics. He goes to war zones, and has been in places like the former Yugoslavia and Palestine, and has created these very journalistic research-based projects where he interviews a lot of people, does a ton of research, takes photos and creates sketches, and then goes home and works for years to produce hundreds-of-pages books about a subject.
That certainly does not permit an instantaneous response like the newspaper I was just talking about, but there is a lot of value to that work because it shows something about how long comics can document something real, true and important in a way that other media can’t. He can put the reader in places where the camera can never go. He can present these characters, real individuals, in a way that represent their points of view intimately. It’s closer to the way that a writer would work, but he is able to provide visuals in the manner of a documentarian without the need to provide the kinds of happy accidents that make a good documentary.
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Living in Stereo: An Interview with Alex Green
by Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons
Writer Alex Green.
Four years ago I found a Facebook message in my inbox. The sender liked an essay I had written and wanted to read more of my work. His name was Alex Green. Me being me, I Googled him to make sure he wasn’t a stalker. He wasn’t. I soon found out who he was, though.
Green is the author of The Stone Roses, a book about the influential British band of the same name, published as part of Bloomsbury’s acclaimed 33 1/3 series. He’s also the editor of Stereo Embers, a music and entertainment e-zine. When he asked me to write for the site, I told him that if he was looking for someone to say that One Direction was nifty keen, I wasn’t his girl. He didn’t, and we’ve been working together ever since.
Since then Green has released two more books: Emergency Anthems, a collection of poetry and short fiction; and his debut novel, The Heart Goes Boom (published last year by Wrecking Ball Press). The Heart Goes Boom details the journey of Kieran Falcon, a C-list actor who is told he must find true love in a matter of weeks. Falcon enlists the services of a writer, a magician, and a wise man to help him along the way.
When he’s not writing, Green is busy interviewing authors at Kathleen Caldwell’s A Great Good Place for Books (located in the Oakland’s Montclair district), teaching English at St. Mary’s College, and hosting a top-ten radio show on Primal Radio called … what else? The Heart Goes Boom. He also still produces Stereo Embers, which recently received a fan letter from Amy Winehouse’s mother, Janis.
Somehow in the midst of everything, Green managed to have time to answer some of my burning questions.
JKG: The Bay Area has been home to many writers, including Anne Lamott, Michael Chabon, Jessica Mitford, and YA novelist Yvonne Prinz. How has the Bay Area affected your writing?
Green: It’s affected it a great deal; I’m a bit obsessed with Northern California. It’s fertile ground for artists. It’s always been a community that’s alive with theater, music, bookstores, and indie movie theaters. Plus, the terrain is so redolent with promise, beauty, and heartbreak, it’s an irresistible thing to not write about.
California itself has appeared almost as a singular character throughout my writing, kind of like the hotel in The Shining, but less creepy — or more creepy, depending on how you view my work.
JKG: We share an appreciation of the absurdities of pop culture. Tell me about your first pop culture love.
Green: The movie version of Hair rocked my fourth-grade world: the hirsute bravado, the shaggy rebellion, the unexpected tragedy. Then MTV sucked me in back in 1981, and nothing was ever the same. Bowie, The Specials, Talking Heads … maybe even that J. Geils Band video, “Centerfold” — a portal opened that knocked me out.
JKG: Music is woven in all your work, be it Stereo Embers or your books. What was your first record? What are you listening to right now?
Green: My first album was The Police’s Ghost In The Machine. Now I’m listening to The Vaccines, The Paper Kites, Modern Space, Golden Curtain, and for some weird reason The Babys.
JKG: Would you describe Emergency Anthems as poetry, short fiction or both?
Green: Short fiction disguised as poetry that’s disguised as an 85-page homage to the Twilight series.
JKG: The Heart Goes Boom starts off with an emergency when the protagonist, Kieran Falcon, is pushed through a psychic’s window. What attracts you to writing about emergencies and calamities?
Green: My therapist might answer that question better than I can, but what’s always interested me about emergencies is what comes after. The emergency itself is largely uninteresting.
What’s compelling to me is how people assemble in the aftermath of a seismic event. They can grow cold or warm — it can go a number of ways, but you see who people really are when the struggle is over and the dust is settling.
JKG: Kieran Falcon has a Lorenzo Lamas vibe about him. Did you base him on Lamas, or on any other 1980s heartthrob?
Green: I based him on every ‘80s heartthrob; he’s a composite of them all. He’s also based on a character from a 2006 film called The Big Bad Swim. Originally he was based on a guy I taught tennis with back in the early ‘90s, who was such a tennis pro cliché that he literally slept with every woman in a 438-mile radius of the club. He may or may not have had a new strain of chlamydia named after him. Worth Googling.
JKG: Falcon also has a Ted Baxter/Derek Zoolander quality. Were you scared he could fall into the himbo stereotype?
Green: I was scared that people might not like him and that they wouldn’t hang in there to see if he could be redeemed. He’s a sweet guy who hasn’t grown up, so his teenage obsession with sexual triumph is a skin he’s never shed and he absolutely needs to. The book kind of suggests that that mentality will prevent you from experiencing real love and will guide you smoothly down a long and lonely path to oblivion. So it was a risk because his behavior is awful, but I thought people would take a chance on seeing if someone who’s so lost can ever be found. By the way, that last part may or may not be stolen from an Ed Sheeran song.
JKG: There are many current pop culture references in The Heart Goes Boom. How did you choose which ones to use?
Green: I picked ones that are absurdly famous and I picked them to poke fun at the extremity of celebrity culture. I also picked ones that used to be absurdly famous because they’re where the currently absurdly famous are headed.
JKG: Aren’t you worried those references might date your book?
Green: A little worried, but I thought I could change it every year and swap out [Canadian pop star] Justin Bieber for [Canadian Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau.
JKG: What are you working on right now?
Green: I’m working on a YA detective novel about a black market organ ring that’s set against the backdrop the thrash metal scene. It’s a Christmas novel.
Humor is how I’ve always shielded myself from the world; there’s no lock that humor can’t pick.
JKG: When you interview authors for A Great Good Place for Books, do you ever get nervous about asking questions that sound great on paper, but possibly goofy aloud?
Green: I never bring questions. I have no idea what I’m going to say until the interview starts. A risky move, but it just feels better that way.
JKG: Does that means that your interviews turn out to be more conversational and free-flowing?
Green: Conversational, free-flowing and I’ve been told, utterly devoid of thought or meaning.
JKG: Recently Stereo Embers heard from Amy Winehouse’s mom, Janis, about an essay you ran on the site about the late British singer. Can you say more about that letter?
Green: She wrote it to the author of the piece, Paul Gleason. Paul’s a lovely guy. He was very moved. It was a brilliant piece and her mother quite liked it. I was happy to see that our little magazine is reaching a bigger audience and that sometimes that audience is related to the subjects we write about. That’s a very cool thing.
JKG: You’re a funny guy. How do you incorporate humor into your writing?
Green: Humor is how I’ve always shielded myself from the world; there’s no lock that humor can’t pick. It has an instantaneous way of making the terrifying seem silly.
JKG: Who are your comedic influences?
Green: Woody Allen. George Carlin. David Letterman. Without them, I’d be glumly selling real estate in Oregon.
JKG: Do you think you can sustain that sense of humor in the Trump era, or is it gone with the wind?
Green: It’ll never be gone. It’s the only way I can make sense of the world.
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From The Provost.
by Jeremy Wolf
Interview with Dr. Stephen A. Germic
Dr. Stephen A. Germic is the Provost and Academic Vice President at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana and the author of American Green: Class Crisis and the Deployment of Nature, a comparative study of the origins of national and urban parks.
His creative non-fiction has been published in journals such as The Cape Rock, The Coe Review and The Carolina Quarterly and he is finishing work on a new poetry manuscript.
Dr. Germic was one of my professors from my undergraduate years at Rocky Mountain College, and part of the reason I am pursuing an MFA in writing. He cultivated strengths in each individual student and inspired the classroom with lively discussions about craft and sentences. It was customary to follow him from a three-hour workshop class to the bar across the street for a pint or two — or three.
Conversations with Dr. Germic could lead anywhere—from the intricacies of academia to sailing off the panhandle of Michigan—but they were always infused with his spirit. He taught me that sentence pacing is everything in prose, and it is evident in his work.
The moment I stepped into his classroom at RMC to learn about a subject I didn’t know existed—creative non-fiction—he captured my attention. So, you can imagine my excitement to catch up with Steve when he agreed to an interview. After acquainting him with the snowy happenings of small-town Vermont, we got right to it.
JW: How do you mitigate all the different responsibilities in your day-to-day life? From being a father to being a teacher, and a writer and administrator, it all seems to be a lot to balance.
Germic: It’s tough. My daughter is away. In some ways that’s the saddest thing in my existence, but it allows me to be able to accomplish other things. If someone came up to me and looked at my life and said, “Hey, does this dude have good work/life balance?” They’d probably say, “No, not really.” On the other hand, I’d say, this is what I do.
I come to the office in the morning by seven-thirty or eight o’clock, and I’m there until five or six o’clock, then I go home and I answer email and do work, or whatever class prep I need to do. That basically takes me until I need to go to bed. It isn’t until the weekend that I sit in the coffee shop for a couple of hours and work on my creative writing. So, I’m able to put in 4 or 5 hours a week on my own work. During the summer I get to do that four or five days a week, and double or triple my productivity. But during the year, I just can’t. That’s how my life rolls. That’s just what it is. But it’s tough, you know?
The key to it is — and I did this when I was building my poetry manuscript — I had to get out of my house and get to a space where things are happening, where I was being stimulated—coffee shops, good libraries—and I would just sit there. I’d say, I’ve got to write a couple poems or I’ve got to write two pages, that’s just what I have to do.
Half the time, the poems are alright and the prose pages generally work out, but it’s all about that discipline. It’s all about ratcheting in that time. You can’t sit around saying, “Oh, I’m not in the mood,” even though sometimes it’s inevitable.
Here’s one of my techniques:
I’ll sit down, read, get a phrase or a line, and I’ll just leverage off of that. I’ll write that and build around it. It gets the language operating. I’ve always told students there’s never writer’s block because you can always sit down and describe. And if you’re writing a research paper, you can always quote the work that you’re writing about. You can say, I think this is important, then introduce the quote, then talk about it. All of a sudden, you’re writing. It might not be good, but you’re writing.
JW: Are you working on any new projects right now?
Germic: Yeah, I just wish I had more time. I started a novel about a month ago, and I’m fifteen pages in right now. My goal by the end of the semester is to get to fifty. It’s going to be rough, but I can get to 100 by the end of the summer. When I get to fifty pages, I’ll start marketing it around and see if I can find a buyer.
JW: What’s it about?
Germic: Well… (laughs) it’s kind of hard to describe. A literary kind of fabulism, I suppose, would be the way to describe it. It’s a kind of mash-up of literary fantasy fiction.
JW: Oh, I haven’t seen a lot of that out there.
Germic: Yeah, there’s probably no market for it.
(Both laugh)
JW: I also heard there might be a book of poems?
Germic: Yeah, basically it’s done.
The model is: finish your manuscript, then send it out to contests and hope you win. I have to put it up to one more edit, but I hope, by the end of the semester, to have it out under consideration at some places. It finished up as about a 65-page poetry manuscript. I will be shopping it around at the end of the term. (Chuckles) I’m guardedly optimistic.
JW: When I’ve read your work, I’m always surprised by your descriptions of the natural world. What draws you toward this type of writing?
Germic: For me, in creative writing it’s description. I have poems where I often count things, like four birds along the shore.
For some reason, that works for me: describing the world I am inhabiting and hoping that, by the end, I’ve created something that has some resonance, some potential, or implicit metaphoric punch.
JW: Who were some of your influences? Are you a Thoreau guy?
Germic: I’ll tell you who I was more influenced by—a guy by the name of Jim Harrison. Not his prose, but his poetry. I don’t think he’s a great prose writer, but he’s a very good poet. He knew the world that he inhabited. He didn’t call something a tree or a bush. It was a scrub alder, or something like that.
For me [writing] can’t be inward looking; it’s only inward looking by misdirection. I see the world out there.
JW: In today’s difficult political climate, what do you think the role of a writer is? What can it be?
Germic: For a few years of my life, the Poetry of Witness was important to me. Carolyn Forché is kind of the originator of that. She put together this anthology called Against Forgetting, which was pretty important to me at a certain time.
I’m not a political writer, even though if you read my academic work, I’m a Marxist. Or a critic. It’s what I do. In a way, my politics are so far left that where we are now doesn’t surprise me at all. I think we’ve allowed this to happen. People on the left have allowed it to happen, and I think that it needs to be a wake-up call.
We can’t sit there and pretend that we did not ignore the problems that upset this world, problems that ultimately have to do with race and class. We are reaping what we have sown. Our job is to think, in really subtle ways, about that. I would say that anyone who wanted to think about “our moment”, should think about their own role in creating it.
But to my mind, we’re just too delusional; too easy to blame other people for our current political situation. Those of us with liberal pretensions, we created this condition. We ignored the American underclass; we allowed this political and economic system to develop; we didn’t hold the previous administration accountable enough and this is what you end up with.
JW: You’ve worked at a lot of universities — from Dubai to Michigan, and now in Billings, Montana. How would you say this track into academia has shaped you?
Germic: I started at Michigan State then went to James Madison University, then American University in Cairo, then the American University in Dubai and now, to Rocky Mountain College. It’s funny—I left what was essentially a Dean position at the American University in Dubai. I moved steadily up the ranks as I moved around. I got run out of Michigan State and James Madison for what amounts to political activism, both in the larger global politics sense and in the micro-institutional politics sense. I just pissed off the wrong people and they made it clear that I didn’t have a future at those institutions. This, unfortunately, interrupted my research agenda.
I was a fast-paced and productive research scholar until I went overseas and I no longer had access to my research materials. That’s when my career shifted to administration. I began doing some administration in Cairo, and then more in Dubai. I got disgusted and quit there. Then, I came here — never intending to get back into administration — and here I am, the Provost.
JW: Provost and Academic Vice President. That’s a big title. How challenging has it been to adjust to these new responsibilities while also having a teaching career?
Germic: I still teach a couple classes a semester. If my daughter was still around, there’s no way I would do it; I wouldn’t sacrifice that much. But she went off to college and I got divorced, so I’m a single dude now. I can put in a 12- or 14-hour day. I won’t give up teaching because it’s the most affirmative part of what I do.
As long as I feel that I can meaningfully help this institution move to the next stage of its evolution; as long as I feel like I still have traction and we can push this place forward, then I feel really good about the work I’m doing here. When a pattern develops, when I feel like I can no longer do that, then it will be time to move on.
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/coffee-shop-1200x800.jpeg 800 1200 Miciah Bay Gault https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Miciah Bay Gault2017-04-13 09:00:542019-03-24 17:08:03From The Provost.
Wonderland of Words: An Interview with Matthew Dickman
by Lara Gentchos
March 21, 2017 /in Interviews /by Miciah Bay Gault
More and more, I want to write honest poems that share something about my thinking and my life. – Matthew Dickman
The first time I encountered Matthew Dickman’s poetry was in spring 2016, during a reading of his work at VCFA’s Café Anna. He was reading from his fourth book of poetry, Wonderland (to be released this year). His poems were lyric and visual, sympathetic and matter-of-fact. I was struck by his ability to hold an introspective and reflective space around the objects, people, and events of his life, much of which was traumatic, if not tragic. Yet this space is neither judgmental nor sentimental. Instead, it allows for an appreciation of the human experience.
Dickman is the author of three poetry collections — All-American Poem, Mayakovsky’s Revolver, and 50 American Plays (co-written with his twin brother, poet Michael Dickman). He is also an editor for Tin House Magazine, a 2015 Guggenheim recipient, and a professor in VCFA’s Writing and Publishing MFA program.
Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Dickman to discuss the evolution of his creative process, the relationship between art and life, and his thoughts on the ethereal elements that make some poems stand out from the rest.
LG: What makes a text a poem for you, as opposed to an essay or piece of fiction?
Dickman: One thing about the question, what is a poem, or what is poetry, is that it’s a question that often isn’t asked of short stories, fiction, or screenplays. I think it’s asked more frequently, or exclusively, of poetry because poetry is so deeply linked to our emotional lives.
Poetry doesn’t come from storytelling. It comes from prayer. I think there’s something in our DNA as human beings that feels there’s something sacred about poems.
LG: Do you mean that poetry comes from prayer through its literary heritage? Or do you mean we experience it as something sacred?
Dickman: I understand it as both those things. I understand poems coming out of incantatory prayer and incantatory songs, but all poems share certain qualities — line breaks, stanzas. They utilize these things just like short stories might utilize characters or dialogue. So another answer is a poem is a poem.
I also believe in conceptual thinking, so if someone was like, “this lamp is a poem”, I’d be like, “Solid, awesome. That’s a poem for you.” But for me, poetry has changed a lot from my early memories, being nine or ten years old to being 41 years old. The way I approach my art has changed, too.
LG: How so?
Dickman: For a long time, I wrote strictly narrative poems that didn’t really free associate or go anywhere wild. They were like tidy little boxes on the page. I wrote poems in one particular way: I would get an idea for a poem, or maybe I’d read something in the paper and it’d be about bees and honey and I’d think, “Okay, how am I going to write a poem called ‘The Bee Keeper’s Daughter’? It’s going to be a poem about the beekeeper’s family, this young woman being alone and being stung, and how it all relates to her dad.” I’d have all these ideas. I’d come up with the first line and how it would end. All of it was in my brain. I would sit down and type it out, and basically transcribe it from my mind. I wrote like that for a long time.
Then when I was in grad school, after my first year there, that summer, there were a couple of major tragedies and I had kind of a psychic breakdown.
LG: Were those personal tragedies?
Dickman: Personal tragedies, yeah. A murder-suicide and then an illness-death. I just kind of lost it. I ended up in the hospital for about two days, and then I contacted the school and was like, “I need the next semester off for health reasons.” I started seeing a therapist every day, and I didn’t write poems for, like, eight months. I didn’t really even read poems. I just concentrated on being able to eat an orange every day.
I felt disconnected from poetry, but I still wanted to get my degree. So, I went back to my MFA, and I thought, “Well, maybe I’m not going to be a poet anymore, but poetry will be part of my life. Maybe I’ll be an editor or run a poetry series.”
But when I started going back to school, I had to write poems for these workshops to get credit for them. Something happened in that span of time of not writing or thinking about poems, of having to deal with tragedies that also set off memories of traumatic events in my childhood — having to work with all of that and be present with all of that. When I sat down to write a poem again, I seemingly forgot all the rules that were either given to me or that I had invented, for what a poem should be like for me. I started writing poems, like the ones you find in my first book, All-American Poem: free-associative narrative poems that kind of go all over the place.
LG: That’s so interesting. Can you give me an example of how that changed?
Dickman: Yeah. In my second book of poems, in Mayakovsky’s Revolver, there’s a poem called “Coffee.” And quite literally, I was like, “I gotta write a poem for workshop and I’m drinking coffee. God, I love coffee.” And I thought, “Okay, I’m going to write about coffee.” It was just like monkey-monkey [makes typing gesture with his hands]. My brain went all over the place. It didn’t really have to do with coffee, but it flowed all around. Instead of a box, a clean little machine of poetry, what I printed up was this rangy, free-associative narrative poem that was about coffee, but also about my older brother’s death, and Portland, and all these other things. And I was like, “That felt good.”
I didn’t really remember how it felt to write poems before, but that felt good to me. So I was like, “Well, let’s keep going with this. What else do you like, Dickman? You like public parks.” So I wrote a poem about public parks. It was just like monkey-monkey, typee-typee. Thinking about parks and writing whatever. That continues to be the case.
My poems in my upcoming book, Wonderland, are not as rangy and wild as the poems in All-American Poem, but they still come from a place of unknowing. From sitting down and having a feeling, thinking about something in a vague way and then just typing.
I do remember that in the past when I would sit down and write a poem, it felt really comforting; it felt very secure to me, like “I’m doing this thing and it’s part of my identity. I’m a poet and I write poems.” But the more I write poetry, the more it doesn’t feel like that. It feels more urgent and also a little more untethered because I don’t know what I’m going to write about or say.
LG: Do you mean untethered in a freeing and good way, or is there a stress to that not knowing?
Dickman: There’s a bit of stress, a bit of anxiety to it.
I don’t feel really free until I’ve been working on the poem a little. But when I first sit down, it’s like, “Is this going to happen? Am I going to be able to write a poem again?”
LG: But I’d imagine that anxiety also contributes to that sense of urgency you mentioned. Can you tell me more about that? How does that urgency connect to typing like a monkey, and writing “whatever”?
Dickman: It’s like I have a feeling, like a low-grade anxiety that I want to get this out of me. Then I start writing about the first thing that pops into my head, and I trust it.
LG: So, it sounds like that feeling of urgency has become really important in your process, but I’m still curious about this word “whatever”. What makes a piece that’s a free-association of “whatever” worthy of the title ‘poem’? What makes it worthy of being published, as opposed to a big messy, random pile of “whatever”? Do you tap into those rules you abided by before?
Dickman: A big issue is sincerely accepting the “whatever,” which is everything in your life, or everything in the world. Something I’ve been learning to be more and more in my writing is vulnerable. As an editor for Tin House Magazine, if it was between a super well-crafted poem and a vulnerable messy poem, I’d publish the vulnerable messy poem above the really well-made, maybe more emotionally conservative poem.
I’m going to die, and I want my experiences, as much as I can control them — which is not much — to be experiences with art that makes me feel something.
LG: Are you saying that vulnerability is key to the success of a poem?
Dickman: Yeah. This is something that I’ve learned recently. Around 2012, I was reading new poems, and a friend of mine who’s also a mentor and a poet, was in the audience. Afterward, we went out for a beer. We sat down and I asked him, “What’d ya’ think? My new hot-shit poems, right?” He was like, “Yeah, they’re good.” I was like, “Right?” And then he was like, “I have a question.” And I was like, “Yeah, what is it? Do you have a question like how fuckin’ awesome am I?” And he said, “My question is, Matthew, when are you going to stop being the hero of all your poems?” And I was like, “What?”
Then I went back and read all of my poems in my books, and I was like, “Fuuuck. I am the hero in all of my poems,” and I had a total epiphany. I was embarrassed. And I was like, “How can I write from the self, and about the self, and have it not be where I’m always the hero?”
LG: If you were always the hero, does that mean that you were always writing from a particular voice? Were you always writing from the same narrator, as a form of protection around your topics?
Dickman: Yeah, totally.
LG: But it sounds like you’re comfortable with that vulnerability now? How did that happen?
Dickman: I am now, yeah. But part of it, for me, has been seeing mentors of mine who are older who have been through a lot of crazy stuff, and who have worked really hard at being healthy. Seeing that they had no shame around things. It was a practice to both talk in public about certain things, things that could be thought of as either positive or negative, and also to write about those things — to the great chagrin of my mother and some other family members. There was an article in a big magazine that talked about a cocaine addiction that I had to deal with, and a bunch of other stuff. I was fine with it, but other people were like, what are you doing?
But, I don’t know. More and more, I want to write honest poems that share something about my thinking and my life. That’s about all I want to do as far as poetry goes: to explore different versions of what that looks like in poems.
For more of Matthew Dickman, check out last week’s Etc. column where you can listen to Matthew reading two new poems from his forthcoming poetry collection, titled “Wonderland.” These poems also appear in Hunger Mountain 21: Masked/Unmasked, available now.
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/algae-1200x800.jpeg 800 1200 Miciah Bay Gault https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Miciah Bay Gault2017-03-21 09:00:302019-03-24 18:43:19Wonderland of Words: An Interview with Matthew Dickman
Get Lit with Zinester/Book Publisher Sage Adderley-Knox
by M. Brianna Stallings
March 7, 2017 /in Interviews /by Miciah Bay Gault
Before we proceed, know this: While this will be the umpteenth time I’ve defined a zine (say it with me: “ZEEN”), given the creative impact they’ve made in my life and the lives of countless others, I’m more than happy to keep doing it.
For those not in the know, a zine is a small-circulation photocopied micro-publication with an extraordinarily limited run (think less than 1,000 copies). Zine-making embodies the do-it-yourself (DIY) aesthetic popularized with punk rock culture and, in particular, the Riot Grrrl feminism movement of the 1990s.
Zines are commonly written by one person, or sometimes by a small group of like-minded folks writing around a theme. It’s kind of like a blog you can carry in your pocket. Zine subjects include music, politics, veganism, social theory, pop culture, and sex, among many others. Well-known zines include Cometbus, Dishwasher, and Maximum Rocknroll. Why do people write zines? For the same reasons that most people write books: it’s a subject about which they are knowledgeable and passionate, or a topic they’d like to explore more in-depth.
Zines are ephemera and, thus, can be hard to preserve. Luckily, many public and academic libraries have established zine archives – such as Duke, Barnard College, and the University of Iowa. However, zines are not relics. Quite the contrary: even with the seemingly infinite number of blogs and websites online, zine culture continues to thrive to this day, with annual festivals all over the United States and beyond, as well as a number of distributors (or “distros”).
Sage Adderley-Knox.
Sage Adderley-Knox opened Sweet Candy Distro in 2004. Formerly based in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Sweet Candy HQ is now in Washington State. The Sweet Candy site features over 200 zine titles, as well as books, one-inch buttons, bumper stickers, and much more. The zine writers are from all over the world, and write about topics like art, body image concerns, feminism, fiction, food, mental health, and parenting.
In 2013, Sweet Candy Distro added the words “And Press” to its name, with Adderley-Knox jumping into the publishing world. The company has released an assortment of titles, with Michael A. McLellan’s Civil War-era novel, In the Shadow of the Hanging Tree, being released this year. Adderley-Knox also runs Sage’s Blog Tours, virtual promotion on book blogs for authors.
In addition to running a distro and small press, Adderley-Knox is also the mother of three, and the author of the zines Marked for Life (about tattooing) and FAT-TASTIC! Her first novel, the YA book Invoking Nonna, is now in its second edition.
MBS: How did you become involved with zines? How and why do they matter in 2017?
Adderley-Knox: In 2003, I was taking some creative writing courses at Kennesaw State University. I became intrigued with the idea of publishing a literary magazine. I was online searching for information about self-publishing and came across a zine community on LiveJournal. I started scrolling through all of the posts and instantly became fascinated with zines. I didn’t quite understand what they were, so I decided to order one. A zine writer had put up a post about her personal zine that she was selling for one dollar plus a stamp. I sent them off and waited for the zine to arrive. When it did, I was not disappointed. Looking back, I can’t even remember what the zine was about, but I will never forget the way it made me feel. I was amazed that I could send someone a dollar and, in return, receive a handmade booklet of their secrets. I hopped online to find more zines to order, and here I am thirteen years later, collecting and writing zines.
Zines matter because they give people a voice. They can be used as a powerful tool in our communities.
Zines matter because they give people a voice. We are living in a scary time with this current Presidential administration. People are being lied to, silenced, and bullied. We need to document what is happening. We need to create zines to help people through this time, both mentally and physically. They can be used as a powerful tool in our communities.
“Marked for Life #11,” the latest issue of one of the zines makes.
MBS: What is the difference between a zine distro and a small press? How does running a distro also inform running the small press?
Adderley-Knox: A zine distro deals with the distribution of zines, where a small press focuses on the actual publishing process. I think running the distro helped me define and strengthen my work ethics, which carried over to running a small press. I had many years under my belt of communicating with a wide range of people in the literary world. I understood the importance of good communication with writers, setting boundaries, as well as being transparent about finances and the process of running a business. I was definitely confident in transitioning into the publishing community.
MBS: Tell me more about Sage’s Blog Tours. How does it work? What services do you provide? Why did you start doing this?
Adderley-Knox: My most popular service is blog tours – virtual book promotion for authors. I create a tour schedule for authors where they visit book blogs for a week or longer. The author might participate in an interview with the blog owner or submit a guest post to be featured on the book blog. Many times, the blogger will receive a copy of the author’s book in advance, so during the blog tour, they can feature a review of the book. In a nutshell, I coordinate the stops and make sure everything runs smoothly. Blog tours are perfect for the author who is unable to travel on a traditional book tour visiting bookstores to promote their book. It also works best for authors who are only publishing digital books.
There is such an awful stigma around self-publishing, that the books will not be enjoyable. In my experience, these indie authors just need the guidance and support to help them through the process.
I was reviewing books on my blog and read some incredible stories written by indie authors. The downside was that quite a few of the self-published books suffered from not having a good editing job, a captivating book cover, or a synopsis that matched their book. I wanted to help them. There is such an awful stigma around self-publishing, that the books will not be enjoyable. I understand how that stigma started because like I mentioned, many indie books lack the basic things that earn respect from readers and critics. In my experience, these indie authors just need the guidance and support to help them through the process. I don’t think they skip these critical steps in the publishing process because they don’t care. Some writers become overwhelmed or may not have the resources available to polish up their work.
MBS: Any upcoming zines/books/blog tours to promote?
Adderley-Knox: I am releasing the second edition of my YA novel, Invoking Nonna, next month. It has an updated layout, edit, and cover. I am really excited about it. I am currently going through the first draft of my second novel, the follow-up to Nonna.
Coming soon from Sweet Candy Distro & Press.
My small press will also be releasing a historical fiction novel, In the Shadow of the Hanging Tree, by Michael McLellan. Even though it a historical fiction story based in the late 1800s, it is very timely to some of the issues our country is facing now with racism and oppression.
MBS: Where can zinesters expect to see you this year? Any fests, conferences, tours, etc.?
Adderley-Knox: I will be participating in a literary event in Olympia, WA next month at the Lacey Timberland Library. I will be reading from Invoking Nonna and doing a Q&A about self-publishing. I am hoping to make my way to eastern Washington and participate in a zine reading in Spokane. I will be tabling this summer at the Portland (OR) Zine Symposium and of course the Olympia Zine Fest in October. I am one of the co-organizers of the event and will also table Sweet Candy Distro and Press.
MBS: What does literary citizenship mean to you?
Adderley-Knox: To me, literary citizenship is the role you play in the literary world. I like to think that my role in the literary community is to help provide a platform for authors to publish their work, guiding writers through the process, and distributing their work through Sweet Candy Distro. I am the librarian for the Little Free Library at my son’s school, and I plan on building a Little Free Library at my home with books for all ages. I think making books accessible to everyone is vital.
https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/old-door-1200x800.jpeg 800 1200 Miciah Bay Gault https://hungermtn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Writing-and-Publishing-Logo-300x874px.png Miciah Bay Gault2017-03-07 09:00:112019-03-24 18:54:02Get Lit with Zinester/Book Publisher Sage Adderley-Knox
Visiting with Claire Burgess
by Jericho Parms
May 15, 2012 /0 Comments/in Interviews /by Miciah Bay Gault
What inspired “Last Dog”?
Well, I went on a dead dog kick for a little while in my writing. Our family dog, a black lab named Pepper who we got when I was nine, was very old and on death’s door when I was writing “Last Dog.” She was almost blind and entirely deaf and had bad arthritis at this point, and it was tearing my mom up inside. There were some difficult things going on in my family at the time—illnesses of the physical and mental variety—which my mom was managing with strength and grace and a remarkable amount of composure, but when it came to our dog, she just broke down. I think she perhaps subconsciously tied up all the hard things she was dealing with in the dog; it became a tangible, visual representation of our family, as it had once been, ending. I, too, became mildly obsessed with dead or lost pets as cataclysmic events in my fiction for that year before Pepper died, and from that idea, this story emerged. This story was actually very important for me. The events that happen to Joel are very different from the ones that were occurring in my family at the time, but through the experience of writing the story, I was able, to a certain extent, to work through my own grappling with this reality that I had found myself in and never saw coming.
Also, a while before writing this, I had discovered fantasy taxidermy, which actually exists, and became totally fascinated with it. It seemed like a practice that was so full of symbolism and meaning, and I had always wanted to use it in a story. I tend to collect strange things in my writing notebook and use them for inspiration. Speaking of, somewhere in Britain, there’s a company that makes wallets and shoes and belts from HUMAN LEATHER. Yeah, I said human leather. I haven’t figured out how to use that in a story yet, but I want to. Don’t steal it.
Tell us about your writing process—either generally or specifically with regard to the birth and development of this story.
I don’t really have a process. I try to have a process, but it doesn’t work very well. When I try to have a process, it goes like this:
Make coffee.
Open Word document containing story-in-progress.
Read daily blogs, check own blog, check email, check Facebook.
Return to Word doc, type a few sentences, delete a few sentences.
Stare at wall.
Read favorite online lit mags to force creative part of brain into action.
Call Mom to see how she’s doing.
Check email, check Facebook.
Stare at Word doc with empty feeling of failure, force out a paragraph or two.
Want to check email, DO NOT CHECK EMAIL.
Re-read entire draft so far, disdain new paragraphs, delete them.
Regret deleting new paragraphs.
Give up and watch Hulu.
So that’s all by way of saying that I’m trying to establish a daily writing regimen, but obviously it needs some work. I have almost never been able to write a story by trying to force myself to write a story. Sometimes, if I sit down and start making myself write, something will click and I’ll get something good going. But mostly, the mysterious event we like to call “inspiration” will hit me at unexpected times, often while reading (which is why I read when everything else is failing), and then I’ll write like a madwoman for hours—literally like a madwoman, crouching like a gargoyle in my chair, bouncing up and down, exclaiming things to the air that make no sense to anyone in earshot, pacing around, standing on the furniture, forgoing meals and sleep and personal hygiene—until I have a first draft written. That’s how I wrote the first draft of “Last Dog,” and then the later drafts and editing happened during my painstaking aforementioned process. I don’t know why my best writing happens like that, but it can be very inconvenient. It’s like, Oh, you’re at work? TOO BAD YOU ARE INSPIRED IGNORE IT AT YOUR PERIL. So I’m trying to figure out something so I can produce writing more regularly instead of just waiting around for it. And, you know, so I can hold down a job.
Name your favorite living writer and tell us why.
Aimee Bender. She’s brilliant and so creative and unfettered by the traditional boundaries of what a short story “should” be. Her writing is often weird, usually unexpected, and always saturated with such empathy for the beautiful, ungainly, cruel, messy humanity of her characters. She writes characters like a boy who has keys for fingers, a man with a prosthetic hunchback, or a woman who plants potatoes that turn out to be living potato-babies that she keeps trying to kill but they keep coming back. And somehow, by writing these skewed and fantastic worlds, she pulls the skin back on our reality and shows us the muscles and bones, says, Look, This Is What We’re Made Of. Her work reminds me of touching the exposed nerves in a friction burn. It’s just buzzing with feeling.
I read her collection Willful Creatures for the first time at a pivotal point in my writing life, right after I entered my MFA program and really started figuring this writing stuff out, and it opened up my eyes in a way that the more realist authors I’d been reading hadn’t. Aimee Bender made me realize for the first time that the boundaries of fiction, well, that they don’t exist. I had been trying to force my stories into the established model of the stories I had been taught in school, instead of following my own intuition and exploring whatever weird or unexpected or risky direction the story wanted to take me. Bender taught me that you can do absolutely anything in a story, as long as you make it work. And that’s such a freeing and glorious thing, isn’t it?
I also had the pleasure of interviewing her for the literary journal we started at Vanderbilt, Nashville Review, and she is one of the sweetest and most genuine people I’ve ever met. I may or may not have an altar to her in my closet.
What’s the hardest thing to get right in a short story?
Well, beginnings and endings, obviously. The stuff in the middle is easy(er), but finding the right way to begin a story and the right way to end it—that’s where the pressure is. I often find myself writing my way into a story for two pages or more before the story really begins, and then I have to go back and dig the beginning out and cut away the excess. I find endings a little easier than beginnings. By the time I get to the end, I usually know how it’s supposed to happen. Sometimes I fiddle around with it too much trying to make it perfect—for instance, “Last Dog” went through three or four other endings before I finally landed on this one, which was the second one. But beginnings, that’s where you set the tone, the pacing, the characters, the expectations. That’s where you hook your reader or lose them forever. No pressure.
More Author Visits
More Fiction
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__label__wiki | 0.565252 | 0.565252 | CBW MAGAZINE
Home » Publications » Journals » CBW Magazine
The Growing Threat of WMD Terrorism
Harsh V. Pant
The author is with the King’s College, London, UK.
Terrorism is both a subjective and a pejorative term. This being so, difficulties emerge in attempting to find a definition of terrorism that can be classified as universal. The key problem with defining terrorism is that it is ultimately a moral judgement shaped by social and political contexts and so, definitions will vary depending on these contexts. But how can we have a “global” war on terrorism when there will never be unanimity over exactly who the terrorists are? It has of course been argued that those who are labeled terrorists have been driven to act in the way that they do because it is the only means left to them to tackle “injustice.” The argument is that they act out of desperation, and while their actions can be perceived by some as reprehensible there will always be others who support them. The United Nations (UN), of course, recognises the right of “selfdetermination” and the right to resist oppression – hence it recognises freedom fighters.
The UN has a draft definition of the term “terrorist.” However, it has not been possible to ratify it because certain states do not agree with it. They want some wording in the definition to the effect that states themselves can be terrorist actors. These are mostly Arab nations who want Israel to be seen as a terrorist actor. The only state that has ever been accused of being a terrorist is the US itself when it was accused by the International Court of Justice of being a terrorist for its actions in mining Managua Harbour in 1987 during the Contra war in Nicaragua.
For all their limitations, however, definitions are crucial. Without a clear labelling of the “enemy” there can be no global cooperation and such cooperation is vital when the threat is from international terrorist networks. In the past, states would have their own domestic terrorism and knew who the “enemy” was and how to deal with them. Nowadays, with international terrorism, we can’t even say what the threat is, never mind deal with it. The world, therefore, looks to the UN. But if the UN can’t define terrorism, who can? Under Resolution 1373, after September 11, 2001, the UN has said who some terrorists are. The Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden are all decreed to be terrorists by the UN. As a consequence, we get the rhetoric identifying just about every terrorist on the planet being a member of Al Qaeda because Al Qaeda is deemed unequivocally to be a terrorist organisation.
Terrorist violence is different from other forms of violence in that it targets edifices (symbols) and non-combatants for the sake of some political and social objective. The violence is so shocking because it is often unexpected in terms of both time and location. It occurs too against a background of peace and thus appears in sharp relief. Terrorist are weak; for the weak to have an effect they have to produce acts out of all proportion to their size and hence the need for the spectacular.
It has been suggested that over the last few years there has been a general move away from terrorism inspired by political demands to one apparently driven by more religious and millenarian motivations. If such a sea-change in motivations has indeed occurred and is allied to the increasing availability of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) then, it is argued, new attitudes and counters are required. Contemporary terrorists seem to be operating to a range of motives from exacting revenge against perceived oppressors, through the fulfilment of an apocalyptic prophecy and millenarian aims, to supremacist ideals.
Political terrorism still exists, however, as exemplified by the Basque separatists in Spain and communists in the Philippines. To a degree, the terrorism practiced by Al Qaeda is also political in that there are demands for the US to change policy and leave Arab lands. The Palestinian problem also continues. This is largely political and not religious in nature though the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah bring a religious element to bear. Al Qaeda as a movement is only peripherally interested in the Palestinian situation; it is not its raison d’etre.
The end of the Cold War resulted in a decline in political inspiration and funding for terrorist groups that were being used by the two blocs against each other. States in the post-Cold War environment have become reluctant to openly support political terrorism, resulting in a swift move away from political terrorism in a climate where history seemed to have already ended.
Globalisation and the associated rise in international crime emerged as a concern. This
rise in so-called super-terrorism by non-state actors who are financially motivated is a particular worry because of the difficulty in obtaining reliable intelligence on these groups. There are also state-sponsored terrorist groups who have the backing of “rogue” states. These groups might be the most dangerous because they will have capability not usually available to other non-state actors. Military superiority on the conventional battlefield has also pushed adversaries towards unconventional alternatives. The very real threat of a rogue state resorting to asymmetric strategy in order to the level the military playing field is difficult to ignore.
The forces of globalisation and the changes they have produced has engendered a backlash from conservative elements, notably extremist global jihadis, who see their religious and cultural principles under threat by these new socio-economic forces. The children of many who made good in the growing wealth of the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, have rejected the opulence and worldliness of their fathers. They have sought solace in religion and struck out against those that seem to threaten their religion. They have the financial clout to finance terror and the ability to do so because their education has given many of them the ability to blend in to western societies and not arouse suspicion. Alienation from societies (both immigrants and domestic) of younger generations mixed with a growing anger at many of the socio-cultural forces make them susceptible to radicalisation. Greater activity by jihadi extremists borne of the successful revolution in Iran and by mujahideen and later Taliban’s successes in Afghanistan also influenced this process.
As for millenarian terrorism, there isn’t really any more than before, but some groups may gain access to WMD and the scientists who know how to weaponise them, making them more of threat now than they used to be before.
Brian Jenkins famously suggested in the 1970s that terrorists want a lot of people watching and a lot of people listening and not a lot of people dead. This does not seem to hold much water in the present context. In fact, terrorist may still want a lot of people watching; they may simply think that they need a lot of people dead in order to get world’s attention. The trend seems to be moving away from attacking specific targets and towards more indiscriminate killing. It has been noted that since the 1970s terrorists have been becoming more lethal even though there was a perceptible decline in terrorist violence in the 1980s.
It is in this context that the combination of this new terrorism and the WMD proliferation assumes an altogether new dimension. Traditional terrorist groups will probably not show much interest in WMD, as they are generally driven by political agendas and pursuing the basic aim of recognition by their own government. Nevertheless, there are other groups which may consider the use of WMD, and these include those facing extinction, extreme environmentalist groups, and small terrorist groups that reject society, lack realistic political goals, but miscalculate the consequences of such an attack.
Terrorists in the modern era may soon have greater access to both technical skills and
equipment to cause enormous destruction. With the end of the Cold War, there were many Eastern bloc scientists ready to sell their knowledge of WMD to the highest bidder. The distribution of WMD has also been facilitated by the fact that certain states have lost the ability to control the storage and movement of such weapons. To date, most terrorist attacks have been constrained by conventional munitions and delivery systems. However, the international network of contemporary global terrorists is allowing the transfer of more advanced technologies and training across international boundaries, possibly in a way not seen before. The A.Q. Khan network represented the worst proliferation of WMD technology in the modern era. Modern societies, in particular, are highly susceptible to terrorist attacks using WMD as a result of which they could sustain mass casualties. This vulnerability is mainly due to the availability of the weapons, the porous nature of international borders, the societies in which we live, and a preponderance of densely populated cities. Because of the global proliferation of WMD, the means to carry out extreme acts of violence are more available than they have ever been before.
Several factors have conspired to prevent the frequent use of WMD in terrorist attacks to date, including the key consideration that in most cases the use of WMD will not enhance terrorist chances of achieving their objectives. However, some of these constraints have been gradually eroding thus making terrorists more likely to use WMD in the future. The levels of violence involved in terrorist incidents are progressively increasing, with growing numbers of people who understand the technology involved. The consequences of an attack might include some combination of mass casualties, panic, contamination of real estate, damage to the economy, and possibly to the victim country’s strategic position.
There is a very real threat of a terrorist attack involving the use of WMD in the future. This is because the motivations, intentions and capabilities exist and the pressures that seem to have prevented the frequent use of WMD to date are being weakened. Despite this, however, nuclear weapons are the most expensive and difficult to acquire and deliver. A technologically advanced infrastructure is required to manufacture them. Radiological weapons are more likely to appeal to terrorists and so the greatest threat comes from stolen radioactive material being used in a conventional device, thus making nuclear leakage of continuing concern.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has documented around fifteen cases
of theft of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) or plutonium confirmed by the countries concerned. There are additional well documented cases that the countries involved
have not yet been willing to confirm. In many of these cases, the thieves and smugglers were attempting to sell the material to anyone who would buy it and the terrorist groups have been seeking to buy it. A dirty bomb, also referred to as a radiological dispersal device, would be far easier for terrorists to make. Unlike the plutonium or HEU needed for a nuclear bomb, radioactive materials that might be used in a dirty bomb exist at numerous locations all across the globe in both the civilian and military sectors.
Various terrorist groups at different times have been known to be seeking nuclear weapons. Osama bin Laden and his followers have repeatedly attempted to acquire stolen nuclear material and to recruit nuclear expertise. Al Qaeda leadership had met with not only Pakistani nuclear scientists but it also attempted to purchase HEU from Sudan. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo also tried to acquire nuclear weapons in the 1990s before it decided to go for sarin. The Russian intelligence has repeatedly warned that Chechen groups intend to seize nuclear materials and use them to build WMD. Despite various claims, however, there is no convincing evidence that any terrorist group has yet succeeded in getting a nuclear weapon or the requisite HEU or plutonium needed to make one.
It is more difficult to ascertain the full extent of the world-wide proliferation of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) as it is easier to hide the evidence of related programmes. Nevertheless, there has been a steady growth in the number of countries developing the capabilities, despite international treaties aimed at preventing proliferation. These weapons present better opportunities for the non-state actor as weapons capable of causing mass casualties can be manufactured in the smallest
of production sites, using materials that are increasingly and legitimately available world-wide.
Chemical and biological weapons offer some intrinsic advantages over nuclear. They cannot be detected by traditional anti-terrorist sensor systems. There can be a time lag between an agent being released and the effects on the victims appearing, thus allowing the terrorist to escape. Some agents lack a clear signature which may enable to disguise the cause of death. They could be used in small demonstration attacks that would indicate both the capability and the resolve to carry out further attacks. Chemical and Biological weapons are capable of inflicting mass casualties and could instil terror into a nation. Finally, they are relatively easy and affordable to produce or acquire, particularly in comparison with nuclear weapons. Between the two, however, it is likely that biological weapons will become the weapon of choice for terrorist groups in the future. Their lethality, even in small quantities, makes them highly potent whereas chemical weapons are not easy to store and their dissemination is weather dependent against outdoor targets.
Given the complexities involved, it is not surprising that most states are struggling to come up with coherent policy responses to this threat even though the debate on the use of WMD has been an issue of topmost priority ever since the Tokyo subway attack. The Japanese authorities failed to prevent the Tokyo attack, despite numerous warning signs, because of a combination of poor domestic intelligence, a lack of WMD terrorism
precedents, and Japan’s sensitivity to religious freedom.
Dealing with the problem of WMD terrorism can be achieved in two ways. The first is to establish plans that will reduce the likelihood of an attack, and the second is to reduce the Impact of an attack should one occur. An effective solution would strike a balance in allocating resources and efforts between the two. Low level initiatives can be undertaken that do not require significant financing. Efforts to reduce the likelihood of an attack must persuade the traditional terrorist not to go down the line of WMD terrorism, and to make sure that those committed to using WMD do not have the opportunities to acquire or use them. Intelligence organisations will play a crucial role, and international cooperation remains a fundamental requirement. There is an urgent need to enhance the capabilities of detection equipments. To ensure the consequence management phase is effective in reducing the impact of an attack, robust coordination between emergency responders must be established. Adequate resources must be made available to deal with the situation, and in particular the medical services must have plans to cope with surge capacity.
A coherent approach, therefore, is needed to be developed across all departments and at all levels. An overarching strategy and policy is the need of the hour to unify the many diverse agencies involved including the Ministries of Home, Health, Defence and External Affairs as well as the intelligence agencies and local authorities. Moreover, a national database should be created to determine the availability of all specialist personnel and equipment including those from the civil sector, thus allowing regional response teams to be activated and deployed rapidly to an incident. Strategic analysis must be conducted to establish risk management criteria, evaluate the effectiveness of the current response arrangements, estimate casualties and identify the critical capability shortfalls, especially with regards to equipment and training.
Given the financial constraints faced by various government departments, it is essential that central government funding be allocated to procure detectors, monitors and protective and decontamination equipment for first responders and medical teams. Similarly, additional resources must be invested in a national training programme, initially for emergency services in all major cities and subsequently extended to the whole country. There will never be enough resources to protect all of the people all of the time, so the response must strike a balance that is affordable in the short-term but does not place national security at risk in the long-term. Further research and development of vaccines, antibiotics and medical countermeasures should be undertaken and, based on casualty estimates the Ministry of Health should consider stockpiling these in major cities. Joint exercises should be undertaken at regular intervals and expanded to practice all levels in consequence management using realistic scenarios. The Ministry of Defence should have a number of specialists and wherever possible these should be fully integrated into planning and exercises. The threat of WMD terrorism is steadily increasing and sooner or later an incident, no matter how small, could prove disastrous if a nation remains poorly prepared. Waiting for such an event to prompt a properly funded response programme is irresponsible. WMD terrorism is a low-probability, high consequence threat that demands that the government not only invests in preventive measures but also undertakes extensive and comprehensive consequence management planning and preparation.
India and China in Asia: Between Equilibrium and Equations, 1st Edition
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir: Politics, Parties and Personalities | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5874 |
__label__cc | 0.605811 | 0.394189 | Nationwide study suggests obesity as an independent risk factor for anxiety and depression in young people
by European Association for the Study of Obesity
Obesity is linked with an increased risk of developing anxiety and depression in children and adolescents, independent of traditional risk factors such as parental psychiatric illness and socioeconomic status, according to new research being presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Glasgow, UK (28 April-1 May).
The nationwide study comparing over 12,000 Swedish children who had undergone obesity treatment with more than 60,000 matched controls found that girls with obesity were 43% more likely to develop anxiety or depression compared to their peers in the general population. Similarly, boys with obesity faced a 33% increased risk for anxiety and depression compared to their counterparts.
"We see a clear increased risk of anxiety and depressive disorders in children and adolescents with obesity compared with a population-based comparison group that cannot be explained by other known risk factors such as socioeconomic status and neuropsychiatric disorders", says Ms. Louise Lindberg from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden who led the research. "These results suggest that children and adolescents with obesity also have an increased risk of anxiety and depression, something that healthcare professionals need to be vigilant about."
Anxiety and depression are reported to be more common in children with obesity than in children of normal weight, but it is unclear whether the association is independent of other known risk factors. Previous studies are hampered by methodological limitations including self-reported assessment of anxiety, depression, and weight.
To provide more evidence, researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden conducted a nationwide population-based study to investigate whether obesity is an independent risk factor for anxiety or depression. 12,507 children aged 6-17 years from the Swedish Childhood Obesity Treatment Register between 2005 and 2015 were compared to 60,063 controls from the general population matched for sex, year of birth, and living area.
The research team adjusted for a range of factors known to affect anxiety and depression including migration background, neuropsychiatric disorders, parental psychiatric illness, and socioeconomic status. A total of 4,230 children and adolescents developed anxiety or depression over an average of 4.5 years.
Obesity was clearly linked with higher risk of anxiety and depression in childhood and adolescence. Girls (11.6% vs 6.0%) and boys (8.0% vs 4.1%) with obesity were more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression than those in the general population over the study period.
In further analyses, excluding children with neuropsychiatric disorders or a family history of anxiety or depression, the risks were even higher. In particular, boys with obesity were twice as likely to experience anxiety or depression as their normal-weight peers—whilst girls with obesity were 1.5 times more likely.
"Given the rise of obesity and impaired mental health in young people, understanding the links between childhood obesity, depression and anxiety is vital", says Ms. Lindberg. "Further studies are needed to explain the mechanisms behind the association between obesity and anxiety/depression."
The authors acknowledge that this is an observational study and cannot prove that obesity causes depression or anxiety but only suggests the possibility of such an effect. They point to several limitations including that there is no weight and height data in the comparison group; unmeasured confounding may have influenced results; and that rates of anxiety and depression may be underestimated since a large proportion of individuals suffering from these conditions do not seek medical care.
White women with PCOS more likely to have anxiety than black women with condition
Provided by European Association for the Study of Obesity
Citation: Nationwide study suggests obesity as an independent risk factor for anxiety and depression in young people (2019, April 28) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-nationwide-obesity-independent-factor-anxiety.html
Many patients with atopic dermatitis experience symptoms of anxiety and depression
Draft recommendation promotes screening women for anxiety
More than one in 20 US children and teens have anxiety or depression
Chronic rhinosinusitis linked to depression, anxiety
Social anxiety disorder may increase risk of alcoholism
Should obesity be recognized as a disease?
Here are some interesting statistics
"Researchers found more than 2 billion people worldwide [30%] are now overweight or obese. The highest rates were in the Middle East and North Africa, where nearly 60 percent of men and 65 percent of women are heavy."
"Between 1980 and 2013, the prevalence of overweight or obese children and adolescents increased by nearly 50%. In 2013, more than 22% of girls and nearly 24% of boys living in developed countries were found to be overweight or obese."
-Will we ever know the cause? Couple this with declining fertility, sperm counts, general cognitive decline, and this
"It's estimated that over 1.1 billion people worldwide (15-20 percent) had a mental or substance use disorder in 2016..."
-indicates an unprecedented crisis in the collective health of the species. Is it environmental? Are other wild or domestic species experiencing such declines? Is it a toxin or contageon that only humans ingest or contract?
Cont>
...does it have to do with the fundamental nature of the domesticated human animal itself?
Our brains are too big.
"the human brain demands more than twice as many calories as the chimpanzee brain, and at least three to five times more calories than the brains of [rodents]"
-They got that way from responding to the very unnatural demands of tribal living. Chronic overpopulation drove constant intertribal conflict. This selected for tribes with greater internal cohesion which enabled greater size and concerted animosity and aggression against other tribes.
The result was an unsustainable organ that does not remain functional for very long, if at all.
And without the crucible of constant intertribal conflict to weed out the severely dysfunctional before they have the chance to breed, the species begins to decline.
"Eugenics
the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis."
-But did it really, or was it only vilified publically while being instituted globally? And has it in fact been with us for centuries?
2 clues...
The conquest of the western hemisphere was accompanied by a general and thorough depopulation using diseases spread by intent. New nations were established which invited immigrants but made it very difficult for them to get here. Only the best, brightest, or the most desperate and resourceful, could make the trip.
After ww2 the educational systems of western countries were expanded and retasked. Youth of sufficient intelligence were encouraged to leave their incipient cultures and comingle.
Another...
German soldiers killed at stalingrad; 95% of enlisted, 50% of junior officers, and 5% of senior officers.
The process is described in the bible.
""Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.'" Rom9:27-28
""Because in this world it is necessary that the citizens of the kingdom of heaven suffer temptation among those who are in error and are wicked so that they may be exercised and put to the test like gold in a furnace," augustine of hippo
"17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." luk3
-God repeatedly tempts and the weak are culled. The ancients already understood this dilemma. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5877 |
__label__cc | 0.514907 | 0.485093 | Home Ask Vance Burt’s Lair
Burt’s Lair
Architect Frank Burt’s residence and Ponder Cleaning.
by Vance Lauderdale
Our trivia expert solves local mysteries of who, what, when, where, why, and why not.
Dear Vance,I recently discovered a rather unusual house in our neighborhood. The architecture stands out from the homes around it, and as you can see from the photo, it doesn’t even have any windows. What do you know about this home?— N.L., Memphis
Dear N.L.: Well, you’re looking at it all wrong. The style of the house is certainly more modern than the traditional homes on Oak Grove, but the reason this particular home has no windows is because it’s backwards. By that, I mean you’re actually looking at the rear of the house; the builder turned it around so the windows across the front would give the owner a spectacular view of the dense woods behind the home.
It’s somewhat hard to believe that such a modern-looking house was constructed more than half-a-century ago, but this was indeed the private residence of a local architect named Frank Burt. Now Burt had built a practice of designing homes in more conservative, traditional styles for neighborhoods throughout Memphis. But for his own home, he wanted something different, so he recruited the services of another local architect, Alfred Grief Jr. The result attracted the attention of the Memphis Press-Scimitar, which featured the unusual home in a 1957 story headlined, “Builds House Unlike Anybody Else’s.” The newspaper reporter observed that Burt “has never been identified with anything except true Williamsburg, true French Provincial, and other traditional styles.” But Burt told that reporter what he planned here: “I’m still building the period houses, and I love ’em. But I think in six or seven years we’ll be seeing a trend toward what I call the transitional house. It won’t be dated like the contemporary house or any year’s automobiles.”
Maybe so, but the newspaper noted that Burt’s friends “can’t believe their eyes.” The split-level home featured adobe brick and rough-cut cypress on the exterior, with perhaps the most eye-catching element visible from the street being the massive balcony with outward-sloping walls and built-in planters. The interior was even more modern than the exterior, with a 12-foot “chimney wall” surrounding an adobe fireplace, freestanding stairs, and lots of “Bella Rosa” paneling, whatever that is. The back — wait, I mean the front — has a long brick terrace “for further enjoying the natural setting.”
Burt lived in the home for almost 10 years. He sold it in 1967, and it has had a succession of owners since then. The house is still standing, though now shorn of its distinctive balconies and certain other features. And the woods that Burt admired have been replaced with a subdivision.
Pondering Ponder’s
Dear Vance,My grandparents ran a laundry somewhere downtown called Ponder’s Cleaners. Where was it, and what happened to it?— F.P., Memphis
Dear F.P.: Lately, readers of this column seem to think I’m ready to branch out and tackle the broader issues of the day. So I’ve been getting questions that smack of high-school homework assignments, asking me to tell them the history of Millington, the story of the Sultana, and the victor of the Peloponnesian War. So I was happy to receive such a concise, uncomplicated query — and one with an obvious family connection. I assumed that the “P” in your initials stood for “Ponder” and a leisurely search through various historical records would provide me — and you, F.P. — with a quick answer.
Well, I was wrong. My search got off to a good start. Although I had never heard of Ponder’s Cleaners, and didn’t really expect to find a vintage photo of the establishment, sure enough, the Memphis and Shelby County Room provided the one you see here. Now, this photo intrigues me. First of all, the work of the cleaners seems to be confined to one well-dressed gentleman, studiously avoiding the photographer, using some kind of elaborate ironing board contraption. I see some other mysterious equipment in the background, but none of the other things you’d expect to see if you walked into a cleaners today. And what are we to make of the curious stone fountain in the middle of the floor?
Peering through the plate-glass windows, you can dimly see some old cars parked at the curb, and the hand-painted sign on the window announces “Ponder’s Cleaners: The Last Word in Cleaning.” But, if you overlook the ghostly phantom floating above the head of the lone employee, the photo doesn’t tell me as much as I’d hoped.
So I turned to the old city directories, and all I can ask you, F.P., is this: Was your grandfather named Leonard Marshall or Benjamin Shawhan or Opie Barron or Harry McCleary or Charles Webb? Because in the short history of the cleaner’s existence, it changed hands year after year.
I mentioned history, so I might as well tell you that Ponder Cleaning — not Cleaners — apparently opened in 1932 at 1122 Union Avenue, operated in that first year by a fellow named Leonard Marshall. It stayed in that location on Union for five years, when it moved to 768 South Cooper, not the best location in town, it seems to me, since it was then located right next door to a competitor, Franklin Laundry-Cleaners. Two years later, according to the old city directories, it was out of business, replaced by an establishment called Smart Cleaners.
Today, both locations are gone. The original building at 1122 Union, which would have put it across the street from Fortune’s Jungle Garden, mentioned in this column about a hundred times, was demolished (as was Fortune’s) to build the expressway. The Cooper-Young address now takes you to a parking lot.
This simple query turned into a frustrating puzzle. During its short existence, no one named Ponder ever owned or operated it, so I don’t know what to make of the name. In its first year of business, I did locate another Ponder in town — Harry Ponder, who worked as a plant mechanic for Colonial Baking Company, but he had no connection with a laundry. So all that’s left is for me to ponder the meaning of the name behind Ponder Cleaning.
Got a question for Vance? Email: askvance@memphismagazine.com Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine, 460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103
Ask-Vance Memphis Magazine November 2014 November-2014
Vance Lauderdale
Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. His dramatic life story (summarized at right) is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit.
Read more by Vance Lauderdale
"Ask Vance" is the blog of Vance Lauderdale, the award-winning columnist of Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. Vance is the author of four books: Ask Vance: The Best Questions and Answers from Memphis Magazine’s History and Trivia Expert (2003), as well as Ask Vance: More Questions and Answers from Memphis Magazine’s History Expert (2011), Vance Lauderdale’s Lost Memphis (2013), and Vance Lauderdale’s More Lost Memphis (2014). He is also the recipient of quite a few nice awards (including “Best Blog - 2017” from the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade Awards), the creator of several eye-catching wall calendars, and the only person we know with a vintage shock-treatment machine in his den.
Questions for Vance? Email him here. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5878 |
__label__cc | 0.747722 | 0.252278 | THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING BRAIN
News, information, music, and performance schedule for the Los Angeles, California singer, songwriter, and producer, Mike Vitale.
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February 14, 2019 by Mike Vitale in Life
Honesty: now that is an interesting subject. I have a line in a song I wrote that says this: "Truth be told, everyone tells a lie—and honesty can be delicately laid"—and I do believe that.
Whether I like it or not, I am an extremely honest person when it comes to how I display my feelings. I had a girlfriend once who told me that I wear my emotions on my sleeve—and I think she's right; I don't hide my feelings well. However, I have learned over the years that people respond to honesty in a variety of ways, most of which, are not always favorable. It's like ping pong. Let me explain.
I've spent a fair amount of time volleying honesty in a game of table tennis with friends, family, and acquaintances. I would try lobbing the ball over the net in order to give them the opportunity to play nicely as well, only to be returned with a hit to the chest from the thrust of a one thousand pound gorilla.
I've also had people key into my extension of goodwill, and return the ball with an equal amount of intensity in order to keep the conversation moving. There have been times when I have been the show-off, serving like an Olympic competitor, only to be remember afterwards that the person on the other side of the table is a little boy or girl who is barely learning to hold the mallet (let us not be mistaken though, little ones can still thrust a mean serve with little to no effort exerted).
And on and on and on I go through the various permutations of opportunities, successes, and losses at the hands of how either I or the other person at the end of the net, start the game.
Most often, I push the ping pong table against the wall and try to play. Regardless of how hard I serve, or how softly I nudge the ball forward to start the game, it rarely makes it back over the net, because invariably, I am keeping my honesty to myself—and there is no forward momentum to life and learning under those circumstances.
However, what I have had a great deal of success with is removing the net, folding the ping pong table in half to create a 90 degree angle, and playing at whatever intensity I feel fit: after all, being honest with yourself makes all the difference in the world.
INSIDE my HEAD RSS
February 14, 2019 /Mike Vitale
Honesty, Ping Pong, Table Tennis, Human Interaction, Humans, Discuss, Mike Vitale, Michael Patrick Vitale, Michael Vitale, Olypmic, Olympic Table Tennis, 1, 1000 Pound Gorilla, Gorilla, Game, GAmes, Games | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5885 |
__label__wiki | 0.591818 | 0.591818 | Archive for the tag “Clifford Chance US LLP”
When FIFA’s Blatter commends somebodies development you should look into it; as the President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea has a son in Teodorin who loves the luxurious life in Los Angeles, as the paperwork shows!
“This is the first time I have been to your country but it will definitely not be the last. You have so many development projects going on that I will almost certainly have to come back,” Blatter said” (Embassy of Equatorial Guinea, 2010).
When Sepp Blatter have seen development he have seen some brown-envelopes and adjustments made for the FIFA organizations and the other football bodies that have helped enrichen that organization and not develop the country that FIFA is in. If it was so then the stadiums of Brazil would be used for something else than a Bus-Park. But this here is not about the use of FIFA, but his visit surely gives the prospect of how the society is. As this country I will be focused on have had a tightknit organization built around the Executive and the Party he is running.
“Cabinet Ministers and public servants in Equatorial Guinea are by the law allowed to owe [sic] companies that , in consortium with a foreign company, can bid the government contracts and should the company be successful, then what percentage of the total cost of the contract the company gets, will depend on the terms negotiated between the parties. But, in any event, it means that a cabinet minister ends up with a sizeable part of the contract price in his bank account” – Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue
I will today show a little levels of corruption from the grand-family of the longest staying President on the African Continent per today. This President have just recently won yet another election with over 90% and secured a new term in the country he has run since a coup d’état in 1979. About the way President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasongo, who have filtered the oil-rich monies to himself and family over the years and used government funds on expensive things for himself or his son Teodorin Obiang who at some point even dated the American rapper EVE. But, hey take a look!
“According to the documents from the Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Teodorin, who earns a few thousand dollars a month as a minister in his father’s government, transferred about $75 million into U.S. banks between 2005 and 2007, via wire transfers processed by Bank of America, Wachovia, UBS, Union Bank of California and First American Trust” (Global Witness, 2009).
In 2011 this was the official salary of Teodorin Obiang as Ministry of Forestry:
“His official salary today is approximately $6,799 per month, or less than $100,000 per year, according to the official E.G. sources” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
This is just the beginning and shows to what extent that Equatorial Guinean President and his son have bought with the government funds. This is money earned through the exporting crude-oil and the dividends from it. The Government gets the earnings with the ELF contracts for instance. So there is money to spend of the President as the oil-money could be used for personal affairs it seems. Not that it is justified and therefore it has even cause controversy in the United States as his son are leaving in Los Angeles.
What spending had Teodorin Obiang done in Los Angeles:
“The Defendants in rem, obtained through the abuse of public office and illegally laundered through the abuse of financial institutions and businesses in the United States, are believed to be currently located within the Central District of California” (…)”The Defendants White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and miscellaneous other Michael Jackson memorabilia” (…)” These items are believed to be located at the defendant real property located on Sweetwater, Mesa Road, California” (…)”The Defendant, 2011 Ferrari is described as followed: One 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO” (…)”The defendant 2011 Ferrari is titled in the name of Teodoro Nguema Obiang and is believed to be located at the Sweetwater property” (…)”The 2004 PSI Report revealed that, from at least 1995 to 2004, the Government of E.G. directed that payments from the oil companies be made into accounts at Riggs National Bank in Washington D.C. According to the PSI Report, aggregate deposits to E.G. Government accounts totaled hundreds of millions dollars at a time and were so large that by 2003, the E.G. portfolio had become the bank’s largest single costumer relationship, with balances and outstanding loans that together approached $700 million. The PSI Report concluded that Riggs Bank “turned a blind eye to evidence (,) suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption” (…)”In March 2001, Nguema bought a new 2001 Bentley automobile in Beverly Hills, California, paying for it with a personal check for $360,000, drawn on his Riggs Bank account. A few months later, he brought a second 2001 Bentley, from the same dealership in Beverly Hills, for which he paid $57,500 in cash and $228,000 by personal check drawn on the same account. In 2001, at the age of 33, he also bought a $6,5 million house on the Antelo Road in Bel Air” (…)”For example, he spent millions of dollars to buy dozens of sports cars and luxury vehicles. These included, amongst others, 24 cars with a total declared value of $9.68 million that he stored at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angles until November 2010, when he shipped them, along with $400,000 worth of motorcycles, to France. These cars included a $ 2 million Maserati, two Bugatti Veyron sports cars for which he paid $ 2 million Maserati and $ 1.3 million respectively, eight Ferraris (including the defendant 2011 Ferrari), seven Rolls Royces, five Bentleys, four Mercedes, A Porsche, two Lamborghinis, and an Aston Martin” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
Here I have just showed how much monies have been moved to a Bank Accounts over a Period which is in the amount of 700 Million Dollars and can only be seen as grand amount of monies taken from Equatorial Guinea to be used for personal affairs in United States. As we later see the amounts spent on cars and the sophisticated cars and size of the car park that is filled with Bentleys, Ferraris, Aston Martin, Bugatti Veyron, Rolls Roycs and even a Maserati. That shows the level of spending and the ignorant value of the government funds, as spending on a crystal-white Michael Jackson glove together with a house in Bel Air and the one in Sweetwater estate. But this is not it all, sadly the Obiang family spending in the US is staggering.
If you think that Teodoro and Teodorin were done in this time period to spend money in the United States, they did more!
“In June 2005, Nguema purchased two 50-foot, high-performance racing boats in Ft. Myers, Florida, for a total of over $ 2 million” (…)”Between April and June 2006, Nguema’s luxery expenditures included a combined total of $68 million on just two assets; the defendant Malibu mansion, for which the purchase price was $ 30 million, and a Gulfstream G-V private jet, which cost over $38 million” (…)”In a single month in 2004, for example, he spent over $80,000 at Gucci and over $50,000 at Dolce and Gabbana in a shopping spree in the United States” (…)”From June 2010 through June 2011, Nguema spent a total of approximately $3.2 million on various items of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including $275,000 for the defendant “Bad Tour” glove, $80,000 for a pair of crystal-covered socks, $140,000 for a jacket and shirt, and $245,000 for a basketball signed by Michael Jackson and basketball star Michael Jordan” (…)”Nguema created companies in various names, including “Beautiful Vision, Inc” and “Unlimited Horizon Inc.,” and opened bank accounts in the United States in the name of those companies. Nguema also wired transferred funds to bank accounts controlled by intermediaries, who then used the money to pay for his personal expenses, or transferred money from those accounts t accounts in the names of the corporations he formed, and then used the corporate accounts to pay his personal expenses” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
How did Teoderin buy the Michael Jackson Memorabilia?
“In August 2010, an intermediary registered Nguema to bid in a live auction of celebrity memorabilia (called the “Legends” auctions) taking place on October 9, 2010, in Macau, China (October 8, 2010, in California). The intermediary advised the auction house by email to “Please make sure that [Nguema’s] name does not appear anywhere, he should be invisible,” and to “please make sure that where a name needs to be, my name is there. This is very important” (…)”The auction house prepared two invoices in the same name of the intermediary, totaling $1,398,062.50, using the address of the Sweetwater property” (…)”When one of Nguema’s assistants received the invoices, she instructed the auction house to revise the invoices to indicate that the purchases were being billed to “Amadeo Oluy, Malabo, Guinea Equatorial-“. These items were shipped to E.G.” (…)”In December 2010, another function of celebrity memorabilia was held by the same auction house, this time in Beverly Hills, California. An intermediary came to the auction on Nguema’s behalf and successfully bid in the defendant white crystal-covered “Bad Tour”glove and other defendant items listen in Attachment A-1, attached hereto. The total cost of these items was $872,125.00” (…)”On January 31, 2011, Nguema caused $872,112.00 to be wire transferred from an account in the name of Eloba Construction, S.A., Equatorial Guinea to an account at American Business Bank in Los Angles in the name of the auction house, Julien Entertainment, to pay for the items purchased at the December 2010 auction. This items was subsequently packed for shipment and delivered to the defendant Sweetwater property” (…)”On March 29, 2011, an employee of the auction house sent her employer a email regarding the invoices for the items purchased on behalf of Nguema, asking,
I assume I need to rewrite the invoices in the same fashion as I’ve done in prior sales? (putting lots on one page, adding catalog page numbers and changing the Buyer’s name” (…)”In June 2011, Nguema again used an intermediary bid on more Michael Jackson memorabilia at another “Music Icons” auction. The intermediary successfully bid on the items costing a total of $379,692.00 sent by “Oluy Amadeo” in Equatorial Guinea to the bank account of the auction house at American Business Bank in Los Angles, California. The items purchased by Nguema at the June 2011” (United States District Court for the Central District of California, 2011).
As you can see the son of President Teodoro Obiang really have a thing for the memorabilia of the late Michael Jackson and have spent a fortune on it. That shows where monies go to. So it is not only the properties, but all from signed posters, gloves, statues and bags; all kind of former fandom equipment and limited editions that are signed by Michael Jackson and used by him in his lifetime.
Here is an letter from CSO’s on the case:
“Mr. Nguema’s attorneys, Juan P. Morillo and Tomislav Joksimovic, at the time of Clifford Chance US LLP, formally “agreed, and…so advised [their] client, that none of [Mr. Nguema’s] assets in the United States [would] be moved or otherwise made unavailable until…the government has had an opportunity to consider any evidence presented [by Mr. Nguema’s counsel]”.4” (…)”About three weeks later, Mr. Lyons informed Ms. Hudson “that the items of Michael Jackson memorabilia named as defendants in the complaint [were] no longer in the United States.”7 Her October 27, 2011 formal demand that Mr. Nguema return the Michael Jackson memorabilia to Government representatives in the United States went unheeded. Indeed, Mr. Nguema’s contempt for his legal obligations and the commitments made by his representatives were amply illustrated by his decision some time later to flaunt the Michael Jackson memorabilia in a highly publicized exhibition in Equatorial Guinea” (…)”According to the same information received, Mr Roberto Berardi had found out early 2013 about the asset forfeiture action by the United States Department of Justice against the US-based properties that his business partner had purchased by using accounts in Equatorial Guinea banks in the name of Eloba Construccion. Mr Roberto Berardi had subsequently raised the issue with his partner Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue. There are reasons to believe that Mr Roberto Berardi could be a very damaging witness in the US investigation and was therefore arrested and imprisoned” (…)”Ensures that Mr. Nguema and/or his family does not, and does not appear to, retain de facto control over disposition of any funds or other benefits that are intended to be, or may be, allocated to the benefit of the victims of the alleged corrupt practices, namely, the people of Equatorial Guinea” (Apdhe, Open Society Justice Initiative, EGJustice and Sherpa, 2014).
This here is the picture of how the Government of Equatorial Guinea is spending their monies on the family of the dictator instead of building infrastructure, health-care and the education. There is viable evidence of fraud and embezzlement as the government funds getting send directly from Equatorial Guinea to American banks used on whatever luxuries that Teodorin Obiang wants or needs in his collections. Either if it is a fancy car or something from Michael Jackson memorabilia. That proves to what extent this family eats the government funds and doesn’t care how it looks. The country is nearly never in the headlines, last real time before the recent elections was because of the African Cup of Nation that was held there and even made Sepp Blatter visit the country from his hectic office days in Switzerland.
You can think about the information and what signal it really sends. What this means for the government of Equatorial Guinea that the President Obiang can stay in power since 1970s and over 30 years. The viable price of that is the embezzlement and the grand-corruption. Together with the made corporations to move the embezzled money from the Nation to other places like Los Angeles, California. Peace.
Apdhe, Open Society Justice Initiative, EGJustice and Sherpa – ‘Proposed Settlement in US v. One White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and Other Michael Jackson Memorabilia; Real Property Located on Sweetwater Mesa Road in Malibu, California; One 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO; and US v. One Gulfstream G-V Jet Aircraft Displaying Tail Number VPCES, Its Tools and Appurtenances (collectively, the “Case”)’ (05.08.2014) letter to Eric H. Holder Jr. Attorney General in U.S. Department of Justice.
Embassy of Equatorial Guinea – ‘FIFA PRESIDENT PRAISES DEVELOPMENT IN EQUATORIAL GUINEADURING VISIT’ (08.06.2010)
Global Witness – ‘Secret documents reveal multi-million dollar shopping spree by Africandictator’s son; US authorities fail to act on evidence of corruption’ (17.11.2009)
United States District Court for the Central District of California – United States of America V. One White Crystal-Covered “Bad Tour” Glove and Other Michael Jackson Memorabilia; Real Property Located on Sweetwater Mesa Road in Malibu, California; one 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO – Case of Forfeiture in REM. (13 October 2011).
Posted in Africa, Army, Business, Civil Service, Corruption, Crime, Development, Economic Measures, Economy, Ethics, Governance, Government, Law, Leadership, Politics and tagged Amadeo Oluy, American Banks, American Government, Auction House, Bel Air, Bentley, Beverly Hills, Bugatti, Bugatti Veyron, Bugatti Veyron Sports Car, Business Partners, California, Central District of California, Clifford Chance US LLP, Crude Oil, E.G. Government, ELF, ELF Contracts, Embezzelment, Equatorial Guinea, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, Ferrari, FIFA, First American Trust, Government Embezzlement, Government Funds, Government of E.G., Government of United States of America, H.E. Teodoro Obiang, ICE, Juan P. Morillo, Justice Department, Lamborghini, Los Angles, Luxury Vehicle, Malabo, Maserati, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson memorabilia, Money Laundering, Oil Companies, Oil Money, Porsche, Riggs National Bank, Roberto Berandi, Rolls-Royce, Sepp Blatter, Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue, Teodoro Obiang, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the Executive, Tomislav Joksimovic, Union Bank of California, United States, United States of America, US, Washington D.C., White Crystal-Covered "Bad Tour" Glove | Leave a comment | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5887 |
__label__wiki | 0.516812 | 0.516812 | Zachary Brown is not amused by the "ghost" haunting his classroom.
Adelyn Powell, Junior Reporter
Filed under Features, News, Scroll Bar
Ghosts and spirits are such a huge part of today’s culture. For those of us who believe, the stories of ghosts and ghouls aren’t hard to imagine. For the non-believers though, while they may want to believe,
the lack of evidence nudges them in the other direction.
“I’m a skeptic, so I believe there’s a possibility, but I won’t know for certain until there’s
evidence. I think it would be cool if they did stick around,” said Andrew Slama, a science teacher at MSHS. Even though Slama does not believe in ghosts as an adult, that does not mean that he was always a skeptic. As a young boy, he believed in the paranormal. “My friends and I would tell stories. I think that’s something that every kid does. You sit in a dark room and tell the creepiest stories. That kind of goes away when people get older which is kind of sad because that’s the fun part.”
Some people want to believe in ghosts, but they also want to have the facts that give the motive to believe in them. Until that happens though, they stay skeptical. This is the case for Zachary Brown, another science teacher: “I still think that there’s a possibility that [ghosts] are real, I just haven’t experienced
anything for myself. The same with supernatural and superpowers and other stuff like that. There’s always a possibility, and it’s fun to entertain the idea for it, but I haven’t seen anything that points to it.”
While both Slama and Brown need to have first-hand experiences to believe in ghosts, two
believers have had experiences of their own: teachers Steven Blocher and William Brown both have had
paranormal happenings.
William Brown said, “We have a ghost living in our house right now and we’ve named her Maggie. The cat likes to go into the attic and play with her.” Going further in-depth about Maggie, the friendly household ghost, he said, “Oh, Maggie will turn my phone on in the middle of the night, we believe Maggie moves things around our bedroom. Maggie’s a good ghost and not a bad ghost.”
Having a friendly household ghost is not the only type of paranormal active that someone can have. It could be something was worse. “Never touch an ouija board, seriously,” said Blocher. “When I was a teenager, my friends and I had an ouija board. We would go to graveyards and stuff to try to use it at night, and it never worked. I was at this party one time and there was a girl there who swore she was a witch; she was dead serious. She had an ouija board that we were messing around with and she said, ‘I can get this ouija board to work.’ We were like, ‘Okay, whatever.’ We all sat down and she was so dead serious about the ouija board. People started asking her questions and it started moving in a way that I’ve never felt it move before. It was very weird like there was an energy there, but I still thought she was screwing with us. I thought I was smart, so I asked the spirit, ‘What’s my social security number?’, because nobody knows that but me. I swear to god, it moved and spelled out my social security number. I’ve never touched an ouija board since.”
With the want people have to believe in ghosts, could these experiences be real? Are they signs of an
overactive imagination and weird insight? While the non-believers need experience in order to
believe, it might be better they don’t have any. Although, what’s life without a little mystery?
Tags: andrew slama, news, staff, Steven Blocher, william brown, zachary brown
When it comes to paranormal happenings, freshman Adelyn Powell has something to say. Whether it’s the ghosts in her closet or the demons in her basement. “I... | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5890 |
__label__wiki | 0.836665 | 0.836665 | Get the magazine read by the nation’s top 1% of producers delivered to your door monthly. Subscribe Now
Radical Transformations Likely Needed to Achieve Universal Health Care
Targeted News Service (Press Releases)
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Aug. 23 -- Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health issued the following news release:
Technological innovation, expansion of the use of frontline personnel such as community health workers, and rapid increases in health care financing are likely to be instrumental to achieving universal health care (UHC) in countries around the world, according to a new analysis led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
While the idea of universal health care is garnering widespread support and is a central imperative for the World Health Organization and the United Nations, the researchers emphasized that countries must strike a balance between expanding health care coverage and ensuring the quality of care that is being delivered. Medical errors, health care-acquired infections, and poor retention of patients in care could undermine gains made under UHC, they said.
"It's difficult to think of an aspiration that both reflects and contributes to human progress more than UHC. The challenge is delivery, which will require sustained political and financial muscle in addition to innovative technologies and institutions. Most importantly, it requires that we avoid tunnel vision conceptions of UHC that focus predominantly on medical interventions. We must not give short shrift to primary health care or to interventions that promote disease prevention and early detection, social and economic equity, and international cooperation," said David Bloom, co-author and Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at Harvard Chan School.
The analysis, which is a wide-ranging review of the scientific evidence on UHC, was published online on August 23, 2018 in Science.
Forty years ago this September, world health leaders issued the Alma-Ata Declaration, which raised global awareness of "health for all" as a universal human right and emphasized the importance of primary health care. The benefits of UHC are plentiful and extend beyond improving health. UHC may lead to economic gains by increasing productivity, the researchers said, and it can improve social and political stability while reducing health disparities and economic and social inequalities. Additionally, countries in which the bulk of health care spending is prepaid by government financing have lower rates of the type of catastrophic health expenditures that can bankrupt families when compared with countries that rely on private insurance schemes.
Since the Alma-Ata Declaration, high-income countries have made significant strides toward UHC. Today, according to the researchers, the U.S. is the only high-income country in the world that does not explicitly provide UHC to its citizens, despite spending significantly more on health care than other economically advanced countries.
Progress toward UHC in low- and middle-income countries has not been as swift, especially among countries located in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to the analysis. Moreover, there are wide disparities in care between countries with similar incomes. As an example, the researchers noted that Vietnam scored 34 points higher than Nigeria on a World Health Organization and World Bank index measuring UHC coverage, despite both countries having a per capita GDP of around $2,200. Vietnam outperformed Nigeria in several key indicator areas, including infant vaccination coverage, births attended by skilled professionals, and houses with access to basic sanitation. Differences in economic inequality and political commitment to UHC may contribute to these disparities in UHC coverage.
Among the biggest challenges is the need to rapidly increase health care financing in low- and middle-income countries, where populations are simultaneously growing in size and getting older. In the world's less-developed regions, the population is expected to grow by 1 billion people between 2018 and 2030 while the percentage of people over the age of 60 is expected to grow from 10.6% to 14.2%, the researchers said.
Achieving UHC in low-resource settings will likely require a radical transformation in the way health services are delivered, the authors said. Shifting certain medical tasks from highly trained personnel to appropriately well-trained personnel - such as community health workers - could prove to be an important step. The researchers also said that adopting innovative technologies such as electronic medical records, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence for interpretation of x-rays and electrocardiograms, may also help.
"While there is strong evidence supporting the potential health and economic benefits of UHC, these benefits could be undermined without investments and innovations in the quality of medical services. In low- and middle-income countries, problems such as poorly functioning supply chains, electricity outages, and lack of clean water are all too common in health facilities. With that said, forty years after the Alma-Ata Declaration, I am optimistic that the global community's renewed ambition for UHC has considerable potential to improve the health of hundreds of millions of people globally," said Ramnath Subbaraman, co-author and faculty member in public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Harvard Chan School's Alexander Khoury was also a co-author. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5892 |
__label__cc | 0.656254 | 0.343746 | Archive for the 'Xingu River; Environment and Geography' Category
Another Video, YouTube too
Published 18 October 2009 Belo Monte Hydroeletric Dam , In the Media , indigenous people , Links , News , People of the Xingu , xingu , Xingu River; Environment and Geography Leave a Comment
Tags: accelerated development plan, amazon, Belo Monte, brazil, climate change, deforestation, environment, expedition, global warming, heart of brazil, human rights, hydroelectric dam, hydroelectricity, indians, indigenous, kararao, pac, rainforest, river, social issues, south america, threats, xingu
A further short has been added to Vimeo, and is embedded below:
This is about the proposed Belo Monte dam, which the Brazilian government is driving through the licensing process with reckless haste.
The Belo Monte dam would be the third largest in the world. As much earth moving would be required to build it as was needed to build the Panama Canal.
Yet the Brazilian government has been trying to railroad the scheme through on a very tight timescale, riding roughshod over the tatters of Brazilian environmental legislation and ignoring the requirements of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Brazil voted to endorse less than a year ago.
A development of this size, with the potential to reverse much of the progress Brazil has made in the last few years in reducing the rate of deforestation, should be fully discussed, with all its ramifications explored in detail to reach a balanced and reasoned decision about its environmental, social and financial viability before deciding if it should be built or if it should be abandoned forever.
This video includes footage from the demonstration and attempts to highlight the problems the scheme will bring to this so-far well preserved area of the Amazon.
For anyone who has problems viewing the Vimeo embeds, the two videos are available on YouTube here:
Heart of Brazil
And Finally, the Heart of Brazil Video
Published 11 October 2009 In the Media , indigenous people , Links , News , People of the Xingu , xingu , Xingu River; Environment and Geography Leave a Comment
Tags: amazon, Belo Monte, brazil, climate change, deforestation, environment, expedition, global warming, heart of brazil, human rights, hydroelectric dam, hydroelectricity, indians, indigenous, indigenous people, kararao, rainforest, south america, Sydney Possuelo, threats, xingu
It has taken a long time to get together the resources to edit and produce a video based on the footage we shot during the Heart of Brazil Expedition.
The full length cut is nearing completion and should run to about 35 minutes. The video below is a 4-minute trailer. If you would like to purchase a copy of the full video on DVD, check back in a week or two.
Our thanks go to Andy Fairgrieve for his unstinting efforts and the many, many hours he has put in to directing and editing the video.
We would like to thank Sydney Possuelo, the renowned Brazilian sertanist and expert on ‘uncontacted’ tribes, for the interview. We are also grateful to Gerard and Margi Moss for giving their permission for the inclusion of the Flying Rivers animation – see their site www.riosvoadores.com.br .
This version of the short video is uploaded at high quality and may therefore take some time to download, especially on slower internet connections. A lower quality version will shortly be available on YouTube – watch this space!
Belo Monte Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Published 27 March 2009 Belo Monte Hydroeletric Dam , indigenous people , News , People of the Xingu , Xingu River; Environment and Geography Leave a Comment
Tags: accelerated development plan, amazon, arara, Belo Monte, brazil, destruction, environment, hydroelectric dam, hydroelectricity, indians, indigenous people, Juruna, kararao, pac, social issues, threats, Xicrin, xingu, Yudja
The Brazilian Environment Agency, IBAMA, now has the EIA for the Belo Monte dam project, and parts are beginning to leak out.
Wading through the mix of academic, governmental and industrial jargon, it is easy to lose sight of the real, actual and immediate impacts that this monstrous project will have on the environment and the people of the Xingu.
The sections I have seen so far cover the impact on the area known as the Volta Grande, and on the diversity and populations of fish species. They make depressing reading. Phrases like “The impact will be irreversible, of the highest significance and of a high magnitude. The duration will be permanent, it will affect the entire cycle, the impact will be immediate and will take effect in the short term. The nature of the impact will be negative” occur several times.
My thoughts go back to our time on the river. We navigated the bubbling, crystal waters of the Volta Grande when we visited the Yudja (Juruna) village of Paquissamba. The river was alive with rapids, and fish were plentiful in the healthy waters. Occasionally, local people, both Indians and settlers, would pass in their boats with a friendly wave.
All of this will come to an abrupt halt if this project goes forward. The rushing, clean water will be replaced by fetid, stagnant pools and lakes full of mosquito larvae and dying fish. The already difficult-to-navigate channels will dry up and become impassable. The rocky riverbed, stripped of its water, will attract the attention of illegal gold prospectors, adding to the environmental destruction.
People who rely on the fish for their daily food will be forced from the area into the fringes of Altamira, to swell the already crowded and insanitary shanty towns which line the urban waterways. Nobody knows what will happen to the Yudja, or to the Arara settlement on the opposite side of the river. The Xicrin of Bacaja will no longer be able to navigate the river from their villages to the town, making the already long and dangerous journey in search of medical help impossible. Having made the Indians reliant on outside help, the government now plans to cut them off from the outside world.
The most productive land, in the areas beside the rivers which are flooded by rich sediment-laden water each year, will disappear below the water, or be left permanently dry and starved of its annual input of natural fertiliser. The people who farm this land will lose their livelihoods and be forced to migrate.
In terms of biodiversity, the impact could not be greater. The Volta Grande attracts adventurous fishermen from all over the world to pursue the rare game fish to be found there. These, some of them endemic, will be dramatically affected; many are likely to die out completely under the environmental stress of such a sudden and profound change in the local ecology.
My loss will be the chance to visit again a place of wild and unfettered beauty, to battle the rapids and to explore the myriad channels, backwaters and islands. But the loss to the local people and to mankind will be greater, the loss of species and the loss of a vibrant ecosystem, which is one of the few areas of the world where Man has had only a marginal impact.
Millions of tons of concrete will change this place forever. We need to fight this environmental crime with all of the weapons available to us.
Hydroelectric Dams: The Indians Unite
Published 25 April 2008 Belo Monte Hydroeletric Dam , News , People of the Xingu , Xingu River; Environment and Geography Leave a Comment
Tags: amazon, Belo Monte, environment, hydroelectric, hydroelectricity, indians, indigenous people, social issues, threats, xingu
In response to the Brazilian government’s stated objective of issuing a license for the construction of the Belo Monte dam in 2009, the Indians of the Xingu have united once again to confront the threat to their lives.
They are planning a large gathering of the tribes, to run from the 19th to the 23rd May. Over a thousand Indians will join with as many local people in the frontier town of Altamira to press the government to refuse permission for the construction of the dam. They will also use the opportunity to voice their objections to other smaller but no less controversial proposals to build hydroelectric plants on the headwaters and tributaries.
The Indians will run the gauntlet of gunmen hired by local landowners who stand to see the value of their land shoot up as the area becomes commercialised.
But they will not be prevented from staging a spectacular display of solidarity, resplendent in feathers and warpaint, as they argue their case.
In 1989, after a similar gathering, the government was forced to climb down when the World bank withdrew funding because of the environmental and social problems the dam will cause.
That was at the peak of interest in the environment. The 1989 gathering brought together Brazilian organisations, international charities, and celebrities, including Sting and the late (and much missed) Anita Roddick. Under the watchful gaze of the international media, the gunmen held back.
There were supporters from many other countries. It was a turning point for Brazil, which was emerging from decades of military rule. New Brazilian organisations were forming, and Brazilians were beginning to stand up to the powerful establishment and its nefarious outer fringes, which inhabited the lawless Amazon.
Today, there are many Brazilians active in the fight to prevent the destruction of the Amazon forest. The Indians have organisations of their own, and are better prepared to take on the government. Now they can speak the government’s language, and they understand more of how the Brazilian world which encompasses theirs operates.
But it will not be an easy battle. Finance for the dam will come from Brazilian banks, raised on the back of the Government’s Programme of Accelerated Growth. This means that the international money which will be used is one removed from the project, and the ultimate providers of the funding may not know (or care) that their money is being used for a project which has already been condemned as an environmental, social and human disaster.
For more information see our Press Release about the protest meeting.
© Patrick Cunningham
Hydroelectricity in the Heart of Brazil
Published 5 April 2008 Belo Monte Hydroeletric Dam , News , People of the Xingu , Xingu River; Environment and Geography Leave a Comment
Tags: Belo Monte, Eletrobras, environment, environmental degradation, human rights, hydroelectric dams, hydroelectricity, indians, indigenous people, social impacts, xingu
Hydroelectricity has been promoted as a ‘clean’ energy source, capable of providing huge amounts of electricity without adding to global warming. Brazil already obtains 80 percent of its electricity from this source.
But the reality is that large dams cause immense disruption to the local environment and produce huge amounts of powerful greenhouse gases. These include methane, which is 21 times more powerful in terms of global warming than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide, which is 310 times more potent.
Dams in tropical areas are especially polluting. In the early years, they produce many times more global warming than the equivalent amount of electricity obtained from burning fossil fuels. Even decades after they were constructed, dams in the Amazon continue to generate more global warming than equivalent natural gas power stations.
Dams begin to contribute to global warming before the ground is broken. Manufacture of steel and cement, the core materials used to build the dams, are both significant sources of greenhouse gases.
Once the dam begins to fill with water, greenhouse gas production reaches astronomical proportions because of the decaying vegetation from the trees and plants which are drowned as the water rises. These produce a surge of global warming in the early years, which reduces over time as the drowned organic matter decays, eventually reaching a more or less stable state.
But this stable state still produces high levels of greenhouse gases. Even taking into account natural processes of decay which occur in undisturbed tropical forests, these levels are high. They are several times higher than in a similar-sized natural lake. And they continue for the life of the dam.
Were the dam eventually to be decommissioned and drained, there would be yet another pulse of greenhouse gases, as organic matter trapped in sediment is exposed to oxygen and is attacked by
bacteria and other organic processes, releasing yet another raft of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
On a local level, dams interfere with the life cycles of tropical plants, insects, fish and land animals, destroying the ecological balance of the river basin. Fish can no longer reach their spawning grounds, mammal migration routes are blocked, the annual inundation of riverside land (which brings with it nutrients to feed crops and natural plants growing beside the river) is stopped, and insect populations are affected unpredictably. Aquatic life is damaged by changes in the chemistry of the water trapped in the reservoir, causing many fish species to decline dramatically. The dams create ideal conditions for malaria mosquitoes, and malaria becomes endemic in the areas surrounding dams.
This is but one of the social repercussions. People already living in the area will be displaced; the worst affected will, as ever, be the poorest. Few of the self-sufficient settlers who live along the banks of the Xingu have proper legal title to the land they occupy – and may have occupied for generations.
The experience of people in a similar situation who were affected by construction of the Tucurui dam, only 250 km to the southeast, is not encouraging; over twenty years after the dam was completed many people have not seen any compensation, and are forced to live a marginal existence in shanty towns.
Large construction projects inevitably attract thousands of migrant workers. They bring with them increased deforestation, increased demands on already inadequate local infrastructure, and increased social stress between the immigrant population and the people already living in the area. The problems worsen on completion of the construction, which leaves the new population largely unemployed. Neither the companies involved in the construction and operation of the dam nor the government are prepared to take responsibility for these problems.
Belo Monte, the latest scheme for the Xingu being promoted by the Brazilian government-owned electricity company Eletrobrás , promises to bring all of these problems to the Xingu, with very little benefit.
Further hydroelectric dams are proposed for all of the tributaries of the Xingu. These so-called ‘Small Hydroelectric Plants’ will have a far from small impact on the river and its people, affecting water quality and flow throughout the Xingu basin. The entire ecology of the river will be damaged, disrupting food sources and transportation.
For the indigenous people the dams will destroy their lifestlyes and their very cultures. We must support them in their fight to prevent this unwanted and unjustifiable destruction.
Philip Fearnside on Greenhouse Gas emmissions
International Rivers: Fizzy Science
A Little About the Geography
Published 30 December 2006 Xingu River; Environment and Geography 1 Comment
The Xingu River runs almost exactly South to North, through the centre of Brazil. Its headwaters lie in the State of Mato Grosso, as does the whole of the Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX). The park is divided from the lower part of the river by a series of rocky rapids, covering roughly 400 kilometres, making navigation between the two parts of the river perilous, and only possible in a small boat. The border between Mato Grosso and Pará, the State to the North, lies in this area.
Much lower down river (to the North) lies Altamira, the only town of any size along the entire length of the river, with a population over 85,000. Between Altamira and the Amazon River, the Xingu makes a sweeping bend to the South, East, then back North again, called the Volta Grande (Great Return). This includes a series of rapids and cascades, reducing the level of the river by 90 metres, to more or less the level of the Amazon. The Volta Grande is totally un-navigable, so we will have to transport the boat by land to bypass this stretch.
There is a proposal to build a huge hydroelectric dam at Belo Monte, on the Eastern stretch of the Volta Grande. I will talk more about this in another section.
Below the Volta Grande, the river widens out into what is more or less a lake, stretching a further 180 kilometres to Pôrto de Moz, which lies at the mouth of the river where it meets the Amazon.
The vegetation changes substantially along the length of the river. The headwaters lie in an area known as cerrados, which typically looks like scrubby vegetation with areas of grass. Unfortunately, the headwaters of the Xingu have lost most of their natural vegetation, having been settled for more than two hundred years for cattle ranching. More recently, soya and maize monocultures have destroyed the remaining natural vegetaqtion, turning huge areas into featureless, barren wastes. The only continuous areas of any substantial size where the cerrados vegetation survives lie within protected areas, mainly in reserves occupied by the Xavante and Bakairi Indians.
The south of the PIX is also cerrados, with large open areas of land. As the river flows north the vegetation becomes increasingly dense, quickly turning into what is commonly referred to as rainforest. Scientfically, this is properly known as moist tropical forest; although this term is widely used by scientists, it has no formal definition; it refers to low altitude forests with an annual rainfall of at least 650mm, and no sustained rain-free period.
There are several sub-ecosystems which describe specific types of forest; igapô is seasonally flooded forest on low-lying valley areas, which can have poor and sandy or sometimes nutrient rich soils. Most of the forest is, however, terra firme, lying on land which lies above the flood level of the river. This varies from very dense forest with a closed canopy to more open forest with a rich understorey of lianas, which typically occurs on higher areas. For more details about vegetation and fauna in these areas see:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/nt/nt0168_full.html.
Please consider making a donation to IPCST to support our work with the indigenous people of the Xingu. Click here.
Geography – Headwaters
Published 26 December 2006 Xingu River; Environment and Geography Leave a Comment
The Xingu River has several tributaries, which lie in an area of naturally open woodland and savannah known as cerrados. Not as photogenic as the rainforest, the cerrados is in many ways an environmental poor relation. Without the advantage of media focus, cerrados has suffered sweeping devastation at the hands of large scale agriculture.
The history of farming in the cerrados goes back over 150 years. By the time von den Steinen was travelling from Cuiaba to the Batovi river in the 1880s, much of the countryside was already occupied by cattle ranches. However, most of the area between the Rio das Mortes and the Xingu was at that time occupied by the fierce and warlike Xavante. It took a further seventy years to complete the disposession of the Xavante.
In the last fifteen years, cattle ranching has increasingly been replaced by soya and maize. The last remnants of the trees, waterholes and even minor topographical features left to give water and shade to the livestock have been levelled, leaving unbroken, featureless biological deserts. As a result the climate has become increasingly arid, with many springs drying up completely. In areas adjoining river valleys or the edges of plateaux it is easy to see the land surface being eaten away progressively as the soil, freed from the restraininng ties of plant roots, is washed away into the river courses, causing silting of the valleys and sediment pollution of the river water.
Although cerrados does not have the biological diversity of rainforest, many of the plants and insects which occupy this difficult environment have unique properties and produce complex chemicals to protect themselves. Pharmaceutical companies often discover medicinal properties in these chemicals, so the loss of species in the cerrados is no less a disaster than the loss of species in the rainforest. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5893 |
__label__wiki | 0.837175 | 0.837175 | Michigan bills weakening union power signed into law
by Tami Luhby @Luhby December 11, 2012: 6:58 PM ET
Some 17.5% of Michigan's workers are in a union.
As protesters descended on the Michigan Statehouse Tuesday, two controversial "right-to-work" measures that would weaken unions' power were signed into law.
The House approved two bills, which the Senate already passed last week. Both chambers are dominated by Republicans.
On Tuesday evening. Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, signed the legislation, which allows workers at union-represented employers to forgo paying dues.
Thousands of people, many of them union workers, gathered outside the statehouse, chanting and holding signs as snow fell. At least three school districts were closed as teachers traveled to Lansing to protest.
There are 23 states which have right-to-work laws, mostly in the South and western plains states, where union membership is relatively weak. Nationwide, union membership stands at 11.8%.
Related: Check union membership in your state
Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers where 17.5% of employees are represented by unions, would be by far the most heavily unionized state to pass such legislation. It would join neighboring Indiana in converting to right-to-work this year.
"It would devastate the workers," UAW President Bob King told CNN Tuesday morning. "We're worried about all workers in the state of Michigan."
Advocates of the bill say it will help attract businesses to the state, but critics say that it would weaken labor's bargaining strength by cutting union financial resources without doing anything to bring in more jobs.
Related: Michigan vote could be big blow to labor
Employees in right-to-work states have lower wages, on average, than their counterparts elsewhere, according to Richard Hurd, professor of labor studies at the ILR School at Cornell University. That's because the unions are weaker in those states and aren't as effective in bargaining for higher wages. Only two-thirds of workers join unions in right-to-work states, on average.
The average full-time, full-year worker in a right-to-work state makes about $1,500 less annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning organization. The rate of workers covered by employer-sponsored health insurance is 2.6 percentage points lower, while pension coverage is 4.8 percentage points lower.
Related: Top 8 union jobs
Right-to-work states have done better in terms of growing jobs, according to State Budget Solutions, an advocacy group that supported the measure. Right-to-work states saw employment expand by 8.2% between 2001 and 2010, while those without the law experienced a 0.5% decrease, according to the group's analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.
Michigan Governor: 'I'm pro worker'
The measure's passage would symbolize the declining fortunes of the nation's once powerful union movement. Only four states have passed right-to-work laws since the 1960s.
"If right-to-work passes in Michigan, it demonstrates the weakness of the labor movement," Hurd said. "If it can happen in Michigan, there's a feeling it can happen anywhere."
CNNMoney's Chris Isidore and CNN's Poppy Harlow, Alison Kosik, Chuck Johnston and Jake Carpenter contributed to this report.
CNNMoney (Lansing, Mich.) First published December 11, 2012: 11:58 AM ET | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5898 |
__label__wiki | 0.931304 | 0.931304 | The 10 highest-rated games of 2016
We’re slowly heading towards the end of 2016, so we thought it would be fitting to take a look at the highest rated games of the year on Metacritic, with everything from console games and PC releases getting a nod.
10. Stephen’s Sausage Roll
Metascore – PC: 90
Stephen’s Sausage Roll is a bizarre, yet addictive indie puzzle game that has picked up some serious steam since its release. The game sees players control Stephen, who wields a BBQ fork, as he tried to cook sausages on a grill using only geometric movements and lateral thinking.
It’s incredibly tough, massively unforgiving, and one of the most cleverly-designed games you’ll play this year.
9. Battlefield 1
Metascore – PC: 90 | Xbox One: 87 | PS4: 89
As expected, Battlefield 1 has launched to some stellar reviews, with many critics praising it as the best Battlefield to date.
Featuring a compelling single-player story mode, a well-polished multiplayer and a soundtrack that will be remembered well into the future, Battlefield 1 currently wears the first-person shooter crown in 2016.
8. Civilization VI
The fan-beloved Civilization franchise returned this year with the sixth and arguably most finely-tuned entry in the series. Civilization VI has been re-built from the ground up using a new engine.
Unlike most previous “vanilla” iterations of Civilization, Civ VI includes a number of features in the core game that previously required multiple expansions, including trade routes, religion, archaeology, espionage, city-states, tourism and Great Works.
7. Forza Horizon 3
Metascore – Xbox One: 91
Microsoft’s open-world racing spin-off Forza Horizon is becoming more of a fan-favourite than the core series. Forza Horizon 3, set in the lush areas of Australia, marks a high-point in the franchise, offering gamers wide open-roads to put the largest Forza Horizon car roster to the test.
The campaign also features 4-player co-op, which is quite interesting for a racing game, and fans and critics have unanimously degreed that its the arcade racer to play in 2016.
6. Overwatch
Blizzard’s shot at the multiplayer shooter genre has gone down with a bang all platforms.
The reason for this shooter’s immediate success is that at its core, Overwatch is a mix of many other very successful things, blended together into a cohesive, glossy, and tight competitive game that looks as gorgeous as it plays.
5. Out of the Park Baseball 17
While not a big sport down here in South Africa, baseball is hugely popular in North America and across Asia, so it’s no surprise that there’s a huge love for Out of the Park Baseball 17.
Hailed as one of the best sports sims available on the market, Out of the Park Baseball 17 is officially licensed by the MLB, and gives players the chance to start a new career with your favourite 2016 MLB team or span through almost 150 years of baseball history and run any team from the past.
You can even set up your own fictional baseball universe or compete in online leagues against other OOTP players.
4. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
While not necessarily a full game per se, The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC expansion is so big and packed full of content, that it’s easy to consider it a full game unto itself.
Despite its low price tag, Blood and Wine is a substantial 30-hour expansion filled with memorable moments, tons of quests and a beautiful new world to explore.
A must-buy for Witcher 3 players and possibly the winning card that would invest non-Witcher 3 players to embrace the stellar game.
3. NBA 2K17
Metascore – Xbox One: 92 | PS4: 89
NBA 2K17 returned to the court in style this year. The series has always had superb standards, but the realism and tweaks to gameplay and options makes NBA 2K17 the year’s best sports game, giving basketball fans an immersive and varied experience unlike any other.
If the water-tight gameplay wasn’t enough to wow fans and critics alike, the revamped MyCareer mode, which let players embark on a new story requiring players to create their own NBA star-to-be, was the icing on an already super-sweet cake.
2. Inside
Inside is one of the surprise hits of the year on Xbox One, but it should really be coming as no surprise given the pedigree of Playdead Studios, the team behind the 2010’s Limbo. Inside is a puzzle platformer, in which the player controls a young boy that explores a surreal environment presented as a primarily monochromatic, 2.5D game, using only splashes of colour to highlight parts of the environment.
The player can make the boy walk, run, swim and use objects in the environment to progress in the game, although you’ll have to harness the ability to possess lifeless bodies to help you solve puzzles. It’s an interesting concept and looks gorgeous in motion.
Metascore – PS4: 93
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End reminds us exactly why we love Naughty Dog’s award-winning action adventure franchise.
Uncharted 4‘s personalised story brings the narrative to a heartfelt conclusion that rounds off the character development of Nathan Drake, and marks the end of one of the best franchises of the past two console generations.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is a must-play for any PS4 owner.
Article originally published on MenStuff.co.za.
Now read: Is it worth upgrading to a PlayStation 4 Pro in South Africa?
Jeremy Proome
Tags Battlefield 1, Civilization VI, Forza Horizon 3, Inside, NBA 2K17, Out of the Park baseball, The Witcher 3, Uncharted 4
Epic PlayStation console and game discounts in South Africa
Best games you can play this week — Wolves and warriors
Raru launches Build-a-Bundle PS4 special | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5900 |
__label__cc | 0.542513 | 0.457487 | Alien Encounters And Odd Animals
Nick Redfern August 24, 2015
At his UFO Conjecture(s) blog, Rich Reynolds has a very interesting recent article titled: “UFO sightings with creatures having octopus-like appendages.” The title is, of course, self-explanatory. But it got me thinking about something similar: the significant number of UFO reports I have on file in which strange and out of place animals appear to play significant parts.
We’ll start with a famous UFO abduction/contactee incident from 1980. It’s an incident that occurred in the pre-dawn hours of a November morning, in the old English town of Todmorden, Yorkshire. The witness was a then-serving policeman, Alan Godfrey. His experience – of seeing a UFO-style craft on a stretch of road, of being taken on-board the craft, and of having interaction with various entities – is a complex one.
For our purposes, however, I’ll focus on one specific angle. Since Godfrey did not have complete, clear recollection of what happened, he elected to undergo hypnotic regression, as a means to try and get the full picture. Of course, it’s important to note that one has to be very careful when it comes to interpreting memories and imagery provided by someone in an altered state. But, that doesn’t make Godfrey’s account any less intriguing.
In his hypnotic state, Godfrey said that while he was on the UFO he saw nothing less than “a bloody dog.” He was asked to expand on this. Godfrey replied: “Well, I think it’s a dog. Horrible. Just looks like a dog. Like the size of an Alsatian [Note: Alsatian is British terminology for a German Shepherd].” He added that the dog “just stood there,” and he noted that its color was black.
Moving on, and getting into really controversial areas, I have three cases on file that deal with sightings – by alien abductees – of so-called “Alien Big Cats” on-board UFOs. Yes, I can already see certain mainstream cryptozoologists clenching their fists and letting their blood-pressure soar out of control. Too bad. The UK, in particular, has a long history of sightings of Alien Big Cats, or ABCs. They are erroneously and often referred to as “black panthers.” Most cryptozoologists suggest they are escapees from private zoos and enclosures. Or, perhaps, they may have been secretly released into the wild, when their owners could no longer handle them.
None of the above, however, explains why I have no less than three cases in my files – all from the English county of Devon, oddly – of “abductees” reporting seeing large and menacing ABCs on-board UFOs. And at the exact time the person is at the mercy of the black-eyed, dwarfish Grays of UFO lore.
Then there’s the story provided to me by Lance Oliver, of the Texas-based Denton Area Paranormal Society (DAPS). It was in November 2010 that I lectured at the Denton-based Emily Fowler Library, on the subject of cryptids in the Lone Star State. During the Q&A session that followed the lecture, both I and the rest of the audience listened to a story from Lance that was, I believe, second or third-generation. So, yes, we are delving into near friend-of-a-friend territory. With that in mind, read on.
Lance’s source told him that when military personnel were cleaning up the infamous Roswell, New Mexico “UFO crash site” in July 1947, the team involved also found something else on the Foster Ranch and among the wreckage. That “something else,” we were told, was a pack of large, rat-like animals, that appeared to be very intelligent, that moved and acted in group-fashion, and that were highly vicious and very weird. And that was about it: a fragmentary story of truly strange proportions. Whether or not the story has even the merest grain of truth to it, or if it’s just some odd folkloric tale, I have no idea at all. But, for what it’s worth, that was the tale.
At the risk of giving a few cryptozoologists strokes or heart-attacks (or both), I should add that I have many reports of Bigfoot seen in the vicinity of UFOs – and in a couple of cases, even on-board UFOs. Take a deep breath, cryptozoologists, and play some soothing, relaxing music and you’ll be OK.
Quite possibly the creepiest story of all came from a Houston, Texas-based woman. She told me, back in 2002 or 2003, of her experience with the Grays in the winter of 1977. Her abduction story was very much like so many others that have become staple parts of Ufology. What set it apart, however, was when one of the Grays took out of a box and placed onto her stomach something that looked like a large spider, but with far more legs.
Like something out of a horror-movie it crawled up her body, onto her face, and inserted one its spindly legs into her right nostril. For a moment there was a flash of pain. Then, nothing. Except that the woman suddenly found herself back in her car that she had been abducted from, hours earlier.
I don’t have to point out to anyone the sheer bizarre nature of these accounts. That’s clear to see. Many will undoubtedly dismiss the reports as figments of the imagination, fantasies, the work of hoaxers, and the effects of hypnosis. I certainly have no way at all to prove otherwise. I do know, however, that I’m not the only researcher of strange phenomena who has more than a few reports of what we might call “alien animals” seen in UFO-based incidents. Whatever the truth, it’s an under-appreciated aspect of Ufology, one which deserves more study – regardless of where it all may lead. Or may not lead.
Tags alien abduction Alien Big Cats Cryptozoology
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Mysterious Universe March 12, 2013 | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5901 |
__label__cc | 0.578999 | 0.421001 | You must bring me... more web pages...
Today's Manga: Love Master A 2 and Ninin ga Shinobuden 3... that gives me two gaps in my collection. Tomorrow, it's time to give Anime Castle some serious business.
Today's Anime: The entirety of Magical Meow Meow Taruto. I was there, and it was there, and none of the other DVDs I was hoping for were there.
Today's Games: The Myst DVD collection and something really cheap called Future Tactics. This is a PS2 game for $5 NEW. At WORST BUY. Yeah. That bad. But I'll check it out tomorrow, when I can pull myself away from trying to figure out where the colored pages are.
Today's Activities: I helped my coworker Jeff pick out a DVD player for his wife's birthday present. He wanted to get her a DVD player and was surprised at how cheap the upconverters were. I think he was expecting to pay that much for a regular one. I'll ask him how it's working on Monday. Then Curt and I, disappointed at the haul for this week, went to Greenwood to explore the stores there. We didn't find much, but he got some great deals on games, and we had a dinner at Applebee's that didn't completely suck. His first glass of soda tasted either too syrupy or not diet enough, but the replacement was okay, and we both had Maple Butter Blondies for dessert. Good stuff.
And maybe now I'll have a better excuse to give Riven a more serious try than last time. I've already had a few moments where the blue streak across my screen has made it difficult to see what's going on in Myst, but I could use a better monitor if I really wanted to. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5905 |
__label__cc | 0.715596 | 0.284404 | Nigel Featherstone is an Australian writer who has been published widely. His war novel, BODIES OF MEN, was published by Hachette Australia in 2019. His other works include the story collection JOY (2000), his debut novel REMNANTS (2005), and THE BEACH VOLCANO (2014), which is the third in a series of novellas. He wrote the libretto for THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT, a contemporary song cycle that had its world premiere in 2018. He has held residencies at Varuna (Blue Mountains), Bundanon (Shoalhaven River), and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
Nigel Featherstone is an Australian writer. His war novel, BODIES OF MEN, was published by Hachette Australia in 2019.
His critically acclaimed first novel, REMNANTS, was published by Pandanus Books in 2005.
Nigel is also the author of three novellas: THE BEACH VOLCANO (Blemish Books, 2014), which was described as ‘Elegant and original’ (Kerryn Goldsworthy, Sydney Morning Herald), ‘Accomplished – an intense fiction range’ (Peter Pierce, Canberra Times), ‘Utterly enthralling’ (Newtown Review of Books), and ‘Unforgettable’ (Verity La), and was recognised with a 2014 Canberra Critics Circle Award; I’M READY NOW (Blemish Books, 2012), which was short-listed for both the 2013 ACT Book of the Year and the 2013 ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction; and FALL ON ME (Blemish Books, 2011), which won the 2012 ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction.
In 2014 the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium commissioned Nigel to write the libretto for an original song cycle, with the music composed by James Humberstone from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. This work, titled THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT, was developed by The Street Theatre in Canberra and had its world premiere in the national capital in March 2018 to critical acclaim; it has also been performed in Goulburn (March 2018) and Sydney (July 2018). The work received a 2018 Canberra Critics Circle Award.
In 2018-2019 Nigel collaborated with singer-songwriter Pete Lyon on THE FINAL HOURS, a suite of 5 songs inspired by the art work of Myuran Sukumaran, an Australian man executed by the Indonesian government after being found guilty of smuggling heroin as part of the ‘Bali 9’.
Nigel is also the author of nearly 50 short stories published in Australian literary journals including the Review of Australian Fiction, Meanjin, Island, and Overland, as well as in the US. His collected stories are JOY (2000) and HOMELIFE (1999).
He has also written nearly 120 creative non-fiction stories, which have been published in outlets such as the Canberra Times, BMA, 3:AM Magazine, and The Millions.
In 2013 Nigel was a writer-in-residence at UNSW Canberra / the Australian Defence Force Academy; he has also held residencies at Varuna (Blue Mountains, NSW) and Bundanon (Shoalhaven River, NSW).
He was the founding editor of Verity La (2010-2014), for which he received a 2012 Canberra Critics Circle Award.
Nigel is currently a Visiting Fellow at UNSW Canberra, a position he will hold until 2021.
Nigel is represented by Gaby Naher, The Naher Agency, Sydney.
For publicity enquiries relating to BODIES OF MEN, please contact Lydia Tasker, Senior Publicist at Hachette Australia, on lydia.tasker@hachette.com.au
For other matters, you’re welcome to contact Nigel direct on contact@opentopublic.com.au. You can stay in touch via Twitter and/or Facebook and/or Instragram.
An online portal is at Open To Public.
Nigel lives on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, and spends considerable time in Canberra, the national capital of Australia.
Blog acknowledgements
Author photos by Andrew Sikorski, 2018.
The header image used from 2009 to 2013 (and sometimes appears as this blog’s avatar) was a detail of Genuine Texture 1985 by Philippe Reichert and used with kind permission of the artist.
Other images used are either those taken, produced and prepared by Nigel Featherstone, or are presented for educative purposes only.
The National Library of Australia archives Under the counter or a flutter in the dovecot in the National Bibliographic Database as part of the PANDORA Archive, which ensures that all the material published here is safeguarded against changes in hardware and software, and that the blog as a whole is protected in perpetuity.
Unless otherwise stated, all work on Under the Counter or a Flutter in the Dovecot by Nigel Featherstone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
January 29, 2010 at 9:16+00:00Jan
Hey Nigel,
thanks for you comment on my blog. Your blog is pretty cool. I really love finding cool blogs, specially from people around the globe. I’m also excited to know you’re a novelist, as I’m working my way to become one, hopefully soon. Your other site is pretty great too. Will be checking you out on a regular basis.
Nate.
Hi Nate, thanks heaps for dropping by and for your very kind comments. All the best for the writing of your novel! Cheers, Nigel
April 10, 2010 at 9:16+00:00Apr
Paul Squires
I read some of your stories over ‘Open To Public’, Nigel. They are brilliant. “Fishing and Two Wives Waiting” knocked me out. What a fantastic tiny tale.
Hi Paul, thanks very much for your kind comments. ‘Fishing and Two Wives Waiting’ happens to be one of my favourite stories, but not everyone gets it – perhaps because it’s too short. Thanks for dropping by.
May 24, 2010 at 9:16+00:00May
Paul W. Collins
Hullo, Mr. Featherstone.
I have a proposal to relieve some of the soporific sibiiance of thespians’ hissing of Shakespeare from the platform:
My new “novelization” of “Macbeth” — with no footnotes — is available free of charge for on-line reading or download at http://www.wsrightnow.com. It incorporates Shakespeare’s dialogue (from the Globe edition of 1864) into a narrative that can be read like a novel.
I hope you like it!
Hi Paul, thanks for letting me know about your novelisation. I’ll be interested to check it out. All the best.
March 16, 2011 at 9:16+00:00Mar
megan skelton
i would like to be informed of up and coming developments of your writing and website. i like the look of what you do with your writing. not just how inspiring it is, to the likes of such as me, an aspiring writer. yet, an accomplished one such as yourlsef.
megan skelton.
Hi Megan, thanks for dropping by and commenting. The best way to stay informed is by dropping by again, or even subscribing. Cheers, Nigel
January 2, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Jan
karlbarrett
Well we both like boys, creativity, landscape architecture and New Order! Cool blog!
Thanks for dropping by, Karl. I hope you continue to find things of interest in the Under the Counter world! Cheers, Nigel.
October 1, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Oct
Have just read this week’s Panorama … Came here to comment but it’s not here (yet). Your reading trajectory is much like mine though I’d say I was voracious in childhood. It dropped off in my busy 20s and then took off agin in my even busier 30s! Funny how the busier you are the more time you can find! I love a cold tiny day for that freedom to read it gives you.
And you used one of my favourite reading quotes. It makes me smile every time I see it.
Hi Sue, thanks for that (and I’ve now published the related post). Oh and I love this: ‘a cold tiny day’. That word tiny – are you sure you don’t have a novel in you? Or a novella perhaps? Yes, I do like the Logan Pearsall Smith quote; of course, fiction is as much about life as life is itself!
I wish I did Nigel … But I think I’ll just reduce the competition and have my little moments!
NIGEL FEATHERSTONE I’m Ready Now. Reviewed by Walter Mason | The Newtown Review of Books
[…] Nigel Featherstone I’m Ready Now, Blemish Books, 2012, PB, 156pp, $25.95 […]
November 17, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Nov
What (other) blogs are you reading? Recommendations, please! | Broadside
[…] Under the counter or a flutter in the dovecot […] | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5906 |
__label__cc | 0.55505 | 0.44495 | A Dysfunctional Congress
By Gilbert N. Kahn July 18, 2017, 12:00 am 0 Edit
Gilbert N. Kahn is a professor of Political Science at Kean University.
The collapse of the McConnell/Trump/ Republican healthcare reform package exposes at least two fundamental problems as to how Washington is or is not functioning today. One is institutional behavior and the second is partisanship. The matter of what has happened to the functioning of Congress will be discussed here and the question of how politics has destroyed collegiality and comradery–which was part of the legislative process in the past–will be deferred to a subsequent post.
When Congress first convened in April 1789, the respective chambers created rules and actual standing Rules Committees to establish the proper method of procedure and to insure that it was followed. Initially both chambers had temporary or select committees but by early in the 19th century standing committees were established such as the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary Committees. Over the years the number of Committees have been expanded and reduced. Most Committees created sub-Committees to expedite and improve their functioning ability. The last major committee revision, except in the area of budget reform, was part of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946.
Functionally, it is in the Committees and especially since the 1970’s within the sub-Committees that the locus of legislative power resided both in the House and Senate. This is where Administration proposals or drafted bills were discussed, reviewed, rewritten, rejected, amended and, eventually, reported out. It was in this environment that most of the seriously contentious issues on a subject were debated and, mostly, reconciled. The remaining problems were fought out during Floor debate; especially in the Senate. While there were always exceptions to this system these were the historical operating norms.
This is not to suggest that there were not numerous legislative disagreements and fights, but at the end most legislative battles were resolved through a process of conflict resolution and compromise. When neither side walked away completely satisfied that was usually a sign that the legislative process had worked.
What was extremely important, however, was when major, complex legislation passed both chambers, a House-Senate Conference Committee, and was signed into law that the really hard work began. It was during the following session or next Congress that the Members and the Administration would evaluate how the bill was functioning and being administrated. They would then work together to fix and improve the law. This was the most crucial part for any major legislation as the laws’ proper implementation depended on it; precisely what was never done with the Affordable Care Act.
After an extremely bitter struggle over the creation of Obamacare, Congress never undertook a proper review of the problems with the legislation. The Republicans, who controlled Congress, spent more than six years dedicated to trying to repeal the ACA. There never were any proposals recommending how to fix it.
At the root of the current stand-off in Congress is the fact that Republicans now recognize that they cannot take the benefits of the ACA—with all of its difficulties—away from the American people. The flaws in the law need to be fixed but repealing it will not accomplish that goal. As has been suggested now by a few Republican Members of both the House and the Senate, it is time to return the law to Committees and let them do their work to fix the ACA. Having the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader present a bill under a reconciliation procedure—take it or leave it—never will improve the healthcare for the American people.
At the same time, the Democratic leaders need to swallow hard and admit publically that Obamacare has problems. They must be ready to sit down, trade, and compromise in Committees and on the Floor to fix the legislation; even if they must accept public criticism of President Obama’s signature achievement. This is legislating and why Members were elected to Congress. If everyone gets some egg on their face in the process it is likely that more Americans will receive better healthcare.
Kahntentions | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5909 |
__label__wiki | 0.984772 | 0.984772 | by Craig Houston Jan 31, 2019 14:26 SPORTS TEAM SPORTS FOOTBALL/SOCCER
Former German international Sandro Wagner has joined Tianjin TEDA. Rufus46 Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0
LATEST IN LIFE IN CHINA
by GBTIMES BEIJING TOURISM
in the 2012 anti-corruption campaign, corrupt high-level officials were known as 'tigers' and those at grassroots were called 'flies'. Read more
Wagner, 31, moves for a fee of US$5.72m after just over a year at the Germain champions, during which he scored eight goals in 21 games. However, he started just one game for Bayern this season and had failed to make either of his side’s last two matchday squads.
Hasan Salihamidzic, Bayern Munich’s sporting director, said of the move: "Sandro Wagner came to us and asked to be released from his contract. He had a very attractive offer from China and we met his request." He has now signed a two-year deal and will earn around US$8.6m per season.
Wagner began his career with Bayern Munich and played four times for his hometown club before moving on to MSV Duisburg. He then had further spells in Germany with Werder Bremen, FC Kaiserslautern, Hertha BSC, Darmstadt and Hoffenheim, before heading back to the Allianz Arena in 2018. He scored five goals in eight games for Germany before retiring after not being named in his country’s World Cup squad last year.
Tianjin TEDA finished 14th in the CSL last season, avoiding relegation on goal difference. Since then, talismanic midfielder John Obi Mikel has left the club, with the Nigerian captain signing for English second tier club Middlesbrough. That has freed up a space for a non-Chinese player in the squad, which manager Uli Stielike has moved quickly to fill.
Three international veterans leave Chinese Super League for European football
International players Demba Ba, John Obi Mikel and Jose Antonio Reyes have found new clubs in Europe after leaving Chinese football.
Jan 23, 2019 15:15 chinese super league football/soccer team sports
The club has been in the Chinese top flight since gaining promotion in 1998 and won the Chinese FA Cup in 2011. However, success has been hard to come by in recent years, with just one top-ten finish in the last six years.
Fellaini travels to China to complete move
Elsewhere in China, Shandong Luneng are on the verge of signing Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian international is thought to be on his way to China after passing a medical and will sign a three-year-deal when he lands. The two clubs are thought to have agreed a deal in the region of US$13.1m for the Belgian international.
Fellaini joined Manchester United from Everton for around US$36.1m in 2013 and has made 87 appearances for his country. Luneng are believed to have offered him a contract worth US$309,000 per week. He was a favourite of previous manager Jose Mourinho but has played just 31 minutes in eight games under new boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Craig Houston is an English language editor at gbtimes.com. He has spent the majority of his career in sports journalism and radio.
TEAM SPORTS (382)
FOOTBALL/SOCCER (308)
CHINESE SUPER LEAGUE (60)
CIICC delegation visits Finnish waste treatment plant
CICCC Executive Chairman Long Yuxiang visited a waste treatment plant near Tampere, Finland's third largest city.
by GBTIMES JAPAN GERMANY | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5911 |
__label__cc | 0.745767 | 0.254233 | “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Josh 24:15
Our Lady Queen of Peace Men’s Club was formed in 2012 as a social and service organization to promote opportunities for men of our parish who desire a greater involvement in our Church community. The goals and objectives of this organization are to enhance opportunities for spiritual growth, promote fellowship among the men of the parish, to carry out significant service projects for the betterment of our parish, and to promote an active interest in Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church.
From the Mission Statement… The OLQP Men’s club is a social and service organization created to promote opportunities for men of our parish who desire a greater involvement in our Church community.
It is made up of men from our parish. If you are a male, 18 yrs or older, and a member of our parish, then you are already a member of the OLQP Men’s Club, and are welcome at our meetings.
This club is not in any way meant to be in competition with or as an alternative to the Knights of Columbus, but a complimentary organization with a primary focus on our parish and church community.
Any a parish member of the Knights of Columbus is also welcome in the men’s club
Men's club meet every first Monday of the month in the parish Hall. For more information please contact Jim Brennan at jnbrennan@sbcgloobal.net or Ray Hanold at Rainer2320@sbcglobal.net | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5912 |
__label__wiki | 0.86862 | 0.86862 | You are here: Home / Reviews / Exhibition Reviews / Hollis Frampton’s ‘other work’
Hollis Frampton’s ‘other work’
November 16, 2015 /in Autumn 2015_'Vintage', Exhibition Reviews, Reviews /by Jeroen Sondervan
Tags: exhibition, film, Hollis Frampton, photography
Hollis Frampton, CEPA, 20 June – 5 September 2015, Buffalo, New York, with ancillary exhibitions at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, Dean Brownrout Modern Contemporary, and the Western New York Book Arts Center
Hollis Frampton featured an excellent exhibition of photographs and other visual artifacts by the pioneering American filmmaker, artist, and writer. CEPA (the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art when it was established in 1974) stands as one of the most important not-for-profit photography-based art centers in the United States. Housed in the restored 1892 Market Arcade building, the gallery presented three floors of photographs, collage works, early color xerography, and artist notes by Frampton. The self-conscious diversity of works in the exhibition and its location in Buffalo is crucial to understanding Frampton’s status not only as one of the most celebrated experimental American filmmakers, but also a multi-media artist whose ‘other work’ (as he called it) in photography, xerography, and serial imagery deserves recognition.[1]
For readers unfamiliar with Frampton, an introduction may be in order. Hollis Frampton (1936-1984) released his first film in 1966 at the age of 30. Highly erudite, with a command of Latin, Ancient Greek, French, and German, and an encyclopedic knowledge of art and literature, Frampton attended but never completed high school (Philips Academy) or university (Western Reserve, in his native Ohio). Frampton explored poetry in the 1950s, studying with Ezra Pound, and then was immersed in the emergent New York City avant-gardes of painting, sculpture, and dance from 1958 until he decamped to Western New York in 1970. His circle included Carl Andre, Simone Forti, Robert Huot, Lee Lozano, Michael Snow, Twyla Tharp, and Joyce Wieland. Indeed, a fascinating element of the exhibition is the documentary quality of assemblages, contact sheet-style, of portraits of artists: e.g. Larry Poons (April 1963), Robert Morris (April 1963), John Chamberlain (April 1963), James Rosenquist (Palm Sunday, 1963), and a wonderful double bill, Frank Stella/Hollis Frampton (1958-62). The images of these artists at the moment of their emergence in the New York art scene captures not only the detail of the scene (Frampton photographs artists in their studios in the poverty of downtown lofts at the time), but he also captures the performative element of artists considering their ‘image’ for the art world. His brilliance, dry wit, and reputation as an inexhaustible raconteur is remarked upon by many in that scene, though at the time his métier – still photography and experimental film – left him, in his words, ‘a committed illusionist’ in an art world dominated by abstraction.
Frampton worked in multiple media throughout his career, including, as mentioned above, still photography and colour xerography, but also video, performance, and computer software and hardware design, the latter at the Digital Art Lab at SUNY Buffalo, where he was hired in 1973. Before making his mark as a filmmaker (in 1970, Zorns Lemma was the first experimental feature to screen at the New York Film Festival) he worked as a color photography technician. Indeed, although Frampton has a deserved reputation (partly through his witty and allusive published writings in Artforum and October) as a conceptual artist, he had just as systematic an understanding of concrete technical practices, evident in his attention to color, tone, and composition in his photography and films.
This element of craft is on display in the exhibition, particularly in early photographs like Untitled (1960-62) – a rich, high contrast image of a manhole cover whose hexagonal design elements echo later motifs in his unfinished magnum opus Magellan. Twenty years later in his career the same craft and metaphorical richness is found in the magnificent and moving serial work ADSVMVS ABSVMVS (1982), dedicated to the memory of Frampton’s father. It presents a series of fourteen images of desiccated animals and plants, each accompanied by a fabulist text on the formerly living being. For example, the following accompanies XI. GRASS FROG (Rana pipiens):
[T]his specimen was discovered by Will Faller, Jr. in May, 1981 on the shoulder of a macadam road in Randallsville, Town of Lebanon, New York. The timid soprano amphibian becomes highly vocal under collective sexual arousal, improvising stochastic nocturnal choruses of considerable elegance. It is nominally edible, but meager.
Still, Frampton understands the dangers of fetishising craft in photography, the mechanical illusion of which he embraced. In one of the many documents presented in vitrines at the show is a scribbled note:
[T]he photograph does not respond gratefully to examination as object. Concentration on object-making (cf Ansel Adams) leads to sterility.
He then maps two paths for ‘CRAFT’, one for ‘Painting à Permanence’ and the other for ‘Phot[ography] à Normative Adequacy’. Although Frampton continued to make photographs throughout his career, he was as interested in found images as he was in his own carefully composed pictures.
In terms of his film work, after Zorns Lemma, Frampton’s most celebrated and influential films were part of his seven-part serial work Hapax Legomena (1971-72). (nostalgia) was selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2003, while Critical Mass has inspired its own software (designed by his former SUNY Buffalo student Barbara Lattanzi) and a performance version (conceived by Kerry Tribe). Unlike other avant-garde filmmakers of the time, Frampton embraced film not as a medium of self-exploration and personal expression (as Frampton said, that was inevitable anyway) but as the culmination of a conceptual search for a mode of investigation of the world, of art, and of consciousness itself. The legacy of that extraordinary consciousness resonates in the work of artists and filmmakers today like Lattanzi, Tribe, Su Friedrich, Peter Greenaway, Lev Manovich, Damian Moppett, Evan Meaney, and countless others.
Even as Frampton’s work has influenced others, so much of it, like the new material unveiled at this exhibition, is underexplored (or was unfinished at his early death at age 48). For example, as previously noted, the major project that occupied the last decade of his life was Magellan, a multi-part project totaling 36 hours of film that was meant to be screened over roughly a calendar year. As Frampton wrote, Magellan was dedicated to ‘making film over as it should have been’ had it started from ‘the most obvious material limits of the total film machine’.[2] This playful but highly ambitious take on modernism and film leaves us with fascinating fragments of what Frampton foresaw as a work of art that could serve as an ‘epistemological model for the conscious human universe’. Some material from the show is linked to Magellan, including A Visitation of Insomnia (#5) (1970-73), a series of photographs taken at the same time as his film INGENIVM NOBIS IPSA PVELLA FECIT (1975). Other pieces partake in Frampton’s preference for the multi-part serial or cyclical work (of which Magellan was one of the most ambitious in the history of film), in which each image stands on its own but benefits from its resonance with elements of the larger work. For example, the colour xerography series By Any Other Name – Series #1 (1979) presents images of food labels with the image colours and densities transformed through the particular chemistry of early colour Xerox. However, as with so much of Frampton’s work, the play with language and titling is central. In this case, he isolates foods whose brand names are nonsensical, inverting the food and brand name: e.g. Thick Soy Sauce Brand Pistols, or Clam Brand Whole Baby Geishas. Another treat is the series he made with Marion Faller in homage to Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion photographs, titled Sixteen Studies from Vegetable Locomotion (1975). Against Muybridge’s familiar black-and-white grid we see Savoy cabbage flying [var. “Chieftain”] and Sweet corn disrobing [var. “Early Sunglow”].
Supplementing the many artworks hung for the exhibition were textual materials in viewing cabinets. Frampton left behind many production notes, often handwritten on index cards, which were favoured by artists in this period. A real highlight of the show was a series called ‘24 Art Anecdotes’, consisting of quotations by or exchanges between artists. These ranged from the familiar (‘Mallarmé and a “painter”: “poems not made of ideas, they’re made of words”’) through the less familiar (‘Joyce: “Did other things with that hand”’) to quotations that only Frampton could have overheard (‘Mike Snow + “an interlocutor”: “LE VIN ET ICI”’). The last belongs to Frampton’s stepson, Will Faller: ‘Will F. (age 6): “Not think about them, just make them”’, which is good advice for any artist, particularly one as devoted to thought and consciousness as Frampton. Other documents included correspondence with Stan Brakhage, letters of reference for Frampton’s hire at SUNY Buffalo by Standish Lawder (Yale) and Bill Judson (Carnegie Museum), and notes on art and theory which, in their wit and economy, have the quality of aphorisms: ‘THE UNIVERSE came into existence in absence of a critical tradition’, or ‘THE CUT is what is made’. Finally, many of the photographs among the documents feature Frampton himself, along with production photographs from his films.
The exhibition was mounted in conjunction with Dean Brownrout Modern Contemporary (which specializes in representing artists and works with a connection to Western New York) and the Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center (the only organisation in Western New York that provides equipment access and education and also has an exhibition space for film and digital media). The Western New York location and focus of the exhibition institutions is important for understanding the context for Frampton’s wide-ranging work in multiple media in the 1970s and 1980s. SUNY Buffalo, a major international site for theory and poetics in this period, was the home of the Center for Media Study, which in its first decade was an innovative, even utopian, space for advanced practice and theorisation of visual and sound media. Buffalo joined schools like SUNY Binghamton, as well as museums and media arts centres in Utica and Syracuse, in housing avant-garde artists and media technologists in part of a larger push toward regionalisation of art and media centres that attempted to resist the force of the art world magnet New York City.[3]
The exhibition featured a number of ancillary exhibitions and events that expand our understanding of Frampton as a multi-media artist. Squeaky Wheel, established in 1985 and housed in the same building as CEPA, presented two of Frampton’s films (in digital copies) in its gallery space and also hosted a resident guest artist, Evan Meaney, who has produced two digital media works in response to Frampton’s films. Meaney’s Frampton-inspired works include an appropriately minimalist video arcade version of Lemon (1969) and a very smart digital video homage to Gloria! (1979) titled Ceibas: Epilogue – The Well of Representation (2011), which renders the narratives of Frampton’s film using 16-bit video game technology. The Western New York Book Arts Center also presented a series of books and text-related objects, including a little-known Frampton work titled Torments [Tortures] of the Text (1974-84), comprised of a rusted typewriter, along with a photograph of a book ‘riddled with bullet holes titled Tortures [Torments] of the Text (1974-84). The summer exhibition had a series of screenings and live events that both look back at the history in which Frampton is embedded (e.g. a Digital Arts Lab roundtable bringing together former students) and look forward to ways in which his work continues to live in the work of other artists and technologies (e.g. a screening of films from Magellan with sound by Robert A. A. Lowe (aka LICHENS), VWLS, and Lesionread). The constellation of art and events around the Hollis Frampton exhibition is a fitting tribute to the richness and diversity of his artistic practice and part of a larger renaissance of cultural and scholarly interest in a remarkable postwar American artist and thinker.
Michael Zryd (York University)
Frampton, Hollis. ‘A Statement of Plans [for Magellan]’ in On the camera arts and consecutive matters: The writings of Hollis Frampton, edited by Bruce Jenkins. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009.
Jenkins, Bruce, Frampton, Hollis, Krane, Susan, and Faller, Marion (eds). Hollis Frampton, recollections/recreations: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984.
Vasulka, Woody and Weibel, Peter (eds). Buffalo heads: Media study, media practice, media pioneers, 1973-1990. Karlsruhe & Cambridge: ZKM/MIT Press, 2008.
[1] See the exhibition catalogue for an earlier exhibition of Frampton’s ‘other work’ just before his death in 1984, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Hollis Frampton, Recollections/Recreations: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York).
[2] Frampton 2009.
[3] An excellent and voluminous overview of the Center for Media Study is the unfortunately named exhibition catalogue Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973-1990, edited by Woody Vasulka and Peter Weibel for a remarkable exhibition at Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe.
https://www.necsus-ejms.org/wp-content/uploads/Necsus-01.png 0 0 Jeroen Sondervan https://www.necsus-ejms.org/wp-content/uploads/Necsus-01.png Jeroen Sondervan2015-11-16 15:11:592015-11-30 19:53:48Hollis Frampton’s ‘other work’
Artists’ Film Biennial, ICA 2014 Richard Serra: Sculpture, television, and the status quo | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5914 |
__label__wiki | 0.96216 | 0.96216 | Assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering Mingda Li relishes the freedom of his new academic life, and the growing MIT network that sustains his research passions.
Photo: Lillie Paquette/School of Engineering
Deriving a theory of defects
Mingda Li seeks to harness atomic irregularities in materials for improved energy applications.
Leda Zimmerman | Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
“I only recently decided on the area to which I would dedicate decades of my life,” confides Mingda Li PhD ’15, who has just been appointed assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. “I could not commit until I became mentally mature enough to make real contributions.”
The area Li today calls his own, and where he is indeed generating significant advances, lies at the intersection of quantum physics and engineering. His research characterizing complex defects in materials has the potential to break through efficiency barriers in a wide range of energy applications.
In five papers published in 2017, including two in the Nano Letters, Li and his co-authors described a new approach to understanding a common type of material defect called a crystal dislocation, proposing a theoretical new particle named a “dislon” to help capture the mechanism underlying dislocation.
“These defects show up everywhere — in metals, semiconductors, insulators,” says Li. Caused by stress, they emerge naturally in crystals, disrupting the precise lattice arrangement of atoms, and affecting a wide range of properties in materials, including electrical and thermal behavior.
Previous attempts had failed to precisely delineate the mechanism for these dislocations. Li, conducting postdoctoral research with advisors Gang Chen, the Soderberg Professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the late Institute Professor Emerita Mildred S. Dresselhaus, drew on quantum field theory to contrive a mathematical approach for explaining dislocations. His quantum dislocation framework, based on hundreds of pages of derivations, can determine how dislocations change materials.
“We came up with one equation to compute any properties caused by dislocation — electrical, optical, magnetic, thermal, even superconducting,” says Li.
With his innovative approach, Li believes it will be possible to transform dislocations from mere defects into a new material tuning dimension. “We will be able to tailor them to improve the performance of many kinds of materials, including those used in thermoelectric technologies, nuclear reactor claddings, solar panels, and semiconductor microelectronics,” says Li.
Uncertain beginnings
This accomplishment, which has vaulted Li to prominence in the field, comes after a long journey during which Li sometimes struggled to find his bearings. Growing up in Tsingtao, China, Li felt at an early age “a great passion for mathematics,” and for computer science in particular. “I adored Bill Gates, and with access to a personal computer at school, taught myself programming,” he says.
He avidly read comics, especially the popular Doraemon manga series, named for a robot cat who travels back in time to protect a boy. “The boy was really unlucky, criticized by tyrants,” recalls Li. “I wished I had my own robot, but then I finally decided to become the Doraemon.”
With his move to a boarding high school in Beijing, Li began to explore disciplines with great intensity. He entertained a life in mathematics, but gave that up before college. “I needed true genius and intuition, and realized I had that only 5 percent of the time.” So he turned to physics and engineering. “I had an eagerness to learn and create something new, to make me feel excited and happy,” he says.
At Tsinghua University, he took up high energy and laser physics, but then turned to nuclear science, whose promise of unlimited energy intrigued him. After encountering MIT transfer students, Li decided to pursue doctoral studies in nuclear science and engineering in the U.S. with “the world’s leading experts” at MIT.
Finding the right path
At NSE, Li initially worked on questions of X-ray scattering. “I was interested in particle dynamics at a nanometer scale, trying to understand how there’s something beyond material structure that can influence properties.”
After a project in high end electron microscopy fell through, Li felt stuck. “I didn’t have a good thesis topic, and had no idea what to do next,” he recalls.
In search of direction, Li approached his advisor, Ju Li, the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, for advice. “He just told me to do great science,” recalls Li. “This made me feel both anxious and immensely free, because I needed to design an interesting project from the ground up, finding suitable collaborators, and resources, which I finally did.”
For his dissertation, Li began studying topological materials, “semiconductors that behave weirdly,” using spectroscopic and other methods. “These materials live in a quantum world, and they act very different from traditional materials, especially in terms of electron and thermal transport,” he says. For his postdoctoral research, he “was thinking bigger and crazier,” he says, with studies of topological materials culminating in his pathbreaking dislon framework.
Today, Li is extending this research, working with materials in his own lab to see how defects might improve the performance of technologies society depends on. “People want to build transmission lines without heat loss,” says Li, citing one example. “We need to learn how to tune material properties in the right direction.”
He has a long-term ambition to develop a comparable framework for analyzing amorphous materials like cement. “If we want to build structures that last forever, we need to understand their behaviors better.”
Most of all, he relishes the freedom of his new academic life, and the growing MIT network that sustains his research passions. “I have so many talented colleagues, friends, and students, who talk and get excited together every day,” says Li. “I really treasure this community.”
Topics: Faculty, Profile, Alternative energy, Nuclear power and reactors, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Nuclear science and engineering, Mechanical engineering, School of Engineering, Energy
Mingda Li
Nano Energy Group
Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Turning heat into electricity
School of Engineering welcomes new faculty
Mapping the effects of crystal defects
Radiation physics today for materials science tomorrow | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5917 |
__label__wiki | 0.718799 | 0.718799 | Former Spymaster held over ‘Torture to Confess’ scandal
Politics2019-04-25
The Chingeltei District Court decided today (25 April) to extend the detention of B.Khurts, the controversial former director of Mongolian’s General Intelligence Agency (GIA) for 15 days at the request of the prosecutors. He has been detained by the Criminal Police Department over the ‘torture to confess’ case. B.Khurts was taken to the 461st Detention Centre on 23 April. While in custody, he refused to give a statement without formal approval of D.Gerel, the current director of GIA.
B.Khurts was accused of breaching of laws on intelligence procedures for having used torture to obtain a confession from defendants of the much-publicised murder case of the politician S.Zorig, who one of the heroes of Mongolia’s peaceful transition to democracy and a likely future prime-minister. Following an investigation lasting two decades – in which there have been accusations of cover-ups and during which numerous people, including the victim’s wife, have been detained – Ts.Amgalanbaatar and two others were sentenced to 24-25 years in prison for the murder of S.Zorig.
The murder of S.Zorig case was transferred to the Criminal Police Department from Independent Authority of Anti-Corruption due to the lack of human resources on 19 March.
S.Zorig
Ex Spy-Chief released on bail
Tortured to Confess Scandal: Former spy-chief to stay in detention
Former Spymaster detained | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5918 |
__label__wiki | 0.8909 | 0.8909 | Class of 2019: Mariah Kenny, for the Cyber Defense
Matt Kelly, mkelly@virginia.edu
There are bad guys in cyberspace, plotting malicious things, and Mariah Kenny aims to stop them.
Kenny, graduating May 19 from the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science with a degree in computer science, is well on her way to doing that. She has a job secured with CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity and tech firm. She co-founded a company that runs cybersecurity training and competitions. Kenny also led an 11-member UVA team to successfully defend its title in April at the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in Orlando, Florida.
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“Last year, we came in as underdogs,” Kenny said. “This year, there was definitely more pressure, since we were the defending champions. We didn’t let that pressure get to us; we just focused on the tasks at hand: competing and defending our systems.”
The competition is based on real-world scenarios, such as defending a business network under active attack.
Last year was the first year the UVA cyber defense team competed in this challenge, and it took first prize. Kenny said this year’s team was more technically sound than last year’s, but its competitive edge was teamwork and communication. Emerging at the top of the pack from among 10 competitors again is still exhilarating.
cyberdefense_champions_inline_01.jpg
“It was awesome to win a second time in a row,” Kenny said. “We felt a healthy mix of disbelief, excitement and exhaustion from leaving all of our energy in the competition. I’m proud of all of the hard work that we put into preparing for the competition, and excited that it paid off.”
Yonghwi Kwon, an assistant professor in the computer science department and adviser to the cyber defense team, said he would rank Kenny among the top students in the country. He called her a great communicator, with her teammates and with other teams.
“The fact that she is a great communicator does not mean she is short on the technical side,” Kwon said. “Communication in computer science is very unique. You need to understand the techniques and details to effectively communicate. Mariah has a very strong background in computer science and she knows how to dissect technical details and reconstruct them to explain better. This, I believe, is a truly gifted skill for a computer science student.”
Because of her skills, Kwon said she is a wonderful person with whom to work.
“She has outstanding skills to approach different people effectively,” Kwon said. “She maintains great relationships with other teams and even sponsors. That is a really needed skill for success. I believe she will be a leader in the field and we will hear her name in various channels very soon.”
Kenny, from Glen Allen, said she likes problem-solving and helping people.
“I figured computers are going to be part of our lives and every aspect of the future, so by studying that field of engineering, I could be the most useful to the most people,” she said.
But all of this connectivity has a dark side.
“People need to be more aware of how it will change our lives, especially in the aspects of data security and privacy, because we are more connected,” she said. “I think it is good, but you have to be aware of what changes could happen because of it.”
Kenny wants people to think about with whom they share which data. Some data should never be shared, some can be shared with trusted friends and some can be made public. Kenny urges people to question the security of those with whom they do share information.
“Sometimes, it’s better to say something over the telephone than send it in an email where it can sit on a server forever,” Kenny said. “And if you’re really worried about your phone lines being tapped, then you have a different threat model. You have some other things that you should be focusing on.”
Aside from offering cybersecurity courses such as “Defense Against the Dark Arts,” taught by Jack Davidson, a professor of computer science, Kenny said UVA has another advantage for aspiring computer scientists.
“One thing that gets overlooked is the alumni network, through which I have learned a lot of cybersecurity,” she said. “When we won some of the competitions, some UVA alums who actually work in the cybersecurity industry reached out to me. I shadowed the chief information security officer at Fannie Mae for a day, which was awesome to get that perspective. I learned a lot through UVA alumni. That was a hidden thing that I did not think about that has been super-valuable.”
Kenny’s CrowdStrike position is in Washington, D.C., so she will remain near the University.
CrowdStrike is not her only cybersecurity venture. Kenny, along with two other students and a UVA alumna, have created MetaCTF, a cybersecurity company that runs cybersecurity competitions and training for companies, organizations and schools. MetaCTF emerged from the Pike Fellowship program at the Engineering School, which provided funding and mentoring to help the company continue to expand. It was also one of the winners in UVA’s Entrepreneurship Cup competition.
Kenny is helping the University build interest in its cybersecurity offerings, especially among women interested in science, technology, engineering and math areas. A member of Women in Computing Sciences and the Society of Women Engineers, Kenny helps with a visitation program to talk with high school students who may want to follow in her footsteps.
She encourages women to work in cybersecurity because of their communications skills.
“Women are thought to be stronger communicators than men, but we often choose to apply these skills in more traditional fields, such as education, and overlook others,” Kenny said in an article she wrote for U.S. News & World Report. “In fact, a new study in the journal Psychological Science found that women may be less likely to pursue careers in science and math because they identify more career choices in other fields, not because they have less ability in engineering or computer science.”
Kenny suggested that more mentoring for women would help. “Without role models at the educational and professional levels, women will forgo careers in cybersecurity,” she wrote. “Networking and mentorship are the key to closing the cybersecurity skills gap and the gender gap.”
Kenny said women have a strong presence at UVA Engineering, but that more work needs to be done.
“UVA has one of the highest percentages of women in engineering and computer science in the country, so here we are at least doing something right,” she said “The University is getting better, but we still need to work on it. We are bringing about a more general awareness to it, but there needs to be a willingness for the industry to make that shift.”
Matt Kelly
mkelly@virginia.edu (434) 924-7291 | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5919 |
__label__wiki | 0.912836 | 0.912836 | Boehner Reaches Into Bag of Tricks to Disrupt Democrats
WASHINGTON Representative John A. Boehner came to Washington in 1991 as a rabble-rousing Republican willing to disrupt the House to score points against powerful Democrats. Now, as the House Republican leader in a town again dominated by Democrats, the Ohioan is back to his old tricks.
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Representative John A. Boehner uses various means to make a political case for Republicans.
Mr. Boehner Speaking Against the Climate Change Bill (YouTube)
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Trying to build opposition to a climate change measure being considered as the Fourth of July recess loomed, Mr. Boehner commandeered the floor for an hour to mount an unofficial filibuster and ridicule the legislation. He has sanctioned efforts by rank-and-file Republicans to tie up the House with dozens of procedural votes. During the debate on the economic stimulus, he threw the huge bill to the floor with a theatrical thump.
“There are times when the majority just does such outrageous things that you have to find a way to make your point to the American people,” said Mr. Boehner, who began his House career as one of the so-called Gang of Seven, a group of Republican upstarts that confronted Democrats over the House banking scandal and other institutional abuses.
Mr. Boehner has various motivations for using whatever means are at his disposal to make a political case. Republicans portray the climate measure as a flawed threat to the economy. Given the fact that his party is almost totally powerless, a little stagecraft can be the only way to get attention. Then there is the issue of bolstering morale among his beleaguered House colleagues, who said they were energized by Mr. Boehner’s performance against the energy bill.
“Our side has been waiting for somebody to swing back,” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, who predicted Mr. Boehner’s efforts would elevate him in national Republican circles.
But Democrats say Mr. Boehner’s tactics smack of desperation.
“Obviously, he talked for a long time and did not persuade a majority of the people,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a member of the Democratic leadership, after Mr. Boehner’s scathing attack on the bill failed to scare off enough legislators to defeat it.
Mr. Boehner grabbed the floor by stretching his rights as Republican leader. While debate time is carefully meted out in the House, tradition allows the speaker and the two party leaders to talk as long they like even though they may have been formally allotted only a minute. Such remarks typically run 5 or 10 minutes.
In Mr. Boehner’s case, he was given two minutes, a period he extended to over an hour as he picked almost page-by-page through a 300-page amendment that was added to the climate change bill in the early morning hours the day of the vote. An hour of time during a House floor debate is virtually unheard of for one person.
The stunt did not quite reach the level of former Representative Jim Nussle of Iowa, a fellow member of the Gang of Seven, who wore a bag over his head on the House floor in professed embarrassment at overdrafts run up by his colleagues at the House bank. But it was certainly reminiscent of Mr. Boehner’s maverick days of using C-Span time to full advantage.
In fact, Republicans are regularly reaching back for their Greatest Hits in challenging Democrats. A Rube Goldberg-like chart produced by Mr. Boehner’s office showing the enforcement of the proposed climate bill bore more than a passing resemblance to a convoluted Republican chart that helped undo the Clinton administration health care proposal in 1993.
On Thursday, House Republicans reprised a famous 1984 Senate race advertisement to show bloodhounds in search of elusive jobs supposedly being created by the Obama administration’s economic stimulus law.
Democrats say Republicans might want to get with the times.
“It is not just their tactics that are from yesterday, but their policies are from a period when Americans lost their economic edge,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.
Republicans believe they can turn the energy fight to their favor. Mr. Boehner and his aides said his Boehner-buster brought thousands of favorable calls to his office, was a hit among Twitter followers and has been seen thousands of times on YouTube.
“This is where the new media tools do help us,” said Mr. Boehner. He said he received vocal encouragement for his push against the energy bill from spectators as he played in a Pro-Am golf tournament with Tiger Woods outside Washington on Wednesday.
Mr. Boehner’s early confrontations with Democrats earned him a spot in the leadership when House Republicans took over in 1994. But he lost that slot in a 1999 shake-up and spent time in exile before winning back a top job in 2006 when Tom DeLay, the majority leader at the time, ran into trouble.
His comrades in the Gang of Seven Mr. Nussle, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Scott Klug of Wisconsin, Charles H. Taylor of North Carolina, and John Doolittle and Frank Riggs of California are long gone from Congress, leaving Mr. Boehner to carry on.
“I think showing the American people that there are people willing to take a principled stand in Washington is a very good thing,” he said.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/politics/05hill-web.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Posted in: John Boehner | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5922 |
__label__cc | 0.713723 | 0.286277 | Northwood Officially Opens the William E. Frank Live More Park
It is the most unique park design in Atlantic Canada. The William E. Frank Live More Park, located on the grounds of the Bedford Campus, was made possible by the generous support of donors to the Northwood Foundation and through an intensive consultation process with the West Bedford community, with Northwood residents, senior care experts and Northwood staff.
Designed for all ages and stages of life, this multi-faceted outdoor recreation and gardening space invites a wide variety of scheduled and spontaneous activities and experiences. It is deliberately designed for children, families, people living with disability, people living with memory loss and other forms of dementia and the surrounding neighbourhood.
A gardening shed modeled after a traditional train station stands at the entrance to the garden. Paved paths that meander through the garden and raised beds make it accessible to those with limited mobility.
Work began on the project over two years ago with a vision to create a space for a community garden that could be shared by residents, staff and the community. The Northwood Foundation’s past board chair, John Bonnell, spearheaded the drive to raise funds for the project.
“The Park will provide a unique opportunity for residents and community to come together in a shared activity,” says Janet Simm, President and CEO. “To have an accessible area that all people, no matter their level of mobility or life situation, is phenomenal.”
Work on the Park continues with plans for a fountain, gazebo and bridge to complete the landscape. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5923 |
__label__cc | 0.535321 | 0.464679 | More Obituaries for OP MOONEY
SISTER OP BERNADETTE MOONEY
MOONEY, OP, SISTER BERNADETTE of Grand Rapids (born in Ionia, MI) died September 10, 2018. She was 85 years old and a Dominican Sister for 66 years. Sister Bernadette earned a bachelor's degree from Aquinas College; a M.A.R.E. (Masters in the Art of Religious Education) degree from St. Paul Seminary, Saginaw; and a Master's in Social Work from the University of Michigan. Sr. Bernadette served as a teacher at St. Philomena in Beal City; St. Andrew, St. Alphonsus, Marywood Academy, and St. Stephen, Grand Rapids; St. Francis, Traverse City; Holy Rosary Academy, Bay City; St. John, Essexville; St. Mary, Lake Leelanau; SS. Peter and Paul, Saginaw; and Catholic Central, Muskegon. For ten years Sr. Bernadette served in both Grand Rapids Public and Catholic Schools as a social worker. During these years, she initiated and taught classes for parents and teachers. After acquiring a certificate in American Sign Language, she spent nine years in the Diocese of Lansing with the Catholic Deaf Ministry. Her goal was to empower the deaf community to develop their own leadership and carry on without a hearing director. Among her many ministries, Sr. Bernadette served at Hope Network in their program assisting patients with brain injuries; at St. Alphonsus Food and Clothing Center as coordinator of volunteers and computer operations; as an intern to the Hispanic community of St. Andrew Parish and a Hispanic Ministry Outreach program in the city. She became a Master Reiki Practitioner using these skills to minister to the Sisters at Aquinata Hall and Marywood Health Center. Study and itinerancy marked Sister Bernadette Mooney's extraordinary and productive years as a Dominican Sister~Grand Rapids. She was ever open and responsive to calls to ministry in new forms and places, never afraid to take risk, always willing and eager to learn. Sr. Bernadette is survived by her sisters Esther (Arnold) Johnson of Grand Rapids, MI and Martha (Michael) Baczewski of Sand Lake, MI and her brother Bob (Eileen) Mooney of Charlotte, MI; nieces and nephews; many friends and members of her Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids Community. Sister Bernadette will repose at Dominican Chapel/Marywood, 2025 Fulton Street East, with visitation on Sunday, September 16 from 6:00-7:00 pm, followed by a Remembering Service at 7:00 pm. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 am on Monday, September 17 at Dominican Chapel/Marywood. Burial will be at Resurrection Cemetery. Memorials in Sister Bernadette Mooney's name may be made to the Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters.
Published in Grand Rapids Press on Sept. 13, 2018
"Sister Marie Bernadette taught me how to read in first..."
-Joseph Sage
"Our deepest sympathies to the Mooney families. The Lord has..."
-Roberta Aldrich | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5925 |
__label__cc | 0.625937 | 0.374063 | More Obituaries for Jerry Cruz
Jerry Joe Cruz
Jerry was born August 23rd,1947 and passed away on June 7th, 2019 in Durango, CO. He was 71. Jerry was born to Arcenio "Archie" and Gregorita Cruz in Arboles, CO. He grew up in East Carbon, Utah where his father was a coal miner. They moved back to Colorado where he attended Ignacio High School graduating in 1965. He then attended a year of college at Adams State in Alamosa, CO. Jerry soon enlisted in the United States Army serving overseas during the Vietnam War. He was very proud to serve his country and even more proud to have his son follow his military footsteps joining the Army and his Grandson enlisting in the Navy. Jerry lived in Colorado Springs where he met his wife Kathleen Cummings. They moved to East Carbon, Utah and started their family. He worked many years in the coal mines until the mines shut down. He returned to Ignacio in the early 80's where he worked for the Ignacio school district as a bus driver and groundskeeper retiring after 20 years. There was never a time that you wouldn't see him driving down the street in the big red dodge, plowing snow, helping out in the cafeteria, or his morning visit at the patio or El Dorado with his bus driver buddies enjoying his coffee, ham, and eggs and catching up on all the gossip. He enjoyed his bus trips and watching all the kids sports. He especially enjoyed his trips to state wrestling and driving the bus to space camp.
Jerry coached little league baseball for many years and was a member of the American Legion Post 36 and ran the bingo every Saturday night. He was kind, caring and always put his family first and enjoyed his time with his grandchildren. Jerry was a bright light in this community and will be missed by many.
He is preceded in death by his parents Arcenio " Archie" and Gregorita Cruz and one granddaughter. Jerry is survived by his children Brandon Cruz (Karla), Sandra Maez (Mark), Ashley Cruz (Danny), Amanda Cruz, and Tammy Prein. Brother Danny Cruz (Doreen) of Aurora, CO, four nieces Annette Williams (Ronnie), Kristy Allen (Jay), Kym Cruz, and
Samantha Jo Cruz all of Arizona, 18 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Ignacio, CO on Friday, July 5th. Rosary to be said at 9:30 am with a memorial mass to follow at 10:00 am. In lieu of flowers donations can be made in Jerry's honor to The Ignacio Wrestling Club Attention: Jordan Larson PO Box 460 Ignacio, CO 81137
Published in The Durango Herald on June 24, 2019
"Danny & Cruz families; We are truly sorry to hear of your..."
-Robert & Peggy Marquez-Mena
" Our hearts go out to you Sandra and Mark and the entire..." | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5926 |
__label__wiki | 0.784992 | 0.784992 | THE ARTFUL BLOGGER: Come June 2013, the city-run Karsh-Masson Gallery will close the doors at its current location
POSTED September 26, 2012 9:59 am
A look inside Karsh-Masson Gallery during Maria Lezon's 2010 exhibition "The Lounging Soap Opera." Maria Lezon @ KM, 2009-2010.
The Karsh-Masson Gallery will cease operations, at least at its current ByWard Market location, in June next year.
The gallery, which is run by the City of Ottawa, moved to 136 St. Patrick St. in 2003 after initially operating for 10 years in the former City Hall on Sussex Drive. That building now houses offices of the Foreign Affairs Department.
Karsh-Masson may re-open somewhere else after leaving the market but the city’s top cultural officials, including Debbie Hill and Nicole Zuger, aren’t answering questions. Queries to them were forwarded to the city’s corporate communications office.
“The five-year lease at 136 St-Patrick will expire in June 2013 and the City won’t be renewing at that location,” city spokesman Michael Fitzpatrick said in an email. “The City is now investigating options for an alternate location.”
That is apparently all the public is going to be told at this point.
We can only speculate at this point as to the reason for the move. Was the building in bad repair? Did the NCC raise the rent? Was the space just not suitable?
The gallery was plagued by a leaky roof and forced to close for a few months this past spring. That closure shortened the length of an exhibition by Ottawa artist Karen Jordon to avoid her art getting damaged, and another show by Lisa Creskey, an Outaouais ceramicist, was postponed until next May. Creskey will, in fact, by the last artist to show at the market location next year.
The National Capital Commission says the leaky roof is fixed.
A leaky roof in an NCC building was the initial reason given some years ago for the “temporary” closure of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography beside the Fairmont Château Laurier. Well, the roof got fixed but the museum never re-opened.
The museum’s parent organization, the National Gallery of Canada, needed to reduce expenses and Parliament needed more committee rooms near the Hill. So, it was a win-win situation all around, except for the photography museum, the many artists who showed there, and the visitors who admired those artists’ work.
The building housing Karsh-Masson was the former Canadian Museum of Caricature operated by Library and Archives Canada. That museum lasted only a few years before the feds closed it.
The current exhibition at Karsh-Masson showcases the work of Ottawa photographer Rosalie Favell, who is this year’s winner of the Karsh Award for excellence in photography. Photo credit: Rosalie Favell, Snow (Wish You Were Here), 2011.
Karsh-Masson moved in there in 2003, supposedly only on a temporary basis. The building offers 2,600 square feet of exhibition space spread over two floors. The previous space at the former City Hall offered 4,000 square feet. Thus the market location was smaller and, being rather cramped, did not lend itself to the exhibition of large artworks and installations.
The gallery’s location has pluses and minuses. It is close to the National Gallery and other market galleries, meaning there is a critical mass of art-lovers in the neighbourhood. But the gallery is in a small, hidden courtyard that is easy to miss. Rarely, does one see many visitors inside.
The current exhibition at Karsh-Masson showcases the work of Ottawa photographer Rosalie Favell, who is this year’s winner of the Karsh Award for excellence in photography. That show ends Oct. 28.
When Karsh-Masson moved to the market, the move was billed as “temporary.” There was talk back in 2003 of returning to the former City Hall some day. Let’s hope that idea has been ditched. That building is now controlled by Foreign Affairs, which is not exactly known as a people-friendly place.
The city also controls a small gallery in the downtown City Hall at Elgin Street and maintains several community galleries that offer a mix of professional and amateur art.
The Ottawa Art Gallery receives some funds from the city but is much more independent than Karsh-Masson. Each gallery has a particular mandate although it is difficult at times to figure out how they differ from one another. The city also supports the artist-run Gallery 101. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5931 |
__label__cc | 0.749816 | 0.250184 | Posted byJaDonnia February 26, 2019 2 Comments on Here’s What I Learned From Teaching Beyond The Textbooks!
I taught Social Studies in middle school for one year, and in that year, I learned at least one very valuable lesson. It isn’t what I learned from the text books, because that year, I was given no textbooks from which to teach. It’s what I learned about and from the students themselves.
My public school learners were in special education programs, but they could have been mainstream, regular ed students. My class was almost 99% black, and yet the scope and sequence of the social studes curriculum for the middle grades had no African-American content. Aside from mere footnotes on the sides of pages of suggested texts, people of color were not included as being relevant to any time period in U.S. history.
Without texts to distribute to each student, I had to look elsewhere for lesson planning. Covering the American Revolution, names, dates and events all centered around white people. The content was bland, uni-dimensional and boring to these students. With this type of information being imparted on these children, they detached and disrupted-acted out. No note-taking, no engagement. In one ear and out the other.
This went on for a few weeks and something snapped. An aha moment! I had a set of books at home which centered around African-Americans in history that I decided to bring to school. I wanted to connect with my students and could no longer tolerate their inattention. At that point, I abandoned the curriculum as prescribed. It was time that these children were given lessons about who they were as people, who they are and hoped they’d still have dreams about who they could become.[Public education has a way of distinguishing dreams for children of color.]
Amidst the backdrop of U.S. History, they were given pieces of history never explored. There was an amazing transformation among a group of students considered unruly, uncooperative, and the same group who had brought me to tears a time or two because of my inability to control their classroom behavior.
Actually, there were two lessons learned that year, and if I were to reflect more deeply, there are probably many more. At the time, the message given to me by other teachers was that I had to ‘control’ my students. Wrong! We don’t control our students. We give them learning challenges in ways that encouraged them to control their own behaviors and engage appropriately to situations, while maintaining their individuality.
Ultimately, they were acting appropriately to the types of content presented to them. I always loved social studies, but educators seem to miss the mark with today’s children. When I was in grade school, my teachers sprinkled the curriculum with people with whom I could relate and make a connection. This was in the South, where racism was thought to be so very prevalent.
The North was thought to be progressive, more liberal. But, I found myself teaching in New York City, where teachers weren’t teaching to their huge populations of children of color. What misinformation and mis-education!
What was learned in that middle grades classroom was that when my own personal books entered the room, my students listened and actively learned. Giving them these mirrors filled an unmet need, and suddenly they wanted more. There was now a light in their eyes-they belonged. They paid attention, asked questions, and during free reading and ELA[which I also taught], they chose these books to explore. How ironic! Most were assessed at 2nd-3rd grade reading levels. The biographies were written for 5th grade and above.
They learned about people they never knew existed and who excelled in areas they never believed possible. Newly discovered heroes whose lives were wraught with obstacles, too. My students did book reports, and were able to tell real- life stories about African-American people. Present students with truths, logic, and relevant and relatable content. No more ‘Hidden Figures’!
Logic dictates that the earth revolves around the sun, not white people. However, spend just one year in a public school classroom, and one would believe that life is all about whites. Every school student across the U.S. should be required to take Black History, both as a stand-alone course, and also integrated throughout the curriculum.
Year after year, schools make choices about the curriculum-the content and content areas to be taught. Overtly clear in our curriculum is an overall absence of teaching outside of the white perspective. More than 50% of American children are considered minorities and it’s time to start teaching to them, about them and for them; every year, every marking period.
Why? To what end? The fastest way from point A to point B is a straight line. Stop meandering in school. Teaching real-life and believable facts is to tell the truth. It flows naturally. Not his-story, but history. Cultivating a more respectful national climate-between the races, is to teach about the forgotten, dismissed and maligned in society. Children are being groomed, implicitly socialized and explicitly taught from a Eurocentric perspective. Reflect on the curriculum and ask yourselves this, “Who’s missing?” Then, look out at your students.
When children, white children, do not learn about ‘others’, they will lack understanding, tolerance and respect for the ‘other’. Not foreigners, but those with whom they will interact on a daily basis-within our borders.
When children, black children in particular, fail to learn about themselves, they fail to fully respect themselves, understand or realize their own worth. They are socialized to feel as though they are indeed the ‘other’.
Because of the absence of this important aspect of our national history, and the corresponding absence of significant exploration in mainstream education, we perpetuate the inequities, gaps, disparities and the ‘hate’ that we denounce so loudly. The good news is that there are achievable solutions. If we really wish to end the racially-motivated violence, the name-calling, the intolerance and implicit bias, we must uncover the hidden mystery of the other.
Change rarely comes from the top down. Rather it comes from the ground up. Don’t wait or expect it to come from the district level or the administration. Change begins with the teacher in the classroom. You see these children everyday, spend longer periods of time getting to know them, connecting with them and thus should understand what it takes to do so.
While children’s worldviews are being formed, the types of things we teach them in school can influence their mindset. The way they see themselves, the way they see themselves in the world, and the way they see others is being cultivated.
What we teach children in school can outshine what they may learn from their parents at home. Making black history a naturally occurring part of the curriculum content arms children with the necessary appreciation of diversity and for many, a stronger sense of self. It prepares children for engaging with the world more peacefully, and prepares the world to engage one another with greater tolerance, respect and compassion-empathy.
Empathy may be the most critical outcome from teaching about diversity to all children-from the earliest ages. Since we wish to eradicate name-calling, bullying, racism, discrimination, and the fear of the other or the unknown, we must proactively minimize the’ignorance’ about each other. Be unafraid to ask questions, peer beyond the surface, debunk stereotypes and challenge immaculate perceptions.
Teachers, be brave, compassionate, broaden your worldviews and open up new worlds for your learners. Teaching African-American/Black history-the present and the past can do that. We owe it to the black and brown children in classrooms everywhere. We owe it to white children, and we owe it to the future of humanity.
Posted byJaDonnia February 26, 2019 Posted incultural competence, early learning, EDUCATION, education management, school culture, social movements, teaching & learningTags: black history, children of color, empathy, Hidden Figures, immmaculate perceptions, inclusive curriculum, middle grades, mis-education, misinformation, public school, self'esteem, teaching and learning
Do You Know How to Teach Black History?
Who Pays for Parents’ and Children’s Attorneys in Foster Care Related Court Proceedings?
C Ferg says:
Yes, you were the last hired so found out that all the available sets of textbooks/supplies were taken already so you had to go out and pay for your own sets of books,bullitin board materials if you had the money. That was called “sink or swim” so you had to be creative for those Special Education students.This meant that you made a way out of no way and worked your magic with little or no help but you made it by the grace of Mercy of God and you lived to talk about it as a minority in those days.and still we rise and the children cooperated in spite of their handicaps.Most importantly, their parents cooperated also. I would love to meet our students today and see how they made it as adults with their own children/families. But you rock!! You took lemons and made lemonade. Amazing Grace how sweet the song.It was grace and mercy.
JaDonnia B. says:
Thank you for those kind and compassionate words. Yes, you are correct. It was ‘sink or swim’-both in terms of support from administration and student engagement. I made up my mind and made the students my priority, No ‘hands off’ detached attitude, and I connected with them because of that.
The ‘love that I felt for them was returned, and that made everything worth it. Many times, the key to learning success for ‘at risk’ children means that they need adults who care authentically. Also having at least one adult in the school that they can trust, helps them be vulnerable, unafraid to need and to ask for help. They ask questions and engage in learning. This was my ‘reward’-caring and believing in them. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5933 |
__label__wiki | 0.685869 | 0.685869 | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics
Oxford Research Encyclopedias Linguistics
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You are looking at 61-80 of 244 articles
Phoevos Panagiotidis
Semantics, Syntax
Determiners are a nominal syntactic category distinct from both adjectives and nouns; they constitute a functional (aka closed or ‘minor’) category and they are typically located high ... More
Determiners are a nominal syntactic category distinct from both adjectives and nouns; they constitute a functional (aka closed or ‘minor’) category and they are typically located high inside the nominal phrasal structure.
From a syntactic point of view, the category of determiners is commonly understood to comprise the word classes of article, demonstrative, and quantifier, as well as non-adjectival possessives and some nominal agreement markers.
From a semantic point of view, determiners are assumed to function as quantifiers, especially within research informed by Generalized Quantifier Theory. However, this is a one-way entailment: although determiners in natural language are quantificational, their class contains only a subset of the logically possible quantifiers; this class is restricted by conservativity and other factors.
The tension between the ‘syntactic’ and the ‘semantic’ perspective on determiners results to a degree of terminological confusion: it is not always clear which lexical items the Determiner category includes or what the function of determiners is; moreover, there exists a tendency among syntacticians to view ‘Determiner’ as naming not a class, but a fixed position within a nominal phrasal template.
The study of determiners rose to prominence within grammatical theory during the ’80s both due to advances in semantic theorizing, primarily Generalized Quantifier Theory, and due to the generalization of the X' phrasal schema to functional (minor) categories. Some issues in the nature and function of determiners that have been addressed in theoretical and typological work with considerable success include the categorial status of determiners, their (non-)universality, their structural position and feature makeup, their role in argumenthood and their interaction with nominal predicates, and their relation to pronouns. Expectedly, issues in (in)definiteness, quantification, and specificity also figure prominently in research work on determiners.
Dialectology
Becky Childs
The field of dialectology, the study of the language of an area or group of people, has a long tradition within linguistics. From the earliest dialect studies, a focus on rigorous ... More
The field of dialectology, the study of the language of an area or group of people, has a long tradition within linguistics. From the earliest dialect studies, a focus on rigorous methodological practices has been an ever-present component of this discipline. Traditional methodologies can be seen in the work of the early dialect atlases, which relied heavily on mail questionnaires or fieldworkers that would chronicle the pronunciation, grammatical features, and lexicon of residents of particular regions. More recent technological innovations, such as GIS and online survey methods and applications, have brought multidisciplinary approaches to the study of dialects, as well as allowing for broader and more robust studies of geographic areas and social groups.
The influence and interface of dialectology on various linguistic disciplines is noteworthy. Dialectological methods have most commonly been utilized in historical linguistics, sociolinguistics/language variation and change, and language endangerment/documentation. Within each of these disciplines, the adoption of methods from dialectology has allowed for the systematic study of language across geographic and social space, as well as across time.
Diglossia in North Africa
Lotfi Sayahi
Language Families/Areas/Contact, Sociolinguistics
Diglossia refers to a situation where two linguistic varieties coexist within a given speech community. One variety, labeled the ‘high variety’, is used in formal domains including ... More
Diglossia refers to a situation where two linguistic varieties coexist within a given speech community. One variety, labeled the ‘high variety’, is used in formal domains including education, while the other variety, labeled the ‘low variety’, is used principally in instances of informal extemporaneous communication. The domains of use, however, are not strictly separate and especially so with the increase in electronic modes of communication. This results in what has been described as diglossic code-switching, and the gradual encroaching of, in the case under consideration here, vernacular Arabic upon the domains of use of Standard Arabic.
While the genetic relationship between the two varieties is central in the definition of a classical diglossic situation as in the case of Arabic, the concept of diglossia has often been extended in the literature to cover situations of a functional distribution between languages that are genetically distant, such as with the situation of Spanish and Guaraní in Paraguay.
In North Africa, vernacular Arabic is in a classical diglossic distribution with Standard Arabic, while the Berber languages are often described as existing in a situation of extended diglossia with Arabic. However, distinguishing between diglossia as it exists between the Arabic dialects and Standard Arabic and the situation of bilingualism that involves Arabic, Berber, and European languages provides the best framework for describing the linguistic situation in North Africa. Diglossia is a key element in understanding the mechanisms of the region’s language contact and change as it plays a central role in shaping language attitude, language policy, and language planning.
Direct Perception of Speech
Carol A. Fowler
Cognitive Science, Phonetics/Phonology, Psycholinguistics
The theory of speech perception as direct derives from a general direct-realist account of perception. A realist stance on perception is that perceiving enables occupants of an ecological ... More
The theory of speech perception as direct derives from a general direct-realist account of perception. A realist stance on perception is that perceiving enables occupants of an ecological niche to know its component layouts, objects, animals, and events. “Direct” perception means that perceivers are in unmediated contact with their niche (mediated neither by internally generated representations of the environment nor by inferences made on the basis of fragmentary input to the perceptual systems). Direct perception is possible because energy arrays that have been causally structured by niche components and that are available to perceivers specify (i.e., stand in 1:1 relation to) components of the niche. Typically, perception is multi-modal; that is, perception of the environment depends on specifying information present in, or even spanning, multiple energy arrays.
Applied to speech perception, the theory begins with the observation that speech perception involves the same perceptual systems that, in a direct-realist theory, enable direct perception of the environment. Most notably, the auditory system supports speech perception, but also the visual system, and sometimes other perceptual systems. Perception of language forms (consonants, vowels, word forms) can be direct if the forms lawfully cause specifying patterning in the energy arrays available to perceivers. In Articulatory Phonology, the primitive language forms (constituting consonants and vowels) are linguistically significant gestures of the vocal tract, which cause patterning in air and on the face. Descriptions are provided of informational patterning in acoustic and other energy arrays. Evidence is next reviewed that speech perceivers make use of acoustic and cross modal information about the phonetic gestures constituting consonants and vowels to perceive the gestures.
Significant problems arise for the viability of a theory of direct perception of speech. One is the “inverse problem,” the difficulty of recovering vocal tract shapes or actions from acoustic input. Two other problems arise because speakers coarticulate when they speak. That is, they temporally overlap production of serially nearby consonants and vowels so that there are no discrete segments in the acoustic signal corresponding to the discrete consonants and vowels that talkers intend to convey (the “segmentation problem”), and there is massive context-sensitivity in acoustic (and optical and other modalities) patterning (the “invariance problem”). The present article suggests solutions to these problems.
The article also reviews signatures of a direct mode of speech perception, including that perceivers use cross-modal speech information when it is available and exhibit various indications of perception-production linkages, such as rapid imitation and a disposition to converge in dialect with interlocutors.
An underdeveloped domain within the theory concerns the very important role of longer- and shorter-term learning in speech perception. Infants develop language-specific modes of attention to acoustic speech signals (and optical information for speech), and adult listeners attune to novel dialects or foreign accents. Moreover, listeners make use of lexical knowledge and statistical properties of the language in speech perception. Some progress has been made in incorporating infant learning into a theory of direct perception of speech, but much less progress has been made in the other areas.
Dispersion Theory and Phonology
Edward Flemming
Dispersion Theory concerns the constraints that govern contrasts, the phonetic differences that can distinguish words in a language. Specifically it posits that there are distinctiveness ... More
Dispersion Theory concerns the constraints that govern contrasts, the phonetic differences that can distinguish words in a language. Specifically it posits that there are distinctiveness constraints that favor contrasts that are more perceptually distinct over less distinct contrasts. The preference for distinct contrasts is hypothesized to follow from a preference to minimize perceptual confusion: In order to recover what a speaker is saying, a listener must identify the words in the utterance. The more confusable words are, the more likely a listener is to make errors. Because contrasts are the minimal permissible differences between words in a language, banning indistinct contrasts reduces the likelihood of misperception.
The term ‘dispersion’ refers to the separation of sounds in perceptual space that results from maximizing the perceptual distinctiveness of the contrasts between those sounds, and is adopted from Lindblom’s Theory of Adaptive Dispersion, a theory of phoneme inventories according to which inventories are selected so as to maximize the perceptual differences between phonemes. These proposals follow a long tradition of explaining cross-linguistic tendencies in the phonetic and phonological form of languages in terms of a preference for perceptually distinct contrasts.
Flemming proposes that distinctiveness constraints constitute one class of constraints in an Optimality Theoretic model of phonology. In this context, distinctiveness constraints predict several basic phenomena, the first of which is the preference for maximal dispersion in inventories of contrasting sounds that first motivated the development of the Theory of Adaptive Dispersion. But distinctiveness constraints are formulated as constraints on the surface forms of possible words that interact with other phonological constraints, so they evaluate the distinctiveness of contrasts in context. As a result, Dispersion Theory predicts that contrasts can be neutralized or enhanced in particular phonological contexts. This prediction arises because the phonetic realization of sounds depends on their context, so the perceptual differences between contrasting sounds also depend on context. If the realization of a contrast in a particular context would be insufficiently distinct (i.e., it would violate a high-ranked distinctiveness constraint), there are two options: the offending contrast can be neutralized, or it can be modified (‘enhanced’) to make it more distinct.
A basic open question regarding Dispersion Theory concerns the proper formulation of distinctiveness constraints and the extent of variation in their rankings across languages, issues that are tied up with the questions about the nature of perceptual distinctiveness. Another concerns the size and nature of the comparison set of contrasting word-forms required to be able to evaluate whether a candidate output satisfies distinctiveness constraints.
Displacement in Syntax
Klaus Abels
Linguistic Theories, Semantics, Syntax
Displacement is a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural languages. Grammarians often speak of displacement in cases where the rules for the canonical word order of a language lead to the ... More
Displacement is a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural languages. Grammarians often speak of displacement in cases where the rules for the canonical word order of a language lead to the expectation of finding a word or phrase in a particular position in the sentence whereas it surfaces instead in a different position and the canonical position remains empty: ‘Which book did you buy?’ is an example of displacement because the noun phrase ‘which book’, which acts as the grammatical object in the question, does not occur in the canonical object position, which in English is after the verb. Instead, it surfaces at the beginning of the sentence and the object position remains empty. Displacement is often used as a diagnostic for constituent structure because it affects only (but not all) constituents. In the clear cases, displaced constituents show properties associated with two distinct linear and hierarchical positions. Typically, one of these two positions c-commands the other and the displaced element is pronounced in the c-commanding position. Displacement also shows strong interactions with the path between the empty canonical position and the position where the element is pronounced: one often encounters morphological changes along this path and evidence for structural placement of the displaced constituent, as well as constraints on displacement induced by the path.
The exact scope of displacement as an analytically unified phenomenon varies from theory to theory. If more then one type of syntactic displacement is recognized, the question of the interaction between movement types arises. Displacement phenomena are extensively studied by syntacticians. Their enduring interest derives from the fact that the complex interactions between displacement and other aspects of syntax offer a powerful probe into the inner workings and architecture of the human syntactic faculty.
Distributed Morphology
Jonathan David Bobaljik
Linguistic Theories, Morphology, Syntax
Distributed Morphology (DM) is a framework in theoretical morphology, characterized by two core tenets: (i) that the internal hierarchical structure of words is, in the first instance, ... More
Distributed Morphology (DM) is a framework in theoretical morphology, characterized by two core tenets: (i) that the internal hierarchical structure of words is, in the first instance, syntactic (complex words are derived syntactically), and (ii) that the syntax operates on abstract morphemes, defined in terms of morphosyntactic features, and that the spell-out (realization, exponence) of these abstract morphemes occurs after the syntax. Distributing the functions of the classical morpheme in this way allows for analysis of mismatches between the minimal units of grammatical combination and the minimal units of sound. Much work within the framework is nevertheless guided by seeking to understand restrictions on such mismatches, balancing the need for the detailed description of complex morphological data in individual languages against an attempt to explain broad patterns in terms of restrictions imposed by grammatical principles.
Terttu Nevalainen
Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Phonetics/Phonology, Sociolinguistics, Syntax
In the Early Modern English period (1500–1700), steps were taken toward Standard English, and this was also the time when Shakespeare wrote, but these perspectives are only part of the ... More
In the Early Modern English period (1500–1700), steps were taken toward Standard English, and this was also the time when Shakespeare wrote, but these perspectives are only part of the bigger picture. This chapter looks at Early Modern English as a variable and changing language not unlike English today. Standardization is found particularly in spelling, and new vocabulary was created as a result of the spread of English into various professional and occupational specializations. New research using digital corpora, dictionaries, and databases reveals the gradual nature of these processes. Ongoing developments were no less gradual in pronunciation, with processes such as the Great Vowel Shift, or in grammar, where many changes resulted in new means of expression and greater transparency. Word order was also subject to gradual change, becoming more fixed over time.
Early Modern Views on Language and Languages (ca. 1450–1800)
Toon Van Hal
The Early Modern interest taken in language was intense and versatile. In this period, language education gradually no longer centered solely on Latin. The linguistic scope widened ... More
The Early Modern interest taken in language was intense and versatile. In this period, language education gradually no longer centered solely on Latin. The linguistic scope widened considerably, partly as a result of scholarly curiosity, although religious and missionary zeal, commercial considerations, and political motives were also of decisive significance. Statesmen discovered the political power of standardized vernaculars in the typically Early Modern process of state formation. The widening of the linguistic horizon was, first and foremost, reflected in a steadily increasing production of grammars and dictionaries, along with pocket textbooks, conversational manuals, and spelling treatises. One strategy of coping with the stunning linguistic diversity consisted of first collecting data on as many languages as possible and then tracing elements that were common to all or to certain groups of languages. Language comparison was not limited to historical and genealogical endeavors, as scholars started also to compare a number of languages in terms of their alleged vices and qualities. Another way of dealing with the flood of linguistic data consisted of focusing on what the different languages had in common, which led to the development of general grammars, of which the 17th-century Port-Royal grammar is the most well-known. During the Enlightenment, the nature of language and its cognitive merits or vices became also a central theme in philosophical debates in which major thinkers were actively engaged.
Endangered Languages
Chris Rogers and Lyle Campbell
The reduction of the world’s linguistic diversity has accelerated over the last century and correlates to a loss of knowledge, collective and individual identity, and social value. Often a ... More
The reduction of the world’s linguistic diversity has accelerated over the last century and correlates to a loss of knowledge, collective and individual identity, and social value. Often a language is pushed out of use before scholars and language communities have a chance to document or preserve this linguistic heritage. Many are concerned for this loss, believing it to be one of the most serious issues facing humanity today. To address the issues concomitant with an endangered language, we must know how to define “endangerment,” how different situations of endangerment can be compared, and how each language fits into the cultural practices of individuals. The discussion about endangered languages focuses on addressing the needs, causes, and consequences of this loss.
Concern over endangered languages is not just an academic catch phrase. It involves real people and communities struggling with real social, political, and economic issues. To understand the causes and consequence of language endangerment for these individuals and communities requires a multifaceted perspective on the place of each language in the lives of their users. The loss of a language affects not only the world’s linguistic diversity but also an individual’s social identity, and a community’s sense of itself and its history.
Englishes in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland
Raymond Hickey
History of Linguistics, Language Families/Areas/Contact
The differentiation of English into separate varieties in the regions of Britain and Ireland has a long history. This is connected with the separate but related identities of England, ... More
The differentiation of English into separate varieties in the regions of Britain and Ireland has a long history. This is connected with the separate but related identities of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In this chapter the main linguistic traits of the regions are described and discussed within the framework of language variation and change, an approach to linguistic differentiation that attempts to identify patterns of speaker social behavior and trajectories along which varieties develop.
The section on England is subdivided into rural and urban forms of English, the former associated with the broad regions of the North, the Midlands, East Anglia, the Southeast and South, and the West Country. For urban varieties English in the cities of London, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Liverpool, and Newcastle upon Tyne is discussed in the light of the available data and existing scholarship. English in the Celtic regions of Britain and Ireland is examined in dedicated sections on Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Finally, varieties of English found on the smaller islands around Britain form the focus, i.e., English on the Orkney and Shetland islands, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.
Eskimo-Aleut
Anna Berge
The Eskimo-Aleut language family consists of two quite different branches, Aleut and Eskimo. The latter consists of Yupik and Inuit languages. It is spoken from the eastern coast of Russia ... More
The Eskimo-Aleut language family consists of two quite different branches, Aleut and Eskimo. The latter consists of Yupik and Inuit languages. It is spoken from the eastern coast of Russia to Greenland. The family is thought to have developed and diverged in Alaska between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago, although recent findings in a variety of fields suggest a more complex prehistory than previously assumed. The language family shares certain characteristics, including polysynthetic word formation, an originally ergative-absolutive case system (now substantially modified in Aleut), SOV word order, and more or less similar phonological systems across the language family, involving voiceless stop and voiced fricative consonant series often in alternation, and an originally four-vowel system frequently reduced to three. The languages in the family have undergone substantial postcolonial contact effects, especially evident in (although not restricted to) loanwords from the respective colonial languages. There is extensive language documentation for all languages, although not necessarily all dialects. Most languages and dialects are severely endangered today, with the exception of Eastern Canadian Inuit and Greenlandic (Kalaallisut). There are also theoretical studies of the languages in many linguistic fields, although the languages are unevenly covered, and there are still many more studies of the phonologies and syntaxes of the respective languages than other aspects of grammar.
Etymology in Romance
Eva Buchi and Steven N. Dworkin
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Please check back later for the full article. ... More
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Please check back later for the full article.
Within the field of linguistics, etymology is the only subdiscipline that is uniquely historical in its study of the relevant linguistic data. It is one of the oldest fields in Romance linguistics. The scholar credited with establishing Romance linguistics as a scholarly discipline, Friedrich Diez (1794–1876) authored both the first comparative Romance historical grammar (his three-volume Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen [1836–1844]) and the first pan-Romance etymological dictionary (his Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Romanischen Sprachen [1853]). A similar combination, illustrating the indissoluble link between etymology and historical grammar (especially the study of sound change), can be seen in the work of Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1861–1936), author of a four-volume Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen (1890–1902) and of the last complete pan-Romance etymological dictionary, the Romanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (3d definitive edition, 1935).
The concept of etymology as practiced by Romanists has changed over the last 100 years. At the outset, Romance etymologists took as their brief the search for and identification of individual word origins. Starting in the early 20th century, various specialists began to view etymology as the preparation of the complete history of all facets of the evolution over time and space of the words or lexical families under study. Identification of the underlying base was only the first step in the process. From this perspective, etymology constitutes an essential element of diachronic lexicology, which covers all formal, semantic, and syntactic facets of a word’s evolution, including, if appropriate, the circumstances leading to its demise and replacement.
Practitioners of Romance etymology tend to study the history of individual words or word families in specific Romance languages rather than across the entire family. Almost every Romance language and many of their regional varieties have at least one etymological dictionary devoted to the history of its vocabulary (or at least to the identification of relevant word origins), the most notable being such multi-volumed works as the Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1922–2002), the Lessico Etimilogico Italiano (1979–), the Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (1980–1991), and the Diccionari etimològic i complimenari de la llengua catalana (1980–2001). The last complete pan-Romance dictionary remains the afore-cited third edition of Meyer-Lübke’s Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch.
Although originally coined as a riposte to the Neogrammarian view of sound change, Jules Gilliéron’s (1854–1926) dictum, “each word has its own history,” applies equally well to etymology. Yakov Malkiel (1914–1998), one of the leading writers on questions of method and practice in Romance etymology, has discussed the unique and complex nature of etymological solutions. As a result of the emphasis on individual problems and solutions, Romance etymology has not lent itself to the formulation of theories on the nature of lexical change, although there was in the past no shortage of literature on questions of methodology.
Although specialists continue to work on language-specific etymological questions, etymology is not currently at the forefront of work in Romance historical linguistics, a situation that may result, in part, from its lack of engagement with broad theoretical issues. Most studies still appear in the form of journal articles or Festschrift contributions. There is currently underway a new pan-Romance project, the Dictionnaire étymologique Roman (DéRom), with a new (and controversial) methodological underpinning, namely the rigorous application to the Romance data of comparative reconstruction to capture more accurately the phonological and morphological reality of proto-Romance (in essence a register of spoken Latin) and the semantic scope of the etymological base. This project has reawakened an interest in Romance etymology among a new generation of Romanists. Indeed, to remain vital and relevant within the framework of Romance linguistics, etymology must go beyond the details of individual lexical histories and make an effort to link its findings to our understanding of the nature and processes of language change.
Evaluatives in Morphology
Nicola Grandi
Morphology, Pragmatics, Semantics
Evaluative morphology is a field of linguistic studies that deals with the formation of diminutives, augmentatives, pejoratives, and amelioratives. Actually, evaluative constructions cross ... More
Evaluative morphology is a field of linguistic studies that deals with the formation of diminutives, augmentatives, pejoratives, and amelioratives. Actually, evaluative constructions cross the boundaries of morphology, and are sometimes realized by formal strategies that cannot be numbered among word formation processes. Nevertheless, morphology plays a dominant role in the formation of evaluatives. The first attempt to draw an exhaustive account of this set of complex forms is found in the 1984 work Generative Morphology, by Sergio Scalise, who made the hypothesis that evaluatives represent a separate block of rules between inflection and derivation. This hypothesis is based on the fact that evaluatives show some properties that are derivational, others that are inflectional, and some specific properties that are neither derivational nor inflectional. After Scalise’s proposal, almost all scholars have tried to answer the question concerning the place of evaluative rules within the morphological component. What data reveal is that, in a cross-linguistic perspective, evaluatives display a uniform behavior from a semantic and functional point of view, but exhibit a wide range of formal properties. In other words, functional identity does not imply formal identity; consequently, we can expect that constructions performing the same function display different formal properties in different languages. So, if evaluatives are undoubtedly derivational in most Indo-European languages (even if they cannot be considered a typical example of derivation), they are certainly quite close to inflection in some Bantu languages. This means that the question about the place of evaluatives within the morphological component probably is not as crucial as scholars have thought, and that other issues, sometimes neglected in the literature, deserve the same attention. Among them, the role of pragmatics in the description of evaluatives is no doubt central. According to Dressler and Merlini Barbaresi, in their 1994 work, Morphopragmatics: Diminutives and Intensifiers in Italian, German and Other Languages, evaluative constructions are the more typical instantiation of morphopragmatics, which is “defined as the area of general pragmatic meanings of morphological rules, that is of the regular pragmatic effects produced when moving from the input to the output of a morphological rule.” Evaluatives include “a pragmatic variable which cannot be suppressed in the description of [their] meaning.” Another central issue in studies on evaluative morphology is the wide set of semantic nuances that usually accompany diminutives, augmentatives, pejoratives, and amelioratives. For example, a diminutive form can occasionally assume a value that is attenuative, singulative, partitive, appreciative, affectionate, etc. This cluster of semantic values has often increased the idea that evaluatives are irregular in nature and that they irremediably avoid any generalization. Dan Jurafsky showed, in 1996, that these different meanings are often the outcome of regular and cross-linguistically recurrent semantic processes, both in a synchronic and in a diachronic perspective.
Event/Result in Morphology
Linguistic Theories, Morphology
This article revisits Grimshaw's (1990) tripartition of nominalization, which introduced an important correlation between particular types of nominalization and the readings associated ... More
This article revisits Grimshaw's (1990) tripartition of nominalization, which introduced an important correlation between particular types of nominalization and the readings associated with these nominal forms, Event and Referential. The article discusses criteria that may be used to distinguish between the two readings and the limitations of these criteria. It further offers a selective discussion of how different approaches to nominalization implement Event and Referential readings.
Existential and Locative Constructions in the Romance Languages
Delia Bentley
Existential and locative constructions form an interesting cluster of copular structures in Romance. They are clearly related, and yet there are theoretical reasons to keep them apart. In-depth analysis of the Romance languages lends empirical support to their differentiation. In semantic terms, existentials express propositions about existence or presence in an implicit contextual domain, whereas locatives express propositions about the location of an entity. In terms of information structure, existentials are typically all new or broad focus constructions. Locatives are normally characterized by focus on the location, although this can also be a presupposed topic.
Romance existentials are formed with a copula and a post-copular phrase (the pivot). A wide range of variation is found in copula selection, copula-pivot agreement, expletive subjects, the presence and function of an etymologically locative pre-copular proform, and, lastly, the categorial status of the pivot, which is normally a noun phrase, but can also be an adjective (Calabrian, Sicilian). As for Romance locatives, a distinction must be drawn between, on the one hand, a construction with canonical SV order and S-V agreement and, on the other hand, another construction, with VS order and, in some languages, lack of V-S agreement. This latter structure has been named inverse locative.
Both existentials and locatives have a non-verbal predicate: the locative phrase in locatives and the post-copular noun or adjectival phrase in existentials. In locatives the predicate selects a thematic argument, i.e., an argument endowed with a thematic role, which serves as the syntactic subject, exception being made for inverse locatives in some languages. Contrastingly, in existentials, there is no thematic argument. In some languages the copula turns to the pivot for agreement, as this is the only overt noun phrase endowed with person and number features (Italian, Friulian, Romanian, etc.). In other languages this non-canonical agreement is not licensed (French, some Calabrian dialects, Brazilian Portuguese, etc.). In others still (Spanish, Sardinian, European Portuguese, Catalan, Gallo-Italian, etc.), it is only admitted with pivot classes that can be defined in terms of specificity. When the copula does not agree with the pivot, an expletive subject form may figure in pre-copular position. The crosslinguistic variation in copula-pivot agreement has been claimed to depend on language-specific constraints on subjecthood.
Highly specific pivots are only admitted in contextualized existentials, which express a proposition about the presence of an individual or an entity in a given and salient context. These existentials are found in all the Romance languages and would seem to defy the semantico-pragmatic constraints on the pivot that are widely known as Definiteness Effects.
Exocentricity in Morphology
María Irene Moyna
The definition of exocentricity hinges on the notion of head in morphology. Exocentricity and its opposite, endocentricity, describe the two possible relationships between compound ... More
The definition of exocentricity hinges on the notion of head in morphology. Exocentricity and its opposite, endocentricity, describe the two possible relationships between compound constituents and the compound lexeme they make up. In endocentric compounds, one of the constituent lexemes is the head, that is, the lexical item with the semantico-syntactic features that are passed on to the whole compound. In exocentric compounds, the features of the whole are not attributable to the constituents and must be sought elsewhere.
Exocentric compounds can be divided into two broad classes, namely, syntactic (or formal) and semantic exocentric compounds. Syntactic exocentric compounds exhibit a mismatch between the grammatical category of their constituents and that of the whole. Semantic exocentric compounds are exocentric by virtue of their meaning alone, their structure providing no clues of their nonliteral interpretation. Historically, most descriptive and theoretical analyses of exocentricity have focused on syntactic exocentric compounds. On the basis of large but non-exhaustive databases of the world languages, it has been shown that exocentric compounds are marked. With a few exceptions, exocentric compound patterns are both less frequent cross-linguistically and less likely to be used in those languages that can have them. However, some patterns recur with remarkable regularity in the world’s languages. These include possessive compounds (known by their Sanskrit name, bahuvrīhi), which combine a description of a part to denote the whole (e.g., Eng. sabretooth). Deverbal nominal compounds are also robust in many language families, such as Romance; these compounds combine a verb and its direct object to denote an agent or instrument (e.g., Fr. portefeuilles ‘briefcase,’ lit. ‘carry+papers’). A third highly frequent exocentric compounding pattern combines two constituents of the same grammatical category to create a lexeme of a different word class (e.g., Japanese daisho ‘size,’ lit. ‘small+large’). It should be noted that the basic distinction between syntactic and semantic exocentric compounds can become blurred because any lexicalized compound, regardless of its internal structure, is potentially susceptible to metaphoric meaning shifts and to formal recategorization through conversion. Although exocentricity is a syntactico-semantic feature typically attributed to compounds, other morphological structures may occasionally exhibit similar behavior, namely, phrasal chunks or “syntactic freezes.”
Exocentric compounds create interesting challenges to rule-based accounts of morphology, including both lexicalist hypotheses and also those that subsume word formation operations to those of syntax. In both types of proposals, the features of all constructions are attributable to their head, so that accounting for the mismatch exhibited by exocentric compounds requires structural adjustments. Cognitive linguistics has also focused on exocentric compounds, and has sought to account for their meanings through a combination of metaphoric and metonymic shifts.
Exoskeletal Versus Endoskeletal Approaches in Morphology
Víctor Acedo-Matellán
A fundamental difference in theoretical models of morphology and, particularly, of the syntax–morphology interface is that between endoskeletal and exoskeletal approaches. In the former, ... More
A fundamental difference in theoretical models of morphology and, particularly, of the syntax–morphology interface is that between endoskeletal and exoskeletal approaches. In the former, more traditional, endoskeletal approaches, open-class lexical items like cat or sing are held to be inherently endowed with a series of formal features that determine the properties of the linguistic expressions in which they appear. In the latter, more recent, exoskeletal approaches, it is rather the morphosyntactic configurations, independently produced by the combination of abstract functional elements, that determine those properties. Lexical items, in this latter approach, are part of the structure but, crucially, do not determine it.
Conceptually, although a correlation is usually made between endoskeletalism and lexicalism/projectionism, on the one hand, and between exoskeletalism and (neo)constructionism, on the other, things are actually more complicated, and some frameworks exist that seem to challenge those correlations, in particular when the difference between word and morpheme is taken into account.
Empirically, the difference between these two approaches to morphology and the morphology-syntax interface comes to light when one examines how each one treats a diversity of word-related phenomena: morphosyntactic category and category shift in derivational processes, inflectional class, nominal properties like mass or count, and verbal properties like agentivity and (a)telicity.
Experimental Pragmatics
Cognitive Science, Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics, Semantics
While both pragmatic theory and experimental investigations of language using psycholinguistic methods have been well-established subfields in the language sciences for a long time, the ... More
While both pragmatic theory and experimental investigations of language using psycholinguistic methods have been well-established subfields in the language sciences for a long time, the field of Experimental Pragmatics, where such methods are applied to pragmatic phenomena, has only fully taken shape since the early 2000s. By now, however, it has become a major and lively area of ongoing research, with dedicated conferences, workshops, and collaborative grant projects, bringing together researchers with linguistic, psychological, and computational approaches across disciplines. Its scope includes virtually all meaning-related phenomena in natural language comprehension and production, with a particular focus on what inferences utterances give rise to that go beyond what is literally expressed by the linguistic material.
One general area that has been explored in great depth consists of investigations of various ‘ingredients’ of meaning. A major aim has been to develop experimental methodologies to help classify various aspects of meaning, such as implicatures and presuppositions as compared to basic truth-conditional meaning, and to capture their properties more thoroughly using more extensive empirical data. The study of scalar implicatures (e.g., the inference that some but not all students left based on the sentence Some students left) has served as a catalyst of sorts in this area, and they constitute one of the most well-studied phenomena in Experimental Pragmatics to date. But much recent work has expanded the general approach to other aspects of meaning, including presuppositions and conventional implicatures, but also other aspects of nonliteral meaning, such as irony, metonymy, and metaphors.
The study of reference constitutes another core area of research in Experimental Pragmatics, and has a more extensive history of precursors in psycholinguistics proper. Reference resolution commonly requires drawing inferences beyond what is conventionally conveyed by the linguistic material at issue as well; the key concern is how comprehenders grasp the referential intentions of a speaker based on the referential expressions used in a given context, as well as how the speaker chooses an appropriate expression in the first place. Pronouns, demonstratives, and definite descriptions are crucial expressions of interest, with special attention to their relation to both intra- and extralinguistic context. Furthermore, one key line of research is concerned with speakers’ and listeners’ capacity to keep track of both their own private perspective and the shared perspective of the interlocutors in actual interaction.
Given the rapid ongoing growth in the field, there is a large number of additional topical areas that cannot all be mentioned here, but the final section of the article briefly mentions further current and future areas of research.
Experimental Semiotics
Bruno Galantucci
Cognitive Science, Pragmatics
Experimental Semiotics (ES) is a burgeoning new discipline aimed at investigating in the laboratory the development of novel forms of human communication. Conceptually connected to ... More
Experimental Semiotics (ES) is a burgeoning new discipline aimed at investigating in the laboratory the development of novel forms of human communication. Conceptually connected to experimental research on language use, ES provides a scientific complement to field studies of spontaneously emerging new languages and studies on the emergence of communication systems among artificial agents.
ES researchers have created quite a few research paradigms to investigate the development of novel forms of human communication. Despite their diversity, these paradigms all rely on the use of semiotic games, that is, games in which people can succeed reliably only after they have developed novel communication systems. Some of these games involve creating novel signs for pre-specified meanings. These games are particularly suitable for studying relatively large communication systems and their structural properties. Other semiotic games involve establishing shared meanings as well as novel signs to communicate about them. These games are typically rather challenging and are particularly suitable for investigating the processes through which novel forms of communication are created.
Considering that ES is a methodological stance rather than a well-defined research theme, researchers have used it to address a greatly heterogeneous set of research questions. Despite this, and despite the recent origins of ES, two of these questions have begun to coalesce into relatively coherent research themes.
The first theme originates from the observation that novel communication systems developed in the laboratory tend to acquire features that are similar to key features of natural language. Most notably, they tend (a) to rely on the use of symbols—that is purely conventional signs—and (b) to adopt a combinatorial design, using a few basic units to express a large number of meanings. ES researchers have begun investigating some of the factors that lead to the acquisition of such features. These investigations suggest two conclusions. The first is that the emergence of symbols depends on the fact that, when repeatedly using non-symbolic signs, people tend to progressively abstract them. The second conclusion is that novel communication systems tend to adopt a combinatorial design more readily when their signs have low degrees of motivation and fade rapidly.
The second research theme originates from the observation that novel communication systems developed in the laboratory tend to begin systematically with motivated—that is non-symbolic—signs. ES investigations of this tendency suggest that it occurs because motivation helps people bootstrap novel forms of communication. Put it another way, these investigations show that it is very difficult for people to bootstrap communication through arbitrary signs.
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Meet Mackenzie: the force behind the gala!
On April 12, 2018 / News
When you hear the word arts, what’s the next word that pops to mind?
The younger me may have said, “Crafts”; but the older me says, “Funding!” For any arts organization to stay afloat, it needs adequate funding through multiple revenue sources, from ticket sales to donations. Key to Park Square Theatre’s fundraising efforts is Annual Fund Manager Mackenzie Pitterle, a self-professed lifelong “theatre nerd” who came aboard last December and is spearheading the upcoming Shakespeare Soiree: the Streets of Verona, named for the education production of Romeo and Juliet, currently on stage. But as with all who have ever landed at Park Square Theatre, Mackenzie’s journey here had actually started long ago.
Mackenzie Pitterle at her desk
(Photo by T. T. Cheng)
Mackenzie grew up in Verona (no connection to the Montagues and Capulets), a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, in a family and school community that valued the arts. She herself plays the horn and performed in school bands and pit orchestras for musicals, but she eventually to realize that her passion for the arts lay in supporting rather than producing art. This led her to pursue a degree in Arts Management at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she paid her way through college with no loans and finished in three years with honors.
With a specific interest in learning how to manage nonprofit arts organizations, Mackenzie acquired internships with an orchestra, a theatre and the Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA), which lead to a position as the Development and Marketing Associate for the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music.
“My job included getting up at 4 am to set up the route for a fun run and anything else to keep music in our schools,” Mackenzie said. “I loved helping to raise money to pay for that.”
Eventually Mackenzie was ready for change and a new challenge, setting her sights for a move to Minnesota after having lived in Wisconsin all her life (yes, she’s a diehard Packers fan) which brought her to Park Square!
“Over a year into my position, I can’t imagine a better fit for me. Being onsite at Park Square, I get to be immersed in theatre. I witness school group visits; I get to see each play. I got so excited about Hamlet after sitting in on the first rehearsal. That immersion keeps me grounded in what we’re doing.
I also truly enjoy getting to know donors, patrons, staff and volunteers and learning about what they love about Park Square Theatre. My job isn’t just all paperwork; I get to meet with people and hear stories about what’s important to them and how we impact them on such a deep level.”
Mackenzie revels in how she is, in her words, “impactfully utilized” and must keep “wearing different hats” to adjust to the different needs of each day. She loves that she gets to be in the room to discuss campaigns and big changes as well as learn how decisions affect every department. Currently, Mackenzie is hard at work organizing Park Square’s annual benefit gala, Shakespeare Soirée: The Streets of Verona, coming up on April 30. “We have incredible team of volunteers, committee members, interns and artists all working together to make this best party Park Square has ever thrown. It’s a night you won’t want to miss.”
At Park Square Theatre, words such as commitment, enthusiasm and possibility bring to mind several people. One of them is definitely our very own Annual Fund Manager, Mackenzie Pitterle.
Pease–Perfectly Cast
On January 18, 2017 / News
In September 2012, C. Michael-jon Pease became Park Square Theatre’s second Executive Director after the retirement of his predecessor, Steven Kent Lockwood. Prior to his promotion, Michael-jon had been the theatre’s first Development Director from January 2000 to January 2003 and rejoined Park Square in September 2007 as part of its senior leadership team, becoming its first Director of External Affairs.
Running a theatre is intricately complex, especially with its built-in paradox of requiring both utmost control and the free fall of letting go. It’s tricky to do, requiring the firm-soft touch of a leader who is an idealist that respects the counter pull of practicality to get things done or, one may instead say, a realist that trusts enough in dreams to even consider reaching for the impossible. Michael-jon is able to effectively bring those tensions into balance within himself and, by extension, within the organization. The result has been an organization that has managed to significantly grow in size and vision within the past decade.
“How has C. Michael-jon Pease so effectively led Park Square Theatre?” I wondered. “What made him the unifying leader that he is today?”
The first time I met Michael-jon, he had a hammer in his hand, pitching in to help open the Boss Thrust Stage on time. This willingness to roll up his sleeves and “go into the trenches” comes directly from his own theatre background, which spanned from the time his grandmother enrolled him in a children’s theatre program as a painfully shy boy of eight until he graduated from college with a double major in French and Theatre Arts.
“I learned a great deal about team leadership and communication as an actor during my many years on stage,” he told me. “On stage, you’re all in it together whatever happens. I remember one of my early productions was the musical Tom Sawyer. At the start of the picnic scene, we were supposed to enter in the blackout and the lights would come up on the party in process. During one performance, the lights came up early, before any of us had started to go on stage. After a beat, I grabbed the hands of the kids on either side of me and yelled ‘Hey everybody, it’s time for the picnic!’ and rushed on stage yelling.”
Michael-jon’s upbringing also strongly influenced his leadership style–namely, how he treats others. One cannot miss what he calls his “formal, and in many ways very old fashioned, sense of etiquette,” all learned under his parents’ roof. But his parents were also powerful role models of inclusivity and “champions for the rights of all.”
“My father was a Scout leader and my older brothers were in his troop,” Michael-jon recalled. “When the family was transferred to Illinois from Colorado for papa’s job, there wasn’t a troop in need of a leader, and all the troops were white (this was 1968). He and my brothers started a troop for the African American kids from the other side of town; and to this day, there are families who haven’t forgiven them for ‘bringing those people into our neighborhood.’ Suffice to say, the themes in A Raisin in the Sun really resonated with me.”
When asked to articulate his beliefs and values, Michael-jon replied, “I believe that everyone has a place at the table and that it should be beautifully set to honor everyone at it. I believe in working hard, helping others and pitching in on what needs to get done to move a project forward, whether it’s your job or not. I value quiet, good manners and beauty. I believe in love rather than tolerance; in empathy rather than acceptance. Always a dreamer, I’m still more and more a pragmatist. ‘Good enough’ done on time is often better than perfect and late. That’s where I’m different than my parents – I have left perfectionism behind.”
With his dapper dress and genteel manners, Michael-jon is perfectly cast as the Executive Director, the public face of Park Square Theatre. He could so easily use his rank to set himself apart. But Michael-jon defies typecasting. His is an open door and, I would dare say, an open heart. He stays accessible and engaged throughout the organization. Because we are all in this together.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams
September 1989: Michael-jon earns a BA in French and Theatre Arts from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island.
September 1993: Michael-jon earns a MA in Arts Administration from Saint Mary’s University in Winona.
July 1994: Michael-Jon is the founding Executive Director of Cornucopia Arts Center in Lanesboro.
December 1999: Michael-jon is recognized by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council as its Arts Administrator of the Year.
January 2000: Michael-jon leaves the Cornucopia Arts Center to become Park Square Theatre’s first Development Director.
January 2003: Michael-jon leaves Park Square to become the Director of Development for the Des Moines Playhouse.
August 2004: Michael-jon returns to the Cornucopia Arts Center as Executive Director.
December 2004: Park Square Artistic Director Richard Cook recruits Michael-jon to facilitate the 2005 Board retreat.
November 2005: Michael-jon leads the visioning process for a ten-year plan at the Board retreat, the first step toward a Strategic Plan that would evolve into what would ultimately be dubbed “The Next Stage.”
December 2006: Michael-jon returns to facilitate the 2006 Board retreat on the “RE-reimagining of Park Square Theatre.”
September 2007: Michael-jon becomes Park Square’s first Director of External Relations–now a part of the senior leadership team–to oversee development, branding, marketing and public relations.
September 2012: Park Square Executive Director Steven Kent Lockwood retires, and Michael-jon is promoted as the new Executive Director.
October 2014: Park Square’s new Andy Boss Stage opens.
Truly Madgical
On August 2, 2016 / News
“I have dubbed her work as ‘madgical.'” — C. Michael-jon Pease, Executive Director, Park Square Theatre
Madge Duffey is the graphic designer for Park Square Theatre. Before she had taken that role in 2008, she’d already had 15 years’ designing experience under her belt, from being a senior designer for Simon and Schuster to doing freelance design work for media and advertising firms as well as the Miami University Press.
When Duffey first joined Park Square Theatre, she began as a part-time development associate, delighted by the chance to switch gears in her profession and to work within an arts community. Her position required her to work closely with then Development Director C. Michael-jon Pease (now Executive Director) who recalled “wanting to hire her about ten minutes into the first interview” but realizing, “I can’t do that; I have to go through the whole process very thoroughly.” After hiring her two weeks later, he could not help thinking, “She would already have been on the job for a week if I’d just hired her that day!”
About six months later, it became clear that Park Square Theatre needed a full-time development associate. Though Duffey was not interested in taking on that full-time position, her design background had already proven to be an invaluable asset so she was able to continue working with Park Square by more specifically handling its design needs. The theatre used to have a junior designer as well; but about three years ago, Duffey took on all of the organization’s design work.
According to Pease, since Duffey began at Park Square as a development assistant, “she really understands our brand, our program and the personalities here.” Pease further reflects, “When she became our graphic designer, we were about a year in with (our new) brand and logo, and she brought the brand to life!”
Duffey explained how she did that. Essentially, she kept the design consistent, clean and reader-friendly. She always kept the logo on a white background followed by the color bar with the theatre for you. (yes you.) tag line, as Duffey put it, “allowing the logo and other branding items room to breathe.” She created a cleaner look by visually organizing a lot of information with a consistent layout so as not to overwhelm readers and so that all Park Square materials look like they come from Park Square Theatre. In essence, Duffey created an easily identifiable Park Square look.
As Park Square Theatre moved toward its 2016-2017 season, Duffey was tasked with modernizing the Park Square look. In the new season brochure, she replaced the bulkier catalog format with a handy, functional tri-fold one; utilized more color on a lighter background; inserted dynamic cutout images of people; and created a playful bubble pattern of Park Square’s signature colors. Anticipate more creative changes throughout the season. Duffey’s design work is on all the theatre’s publications, mailings, posters, signage, and website.
To successfully do her job, Duffey must work very collaboratively with others–the webmaster, photographer, marketing and development staff and organizational directors, amongst others. Her task is to find solutions to meet people’s needs, and Duffey is respected as a proactive problem-solver. Pease notes, “When she asks a question, she has already tried most possibilities and looked for answers everywhere else before she calls.”
“What’s truly rare about her as a designer,” Pease continued, “is that she has a degree in English, and she can use it. Even designers who have great language skills still create typos because their brain is looking at the text as an object rather than as words. Madge not only corrects my mistakes as she designs, she can write or rework copy as she goes. I usually see her first draft and think, ‘Oh, yes, that’s just what I meant, even though I didn’t say that.'”
Ultimately, Pease had to invent a unique description for what Madge Duffey does because there simply is no existing word to encapsulate its huge impact on Park Square Theatre. Through the sheer power of design, Duffey lends a strong hand in shaping the theatre’s identity, strengthening our tie to it, and preparing us for exciting changes ahead. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5940 |
__label__cc | 0.66111 | 0.33889 | Inductive reasoning, or induction, is one of the two basic types of inference. An inference is a logical connection between two statements: the first is called the premise, while the second is called a conclusion and must bear some kind of logical relationship to the premise.
Inductions, specifically, are inferences based on reasonable probability. If the premise is true, then the conclusion is probably true as well. This is in contrast to deductive inferences, in which the conclusion must be true if the premise is.
Premise: Every day so far, the sun has risen in the East and set in the West.
Conclusion: The sun will probably continue to rise in the East and set in the West.
Premise: Every time I use the can opener, my cat comes running into the kitchen.
Conclusion: The cat probably thinks I am opening a can of tuna or wet food.
Premise: Ben has visited four places today, and Sam has gone to those places soon after.
Conclusion: Sam is probably following Ben.
Often, Inductive reasoning produces a general conclusion from a specific premise. They start with particular observations of a pattern, and then infer that there’s a general rule. For example, everyone knows the general rule in Example #1: the sun always rises and sets the same way. That rule is based on a huge accumulation of data points, not on a mathematical “proof” or derivation from other abstract rules. This is a common feature of inductions, but it isn’t always present (for example, #2 is not deriving a general rule).
II. Inductive reasoning vs. Deductive reasoning
Unlike inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, or deduction, is based on absolute logical certainty. If the premise is true, there’s no way for the conclusion not to be true. Deduction is the basis for mathematics, but is also used in formal statements such as definitions or categorizations.
Exmaples
Premise: 2+2=4
Conclusion: 4-2=2
Premise: All gorillas are primates, and Koko is a gorilla.
Conclusion: Koko is a primate.
Premise: The cat always comes running when I ring this bell, and she isn’t coming.
Conclusion: I haven’t rung the bell.
Although deductive reasoning is logically certain, they do not provide new information. In each of these examples, the conclusion is already contained in the premises; the conclusion is just another way of stating the premise. Thus, inductive reasoning is often more useful in science and everyday life because they allow us to generate new ideas about the world, even if those ideas are based on probability rather than certainty.
In addition, deductions are sometimes misleading in their certainty. That’s because the conclusion will only be true if the premise is true, and in the real world things are usually too messy for that. For example, in the third example we can be absolutely certain of the conclusion if the premise is true; but are we sure that it is? There are probably no actual cats who are so reliable that we can say they will always behave a certain way.
III. Quotes about Inductive reasoning
“One attempt to avoid the problem of induction involves weakening the demand that scientific knowledge be proven true, and resting content with the claim that scientific claims can be shown to be probably true in the light of the evidence.” (Alan Chalmers, What is This Thing Called Science)
Alan Chalmers is a philosopher of science who, like others in his profession, tries to understand how science works and what makes it so successful at certain tasks. In this quote, he argues that science is based on inductive reasoning rather than logical “proofs.” Although math is all deductive, science has to depart from pure mathematics when it looks out at the world around us. Because that world is messy and complicated, it may be impossible to prove anything conclusively. However, we can base our reasoning on probability and seek more probable answers rather than seeking the absolute, proven truth.
“Perfect knowledge alone can give certainty, and in nature perfect knowledge would be infinite knowledge, which is clearly beyond our capacities. We have, therefore, to content ourselves with partial knowledge—knowledge mingled with ignorance, producing doubt.” (William Stanley Jevons)
In this quote, the logician William S. Jevons explains the importance of inductive reasoning in human knowledge. Like Chalmers in the first quote, Jevons here is arguing that perfect certainty is impossible in the real world. We can only have logical certainty when it comes to abstractions, and therefore deductive reasoning will only get us so far — at a certain point, we have to rely on induction to tell us what’s probably true, giving up on absolute certainty.
IV. The History and Importance of Inductive reasoning
For as long as living things have had brains, they have been making inductive inferences: mice learn to avoid the electrified corner of their cage, inferring probable future events from painful past experience; zebrafish detect small fluctuations in the water and infer (consciously or not) the likely size of an approaching fish through murky water. In cases like these, the animal’s brain is making an inductive inference.
If we couldn’t use inductive reasoning, we wouldn’t survive a single day. When you go to the fridge for a snack, you do it on the basis of an inductive inference: normally when I go to the fridge there’s something there to eat; therefore there will probably be food there today as well. You walk to school following the induction that the building will probably still be standing and the doors will be open for you. In a bigger sense, inductive reasoning tells you that making bad choices will probably lead to unhappiness down the road. These inferences are all based on probability and prior experience, not logical certainty.
Because inductions are not logical certainties, some philosophers see them as inferior to deductions. In their eyes, philosophy needs to be rigorous and skeptical, accepting only those truths that can be logically proven. But the Scottish philosopher David Hume pointed out that this was an impossible way to live. Hume demonstrated that some of our most basic beliefs are based on inductive reasoning: it’s only by induction that we believe the sun will rise tomorrow, or that we have a personal identity that lasts from day to day. These are central truths for human existence, but they can’t be proven through deductive logic. Thus, for Hume deductive certainty was an unrealistic standard for philosophy to hold itself to.
V. Inductive reasoning in Popular Culture
In the South Park movie, Cartman’s mom is trying to train him not to swear so much. When other options fail, she sends him to a doctor who sticks an electroshock chip in Cartman’s brain. When Cartman swears, he gets a painful shock. After a few trials, Cartman inductively infers that swearing will bring pain, and he stops immediately. Notice that this scene has both of the classic attributes of an inductive reasoning: it’s based on probability, not certainty; and it uses specific past experiences to work out a general rule for the future.
“Here is a gentleman of the medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured: He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.” (Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock)
Sherlock Holmes has a website called “The Science of Deduction,” but his talent is clearly for inductive reasoning! In this quote, he makes a long series of observations, and builds them into a story that’s probably true. But it’s not a deduction at all! It’s logically possible that all this evidence could be accounted for by some other story (or by sheer coincidence.)
Inductive reasoning is based on _____.
a. Logical certainty
b. Specific observations
c. General laws
d. Reasonable probability
Inductive reasoning is one of the two main forms of logical inference. The other is…
a. Reduction
b. Premise-based reasoning
c. Deduction
d. Argument
Inductive reasoning originated with…
a. David Hume
b. The Greeks
c. The first brain
d. Chinese philosophers
Inductive reasoning is used frequently in…
a. Science
b. Everyday life
c. Philosophy
Georges TERASAWMY April 29, 2019, 4:12 am Reply
instructive lessons. thx | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5944 |
__label__wiki | 0.753307 | 0.753307 | Home News PAPA ROACH Drop Two New Tracks “Renegade Music” & “Who Do You...
PAPA ROACH Drop Two New Tracks “Renegade Music” & “Who Do You Trust” From Upcoming Album
Papa Roach have released two new songs from their forthcoming 10th studio album, “Renegade Music” and “Who Do You Trust?”
Watch the official music video for first single, “Who Do You Trust?” here:
Listen to “Renegade Music” here:
The tracks see Papa Roach continuing to push their momentum with bonafide rock anthems and fearsome hooks. Frontman Jacoby Shaddix explains, “This song is a statement of engagement – In this day and age, who do you trust? The message of the song is to think for yourself and to trust in yourself, and the imagery of the song matches that. It’s the sea of information, all of if slightly out of focus – and you’re left floating in trying to decide for yourself. Who do you trust?”
“Papa Roach are back with two more anthemic bangers to add to their arsenal”, muses Allison Hagendorf, Spotify’s Global Head of Music, about the tracks.
Papa Roach have been praised by their peers in the rock world for achieving an “unlikely comeback”, with two decades of continued success and a career resurgence with their 2017 release, “Crooked Teeth“, which debuted in the Top 20 on the US, UK and Australian charts. Loudwire explains, “ are entering a new era of their career. Whereas a multitude of their former counterparts have either become nostalgia acts or fallen off the grid entirely, Papa Roach are finding ways to reverse their trajectory… The sky is the limit for a band who play their cards right and are willing to kick down a few walls.”
Papa Roach have set out on a mini tour hitting ten cities across North and Latin America, before setting out on a December tour to various military bases in Asia. The band will also be joining Shinedown and Asking Alexandria on the 2019 North American leg of the Attention! Attention! World Tour. Additional international tour dates to be announced soon.
CONNECT WITH PAPA ROACH!
Renegade Music
Who Do You Trust
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Napalm Death Announce European and US Tour Dates | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5945 |
__label__wiki | 0.713776 | 0.713776 | Planning underway for new recreation center
The Learning Research and Development Center will be demolished next spring alongside the O’Hara parking garage to make way for the planned multistory recreation center.
Planning efforts are now underway for a new multistory recreation center to be built on middle campus, something campus administrators say students have long asked for. The project, which is projected to open fall of 2022, is one of the 14 short-term priorities listed in Pitt’s campus master plan.
Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner said students have often complained about campus recreation facilities, and he’s excited to address this request.
“To see this campus master plan and to look at the best way to address student needs, the student rec center was identified as priority,” Bonner said. “It represents our commitment to well-being and wellness, which I think is part of what you hopefully learn in college is how to take care of yourself for your entire life.”
Before construction can begin, existing structures will have to be demolished and the staff will have to be relocated. The center will be located on O’Hara Street at the current site of the Learning Research and Development Center and the O’Hara parking garage. Demolition of these facilities is currently set for next spring.
Existing parking capacity will be preserved in a new facility on the site of the recreation center, according to Bonner. He said Pitt hasn’t yet decided whether the parking will be under or adjacent to the new recreation center.
In an email, University spokesperson Kevin Zwick said the University’s facilities management department and the Office of the Provost are actively working on the relocation plans for the LRDC, but he did not provide a list of sites under consideration.
Pitt Executive Vice Provost David DeJong said his team was working to make the relocation as seamless as possible for LRDC staff.
“Working with the team at LRDC, my overriding goal is to manage this relocation so that it minimizes the disruptions to their programs,” DeJong said in an email. “I’m excited about the possibilities that are shaping up for them.”
The center, which could be as large as 300,000 square feet, would include amenities such as weight lifting facilities, basketball and volleyball courts, a test kitchen for student nutrition and a recreation pool. Bonner declined to provide a cost estimate for the project, citing ongoing design work, but said final designs will be released in the fall.
Student input is being solicited through a 15-member student advisory panel, which held its first meeting April 8. Members were nominated through the Student Government Board, the School of Education’s Health and Physical Activity program and several divisions within Student Affairs, according to Bonner.
Taylor Funke, a junior media and professional communications major, sits on the panel and felt like her and other student opinions were heard. That, Funke said, will contribute to a better facility.
“I know a lot of universities can feign the sort of, ‘we want to hear back from you,’ and then you kind of feel like you’re talking to a brick wall,” Funke, who is also a student employee in Student Affairs’ campus recreation division, said. “We have so many organizations … Everyone, I feel, is being appropriately represented and given that voice for this space, which is why I think it’s going to be really successful.”
In addition to students, faculty and staff will also be able to use the recreation center. Bonner said faculty will be able to utilize the facility at a cost similar to the current $130 wellness fee full-time students pay each semester. A separate advisory panel will be created in the coming months to seek their feedback.
“We want to get their feedback on what they would like to see in the facility from their perspective,” Bonner said. “My priority is really to meet the needs of students, but … I don’t think the needs are that dissimilar.”
Once the recreation center opens, Bonner said the Petersen Event Center’s Baierl Recreation Center will be reserved for student athletes.
Adam Johnson, a first-year computer science major who frequents the Baierl Recreation Center, said what he wants out of the new recreation center can be reduced to a single word: “more.”
“The [Baierl] has a lot of good amenities, but they lack quantity,” Johnson said. “Since there’s few options for gyms that have weight-lifting equipment, they try to pack a lot in a small space, but they just simply don’t have the quantity to serve all of the people that need to go there.”
Johnson said he often goes to the weight-lifting facilities in Trees Hall due to long lines at the Baierl.
“Sometimes you’ll spend 20 minutes just standing there waiting for the weight you’re looking for to become available,” Johnson said.
Bonner agreed the current facilities are inadequate for current student needs and said the new facility will be able to better accommodate the activities of all students.
“What we’re looking at is to make this more of a place where you can go and have a variety of things you can get into,” Bonner said, “and feel this energy of everyone sort of doing their thing in one place on campus.”
Next Read: Mark Henderson named new CIO and vice chancellor »
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__label__wiki | 0.730145 | 0.730145 | UC Irvine Still Enforcing Sharia Law
By Jonathan Constantine Movroydis and Reut Cohen 2008-05-22T14:03:05
The University of California-Irvine is a sprawling campus in Orange County. The institution, located between the Santa Ana Mountains and the shore of the Pacific Ocean, is not only home to some of the best minds in science and engineering, but also to some of the most virulent supporters of radical Islam in America -- and a school administration bent on capitulating to them.
The university's Muslim Student Union (MSU) holds several annual events, at which members unashamedly voice support for terrorist groups and denounce Israel, America, and the Western world. Past events hosted during the group's annual anti-Israel week have had titles such as “Hamas: the People’s Choice” and “Israel: The 4th Reich." Speakers have included Norman Finkelstein, Ward Churchill, and Anna Balzter.
This year, from May 7-15, the MSU hosted a series of programs entitled “Never Again? The Palestinian Holocaust.” As they have done in the past, the MSU appropriated ideas of genocide in order to promote their radical ideology.
The featured speaker last Thursday, May 15, was Amir Abdel Malik-Ali, a radical imam from Oakland who is all too familiar to UCI students. Malik-Ali frequently engages in anti-Western rhetoric and is a vocal supporter of terrorist groups. Not only has he praised Hamas, Hezbollah, and the mujahadeen in Afghanistan as “Islamic resistance” movements struggling against Western “oppressors,” he has called any scrutiny of these terror groups mere “propaganda.” Following Ali’s speeches to UCI's MSU, the audiences of keffiyah-wearing Muslim students always repetitively recite the battle cry “Takbir! Allahu Akbar!” This year's audience was no different.
While his rhetoric is lurid and apocalyptic, Malik-Ali’s speech is protected under the First Amendment. What's alarming is the administration’s willingness to enforce the MSU’s prerogatives on other students who attend their events -- hence the application of Sharia law where the Bill of Rights is applicable. For example, while videotaping Malik-Ali's speech, we were confronted by a school administrator. Dean of Student Services Sally Peterson told us that, on behalf of the male students, we would have to stop filming the female activists, or as she called them “the sisters.” Aware of our rights, we refused her orders and continued covering the event.
As we continued our coverage of the festivities, members of the MSU ultimately decided to enforce what appears to be their own principle of just retribution. After Thursday’s event, the MSU walked up and down the main campus road chanting anti-Israel slogans and blocking off the entire walkway for several minutes while police and administrators stood by idly.
A male individual, who was filming the hateful procession, had at least three Muslim males charge at him for daring to film as the females from the group walked past. One of the males, a student named Yasser Ahmed who purportedly threw a cinderblock at an FBI vehicle last year, said to the cameraman: "You wanna get jacked! We can go get jacked right now! C'mon Emanuel, we've learned a lot about you let’s go! Lets go get jacked, Lets go get jacked!"
The UCI police department treated this incident unprofessionally and took no action. The student journalist gave his statement to a UCI police officer and explained how he was assaulted. The officer then went to take statements from the males MSU members. The police would not, however, take statements from those who witnessed the assault against the student journalist. After the police officer took statements, he told the student journalist that one of the males who charged at him had apologized and that nothing more could be done.
A Christian preacher on campus, Michael Venyah, also had his rights violated last Thursday. This preacher, who believes that all people must accept Jesus in order to get into heaven, began preaching about the prophet Mohammad and his crimes. Evidently, MSU members didn't like hearing what he had to say and opted for charging and running into him. This was clearly an incident of assault. The cops present did nothing, and Dean of Judicial Affairs Edgar Dormitorio suggested that Mr. Venyah should leave.
Another case of MSU’s vigilantism occurred when a young Jewish female was followed back to her car and surrounded by six members of the MSU. A community member who witnessed the harassment also had her civil rights violated when the Muslim students noticed her. As UC Irvine police offers stood idly by, the Muslim students proceeded to situate themselves on the hood of her car in order to photograph her face, her vehicle identification number, and her license plate. When she later called the police department for answers, they justified the criminal behavior as the culmination of a tit for tat ethnic squabble. Put simply, they justified the need for Muslim students to “vent,” as they were just getting back at the Jews.
One group at UC Irvine has monopolized freedom of speech and expression. MSU organizers have taken it upon themselves to restrict the freedoms of others on the university campus and have managed to avoid significant criticism from the administration. Conversely, those who voice concern over MSU’s actions are depicted as stirring up trouble.
UCI administrators have not been helpful. Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl of UC Berkeley signed a letter, published in the New York Times, warning against anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish activity on campus. UC Irvine’s then-chancellor, Ralph Cicerone, refused to sign this letter. The current chancellor at UCI has called hate speech “repugnant,” but has refused to specify which group was responsible for hate speech and has been unable to ensure a safe environment during the hateful events hosted by the MSU.
The administration at UC Irvine has sent a clear message to the MSU: incitement and harassment against Jews, Israel, and America is acceptable on campus and will not incur consequences.
Jonathan Constantine Movroydis, a senior at UCI, is a staff writer for RedCounty.com. Reut Cohen recently graduated from UCI, where she ran a blog to document the 'anti-Israel,' anti-Semitic and anti-American incidents on campus.
https://pjmedia.com/blog/uc-irvine-still-enforcing-sharia-law/ | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5947 |
__label__cc | 0.716367 | 0.283633 | Home Arts and Entertainment Books One For The Money
One For The Money
Janet Evanovich is a writer of women’s fiction, aka romance novels, except for her ‘By the Numbers Series’, which also appeals to men, teens, adults, and the elderly.
The series is also known as the tales of Stephanie Plum, and the books’ titles are based on numbers such as: “One For the Money”, “Two For The Dough”, “Three to Get Deadly”, etc.
The 16th book of the series is slated for release June 22nd, 2010.
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series is one of the most popular works of fiction in recent memory that has crossed the barrier of women’s fiction to a large, loyal male readership.
http://www.evanovich.com/
Ms. Evanovich has also accomplished a most treasured feat of having her Stephanie Plum come to life on the big screen next year.
In Movie Theaters: TBA, 2011 (Development)
Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson
Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum
Jason O’Mara as Joe Morelli
Daniel Sunjata as Ranger
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Genres: Drama Crime Mystery
http://www.themovieinsider.com/m1037/one-for-the-money/
Those of us who are rabid fans of Stephanie Plum have speculated for years on the casting should it ever be made into a movie and the actors chosen are not exactly the people her fans would have chosen, but we’re willing to wait and see.
Other books made into movies, such as “An Interview With A Vampire” suffered similar complaints with the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat, but that worked out nicely and fans of the books were appeased.
Stephanie Plum is a comical character whose life is filled with crazy mishaps and humorous catastrophes once she begins the life working for her cousin Vinny as a bounty hunter.
She has a pet hamster named Rex that lives in a soup can within an aquarium, and she keeps an unloaded gun in the cookie jar on her kitchen counter.
Joe Morelli is the roguish Italian cop that she’s known all of her life and eventually becomes her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
Ranger is the dark man of mystery, always dressed in black with a sketchy background and sketchy heritage, who owns a security company Rangeman Inc. and he saves Stephanie from several hilarious and not so hilarious adventures.
Stephanie is from the ‘burgs’ of Trenton and the book is filled with a zany cast of characters, plus a dog named Bob.
There’s Grandma Morelli with her ‘evil-eye’ and Grandma Mazur who always carries a loaded gun in her pocketbook and has been known to shoot the chicken on the platter during family meals.
There’s Stephanie’s nemesis Joyce Barnhardt that boinked Stephanie’s husband on her dining room table, leading to a very short marriage and quicker divorce.
Eventually Stephanie meets and saves a prostitute Lula, who is one of the most beloved characters in the series.
I’ve always thought that Sandra Bullock would make an exceptional Stephanie Plum and Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock should be Ranger.
Alas, that is not to be, but I’m willing to keep an open mind.
I am hoping that Cloris Leachman will be cast as Grandma Morelli and Betty White as Grandma Mazur.
As for Lula, I think that one of my favorite actresses – Queen Latifah – would be prefect for the comedic part.
I started reading the Stephanie Plum books several years ago and my husband would always hear me laugh out loud. By the time I was on book 4 of the series, he had to read them to find out what was so funny and he’s been a fan ever since.
And he laughs out loud, too.
So, if you’ve never read them, I would suggest that you give them a try, and see if they’ll make you laugh out loud, too.
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I am a retired aerospace engineer, happily married for over twenty-four years. My hobbies include blogging on PPOV, reading mystery/romance novels, playing guitar, learning the piano and writing. My husband and I love to travel in our camper/trailer, and have visited 45 states, besides having lived in France for 2 years and seeing most of Europe. "Today is the first day of the rest of your life? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die." American Beauty "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." Mark Twain "A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar." Mark Twain
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audadvnc
I’ve read ’em all, the best Stephanie Plum’s were books 2-8. The first was too serious and complicated, but she hit her stride on #2. By now, Ms. Evanovich is on auto-pilot, cranking out boring retreads of her better books. But when she was on, she had it going good.
Chernynkaya
Hi, audadvnc! It’s so great that you found an older post–I’d missed this one.
Thanks, javaz! I’m always looking for good reading recommendations. And I’m seriously thinking about an iPad so that I can carry thousands of books with me at a time. I’m definitely putting these on my list.
Hiya Nellie!
If you like mindless comedy, you’ll like the books!
And as I wrote to KQ, the stories do get better and better as they progress.
Even my 87 year old mother-in-law loves the books as do my brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.
Once Lula comes in and I think she begins in the 3rd book, things really start to roll on the humor.
I wish I could tell you more, but don’t want to ruin anything in case you do read them!
377 people (out of 580) gave it 5 stars on Amazon. So I’m stoked!
I just love them books, as does my husband, because they are silly things, but they do make us laugh and laugh out loud.
There’s other ones in the series, and those are actually quite funny, too, but I wouldn’t recommend them at this point.
But they are the “in-between the numbers” and they are more imaginative.
I had hoped that others had read these books because they are so much fun and fun to talk about and the series really is wildly popular.
Have you ever read Nora Roberts? Or her series under her pseudonym JD Robb?
I collect all her books and am re-reading one of her series for the 5th time, and I just love them.
The JD Robb books are a futuristic series and really not that far into the future -2050 is when they start, and those are really good murder mysteries, and more like that old TV series ‘Hart to Hart’.
My husband has read a few of those, but he prefers the Janet Evanovich because of the humor.
Another really fun book is “Agnes and the Hitman” by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer.
That one is very close to the Evanovich series, and I’ve read others by the pair but they weren’t as good as “Agnes and the Hitman”, but that’s another good one if you like murder mysteries with humor and a touch of romance.
Don’t a lot of murder/mystery books, even by male authors, have a touch of romance?
John Grisham has romance in his books as does Dean Koontz.
Romance novels have a bad reputation and yes, there are many that do deserve it, but there are many that do not.
That’s one of my complaints in how women authors so often get the romance writer reputation whereby the books are actually quite good and so many in-depth/researched history wound around fiction, so they don’t get the respect that they should, imho.
Javaz I will check it out based on your recommendation. I’m a sucker for comedy and romance I hate to admit.
Hey KQ – the romance part in the series is secondary more or less.
It’s not the main focus of any of the stories.
The first book is more of an introduction to all the zany characters and the books actually do get better as they progress and more exciting.
There are some nail-biting endings in some, but they are simply more fun than anything else and a good escape from the serious issues.
Questinia
I’ve never heard of them, javaz. I need something light and hilarious. A good sprinkling of roguish Italian cop could never hurt either unless there is a heavy Brooklyn accent involved.
I think you will enjoy these books as they are truly hilarious and you fall in love with the characters from the get-go.
They are just fun entertainment, easy to read – you can pretty much read one per day if you have the time – they do not require any thinking, and they are just laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Another thing, once you get it into them, is the dilemma of when the series finally ends, since all good things must come to end, is who do you want to see Stephanie end up?
Morelli or Ranger?
I honestly cannot decide!
Sounds like Lost. Jack? Sawyer? Jack? Sawyer? Jack? Sawyer….
TOCB on Time Out for O/TWHY is the mainstream media not talking about THIS??? And Trump's connections to Epstein's sex trafficking may go beyond merely superficial. In 2016,… | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5948 |
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Focusing on the light: A behind-the-scenes look at Profoto
A small text on a signboard in the hallway is all that shows that the world’s leading manufacturer of professional flashes has its head office here, located at Landsvägen 57 in Sundbyberg. Swedish company Profoto is world famous for its robust and reliable flashes and light shaping tools. Loaded with technology, but so easy to use that you won’t need a manual. Up until a couple of years ago the company focused mainly on studio photographers, especially within the fashion industry. For almost 50 years Profoto has supplied fashion photographers with tools that have both facilitated the work and allowed the photographers to move the boundaries of their creativity. More than half of the rental studios in the world use Profoto’s flashes and light shaping tools. In New York and Paris that number is higher than 80 percent. Then something happened that fundamentally changed the company.
Focusing on design
Since the start in 1968, the company has been true to the principles of the founders: to only engage in what creates value for photographers. That means, among other things, that Profoto doesn’t manufacture any of their own products. “Our quantities are too small for us to become world leaders within production. Therefore, we have always cooperated with experts to create the highest quality,” says CEO Anders Hedebark.
Conny Dufgran, who founded Profoto with Eckhardt Heine, has another explanation, “For Eckhard and me, Profoto was a way to make our living doing something we enjoyed. Our competitors did not have a lot of fantasy; they cared more about factories than innovation. We wanted to be the opposite of that, not being factory bosses and keeping the machines running, but being able to focus on creating good products from a photographer’s perspective.”
Simple solutions are good solutions
Profoto has different manufacturers and several of their suppliers are very specialized, working only with the flash and medical technology industries. Even though they don’t have their own production, Profoto has an extensive quality control, both internal and external.
A lot of the construction work consists of verification. Each design engineer’s work station includes a desk with a computer and a workbench with hardware testing equipment.
“To a high extent, it is also about designing for quality from the beginning. We think that simple solutions are good solutions. Such as zoomable flash heads with rubber and hose clamps. Or that the lamps are placed so they can’t fall off. Our customers are the best photographers in the world. They may have around 200 travel days per year so the equipment simply always needs to work,” says Hedebark.
For more than 40 years, Profoto has emphasized being the number one choice for studio photographers all over the world, but a few years ago the company decided to change that. Part of the new strategy was to create a product category for wedding and portrait photographers. “To us, rental studios and fashion have always been our target groups. Now with our Off Camera Flash (OCF) system, we are expanding considerably, addressing target groups that might have worked with speed lights earlier but are looking for better reliability and predictability when it comes to light, without having to bring a conventional studio kit with flashes,” says Hedebark.
The OCF system filled a gap
The first product in the system, the Profoto B1, combines a battery pack and a head and was released in the autumn of 2013. It was also the first flash ever to combine professional performance with automatic flash compensation (TTL). In March 2015, the Profoto B2 was released, yet another flash in the system where the battery pack and the head are divided for greater flexibility.
It soon became obvious that the OCF-system filled an important gap in the market. Since the release, Profoto has more than doubled its revenue.
The light lab is the heart of the Development Department at Profoto. In the darkness of the lab, Electrical Design Engineer Michael Sundkvist uses a light meter and a photospectrometer to verify that the light gets the right spectrum and energy level.
Today the company has 115 employees. Around 60 people work at the head office in Sundbyberg, and the rest work in regional offices all over the world. Sundbyberg is where all the product development and global sales take place. This is also where the Nordic subsidiary Profoto Nordic is seated.
Finding new talent
Profoto’s goal is to release new products in all segments. Since the increase in revenue has been so high, the company is trying to hire engineers and product developers as soon as they find someone with the right qualifications. “That’s a challenge for us now, to become more effective in our recruitment in order to speed up the process of getting new products out on the market,” says Hedebark.
A big part of the development is done in the CAD system. Mechanical Design Engineer Emil Stenbacka checks that the plastic components are consistent with the construction design of the head for the B2.
Developing a new product takes the company around 2.5 to 3 years. “First we have to come up with what we want to do. Then we need to find out whether it’s possible using existing technology or if we need to develop new core technology. Then you have the whole journey from verifying that it’s doable to actually starting up the production, says Bo Dalenius, Head of Electronical and Mechanical Research and Development. “However, developing new products always means a great deal of compromising. For instance, you can’t have the world’s shortest flash duration in a system that is super compact or really fast flash recycling times without making the product too heavy. When it comes to OCF, it has to be portable, robust and secure, while our conventional systems directed towards fashion are optimized for flash duration and recycling time. All our products have to be robust and easy to use, that’s something we never compromise on.”
The cable clamps, connecting the cable from the flash to the generator, are dimensioned to bear the weight of the generator so you can lift it by the cable. Also, all the generators have mechanical buttons and knobs to change the different values. Not even in the 70s and 80s, when they were at their most popular, did we use touch buttons. We have always used mechanical buttons and knobs since we are convinced that as a photographer you need to see, feel and hear when you change a setting on your equipment. Then of course there is a computer underneath that controls the generator, but you have to be able to feel what you are doing, not having to click your way around to change a setting,” says Hedebark.
A well equipped photo studio
The glass wall dividing the open office space from the Development Department has a glass door with a code lock. To the right, in the far corner, the Project Leaders are sitting at their desks. To the left you have the Software Developers with their big screens filled with code. Each workstation includes a desk with a computer and a workbench with hardware testing equipment. This is where Peter Lönnebring works as a Team Leader for the Software Developers. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the Royal Institute of Technology and has previously worked at the giant software company Oracle, among others, before finding his way to Profoto five years ago.
“As a Software Developer, you never see the final product, but here at Profoto there is a final product that I can actually put my hands on and would even be interested to use myself. For a Software Developer interested in photography, this is a dream workplace. I get to use my knowledge in software development creating tools for photographers. Also, it is of course pretty nice to have access to an incredibly well equipped photo studio,” says Lönnebring.
Together with the rest of the team he develops the software of the generators and the remote controls, so called embedded software. “There is more software in flash systems than one would imagine, especially in the B1 and B2 where the whole flash is software controlled.”
Monitoring new reserach
The room next to the software developers is the design team area. Right now they are finalizing the design of an upcoming product. The content of the screens is changed when we enter the room.
In here, you also have Electrical Engineers working on developing the components of the flashes. The goal always is to improve the performance in products that are growing smaller and smaller. The company also develops and analyzes new technology. “One of our most important tasks in product development is being innovative when it comes to new technology. That’s why we invest quite a lot of resources in monitoring new research to see how we can use new knowledge in upcoming products, says Bo Dalenius.
Even though LED-lights are changing the way we use light within many fields, flash tubes are still the only option if one wants enough light to compete with the sun during short exposure times. “No matter how much effect an LED has today, it can’t get hot without breaking. On the other hand, the flash tubes and the gas inside them can get as warm as 6,000 degrees Celsius without affecting the color of the light or the reliability. It is an extremely generous technology that still defends itself well against LED-lights.”
To be able to shoot in daylight with a shallow depth of field without getting too much of the sunlight in to the photo, you need really fast shutter speeds. During such an exposure, both the first and the second shutter curtain moves across the sensor at the same time, with only a narrow slit open over the sensor. Previously, it was impossible to shoot with a flash in these kinds of conditions, but not anymore.
Behind the pulled blinds, the engineers of Profoto have developed a completely new way for the flash to perform, and Dalenius tells us how High-Speed Sync (HSS) works. “An ordinary capacitor flash has a high initial peak where it burns off almost all its power during a brief moment. With HSS, we make the flash light pulse up to 25,000 times per second instead. That way, there is constant light while the slit in the shutter moves across the sensor.”
With HSS the flash integrates wirelessly with the camera using Profoto AirTTL. The system currently works with Canon and Nikon cameras.
Development of a unique radio system
Profoto doesn’t want to reveal anything about future compatibility with other camera brands; at the moment they are busy optimizing the products for Nikon and Canon cameras.
The foundation for the new wireless, battery operated flash system was created already in the early 2000s, when Profoto decided to develop their own radio protocol for communication between the remote control you attach to the camera and the actual flashes. “The existing products like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth neither met the demands we already had nor the ones we saw coming. Instead, we created our own radio system, Profoto Air, with essentially the same performance and reliability that we have using a cable,” says Dalenius.
Warm light - the road to success
One of the founders, Conny Dufgran, 82 years old, is still on the board of the company today. While he is no longer involved in the daily work, his ideas to primarily create tools that allow photographers to focus on the creative process, and to keep a close eye on the technical development are still carried out and make Profoto thrive. The new location that the company moved into four years ago is already too small.
But some of the success has actually come to them for free. “When we started competing with Balcar, they were using glass made from pyrex in their lamps. Their flashes recycled so slowly that it did not make any difference, but for us, the glass got too hot, so we had to buy flash tubes made of quartz, which were a lot more expensive, but allowed running flashes at high frequency. But glass from quarts does not filter UV light, and this was in the 60s, so there was a lot of nylon in the clothes that were shot. The UV-light was reflected in blue in jackets and shirts, so we put a glass cover made from pyrex on the outside to reduce the UV-light. Coming from a shining dome, the light got a lot softer and warmer, and gave the models a more pleasant skin tone. It was all out of necessity, but the result was that the Profoto light was perceived as a lot more beautiful. I think that was the first part of our success, that the light was a little warmer than that of the other flashes.”
With the continued focus on hiring new talent, research and development, and intense focus on developing the best lighting tools, the future is sure to hold many more successes for both Profoto and photographers all around the globe.
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__label__cc | 0.660646 | 0.339354 | Browsing by Author "Young, Adam"
Country report: Philippines
A Young & E Serna - In FB Davy & M Graham (Eds.), Bivalve culture in Asia and the Pacific: proceedings of a workshop held in Singapore, 16-19 February 1982, 1982 - International Development Research Centre
Natural populations of oysters and mussels have long been gathered for food by coastal communities in the Philippines, and bivalve farming began in early 1900. The first farms were no more than a series of bamboo poles inserted in the muddy bottom of Manila Bay in Bacoor Cavite. In May 1934, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) established a pilot oyster farm in Binakayan, Cavite Province, Luzon, and a lucrative industry soon grew up. By 1950, about 200 ha of private farms existed in Bacoor Bay, but, in the late 1950s, mussels appeared on the farms and threatened the industry. The response of BFAR was to initiate farms for mussels, and the results prompted the establishment of a mussel industry that proved to be at least as lucrative as the oyster industry.
Farming of windowpane oysters (Placuna placenta) began in the late 1940s in the tide flats of Bacoor Bay, the delicate, translucent Placuna shells being used for window glazing and shellcraft. In the early 1970s, however, the bay became increasingly polluted, the stocks could not survive, and they are still not found in the waters of the bay.
All of SAIRCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5959 |
__label__wiki | 0.547426 | 0.547426 | Advanced Research PortalResearchersMikko Möttönen
View email
Tietotie 3, 02150 Espoo
Group web page
Mikko Möttönen
Senior Scientist, Professor (Associate Professor)
Research units & titles
Professor (Associate Professor) Quantum Computing and Devices - Professors, tenure track
Senior Scientist Centre of Excellence in Quantum Technology, QTF - Postdoctoral researchers
Professor (Associate Professor) Department of Applied Physics - Professors, tenure track
Artistic and research interests
Mikko's research interests cover a wide variety of topics in quantum physics and technology. For example, he has studied magnetic-monopole analogues in Bose-Einstein condensates and single-electron pumping in silicon quantum dots. Currently, he is most focused on superconducting electric circuits which he has used to demonstrate the most sensitive bolometer and a quantum-circuit refrigerator. The refrigerator can potentially be used to demonstrate efficient initialization of superconducting qubits, a work that is currently on going. For further details, see the web pages of Mikko's Quantum Computing and Devices group: http://physics.aalto.fi/en/groups/qcd/
Doctor of Science (Technology), Engineering Physics, Teknillinen korkeakoulu
Master of Science (Technology), Engineering Physics, Teknillinen korkeakoulu | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5960 |
__label__wiki | 0.94165 | 0.94165 | Home Uncategorized APC set to ‘poach’ PDP members, woo Sheriff’s faction
APC set to ‘poach’ PDP members, woo Sheriff’s faction
The ruling All Progressives Congress has begun moves to woo some members of the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.
It was learnt on Friday that some former members of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressive Change might cross over to the APC in what appears to be a realignment of political forces.
Sources in the APC told Saturday PUNCH that the former members of the defunct ANPP and CPC had become power brokers in the ruling party.
It was learnt that the discreet move to woo members of the Sheriff-led faction of the PDP was being spearheaded by some of the APC chieftains, who were formerly in the ANPP and the CPC.
Findings showed that some ex-members of the ANPP in the PDP were still sympathetic to President Muhammadu Buhari, who was the presidential candidate of the defunct party in 2003 and 2007.
It was learnt that the plan by the APC to poach some PDP members was hatched when the ruling party realised that it could no longer guarantee the loyalty of some of its members.
The APC currently has three power blocs, including a group of former governors of the PDP, who defected to the APC before the 2015 elections.
It was gathered that prominent members of this group include the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and a former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Another power bloc is led by the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, which comprises former members of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria.
The third power bloc consists members of the defunct ANPP and the CPC.
Besides the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, other prominent members of the party, who were formerly in the ANPP, include the National Secretary, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal; the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and his Oyo State counterpart, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
The power bloc was said to have played a prominent role in the party’s governorship primary in Ondo State, where a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), defeated the preferred candidate of Tinubu, Mr. Segun Abraham.
A top member of the APC, who confided in Saturday PUNCH, said that the party was aware that it would not be intact in 2019.
He said that some members of the APC, including Tinubu, were on their way out of the party, adding that they would be replaced by others.
The APC chieftain stated, “The Ondo State primary has shown that the party is not one. We are reaching out to some PDP members, particularly those in the Sheriff-led faction. Some of them are sympathic to our ideas.”
Attempts to get a reaction from the leadership of the APC were futile. Calls to the mobile telephone numbers of the party’s National Chairman, Odigie-Oyegun and Buni indicated that they were switched off.
The first set of calls was made between 3:15pm and 3:23pm while the subsequent ones were made at 7:29pm. Responses to text messages sent to them were still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.
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New NDDC Team Remains Committed For Sustainable Development of Region,Says Chris Amadi | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5961 |
__label__cc | 0.746004 | 0.253996 | Speaker: Prabhat
Data and Analytics Group Lead @NERSC
Prabhat leads the Data and Analytics Services team at NERSC; his group is responsible for supporting over 7000 scientific users on NERSC’s HPC systems. His current research interests include Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Applied Statistics and High Performance Computing. In the past, Prabhat has worked on topics in scientific data management; he co-edited a book on ‘High Performance Parallel I/O’.
Prabhat is the Director of the Big Data Center collaboration between NERSC, Intel, Cray, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, NYU, UBC, Oxford and Liverpool. The BDC project aims at enabling capability, data-intensive science applications on the NERSC Cori system.
Prabhat received a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT-Delhi (1999) and an ScM in Computer Science from Brown University (2001). He is currently pursuing a PhD in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at U.C. Berkeley. Prabhat has co-authored over 150 papers spanning several domain sciences and topics in computer science. He has won 5 Best Paper Awards, 3 Industry Innovation Awards, and he was a part of the team that won the 2018 Gordon Bell Prize for their work on ‘Exascale Deep Learning’. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5966 |
__label__cc | 0.609764 | 0.390236 | ASCAP pulled in more than $1 billion in 2014
Posted on March 3, 2015 by Anna Washenko
ASCAP posted revenue of more than $1 billion last year, the first performance rights collector to do so. The company distributed more than $883 million in royalties to songwriters, composers, and publishers. ASCAP also said that it doubled the number of performances that it has processed for payment, paying out royalties for 500 billion musical moments. In streaming services, ASCAP paid royalties to nine times as many artists as in 2013. It also identified more than 1.3 million unique compositions for payment on those platforms.
“Our 2014 financial results clearly demonstrate that collective licensing is the most efficient licensing model available to creators and music licensees alike,” new CEO Elizabeth Matthews said of the year’s results. “The collective can accommodate big data growth of extreme scale at the lowest cost while also providing access to a broad, diverse and high quality repertory of music.”
Matthews may be talking up ASCAP’s model in response to the rumblings among publishers that they want to withdraw from that collective licensing arrangement. Sony/ATV and Universal Music Publishing Group have put their catalogs online, which could enable them to do their negotiations directly with licensees. Consent decrees are also still under consideration at the Department of Justice. Both of those could mean a serious shake-up to ASCAP’s business.
Copyrights & Legal, News ASCAP
Editor’s Notebook: Ipsos In-Car Audio Study confirms people like what they’re familiar with
Quick Hits: Beats vs. Spotify; a new streaming model | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5967 |
__label__wiki | 0.800539 | 0.800539 | Ecole Publique Rideau Public School » Our School » About Us
Bienvenue à École Rideau Public School, home of the Rhinos. Starting in September 2018, we are excited to become Limestone's first all-French Immersion School! We offer French Immersion for students in Kindergarten to Grade 6, with entry points at jk, sk, and grade 1.
Rideau is one of the oldest schools in Kingston. The old original Rideau Public School was a two-storey school, one room up and one room down, located on the corner of Princess and Nelson Streets during the 1900s. At that time a creek ran down the front of the school, south across Victoria Street, where a wooden bridge and boardwalk were constructed. It was on the extreme western outskirts of the city. As the growth of the city expanded westward this school became obsolete and, in 1924, the school board decided that a new school was needed.
The new Rideau Public School was constructed in the fall and winter of 1925-1926 on a block of land purchased from a Mr. Counter. This original wing was built by H.W. Watts for $106,700.00 and looks exactly the same today with the exception of the landscaping. The original building contained ten classrooms, a principal's office, staff room, furnace room, two playrooms in the basement and an auditorium on the first floor. It had a staff of eight teachers and a principal. The official opening of the school was held on September 9, 1926.
In the late 1940s, the school became crowded as residences sprung up quickly all the way to Palace Road. In 1950, it became necessary for the board to build a new wing onto the school. In 1960, Rideau achieved its largest pupil population of 640 students.
In 1986, Rideau became the first French Immersion school for the former Frontenac County Board of Education. Rideau now serves its local community as well as areas east of Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard, North Kingston, and the areas of Glenburnie, Elginburg, Harrowsmith, and Sydenham. The current student population represents the cultural diversity that makes Canada so special.
Our staff remain focused on moving every student’s learning forward, building a stronger community between school and families, and providing opportunities for every student to thrive at Rideau, whether it is in the classroom, on the playing field, or in one of our many clubs. Rideau continues to demand excellence from staff and students living by our motto "They Can Who Think They Can.” | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5970 |
__label__cc | 0.736338 | 0.263662 | Evidence to the Rescue! Whole School Option for SIG
Robert Slavin's Blog Evidence-based programs, Evidence-based reform, Investing in Innovation (i3), School Improvement Grants (SIG), Whole-school reform September 11, 2014 March 6, 2018 3 Minutes
The U. S. Department of Education has just released draft regulations that will substantially change School Improvement Grants (SIG). Within the document are two pages that could change the world. Really.
Up to now, the very low achieving schools that qualified for SIG funding had to choose among four options. Two of these, school closure and restart, are rarely used. Turnaround requires firing the principal and at least 50% of the staff. So most SIG schools have opted for transformation, which still requires firing the principal in most cases and implementing a lengthy list of changes.
The new regs keep these four options, with a few tweaks, and they add three more. One is a “state-determined” model to be devised by state education departments, which requires approval by the U.S. Secretary of Education, and another emphasizes pre-kindergarten programs as part of elementary school reform. These are good ideas, but not revolutionary.
The revolutionary option is an “evidence-based whole-school reform option.” Schools that choose it have to implement whole-school reform models created and disseminated by external organizations. That’s good, but not quite revolutionary in itself.
Here comes the revolutionary part. Be sure you’re sitting down before reading on.
The whole-school reform models SIG schools may choose must have a high level of evidence of effectiveness. At least two studies that meet tough What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards must have documented positive effects on major learning outcomes. The Department will review programs in advance and will determine if they meet the standards. Full disclosure: Our Success for All program will most likely qualify. But this is a lot bigger than a good thing for Success for All.
This is the first time in all of education history, going back to Socrates, when evidence of effectiveness has been a requirement for anything in practice. Yes, the equally revolutionary Investing in Innovation (i3) program requires evidence of effectiveness for its large validation and scale-up grants, and the scale-up grants, in particular, have collectively benefitted thousands of schools. However, the focus of i3 is on building capacity among developers, not on direct service. In contrast, the SIG whole-school option moves evidence-based reform into a new arena. For the first time, a major federal program that does provide direct service to schools is offering them an option that requires substantial evidence of effectiveness.
This gives schools that apply for and receive SIG funding a new set of possibilities to take on a proven whole-school strategy without having to fire their principals or others. Assuming whole-school models were proven in schools like theirs, and assuming the organizations that made and evaluated them have a lot of experience working with similar schools, their students are likely to benefit, and that’s all good.
If all goes well, the whole-school option will demonstrate the power of evidence-based reform. Proven models will show well in evaluations of SIG, because their capacity to show positive outcomes is what got them on the list. If this happens, one might expect that other parts of federal, state, and local education would also begin demanding evidence of effectiveness for innovative programs. Seeing this, perhaps government and private funders will ramp up their investments in research and development, to create and validate additional models for a wide variety of purposes. Imagine, dare I say it, that Title I might begin to encourage schools to use proven approaches. Or Title II. Or IDEA. Or technology applications. Or STEM. Or. . . just about any area of education in which outcomes can be measured.
If we start with the SIG whole-school option, the evidence-based reform movement could get completely out of hand. Wouldn’t that be great?
Published September 11, 2014 March 6, 2018
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__label__wiki | 0.727085 | 0.727085 | Nutrition and Biotechnology in Heart Disease and Cancer
Nutrition and Biotechnology in Heart Disease and Cancer pp 211-220 | Cite as
Carcinogens in Foods: Heterocyclic Amines and Cancer and Heart Disease
Richard H. Adamson
Unnur P. Thorgeirsson
Part of the Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology book series (AEMB, volume 369)
Laboratory and epidemiologic studies continue to accumulate evidence that dietary factors contribute to both the cause and prevention of chronic diseases found in the Western societies, especially cancer and cardiovascular disease. A number of naturally occurring carcinogens are found in foods and these compounds might contribute to the etiology of both these diseases. Data presented in this paper demonstrate that some of the heterocyclic amines (HCAs) formed as a result of cooking are both carcinogenic and cardiotoxic in animals, and it is possible that the HCAs may play a role in the etiology of both these diseases in humans.
Nonhuman Primate Cynomolgus Monkey Ames Test Heterocyclic Amine Myocyte Hypertrophy
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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1995
1.Division of Cancer EtiologyNational Cancer InstituteBethesdaUSA
Adamson R.H., Thorgeirsson U.P. (1995) Carcinogens in Foods: Heterocyclic Amines and Cancer and Heart Disease. In: Longenecker J.B., Kritchevsky D., Drezner M.K. (eds) Nutrition and Biotechnology in Heart Disease and Cancer. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 369. Springer, Boston, MA
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1957-7_20
Publisher Name Springer, Boston, MA
Online ISBN 978-1-4615-1957-7 | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5978 |
__label__wiki | 0.969824 | 0.969824 | Security Advisor
U.S. Cyber Czar Steps Down
By Chris Paoli
After hearing this news I did a quick Google search and, yup, there really exists a cyber czar position in the government.
And it was occupied by former Microsoft CSO and co-founder of the Trustworthy Computing Group Howard Schmidt. He accepted the title under the Obama administration in 2009 after serving in a somewhat similar role (but different title) for President Bush.
His biggest contribution included the adoption of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which set the framework for private companies to verify identities of customers online. Also, recently he has been vocally critical to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), and is believed to be instrumental on the White House's decision not to support the act.
"It has been a tremendous honor for me to have served in this role and to have worked with such dedicated and professional colleagues both in the government and private sector," Schmidt said in a statement. "We have made real progress in our efforts to better deal with the risks in cyberspace so, around the world, we can all realize the full benefits that cyberspace brings us."
Schmidt is succeeded by Michael Daniel, who has worked in the Office of Management and Budget's national security division for over 15 years.
Chris Paoli is the site producer for Redmondmag.com and MCPmag.com. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5982 |
__label__wiki | 0.60482 | 0.60482 | The controlled burn of spilled oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer First Class John Masson)
By April 24, 2010, two days after the oil rig sank due to an explosion and fires, the oil slick was visible on surrounding surface waters. Over the following weeks and months, NASA satellite photographs—obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mounted on the Aqua satellite and the Advanced Land Imager aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite—provided evidence of an expanding surface oil slick over the northern Gulf of Mexico. Scientists using fluorometers mapped and measured clouds and plumes of subsurface oil, and later layers of subsurface oil mixed with chemical dispersants.
Although there was initial uncertainty in estimating the rate of leakage, within days of the accident it became clear that enough oil would be spilled into the Gulf of Mexico to create a significant—and perhaps unprecedented—ecological disaster.
Undersea oil leak
Using remotely operated submersibles to examine the wreckage, engineers quickly discovered at least three major leaks. Oil was leaking from a ruptured drill pipe near the wellhead and from the crumpled riser pipe that had once connected the Deepwater Horizon rig to the well head.
Efforts to stop the leak were performed under difficult marine conditions. Rough seas hampered initial efforts to close the blowout preventer shut-off valves. The vertical column of pipes from the seafloor was so badly damaged that, akin to kinks in a hose, the twisted remains of the connecting pipe actually acted to slow the oil leak. Engineers had to proceed with caution because while attempting repairs, they ran the risk of opening new leaks or inadvertently increasing the rate of leaks already spewing oil into the Gulf.
Containment efforts
BLOWOUT PREVENTER. Numerous methods to limit the impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill were attempted throughout May and early June, including using ROVs to manually close the blowout preventer (BOP), a shutoff device at the wellhead. In all, BP sent six of these ROVs to cut the flow of oil at the wellhead. These attempts ultimately failed.
RELIEF WELLS. During this time, BP also began drilling two relief wells to intercept the original well at about 12,800 feet (3,900 m) below the seafloor. These relief wells were to be used in case the other attempts failed. BP hoped that by August these relief wells would be ready to end the oil flow.
CONTAINMENT DOME. Early in May, an attempt was made to place a 98-ton steel and concrete containment dome (called a “top hat”) on top of the largest leak. The top hat, which was four feet (1.2 m) in diameter and 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, would attach to a drill pipe that would siphon the oil to a ship waiting on the ocean's surface. However, this procedure failed when the pipe became blocked with gas hydrates (crystalline solids of methane gas and water molecules). In the second week, the insertion of a Riser Insertion Tube Tool (RITT) between the platform pipe and the broken seafloor pipe was attempted. The apparatus allowed some collection of leaking oil.
TOP KILL AND JUNK SHOT. Then, on May 25, the RITT apparatus was removed so a “top kill” technique and a “junk shot” technique could be attempted to permanently close the leak. Heavy drilling fluids were pumped through two lines into the blowout preventer on the seabed. The top kill technique was designed to restrict the flow of oil so that cement could be poured in to permanently seal the leak. After temporarily stopping the flow, BP announced on May 29 that the “top kill” method had failed to permanently stop it. The junk shot technique, which consisted of shooting shredded tire bits, golf balls, knotted rope, and other selected materials into the BOP with the intention of clogging it, also failed.
LMRP CAP. Thereupon, BP began using the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System. A diamond saw blade began cutting the damaged riser so a custom-built cap could be placed on the newly cut pipe; however, the saw became stuck. With a substituted pair of shears, a successful cut was accomplished on June 3 and a cap attached. Recovery began the next day, with less than one-tenth of the oil captured. On June 8, according to BP, a total of about 15,000 barrels of oil had been collected that day, and about 57,500 barrels over the past four days. Ultimately, this technique also failed to contain the leaking oil.
NEW CAP ASSEMBLY. On July 10, the LMRP cap was removed so that a different cap could be installed. The new cap assembly, which was hopefully a better fit than the older one, consisted of a flange transition spool and a 3 ram stack. Five days later, BP announced that the leak had stopped when the BOP was closed shut with the new cap assembly.
STATIC KILL. With the success of the LMRP containment cap, on August 3, BP began a process called “static kill,” or hydrostatic kill. The spill prevention process involves injecting several thousand barrels of cement and mud through the containment cap and into the top of the damaged BP well. The cement plug created from the process is designed to hold back the pressure of the oil, which was estimated at about 7,000 pounds per square inch, or almost 500 times atmospheric pressure. On August 9, BP reported that the static kill procedure was holding and leaking oil was no longer present.
BOTTOM KILL. The final major step is called the “bottom kill” technique. It involved pumping cement and mud from the bottom of the well, similar to the “static kill” technique used earlier. A storm entering the Gulf Coast area delayed the bottom kill procedure for several days. However, in late August, the bottom kill was completed and the flow of oil was permanently stopped from flowing out of the damaged well.
NEW BOP. On September 4, the damaged BOP was removed from the site, and lifted to the Gulf surface, a process that lasted just over one day. A new BOP was then installed in order to prevent any new leaks from occurring.
The two relief wells were completed in September, which allowed engineers to permanently seal the well with drilling mud and cement at levels deep into the reservoir. On September 19, Incident Commander and Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen announced that the well was dead.
The oil leak was initially estimated at 1,000 barrels of oil (42,000 gallons) per day. Expert estimates of the volume of crude oil spilling into the Gulf each day quickly increased to 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons). Many experts asserted that it was clear from pictures of the continuing underwater gusher eventually released that a significant amount of oil continued spewing into the Gulf, although BP claimed that a temporary funnel-like cap was collecting more than 15,000 (630,000 gallons) of oil per day. An array of marine and oil industry experts argued that the underwater pictures and surface observations provided clear evidence of an underreporting of the size of the spill.
Estimates of the volume of oil gushing into the Gulf increased steadily throughout the spill, ultimately reaching a total of 5 million barrels (210 million gallons) of oil. The Gulf of Mexico spill (also called the BP oil spill or Deepwater Horizon oil spill) surpassed the estimated 3.3 million barrels (approximately 140 million gallons) of oil released during the 1979 Ixtoc I spill to become the worst accidental marine oil spill in history. The Ixtoc 1 spill followed a Petroleos Mexicanos' (PEMEX) rig explosion in the Bay of Campeche (the southern Gulf of Mexico off Mexico's coast). The 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill far surpassed the 11 million gallons of oil spilled into Alaskan waters following the 1989 grounding of the tanker Exxon Valdez. Ultimately, oil washed up along more than 600 miles (966 km) of coastline.
With regards to effects on the economy and property, in April 2011, BP reported that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which was responsible for resolving certain economic loss and property damage claims related to the oil spill, had received 267,960 claims from people seeking compensation, whereby 107,955 had been paid, 4,343 had been denied, and the remaining 155,662 submissions were being processed. Gulffishing, sale of Gulf seafood, and tourism industries suffered devastating losses.
Oiled Brown Pelicans, Louisiana's State bird that was taken off the endangered species list in November 2009, rescued and brought to Fork Jackson where BP has employed Tri- State Bird Rescue to clean birds affected by the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico huddle toghether in a wooden crate where they wait to be cleaned. One of the side effects of being oiled is that the birds have trouble regulating their body temperature.
(Julie Dermansky/Science Source)
By June 2010, the surface slick extended over most of the northern Gulf of Mexico. While the bulk of the spill initially remained at sea, oil began washing into ecologically sensitive marshlands in Louisiana. Extending eastward into Florida waters, the surface slick spotted white-sand beaches vital to local tourist-based economies. Fishing bans extended over more than a quarter of the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in crippling economic hardship and apocalyptic predictions for the future of a Gulf seafood industry integral to the regional economy and deeply entwined with the culture of the region. In Alabama, oil flowed into inland waterways and wetland areas. Deaths of marine mammals, fish, birds, and other wildlife began to spike upwards.
In addition to the surface slick, more than 1.1 million gallons of dispersants, much of it sprayed deep underwater as oil gushed from the damaged well, reduced the surface slick at the expense of clouds and plumes of oil suspended in the water column.
Mitigation and cleanup efforts
The federal government formed the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command, which included BP and Transocean, along with numerous government agencies, to address the environmental problems associated with the BP Deepwater oil spill. On June 1, 2010, the organization commanded 1,400 vessels, 20,000 personnel, and seventeen staging areas. Initial mitigation and cleanup efforts include measures to both contain and directly remove surface oil. Such efforts relied on floating booms and skimmers to contain the slick until it could be pumped into container vessels. Boats and aircraft can also applied massive amounts of oil dispersants.
While still at sea, the slick killed and threatened birds, marine mammals, plankton, and species of fish that lay eggs at the surface.
CONTAINMENT BOOMS. Many miles of floating containment booms were used to restrict where oil could go, such as into mangroves, marshes, and other ecologically sensitive areas. These booms were about 1 to 4 feet (0.3 to 1.2 m) above and below the water line in order to fulfill their purpose. Over 3.7 million feet (1.13 million m) of booms were deployed.
SKIMMING AND CONTROLLED BURNS. The U.S. Coast Guard used dozens of skimmer ships (“skimmers”) to collect (“skim”) oil that was on the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico. These skimmer vessels were used to contain this oil in preparation for controlled fires. This activity was done in an attempt to burn off the spilled oil before it reached land and devastate the environment. Over 12.1 million gallons (45.8 million l) of oily water were recovered.
DISPERSANTS. Dispersants are detergent-like chemicals that break up oil slicks. The molecular nature of the dispersants (one part of the molecular structure of dispersants has a polar affinity to water, the other end a non-polar affinity to oil) allows them to surround and coat small droplets of oil. Oil remains on the inside of the oil-dispersant glob in contact with the non-polar parts of the dispersant molecule. On the surface of the glob the polar portions of the dispersant molecules allow the glob to drop out of the spill and mix with water (a polar substance). Ultimately the oil-dispersant globs drop to the sea floor. Over thousands of years, those globules that do not wash up on beaches are consumed by microorganisms.
Chemical dispersants were used to accelerate the way that oil is naturally dispersed in water following oil spills. Such artificially made dispersants used on the Gulf oil spill were primarily Corexit EC9500A and Corexit EC9527A. Although many marine experts expressed disagreement or caution, according to their manufacturer (Nalco), “[COREXIT 9500] is a simple blend of six well-established, safe ingredients that biodegrade, do not bioaccumulate and are commonly found in popular household products. COREXIT products do not contain carcinogens or reproductive toxins. All the ingredients have been extensively studied for many years and have been determined safe and effective by the EPA.”
By September 4, 2010, approximately 1.1 million gallons (4.2 million l) of chemical dispersant was applied to the wellhead. There remains much controversy with the use of such dispersants. Chemical dispersants have been used for over fifty years to treat oil spills around the world. However, the medical community has yet to decide the long-term effects of such dispersants on marine life.
Some dispersants have proven toxic to marine organisms. In addition, dispersed oil globules can also be highly toxic. By June 2010 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials expressed concern about the untested toxicity of the nearly million gallons of dispersants used to reduce the surface slick. EPA officials ordered changes on the types of dispersants used and, at one point, issued a ban on the use of some types of dispersants. Experts contend that it will take years to measure the full impact of the unprecedented use of dispersants.
Heavily impacted species
In addition to helping measure and remediate devastating impacts on the environment and wildlife, scientists also faced an array of continuing challenges. In addition to fighting for access to data, they had to also take into account the influence of natural factors and preexisting phenomena. For example, media reports of dolphin deaths in the northern Gulf in May 2010 were quickly attributed to the oil spill. However, there was already an observed spike in bottlenose dolphin deaths in the region prior to the oil spill, and prior to the oil spill, bottlenose dolphin deaths were already at a seven-year high. Prior to the spill, in March 2010 wildlife officials recorded more than three times the normal number of dead bottlenose dolphins. NOAA officials declared the deaths an “unusual mortality event” and ordered an investigation. Although oil residues are highly toxic to marine mammals and significant deaths and damage were observed pathologists conducting necropsies did not definitively link observed bottlenose dolphin death directly to the oil spill prior to June 2010. Scientists are also investigating alternative causes, including the influence of an abnormally cold winter, possible paralytic shellfish poisoning, or deaths caused by viruses such as the Morbillivirus.
Several official investigations were conducted, including the Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation (by the MMS and Coast Guard) and an investigation by the National Academy of Engineering. In addition, President Barack Obama convened a bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling to investigate the incident. In September 2011, the Joint Investigation published its final investigative report on the accident (https://homeport.uscg.mil/mycg/portal/ep/contentView.do?contentId=323899pageTypeId=13489&contentType=EDITORIAL). In that report, the spill was blamed on multiple causes and decisions involving a series of technical and human failures as well as cost-cutting measures made by BP, the Deepwater Horizon operator Transocean and the inspections and improper relationships between government regulators and oil representatives were also highlighted during ongoing investigations. In March 2011, the National Commission released its report on the disaster, stating that the oil well blowout was the product of human error, engineering mistakes, and management failures ( http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/final-report ).
A had with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting 300 text messages showing BP knew the flow rate was three times higher than initial claims by the company and also knew that methods used to stop the leak were unlikely to succeed, but claimed otherwise.
BP initially accepted responsibility and agreed to pay all cleanup costs, but added that the accident was not entirely its fault because the rig's owner and operator was Transocean and operations potentially related to the explosion and spill were carried out by other companies. In April 2011, BP estimated that $42 billion would be required for economic claims and restoration work. As of 2012, BP, Transocean, and Halliburton were involved in lawsuits against each other concerning responsibility for the spill as well as for costs incurred in the aftermath of the disaster.
Oil spills have the potential to not only impact health of workers coming into direct contact with crude oil and dispersants, but also volunteers, residents, and visitors, who are likely to be subjected to less direct forms of exposure. Specifically, during this disaster, hundreds of workers were treated for various medical problems during the cleanup. Symptoms were present, such as vomiting, coughing, chest pain, headaches, dizziness, nausea, and respiratory stress. Experts found that these symptoms of toxic origins are common among humans exposed to oil spills. For example, workers at the Exxon Valdez spill were treated for numerous respiratory problems during the clean-up activities and subsequently showed a higher than normal rate of chronic airway disease.
On May 31, 2010, HHS, in coordination with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, set up a mobile medical unit in Venice, Louisiana, to provide triage and basic care for responders and residents concerned about health effects of the oil spill. The goal of this medical unit was to screen workers and citizens for exposure and refer those who require further care to local healthcare providers or hospitals. The HHS Secretary activated the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), and deployed a Medical Strike Team from Arkansas to staff the first rotation of the medical unit.
HHS worked closely with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to monitor for and prevent illness among both those working directly to clean up the oil as well as the general population living in the Gulf Region. Because the oil spill in the Gulf region was unprecedented, the potential short- and long-term impacts of the spill on the health of workers or the region's general population was not known. HHS established a Health Surveillance Working Group, coordinated by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Environmental Health and Sciences (NIEHS), to coordinate the activities of various departmental agencies engaged in surveillance and monitoring related to potential health impacts in the Gulf region. HHS worked closely with State health departments in the Gulf Region, as States are responsible for population health surveillance and have systems to monitor changes in population health status seen by hospitals and other healthcare providers.
Current scientific literature was inconclusive with regard to potential health hazards resulting from the spill. Some scientists predicted little to no toxic threat to humans from exposure to oil or dispersants, while others expressed serious concern about the potential short- and long-term impacts exposure to oil and dispersants could have on the health of responders and affected persons.
Disasters, whether natural or manmade, have adverse emotional and psychological effects on people. The nature and location of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill raised specific behavioral health issues. Gulf Coast residents have survived numerous hurricanes, including the devastation of Katrina and Rita, and previous oil spills associated with hurricanes. Re-traumatization—experiencing the repetition of a traumatic event or exposure to multiple disasters—can heighten vulnerability to other traumatic events. Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, ecological damage was compounded by economic repercussions for the fishing and oil industries. Depression and anxiety levels increased for a period before dissipating. Among fishermen whose livelihood had been impacted, an increase in depression, anxiety, stress, substance abuse, and domestic violence was seen.
Through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration—or SAMHSA—HHS also instituted regular calls for information sharing among State Disaster Mental Health Coordinators in the affected Gulf Coast States. The States reported spreading anxieties, frustrations about the ongoing nature of the spill and its economic impact, and fears that more severe psychological and social issues will emerge. The State behavioral health agencies have also reported longer-term stressors and economic consequences of this disaster could lead to an increase in depression, substance use and abuse, family violence, high-risk behavior, suicide, and even a resurgence of trauma symptoms from previous events. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) created a stress information pamphlet for distribution to responders that described a range of potential stress reactions and recommendations for monitoring and addressing them.
March 31, 2015, Five years after the BP oil spill, A Tar mat on East Grande Terre Isalnd, a barrier island in Plaquemines Parish that was hit hard by the BP oil spill in 2010. The Coast Guard recently led an effort to clean up a tar mat uncovered on the same area of the beach a couple weeks before that was connected to the BP oil spill.
The Medical Benefits Class Action Settlement offers benefits and compensation payments to qualifying people who resided in the United States as of April 16, 2012, who were either clean-up workers or who were residents in certain defined beachfront areas and wetlands during certain time periods in 2010.
To participate in the settlement, a person must have one or more specified physical conditions, which are acute (short-term) or chronic (ongoing) medical conditions that either first appeared or got worse within specified timeframes following exposure to oil and other substances released from the well and/or the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and its appurtenances (equipment), and/or dispersants and/or decontaminants used in connection with the response activities.
In general, the specified physical conditions must fall into the following categories:
vision conditions and symptoms;
upper airway/respiratory conditions and symptoms;
ear, nose and throat conditions and symptoms;
skin conditions and symptoms;
neurophysiological/neurological/odor-related conditions and symptoms;
gastrointestinal or stomach conditions and symptoms; and
heat-related conditions (clean-up workers only).
The Medical Benefits Settlement will provide for ongoing medical consultations to all medical class members who submit a qualifying claim form. The Periodic Medical Consultation Program will begin with an initial medical visit followed by an additional visit every three years during the term of the program. Medical visits will consist of a physical examination that includes a medical, occupational and environmental history, as well as vision screening. Additional specified blood, urine, cardiac and respiratory tests will be performed at the discretion of the physician. The claims administrator will assist program participants in scheduling medical visits.
In addition, the Settlement will create a Gulf Region Health Outreach Program for the benefit of Class Members and the general public. This Program will consist of integrated projects to strengthen healthcare capacity and increase health literacy in the Gulf Coast areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. An online library of health and environmental-related materials pertaining to the Deepwater Horizon Incident will also be funded for a period of twenty-one years.
If a medical class member develops a “later-manifested physical condition,” which is a disease that is first diagnosed after April 16, 2012, and is claimed to have resulted from exposure to oil or other substances released from the well and/or the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and its appurtenances equipment and/or exposure to dispersants and/or decontaminants used in the response activities; and the exposure occurred on or before April 16, 2012 (clean-up workers), or on or before September 30, 2010 (specified veachfront residents), or on or before December 31, 2010 (specified wetlands residents), the member may either claim workers' compensation benefits or file suit against BP for the condition. BP may choose mediation; if the claim is not mediated, the member can continue the suit.
Although it may take decades, the Gulf of Mexico and its ecosystem have an enormous restorative capacity. Microbial life devours an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil naturally seeping into Gulf waters each day and microbes flourishing in the warm Gulf waters quickly devoured significant amounts of oil. However, there are differences in scientists' estimates of how much oil was consumed. While composed primarily of hydrocarbons, crude oil contains thousands of other chemical species in trace amounts, and bacterial responses to the particular crude spill vary. Some bacteria consume selected elements of crude, leaving residues for other bacteria or for slower physical degradation. The rate at which microbes feed on oil is also related to levels of other nutrients present such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron.
Several species of prokaryotic microorganisms are responsible for devouring the petroleum hydrocarbons emanating from natural seafloor seeps of oil and gas found around the world. The microbe Vibrio parahaemolyticus, common in warm Gulf waters and a rare, but known source of shellfish poisoning is an avid consumer of petroleum hydrocarbons derived from oil and methane. A related species Vibrio vulnificus, sometimes found in raw oysters, is far more pathogenic (able to cause disease). The combination of warm water and abundances of hydrocarbon food fueled nearly exponential growth rates in some areas of the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Scientists remain uncertain, however, at the real extent of the enhanced growth, whether pathogenic bacteria respond differently, how long enhanced growth rates will last, and what additional threats the higher bacterial counts pose to human health.
A challenging question for marine scientists is also whether the microbial population explosion in the Gulf will create larger hypoxic regions devoid of oxygen and life. Such “dead zone” areas already existed in the Gulf prior to the spill, but experts feared that the spill will expand the number, area, and depth of such zones.
The abundance of oil may also alter the population balances between microbes and have lasting impacts on their evolutionary development. There are also unanswered questions as to how the microbes that normally feed on oil will respond to the partially emulsified oil in large undersea oil clouds and plumes. Microbiologists initially defended the use of dispersants because reducing the droplet size of the spilled oil created a larger surface area upon which microbes could feed. Some microorganisms, including Alcanivorax borkumensis naturally feed on oil by producing their own detergentlike surfactant substances to break down oil film into more digestible micro-droplets.
Adding complexity to the analysis are the natural checks on the growth of bacteria. For example, as a consequence of the higher bacterial counts, predatory bacterial viruses and protozoa not normally pathogenic to humans, but normally effective in stabilizing the populations of pathogenic bacteria such as Vibrio, also increased in numbers.
In order to prevent such disastrous oil spills in the future, the presidentially-appointed National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling made the following recommendations:
a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued.
a floating semi-submersible drilling unit, an ultra-deep water, column stabilized drilling rig owned by Transocean and built in Korea that sunk in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. The platform was 396 feet (121 m) long and 256 feet (78 m) wide and could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep, to a maximum drill depth of 30,000 feet (9,100 m). The semi-submersible obtains its buoyancy from ballasted, watertight pontoons located below the ocean surface and wave action. The operating deck can be located high above the sea level due to the stability of the design, and therefore the operating deck is kept well away from the waves. Structural columns connect the pontoons and operating deck. With its hull structure submerged at a deep draft, the semi-submersible is less affected by wave loadings than a normal ship. With a small water-plane area, however, the semi-submersible is sensitive to load changes and therefore must be carefully trimmed to maintain stability. Unlike a submarine or submersible, during normal operations, a semi-submersible vessel is never entirely underwater.
Oil barrel—
a volume measure of 42 U.S. gallons or 198,731 liters.
National Disaster Medical System (NDMS)—
a federally coordinated system that augments the U.S. medical response capability. The overall purpose of the NDMS is to supplement an integrated national medical response capability for assisting state and local authorities in dealing with the medical impacts of major peacetime disasters and to provide support to the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs medical systems in caring for casualties evacuated back to the U.S. from overseas armed conventional conflicts.
See also Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ; Exxon Valdez ; Water pollution .
Cavnar, Bob. Disaster on the Horizon: High Stakes, High Risks, and the Story Behind the Deepwater Well Blowout. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. Then and Now—A Message of Hope: 15th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Anchorage, AK: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, 2004.
Freudenburg, William R., and Robert Gramling. Blow-out in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
Juhasz, Antonia. Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2011.
Lehner, Peter, and Bob Deans. In Deep Water: The Anatomy of a Disaster, the Fate of the Gulf, and Ending Our Oil Addiction. New York: Natural Resources Defense Council (OR Books), 2010.
National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling. Washington, DC: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011.
Reed, Stanley, and Alison Fitzgerald. In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race That Took It Down. Hoboken, NJ: Bloomberg Press, 2011.
Robertson, Scott B. Guidelines for the Scientific Study of Oil Spill Effects. Thousand Oaks, CA: Robertson Environmental Services, 2004.
Scarnati, Carlos, and Eduardo Popeo. Impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill on Fishing and Wildlife (Wildlife Protection, Destruction and Extinction: Fish, Fishing and Fisheries). Hauppauge NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2011.
Shroder, Tom, and John Konrad. Fire on the Horizon LP: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster. New York: HarperLuxe, 2011.
U.S. Government and National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling—The Report of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling by U.S. Government and National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon. Washington, DC: U.S. Government and National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011.
Wang, Zhendi, and Scott Stout. Oil Spill Environmental Forensics: Fingerprinting and Source Identification. New York: Academic, 2006.
Deep Water Horizon Court-Supervised Settlement Program. http://www.deepwaterhorizonsettlements.com/
U.S. National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. http://www.deepwater.com/news/detail?ID=1515056 (accessed June 15, 2018).
K. Lee P. Lerner
Revised by Judith L. Sims | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5983 |
__label__cc | 0.537295 | 0.462705 | Culture, Diary, Entertainment, Journal, Life, Media, Music, Pop Music, Random, Rock music, Today in music history, Uncategorized
Today In Music, February 10th
From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Monday 10th February):
1940. James “Jimmy” Merchant (Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers) born in New York.
1980. Sammy Hagar‘s UK tour which should have started today at Portsmouth’s Guildhall is postponed. His son is in hospital in the States with kidney problems and Hagar wants to be with him.
1988. The breach of contract case brought by Zang Tumb Tumb Records against Holly Johnson finishes at the High Court in London. Mr. Justice Whitford, presiding, rules that restraints in Johnson’s contract were unreasonable. He dismisses the label’s action and refuses to grant the injunctions they were seeking to ensure that Holly would not record for another company. Giving his verdict, the judge said: “Mr. Johnson, who I found entirely reasonable, was, in my judgement, entitled to free himself from these onerous obligations… He is a singer. He wants to make a living”. Holly, who was tied into a ZTT contract as a member of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, had been looking for a solo contract with another label. The judge adjourned the case until a later date when the matter of costs will be decided. On leaving the court, Holly (27) said, “This is a great day for recording artists everywhere and I believe this will help them in the future to get better and fairer agreements. Now I just can’t wait to start work again”.
1998. Frank Sinatra is once again admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following reports that “Ol’ Blue Eyes” is suffering from blood in his urine which may indicate bladder cancer.
2004. The Ellen DeGeneres Show including musical guest, Sting
2002. Folk singer Dave Van Ronk dies in New York University Medical Center, where he’d been undergoing treatment for colon cancer. His management company said that during the treatment “his cardio-pulmonary system failed”. Van Ronk (65) had been an influence on many of the singer songwriters from the sixties onwards, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian and Suzanne Vega.
Music Paper From Today
New Musical Express from 10th February 1968. A copy taken from Rockmine’s almost complete run of U.K. music papers. The front page is mainly given over to a rare gem of UK psych pop from The Nerve. Original copies sell for more than £ 30. Both the A and B side can be found on the Psych compilation CD, “Magic Spectacles”.
Daily Babble
As you can see from the image above, I’ve got a working A3 scanner again. Now all I have to do is work my way through the thousands of music papers I have! I need to sort my system for scanning. I pulled out 4 last night and my office is now in total disarray. I took 4 piles out from different shelves and different papers and now I can’t move around the 8 piles I created. Aarghh!
I went out to the garage to look for some other mags to scan and found a load of “Sounds”. All had paper tabs in for news stories that I was meant to include in The Almanac. What was that I was saying about having a system? I suppose I better try and tidy up – or do some more scanning… | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5984 |
__label__cc | 0.717954 | 0.282046 | Her Last Resort
Author: Fiona McGier
Review by: Wild Rayne
* Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Eternal Press (a division of Damnation Books LLC)
The opening of the book gives the start and feel of how the rest will play out. From the first word on the page I was interested. Stella may not be in her twenties or the person some assume she will be but she's tough and knows how to take care of herself. She's in her fifties and has a daughter who's a well-known actress and wants to spend two weeks alone with her in the woods. While there she meets sexy Ivan, who is also in his fifties, and he stir up things she long thought dead. He brings the heat and makes her panties drip. It made me laugh, their reactions to each other. You would have thought they were teenagers.
I find it so fascinating that her daughter knows about her past. I fell kind of bad that she's not as close with her son but she does what she can. She's supposed to be retired and yet every time she turns around she has these "amateurs" who are trying to kill her. It amused me to no end because she takes care of them without a sweat and is still put out. She kills in class. The switch up on the style of the words threw me off once in a while but other than that it was a good read.
Book Blurb for Her Last Resort
She's ex-CIA, a hunted woman used to relying only on herself. He's ex-KGB. with connections to those who can help her. Will she let him? Can glasnost (openness) lead to rapprochement (a bringing together), and maybe even to love as west meets east? And what about her daughter? Can she salvage any kind of relationship with the adult her child has become?
Stands Alone: Yes
Night Owl Reviews Mar, 2015 4.00 | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5985 |
__label__wiki | 0.744636 | 0.744636 | Posts Tagged ‘cartography’
“Few things are more enjoyable than lingering over the atlas and plotting a trip”*…
I’m excited to finally share a new design project this week! Over the past year and a half I’ve been working on a collection of ten maps on planets, moons, and outer space. To name a few, I’ve made an animated map of the seasons on Earth, a map of Mars geology, and a map of everything in the solar system bigger than 10km…
Data visualizer extraordinaire Eleanor Lutz has announced “An Atlas of Space.”
Follow her progress on her blog Tabletop Whale, or on Twitter or Tumblr.
[TotH to Kottke]
* J. Maarten Troost
As we see stars, we might spare a thought for Daniel Kirkwood; he died on this date in 1895. Kirkwood’s most significant contribution came from his study of asteroid orbits. When arranging the then-growing number of discovered asteroids by their distance from the Sun, he noted several gaps, now named Kirkwood gaps in his honor, and associated these gaps with orbital resonances with the orbit of Jupiter. Further, Kirkwood also suggested a similar dynamic was responsible for Cassini Division in Saturn’s rings, as the result of a resonance with one of Saturn’s moons. In the same paper, he was the first to correctly posit that the material in meteor showers is cometary debris.
Kirkwood also identified a pattern relating the distances of the planets to their rotation periods, which was called Kirkwood’s Law. This discovery earned Kirkwood an international reputation among astronomers; he was dubbed “the American Kepler” by Sears Cook Walker, who claimed that Kirkwood’s Law proved the widely held Solar Nebula Theory. (In the event, the “Law” has since become discredited as new measurements of planetary rotation periods have shown that the pattern doesn’t hold.)
Tagged with asteroids, astronomy, atlas, cartography, Daniel Kirkwood, data visualization, Eleanor Lutz, history, history of science, Kirkwood gaps, maps, Outer Space, Solar Nebula Theory, Space
“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected”*…
Change in population aged 65 and older, 2010-2023. [Screenshot: ESRI]
We’re all getting older. It’s the one thing that every single person alive right now has in common. But we’re also getting older as a population, with Americans both living longer and having fewer children. Census projections show a major demographic shift already underway and accelerating in the years to come.
At the same time, populations are not aging evenly, and issues related to aging will impact individual communities in vastly different ways, boosting economic opportunity in some areas while putting a strain on social services in others.
For instance, real estate developers that invest in progressive senior housing projects now could benefit down the road as demand for modern facilities that cater to active seniors grows. Similarly, American tech companies will see opportunity in developing innovative high-tech solutions for senior care, such as health-monitoring devices, ride-share services aimed at seniors, and care-bots. (Take a look at how Japan has embraced high-tech solutions for its aging population for more on how that might play out in the United States.)
On the flip side, social safety nets are likely to face increasing financial challenges with the continued retirement of America’s Baby Boomers, the youngest of whom will reach 67 by 2031. As that happens, rural counties—where people on average rely on Social Security as a larger portion of their overall income—may disproportionately feel the economic effects of aging.
One way to sort out who will be most impacted by aging is to look at age demographics across the country and how they will change over time…
America is aging, but not evenly: “7 maps that tell the incredible story of aging in America.”
See also this essay by Don Norman, the 83 year-old dean of user-centered design (author of The Design of Everyday Things and a former VP at Apple): “I wrote the book on user-friendly design. What I see today horrifies me.”
* Robert Frost
As we stand up to senescence, we might recall that it was on this date in 1965 that Peter Townsend wrote “My Generation”– inspired by the Queen Mother, who’d had his 1935 Packard hearse towed off a street in Belgravia because she was offended by the sight of it during her daily drive through the neighborhood. The song was released as a single later that year and became first a hit, then an anthem.
Tagged with Aging, cartography, demographics, demography, design, Don Norman, history, infographics, maps, music, My Generation, Peter Townsend, rock, The Who
“People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive”*…
A map characterizes the Republican trade policy platform in the 1888 election
When PJ Mode began to purchase old maps in the 1980s, he set out to amass a typical collection of world maps. But along the way, his attention turned to unusual maps that dealers weren’t sure how to categorize—those that attempted to persuade rather than convey geographic information.
“Most collectors looked down their noses at these maps because they didn’t technically consider them maps,” Mode says. “But they were fun and they were inexpensive, and over the years I became more interested in them than the old world maps.”
The interest has culminated in a collection of more than 800 “persuasive maps,” as they are now called, which can be found in digital form through Cornell University’s library…
Maps never succeed is depicting reality exactly, fully as it is. But as a digital collection at Cornell University shows, many important maps from our past haven’t even tried. How subjective maps can be used to manipulate opinion: “These ‘Persuasive Maps’ Want You to Believe.”
See also “Maps that Make a Point” and “A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.”
* Blaise Pascal, De l’art de persuader
As we try to find our way, we might send birthday greetings to a “cartographer” of a different sort: James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on this date in 1882. A poet and novelist best known for Ulysses, he was the preeminent figure in the Modernist avant-garde, and a formative influence on writers as various as (Joyce’s protege) Samuel Becket, Jorge Luis Borges, Salmon Rushdie, and Joesph Campbell.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses No. 1, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man No. 3, and Finnegans Wake No. 77, on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The next year, Time Magazine named Joyce one of its 100 Most Important People of the 20th century, observing that “Joyce … revolutionized 20th century fiction.” And illustrating that Joyce’s influence was not confined to the arts: physicist Murray Gell-Mann used the sentence “Three quarks for Muster Mark!” (in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake) as source for the elementary particle he was naming– the quark.
Photo of Joyce included in a printed subscription order form for Ulysses, published Paris, 1921
Tagged with cartography, history, James Joyce, literature, maps, modernism, persuasion, propaganda, quark, Ulysses
“Who that goeth on Pilgrimage but would have one of these Maps about him, that he may look when he is at a stand, which is the way he must take?*…
Carta Marina, by Olaus Magnus, 1539
Johannes Gutenberg printed his first Bible in 1455, and the first published sailing directions appeared thirty-five years later. Print media encouraged the divergence of navigational information from material discussing the commercial prospects of trade at various ports. Printing promoted the widespread distribution of geographic and hydrographic information, including maps, to readers throughout Europe at a time when literacy was on the rise and the spreading use of vernacular languages made such works available to non-scholars…
Europe’s explorers actively sought and exploited both academic knowledge and geographic experience in their systematic search for new trade routes. Use of the sea ultimately rested on reliable knowledge of the ocean. Fresh appreciation for empirical evidence fueled recognition of the value of experience, and the process of exploration included mechanisms for accumulating and disseminating new geographic knowledge to form the basis for future navigation.
At the outset of the discovery of the seas, portolan charts recorded actual experiences at sea. These navigational aids provided mariners with compass direction and estimated the distance between coastal landmarks or harbors. Utterly novel for their time, portolans were the first charts to attempt to depict scale. Portolans created by fourteenth- and fifteenth-century explorers document Portuguese and Spanish discovery of Atlantic islands and the African coast and helped subsequent mariners retrace their steps. Accuracy of portolans was best over shorter distances, and they became less useful when navigators steered offshore.
In contrast to creators of portolans, armchair cartographers compiled world maps of little use for actual navigation but which reflected shifting knowledge of oceans. While manuscript maps had been produced alongside written manuscripts since antiquity, the earliest known printed map was included in an encyclopedia of 1470. It represents the world schematically within a circle, in which the three continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa are surrounded by an ocean river and separated from each other by horizontal and vertical rivers that form a T shape—hence the name “T-O” to describe this kind of map. Other early maps were based on Ptolemy’s work, on biblical stories or other allegories, or occasionally on portolans…
Although the majority of medieval maps and nautical charts of the Age of Discovery did not include sea monsters, the ones that do reveal both a rise of general interest in marvels and wonders and a specific concern for maritime activities that took place at sea, including in far distant oceans. The more exotic creatures are often positioned on maps at the edge of the Earth, conveying a sense of mystery and danger and perhaps discouraging voyages in those areas. Images of octopuses or other monsters attacking ships would seem to be warning of dangers to navigation…
An excerpt from a fascinating essay on how cartographers saw the– mostly blue– world in the Age of Discovery; read it in full at “Mapping the Oceans.”
* John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
As we find our way, we might light a birthday candle for Sir Francis Bacon– English Renaissance philosopher, lawyer, linguist, composer, mathematician, geometer, musician, poet, painter, astronomer, classicist, philosopher, historian, theologian, architect, father of modern science (The Baconian– aka The Scientific– Method), and patron of modern democracy, whom some allege was the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I of England (and other’s, the actual author of Shakespeare’s plays)… He was in any event born on this date in 1561.
Bacon (whose Essays were, in a fashion, the first “management book” in English) was, in Alexander Pope’s words, “the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced.” He probably did not actually write the plays attributed to Shakespeare (as a thin, but long, line of enthusiasts, including Mark Twain and Friedrich Nietzsche, believed). But Bacon did observe, in a discussion of sedition that’s as timely today as ever, that “the remedy is worse than the disease.”
Tagged with Age of Discovery, cartography, Francis Bacon, history, maps, oceans, Queen Elizabeth, scientific method, sea, Shakespeare
“I have long, indeed for years, played with the idea of setting out the sphere of life—bios—graphically on a map”*…
A Jo Mora carte of Carmel-By-The-Sea, made in 1942. Larger image at David Rumsey Map Collection
Joseph Jacinto Mora knew all the dogs in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California. He knew Bess, a friendly brown mutt who hung out at the livery stables. He knew Bobby Durham, a pointy-eared rascal who, as Mora put it, “had a charge [account] and did his own shopping at the butcher’s.” He knew Captain Grizzly, an Irish terrier who went to town with his muzzle on and invariably came back carrying it, having charmed a kind stranger into taking it off.
If you spend time with Mora’s map of the town—which was first printed in 1942—you’ll know the town dogs of that era, too. They’re all stacked in a column on the right side, lovingly described and illustrated, and looking as natural as those items you’d be more inclined to expect on a map: streets, land masses, the compass rose. On this particular map, those elements aren’t so typical either: the streets are strewn with tiny houses, and both the land and sea are peppered with busy people. The compass rose is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, and—as befits an artist’s town—is helmed by a painter, a performer, a writer, and a musician.
Such is the way of a Jo Mora map. Over the course of his life, the “Renaissance Man of the West,” as some have called him, packed history, geography, and personal details into a series of maps of different parts of California. Although well-known in his time—“Mora has produced works of art which have told their story to more persons, probably, than have the works of any other Californian,” columnist Lee Shippey wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1942—he has largely fallen out of the public consciousness. But a few minutes with one of his maps plunges you back into his era, and his own worldview…
Jo Mora poured the state’s whole history—and his own life—into his incredibly detailed, whimsical maps. More of his own extraordinary story at “The Cowboy Cartographer Who Loved California.” Browse a wonderful selection of his works at the glorious David Rumsey Map Collection.
* Walter Benjamin
As we find our place, we might send delightfully drawn birthday greetings to Ben Shahn; he was born on this date in 1898. A photographer and artist, known for his social realism, he earned acclaim in a variety of fields: Edward Steichen selected Shahn’s work, including his October 1935 photograph The family of a Resettlement Administration client in the doorway of their home, Boone County, Arkansas, for MoMA’s world-touring The Family of Man which was seen by 9 million visitors; he was selected as a painter to join Willem de Kooning in representing the United States at the 1954 Venice Biennale; and his commercial illustration (like his well-known 1965 portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the cover of Time) earned him membership in the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame. His published writings, including The Biography of Painting and The Shape of Content, have ben enormously influential in the art world.
Tagged with art, art history, Ben Shahn, California, cartography, history, illustration, Jo Mora, maps
“I have an existential map. It has ‘you are here’ written all over it.”*…
A detail from illustrator James Turner‘s Map of Humanity.
A long time ago, I made a map of the rationalist community. This is in the same geographic-map-of-something-non-geographic tradition as the Greater Ribbonfarm Cultural Region or xkcd’s map of the Internet. There’s even some sort of therapy program that seems to involve making a map like this of your life, though I don’t know how seriously they take it.
There’s no good name for this art and it’s really hard to Google. If you try “map of abstract concept” you just get a bunch of concept maps. It seems the old name, from back when this was a popular Renaissance amusement, is “sentimental cartography”, since it was usually applied to sentiments like love or sorrow. This isn’t great – the Internet’s not a sentiment – but it’s what we’ve got and I’ll do what I can to try to make it catch on…
See the marvelous examples (like the one above) collected by Scott Alexander at “Sentimental Cartography.”
* Steven Wright
As we find our place, we might spare a thought for Seymour Papert; he died on this date in 2016. Trained as a mathematician, Papert was a pioneer of computer science, and in particular, artificial intelligence. He created the Epistemology and Learning Research Group at the MIT Architecture Machine Group (which later became the MIT Media Lab); he directed MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; he authored the hugely-influential LOGO computer language; and he was a principal of the One Laptop Per Child Program. Called by Marvin Minsky “the greatest living mathematics educator,” Papert won a Guggenheim fellowship (1980), a Marconi International fellowship (1981), the Software Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (1994), and the Smithsonian Award (1997).
Tagged with cartography, computer science, education, history, infographics, maps, Mathematics, sentimental cartography, Seymour Papert | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5986 |
__label__cc | 0.52111 | 0.47889 | Joseph Yuan-Chieh Lo
Professor of Radiology
My research focuses on computer vision and machine learning in medical imaging, with a focus on mammography and CT imaging. There are three specific projects:
First, we have a long track record of creating machine learning models to detect and diagnose breast cancer from mammograms. These algorithms are based on computer vision and deep learning, with the long term goal to incorporate the contribution of imaging data with proteomic/genomic markers. Specific projects include predicting which cases of DCIS are likely to contain hidden invasive cancer, thus informing women to take advantage of personalized treatment decisions. This work is funded by NIH, Dept of Defense, Cancer Research UK, and other agencies.
Second, we design virtual breast models that are based on actual patient data and thus contain highly realistic breast anatomy with voxel-level ground truth. We can transform these virtual models into physical form using several forms of 3D printing technology. In work funded by NIH, we are translating this work to produce a new generation of realistic phantoms for CT. Such physical phantoms can be scanned on actual imaging devices, allowing us to assess image quality in new ways that are not only quantitative but also clinically relevant.
Third, we are developing a broad, machine learning platform to segment multiple organs and classify multiple diseases in chest-abdomen-pelvis CT scans. The goal is to provide automated labeling of hospital-scale data sets (potentially hundreds of thousands of studies) to produce sufficient data for deep learning studies. This work includes natural language processing to analyze radiology reports, and deep learning models for the segmentation and classification tasks.
Professor of Radiology, Radiology, Clinical Science Departments 2018
Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2014
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute, Duke Cancer Institute, Institutes and Centers 1993
2424 Erwin Road, Suite 302, Ravin Advanced Imaging Labs, Durham, NC 27705
Ravin Advanced Imaging Labs, 2424 Erwin Road, Suite 302, Durham, NC 27705
joseph.lo@duke.edu (919) 684-7763
Research Associate, Radiology, Duke University 1993 - 1995
Ph.D., Duke University 1993
B.S.E.E., Duke University 1988
Professor of Radiology, Radiology, Clinical Science Departments 2014 - 2018
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2014 - 2017
Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2014 - 2016
Associate Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2011 - 2015
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2005 - 2014
Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology, Radiology, Clinical Science Departments 2009 - 2014
Assistant Professor in Radiology, Radiology, Clinical Science Departments 2006 - 2009
Assistant Research Professor in Radiology, Radiology, Clinical Science Departments 1995 - 2006
Assistant Research Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2003 - 2005
Leadership & Clinical Positions at Duke
Associate Vice Chair for Research of Radiology
Director, Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories (RAI Labs)
Director, Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Medical Physics (RROMP) Study Program, Duke Univ. School of Medicine
Clinical Trials as Topic
Decision Making, Computer-Assisted
Decision Support Systems, Clinical
Decision Support Techniques
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Models, Structural
Technology Assessment, Biomedical
Tomosynthesis
United States of America (Country)
Breast Cancer Detection Consortium awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2021
Genomic Diversity and the Microenvironment as Drivers of Progression in DCIS awarded by Department of Defense 2014 - 2020
Machine learning and collaborative filtering tools for personalized education in digital breast tomosynthesis awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2020
Prevent Ductal Carcinoma in Situ Invasive Overtreatment Now - PRECISION 2017 - 2020
3D Printing of Anatomically Realistic Phantoms for Optimization of Imaging Algorithms awarded by National Institutes of Health 2018 - 2020
Training in Medical Imaging awarded by National Institutes of Health 2003 - 2019
(PQC3) Genomic Diversity and Microenvironment as Drivers of Metastasis in DCIS awarded by National Institutes of Health 2014 - 2019
Molecular and Radiologic Predictors of Invasion in a DCIS Active Surveillance Cohort 2016 - 2018
Improved education in digital breast tomosynthesis using machine learning and computer vision tools awarded by Radiological Society of North America 2014 - 2016
(PQA5) 'Dose and Mechanisms of Exercise in Breast Cancer Prevention' awarded by National Institutes of Health 2013 - 2014
3D Digital Breast Phantoms For Multimodality Research awarded by National Institutes of Health 2010 - 2014
Cross-disciplinary Training in Medical Physics awarded by National Institutes of Health 2007 - 2013
Information-Theoretic Based CAD in Mammography awarded by National Institutes of Health 2003 - 2011
Tomosynthesis for Improved Breast Cancer Detection awarded by National Institutes of Health 2006 - 2011
Accurate Models for Predicting Radiation-Induced Injury awarded by National Institutes of Health 2006 - 2011
Reducing Benign Breast Biopsies with Computer Modeling awarded by National Institutes of Health 2003 - 2008
Predicting Breast Cancer With Ultrasound and Mammography awarded by National Institutes of Health 2002 - 2005
Improved Diagnosis of Breast Microcalcification Clusters awarded by National Institutes of Health 2001 - 2004
Computer-Aided Diagnosis Of Breast Cancer Invasion awarded by National Institutes of Health 1998 - 2003
Computer Aid for the Decision to Biopsy Breast Lesions 1999 - 2002
Computer Aid for the Decision to Biopsy Breast Lesions awarded by National Institutes of Health 1999 - 2001
Grimm, Lars J., et al. “Growth Dynamics of Mammographic Calcifications: Differentiating Ductal Carcinoma in Situ from Benign Breast Disease..” Radiology, vol. 292, no. 1, July 2019, pp. 77–83. Pubmed, doi:10.1148/radiol.2019182599.
Ikejimba, Lynda C., et al. “A four-alternative forced choice (4AFC) methodology for evaluating microcalcification detection in clinical full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) systems using an inkjet-printed anthropomorphic phantom..” Med Phys, May 2019. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/mp.13629.
Georgian-Smith, Dianne, et al. “Can Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Replace Full-Field Digital Mammography? A Multireader, Multicase Study of Wide-Angle Tomosynthesis..” Ajr Am J Roentgenol, Apr. 2019, pp. 1–7. Pubmed, doi:10.2214/AJR.18.20294.
Rossman, Andrea H., et al. “Three-dimensionally-printed anthropomorphic physical phantom for mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis with custom materials, lesions, and uniform quality control region..” J Med Imaging (Bellingham), vol. 6, no. 2, Apr. 2019. Pubmed, doi:10.1117/1.JMI.6.2.021604.
Shi, Bibo, et al. “Prediction of Occult Invasive Disease in Ductal Carcinoma in Situ Using Deep Learning Features..” J Am Coll Radiol, vol. 15, no. 3 Pt B, Mar. 2018, pp. 527–34. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2017.11.036.
Wen, Gezheng, et al. “Virtual assessment of stereoscopic viewing of digital breast tomosynthesis projection images..” J Med Imaging (Bellingham), vol. 5, no. 1, Jan. 2018. Pubmed, doi:10.1117/1.JMI.5.1.015501.
Sturgeon, Gregory M., et al. “Synthetic breast phantoms from patient based eigenbreasts..” Med Phys, vol. 44, no. 12, Dec. 2017, pp. 6270–79. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/mp.12579.
Shi, Bibo, et al. “Can Occult Invasive Disease in Ductal Carcinoma In Situ Be Predicted Using Computer-extracted Mammographic Features?.” Acad Radiol, vol. 24, no. 9, Sept. 2017, pp. 1139–47. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.acra.2017.03.013.
Ikejimba, Lynda C., et al. “A novel physical anthropomorphic breast phantom for 2D and 3D x-ray imaging..” Med Phys, vol. 44, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 407–16. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/mp.12062.
Ikejimba, Lynda C., et al. “Assessing task performance in FFDM, DBT, and synthetic mammography using uniform and anthropomorphic physical phantoms..” Med Phys, vol. 43, no. 10, Oct. 2016. Pubmed, doi:10.1118/1.4962475.
Wang, M., et al. “Predicting false negative errors in digital breast tomosynthesis among radiology trainees using a computer vision-based approach.” Expert Systems With Applications, vol. 56, Sept. 2016, pp. 1–8. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2016.01.053.
Kiarashi, Nooshin, et al. “Impact of breast structure on lesion detection in breast tomosynthesis, a simulation study..” J Med Imaging (Bellingham), vol. 3, no. 3, July 2016. Pubmed, doi:10.1117/1.JMI.3.3.035504.
Sturgeon, Gregory M., et al. “Finite-element modeling of compression and gravity on a population of breast phantoms for multimodality imaging simulation..” Med Phys, vol. 43, no. 5, May 2016. Pubmed, doi:10.1118/1.4945275.
Ikejimba, Lynda, et al. “A quantitative metrology for performance characterization of five breast tomosynthesis systems based on an anthropomorphic phantom..” Med Phys, vol. 43, no. 4, Apr. 2016. Pubmed, doi:10.1118/1.4943373.
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Teaching & Mentoring
BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE) 2019
RROMP 301B: Radiology, Radiation Oncology & Medical Physics 2019
MEDPHY 791: Independent Study in Medical Physics 2017
Advising & Mentoring
I have had the pleasure of serving as research advisor to over 50 students, including undergraduates, MS, PhD, MD students, residents, and postdocs. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5987 |
__label__cc | 0.626774 | 0.373226 | Author Interview: Russell Newquist
Posted on August 9, 2017 by S.D. McPhail
Russell Newquist is a Viking disguised as a software engineer. Equipped with a BA in Philosophy and an MS in Computer Science, he spends a lot of time building really cool software. Because he enjoys a good martial arts workout with friends, he is also the owner and head instructor of a thriving dojo. As if that weren’t enough, he started the publishing company Silver Empire where he is the editor-in-chief and one of the published authors. On top of all that, he’s a husband and father to four small children.
His first novel is War Demons, an action-packed, unputdownable Urban Fantasy.
Driven by vengeance, Michael Alexander enlisted in the Army the day after 9/11. Five years later, disillusioned and broken by the horrors he witnessed in Afghanistan, Michael returns home to Georgia seeking to begin a new life. But he didn’t come alone. Something evil followed him, and it’s leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
The police are powerless. The Army has written Michael off. Left to face down a malevolent creature first encountered in the mountains of Afghanistan, he’ll rely on his training, a homeless prophet, and estranged family members from a love lost…
But none of them expected the dragon.
Silver Empire published my novel, Treasures of Dodrazeb: The Origin Key, an historical sword-and-science fantasy adventure. Click here to read an excerpt.
An invading Persian warrior becomes obsessed with Dodrazeb, a strange isolated kingdom that possesses incredible technology. Ancient Dodrazeb’s puzzling choice to hide from the world pulls him deeper into layers of mysteries as its sly princess does everything she can to expel the invaders. What are the Dodrazebbians so desperate to keep hidden?
Get your copy on Amazon.com! Available in both e-book and paperback.
Q. Congratulations on publishing your first novel! Tell us about the book and why you decided to write urban fantasy.
Thank you, Susan!
Well, this book kind of grew organically into what it eventually became. I had a few scenes in my head that I started with. The prologue was the first bit I wrote. Then what is now chapter two. I kind of had the character in mind at first – a soldier returning home after he’s had some really harrowing experiences. The normal war type experiences, but also supernatural stuff.
Then it kind of grew into something. And then I had 20% of a book… but I didn’t really know what it was about. But I also knew that if I threw it out and started another project, I’d never have a book. I needed to finish one.
At the same time, I’ve had this character in my head that I knew I had to write about eventually. His name is Peter Bishop, and he’s been in a few short stories already. He’s heavily influenced by the Michael Carpenter character from Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” series. And I kept telling myself, “Just finish this book and then you can get to Peter.”
Then one day I realized that, quite by accident, this book was a Peter book. In fact, it’s his origin story. It didn’t start that way at all. But I got to a certain point and just realized that I needed the character to fill a certain role in the story. And bam, it all came into place.
Q. Your protagonist Michael Alexander is a fascinating character. What do you like most—and least—about him?
Well, as a character what I really like is that I did manage to convey what I wanted to with him. He’s coming home from war and he’s been through hell – the kind a normal soldier goes through, and some supernatural stuff… and even a few personal events that he doesn’t fully understand himself at the beginning.
And yet at the same time, he’s still fundamentally a decent guy. Not just a decent guy, a good man.
The parts I like least about him are more how I’d react to him as a person if I knew him. He’s kind of an asshole sometimes – only sometimes, really. But it comes out. And that’s actually mostly a result of him being broken, so it’s forgivable. But it’s not always fun.
Q. As the War Demons cover suggests, Michael Alexander has come back from war facing a difficult adjustment to civilian life. This story is infused with elements of horror and the supernatural. Without giving away too much, what can you tell us about your story’s bad guys?
Michael faces several threats throughout the story. He’s the sole survivor of a helicopter crash – except originally he wasn’t the sole survivor. He and a comrade survived, and had to fight a demonic creature in a cave. Michael made it. His friend didn’t.
Then the thing followed him home.
The demon is a ser na demon, from Tibetan culture. Why was there a Tibetan demon in a cave in Pakistan? Well, that’s a mystery that’s not fully resolved yet. The sequels will follow up on that exact thing.
As the blurb says, later on a dragon shows up. That was kind of fun because it’s not quite a typical dragon. It’s a Peluda dragon, although our hero doesn’t know that yet. He just knows that it’s furry. But that plays a big role in the novella I’m currently writing that’s somewhat of a sequel but not quite. The working title for that one is “Vigil” and it follows Peter instead of Michael, and it’s been crazy fun to write.
Q. If this is not a series of true events that you have chosen to disguise as fiction, what kind of research did you do for this story?
You caught me. I’m actually a dragon slayer. 🙂 No, it’s not autobiographical. If only my life were that exciting!
The ser na demon I stumbled across by accident. I was sitting in the audience of a panel at DragonCon on “Eastern Demons” one year with my book 10% done. A man named Kyl T. Cobb gave a really great presentation, although somewhat more dry and academic than the usual DragonCon fare. And he got to the slide on the ser na and I leaned over to my wife and said, “That’s it! That’s the thing in the cave!”
My wife is also the one who sent me the info about the Peluda dragon. She stumbled across it and it helped me make the dragon different and not just more of the same.
As for the location, I lived in Athens, Georgia for four years and went to classes on the UGA campus. So most of that is from memory, enhanced by Google Maps. And I picked the Sigma Chi frat house (which no longer exists, but did at the time of my story) because supposedly all that stuff I described in the basement was actually there for fraternity initiations. Go figure.
Michael’s aversion to school is 100% autobiographical, but every reader probably already guessed that.
One other aspect of Michael’s history is also, unfortunately, based on reality – but thankfully, not my own. I played World of Warcraft for a long time with a man who had joined the Army on September 12th because his fiance died in the attacks. He was more than a bit troubled, but a really, really good guy. He was also the best tank on our server, straight up.
To the best of my knowledge, he has only fought metaphorical demons and not the literal kind. I haven’t talked to him in years, but I pray for him all the time.
Q. What’s different or unique about your story from other urban fantasies?
Well, one thing I’ve done is that I’ve gone a bit old school. Modern UF tends to take a very syncretic approach to magic, trying to blend everything from every culture together. I’ve returned to the roots of titles like “Dracula” (which some might consider to be among the first UF), and I take a decidedly Christian theological view. But the book isn’t out to proselytize or convert anyone. It just takes it for granted.
For example, it’s specifically noted in the book that humans don’t have the power to kill demons. We can fight them, we can expel them, we can exorcise them. We can even win. But we can’t kill them. Why? Because demons, in the Christian view, are fallen angels. And angels are a “higher” power. Only the power of the Lord can kill them. And yes, that might be a plot point.
Another aspect that is more minor in this book but will play a big role later with some already established characters is the corrupting nature of magic. In the Christian worldview, magic is always and everywhere evil, even if it’s used for the best of intentions. And because of that, it brings a heavy cost. There’s one character in this book who has used some serious magic. The price will be coming due in the sequels.
Some people will really like that. Some readers will immediately decide they don’t want to read it because of the religious aspects. Others will be on the fence. That’s OK. You can’t write for everyone.
Q. Which works and authors would you say influenced the book?
Jim Butcher is the heaviest influence by far. Peter Bishop largely exists because I wanted to write about a character like Michael Carpenter but I knew that was never going to happen. Along the way, the character evolved a lot, though, and became truly my own. But there’s a huge influence there.
Larry Correia is another big influence on this book, in more ways than one. This book is far more action-heavy than most of Butcher’s books, and that’s got a lot to do with Correia’s influence.
Some of my readers may find it odd that Jonathan Maberry is another big influence. He’s another martial artist like myself, and I find his style of writing action to be a lot closer to mine. I’ve had the good fortune to meet him several times and actually discuss martial arts with him. He had a laugh because I brought a copy of an old jujitsu book he wrote to DragonCon for a signing one year. Everyone else in line had his zombie books or one of his technothrillers. I’m just weird that way!
Q. What was your favorite scene to write?
The car chase scene. That entire chapter came out in a white heat in probably two hours, maybe less. I had an absolute blast writing it, and I still love it every time I read it. It’s completely absurd, but it worked really well in context. And it gave me a great running gag for the characters from here on out. You will never, ever see Peter get anywhere near a car with Michael without bringing it up. Ever.
Q. What was the hardest part of the book for you to write?
The entire second half!
Seriously, action scenes are hard to write. They take a lot of work – and having some knowledge on the subject actually makes it worse, not better, because you want to have at least some semblance of believability to them. But the problem is this: real fights are short. Very short. Especially when they involve lethal weapons. But short isn’t interesting to readers at all. So trying to lengthen it out without making it totally silly is really tough.
Q. I was privileged to read an early version of War Demons, and it’s a great, pulse-pounding start to a series. Can you give us a hint of what we can expect in the next books?
Well, if you’ve read the ending of War Demons then you know that Michael and Peter (who is almost but not quite a co-protagonist) go their separate ways at the end. And I’ve got two follow-up projects going on next.
The first is a novella tentatively titled Vigil. It follows Peter down his path. The first draft is about 90% done now, so it should be out by the end of the year. This one came about because I heard one particular rock song and took the lyrics far too literally. And it’s also been in my head for a while, so I’m glad to get it out. But basically, Peter Bishop, Knight of the Sword of the Archangel Michael, has to rescue a damsel from a dragon. Under a church. In France. During the Easter Vigil mass. It’s insane, but fun.
The second project is the actual direct sequel to War Demons. Again, if you’ve read the end of that book, you know that Michael has entered a brand new world – a world that will introduce him to many rich, powerful connected people. This book is going to be about that world, how depraved it is, and how Michael reacts to that and deals with it. It’s tentatively titled Spirit Cooking, and if you know what that is, it’ll give you a decent idea of what the book’s about. If you don’t know what that is, don’t Google it at work. And prepare to be horrified. There’s a reason Michael needs to take on that kind of evil.
The outline for that book is almost done, so I should be able to hit the ground running on it as soon as I finish Vigil. My goal is to have it out in early 2018. I’m busy enough that I probably won’t make that. But I have a much better idea both of what I’m doing and of where I’m going than I did with War Demons, so it should go much faster.
Q. War Demons also gives us Peter Bishop’s personal history. I’ve enjoyed reading that character in several of your short stories. Tell us about him and if you have plans for more Peter Bishop adventures too.
Well, obviously, there’s Vigil as I mentioned above. The current series, centered on Michael, is a trilogy, with a definite ending. I know pretty well where that’s going. I’ve also got plans for a fourteen book series starring Peter. I had originally planned to interleave them – hitting the first Peter book next, then coming back to the Michael books.
For business reasons, I’ve decided to finish this series first. But the timelines will still be interwoven as originally planned. The first Peter book is tentatively titled Unholy Vows. The story takes place with Peter’s wedding as a backdrop, and it fits in between War Demons and Spirit Cooking. The outline for that one is coming together very nicely as well, and I’m actually kind of chomping at the bit to write it. It’ll be introducing some very fun new characters.
Why fourteen books? Well, there’s a method to my madness. 😉
I also have a very good idea of where that series is going overall, including an idea of the ending so clear that I could write the last couple of chapters immediately if I chose to. Very little would change. I’ve got about 6000 words of plot notes for the entire series so far. I expect that to grow quite a bit over time.
I’ve also got another Peter short story in the works for our upcoming Stairs in the Woods anthology. It involves a park ranger and a Boy Scout troop, and the fae again.
Q. You are the editor-in-chief of Silver Empire Publishing and your wife Morgon is also a writer. Why did you decide to become an indie publisher? What genres do you publish?
Well, the general idea behind becoming a publisher rather than just self-publishing was one of scale. Making money in any business is largely a factor of scaling up. In the modern economy, scaling up helps in a ton of different ways.
Most obviously, selling more products means more revenue. And selling more books largely means publishing more books. And since I can only write so fast myself, publishing more books means getting more people involved.
Then there’s also the factor of reaching fans. If I have five authors with small fan bases, but we can work together, we can turn those five fan bases into one substantially larger fan base. We get one giant e-mail list instead of five small ones, and so on.
But there are a ton of other factors, too. Advertising is cheaper in bulk. Covers can be cheaper if you work a deal with an artist to pay him for five covers instead of one. Web hosting is cheaper if we only need one server. Etc.
But lastly, and perhaps most importantly, my experience in other businesses has taught me that going alone is very seldom the best way to do anything. My dojo wouldn’t be half what it is without the wonderful assistant instructors I’ve got.
We’re focused on heroic, wondrous adventure stories. Which is kind of vague. 😉 For the next 12-24 months, we’re focused on the subgenres we’ve already got: urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, historical fantasy/sci-fi, and political/religious thrillers. We’re also seriously considering an expansion into space opera in the near future. We want to expand beyond that, but probably won’t do so for a while for business reasons.
Q. You published a couple of anthologies of short fantasy and sci-fi stories as well as my novel Treasures of Dodrazeb: The Origin Key before you published your own full-length novel. How did that happen? Wouldn’t most authors want to publish their own work first?
Most authors might, but I’m a businessman first and an author second. For many reasons, it made sense to publish other stuff first. The anthologies were a great way for us to reach out to other authors and make connections, and that process has really paid off.
And sometimes good opportunities drop in your lap, like when someone randomly approaches you with a really interesting sword-and-science novel! We have a very definite plan for Silver Empire’s growth and future, but you also have to be ready to react when good luck comes your way. We got lucky with The Origin Key, so we seized the opportunity.
Q. What advice do you have for authors who are trying to decide if they should a) go the traditional route with an agent, b) self-publish, or c) connect with a small, indie publisher?
This is a very, very individual decision and you should make it very carefully with no illusions.
Traditional publishing (the agent route) is not a dead option, but it’s becoming more and more so every year. It’s probably your biggest chance at “winning the lottery” and really making it big. But a big chance is still a crappy chance. It’s also really only got about three channels: no deal at all, a deal but you’re really not making much, or JK Rowling. The mid-levels are especially drying up these days, because all the big publishing marketing dollars are going to keep their big names alive.
Also, beware: the traditional publishing business model absolutely depends on physical bookstores. And the vast majority of brick-and-mortar sales these days are coming from two places: Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble. Wal-Mart only sells a handful of books. If you’re not one of the absolute top blockbusters, you’re out. And Barnes & Noble has been flirting with bankruptcy for the last year or so. They’re struggling hard right now. The day B&N goes down, my guess is that at least two of the big five publishers go down with it. (Don’t ask me which two – I have no idea.)
So it’s the path with probably the highest possible payout, but even if you get a good deal it’s by no means a “safe” route anymore.
There are some really interesting things going on in indie publishing right now. I can’t even keep up with 10% of it. The royalty percentages are usually better, and there are a number of indie publishing houses on the rise.
However, you’re still taking a risk with indie publishers (even us). Indie publishers are small businesses without a huge resource pool behind them. They can fold in a heartbeat. And selling books is tough – so you might be excited to have that book deal, but have no sales behind it.
And that’s the honest ones! Be careful! I can’t stress that enough. Since getting into this business I’ve heard some real horror stories from other authors about “publishers.” My simple advice is this: if they’re charging you money, they’re not a publisher no matter what they call themselves. They’re a publishing service. The distinction matters. An honest publisher might not sell many of your books, but they’ll at least treat you fair and do the things that a publisher should be doing: get you a cover, get you in Amazon, etc.
Self publishing has a lot of pros and cons these days. I know a few folks doing very well self published (including one writing pair that had a $28,000 month with one particular novel). But if you’re self publishing, you basically have to learn the entirety of the business yourself. You’re on your own, which carries its own risk. It’s your money on the line for the cover, etc.
On the other hand, the risk can be pretty small. Even with a good cover and a good editor, you can get a novel out for under $1500. Maybe a lot less. That’s a number that most of us wouldn’t like to lose, but we could live with it.
So it really depends on a few things. What amount – and what kind – of risk are you willing and able to tolerate? And how much of the work are you willing and able to do yourself – or pay someone else to do out of your own pocket? The answer to those two questions is going to point you in the right direction.
Q. Tell us about Lyonesse, your short story subscription service.
Frankly we’re doing everything we can to save the dying market of short fiction. We’ve adopted a bit of a new business model that kind of resembles NetFlix or Kindle Unlimited. For the crazy low price of $6.99 a year, you get 52 science fiction and fantasy adventure short stories – one every week. You also get an extensive back catalog of short stories. They’re all in convenient formats, all DRM free, and no advertising.
It’s a pretty killer deal, and folks are absolutely raving about what we’ve done so far. The service as a whole is pretty slick in how it’s put together. But it’s really the stories that make it, and we’ve had some very interesting ones. My personal favorite so far is by Hugo Award nominee Cheah Kai Wai, but we’ve also got some really amazing stories by some authors you’ve probably never heard of.
Q. Are you open to submissions right now? What kinds of stories do you look for?
Well, we have to put out 52+ stories per year for Lyonesse, so we’re always looking for submissions for that. We’re really looking for stuff that highlights heroism and adventure, but we’ve slipped in a few other things as well, when they’re good enough.
On the novel side, we’re a little more tightly focused. We’re currently actively seeking a space opera or military sci-fi novel. Other than that, we’re really focused on the four genres we already have a toe-hold in: urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, historical fantasy and religious thrillers. And we have a strong preference for works that are the beginning of a series. It’s OK if future books aren’t written yet. But the blunt reality is that series are where the money is made in this business.
Q. How do you define success in indie publishing?
Living in a house made of gold bars?
Kidding aside, I have a really great day job. So for me, generating a nice side income to supplement that is really great. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
Q. As a reader, what about a book turns you away?
The same things I’m not really interested in publishing right now, honestly. There’s a heavy modern and post-modern trend toward deconstruction, darkness, and nihilism.
Deconstruction can be interesting, but our culture has reached the point where deconstruction is almost the main thing we do. Sooner or later you run out of interesting things to deconstruct. You have to start constructing again. I’ve had a handful of books recommended to me that I’d probably enjoy if I read them, but these days I can’t muster enough interest to read yet another deconstruction.
Darkness is good in fiction – to a point. You need darkness to emphasize the light, and Lord knows I’ve got enough of that exact thing going on in War Demons. But when darkness is all you have, or when the darkness is so deep that it swallows the light, then what’s the point? It’s not entertaining anymore, it’s just depraved. I had a place for a certain degree of that in my teens. I think most of us go through a phase where we kind of need to stare into the abyss. But I’ve been through that phase and I’m not really interested anymore. From a publishing perspective, I feel like there are plenty of outlets for that these days. I want to put out something that builds the world up, not stuff that tears it down.
Even on its own terms, Nihilism is pointless. Our modern culture has rejected the religion of our forefathers. Well, OK. I’m not going to sit here and try to convert everybody back. But we also haven’t replaced it with anything meaningful. And when you remove that religion without a strong replacement, you leave a void. If nothing else fills it, nihilism will. And it’s creeping into our culture everywhere. Again, it’s literally pointless. It’s a waste of my time as a reader and as a publisher. The meaning and depth doesn’t have to agree with my worldview. In fact, I like having my worldview challenged. But put some actual meaning into it.
Note that this doesn’t mean that I want to read, write, or publish a bunch of message fiction. I hate that crap, too. And it doesn’t mean that every story has to be “deep.” But if a story is pretending to be deep and it’s “great message” is, when distilled down, simply nihilism, then I’m out.
Q. What’s your all-time favorite book? Why?
The Lord of the Rings, hands down. I’ve read it at least two dozen times. For a long time I read it once a year. These days I’m too busy… but it may be about time to dig it out again.
Why? Largely because it’s a tale that showcases the best in humanity. And it’s a great example about using darkness to emphasize the light. In the real world, the worst situations are what bring out the absolute best in people. The best literature reflects that. Tolkien creates a world where real evil highlights true heroism. And one of the great things about the book is the way it shows almost every kind of heroism, not just one kind. From the simple, “I’ll stand by my friend through thick and thin,” of Samwise Gamgee to the sacrifice of personal power of Farimir to the battle prowess of Aragorn, it really hits on everything and on every level. It’s powerful stuff.
Q. What’s your all-time favorite TV show? Why?
Babylon 5, and again it’s an easy one. Having a single story line that spans dozens or even hundreds of episodes is common in Anime, but it’s completely non-existent in live action television – except for Babylon 5. I’m not talking about a season-long story arc, where there’s a new story every season. That’s really common now (and a huge improvement over how TV used to be). I mean one story line that spans 5 years and 110 episodes of TV.
On top of that, the show was extremely well written and it happens to be sci-fi, which is one of my favorite genres. So what’s not to love?
Q. What’s your all-time favorite movie? Why?
This one’s tougher, and I’m going to have to go with more than one because there are several films in different genres that I love equally but for very different reasons.
In the action realm, I absolutely love The Dark Knight. It’s not just the best superhero movie, it’s one of the best movies of all time. It’s got great characters, portrayed well, put in impossible situations, and the ending is painful. And yet it’s not nihilistic at all, because the painful ending is also full of hope and heroic sacrifice. On top of that, it has that wonderful moment on the boats where you see the amazing heroism of ordinary people. Put all that together with one of the tightest scripts I’ve ever seen and you have a true masterpiece.
In romantic comedy, there’s nothing that tops The Princess Bride. It’s a chick flick made for guys, and it somehow manages to pull of both. And not in a minor way, either – it pulls off both flawlessly. It’s got action, adventure, pirates, and true love. The story is simple – fairy tale simple – and yet powerfully moving. Which is exactly what the best fairy tales do, as well. And it’s absolutely hilarious, all at the same time. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen that film, and it never gets old.
In drama, I’d have to go with Secondhand Lions. It’s a coming of age story that’s actually in many ways reminiscent of The Princess Bride, and yet it’s a completely different film at the same time. It’s another story that really highlights heroism at all levels – very big and extremely small all at the same time. The only problem with the film is that I’m still waiting to here the rest of the “What every boy needs to know about being a man” speech. What they included is one of the best speeches ever told in any human tongue, but I’m very bothered that I haven’t heard the rest. I’m not sure I know everything I need to know!
Q. If you were a superhero (and I’m not saying you aren’t), what is your superpower? What is your superhero name?
Apparently my superhero name is “Tai Pan” and it was chosen for me by some fellow writers. I’m not entirely sure what superpower they’re trying to claim that I have with that and I don’t fully get it, either. But who am I to argue?
Q. I’ve heard you say that “sleep is for the weak.” Honestly, though, how do you find the time to do so many things so well?
Well, I say that as a joke, but one thing is that I really don’t sleep as much as I should. I’ve always had trouble sleeping. I made a conscious decision in my early 20s that if I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t going to simply lie in bed not sleeping, either. So now when I can’t sleep, I get up and do something productive. Or, more often, when I know I won’t be able to sleep yet if I lie down (and most of the time I can tell), I just stay up and keep working.
I also get bored easily. Really bored, really easily. And when I get bored, I get depressed. So staying busy is mostly just self preservation. It bugs my wife sometimes that I spend so much time working.
And speaking of that last, I get an awful lot of support from my family, and my wife Morgon in particular. What the outside world sees as my productivity is often really a combination of the two of us. I’m just the face we present to the public.
Q. Is there anything about the writing life that you think is misunderstood by the public?
Yeah, people think it’s all fun and games, that words just magically appear on the paper, and that you make a ton of money. It looks like the best job in the world, right? No boss, no hours, just make up stories and stuff.
But the reality is that it’s very hard work, especially if you actually want to make any money at it. The words don’t write themselves. And beyond the actual writing part, there’s a lot of marketing and business work that goes into it – even if you have a publisher behind you. And for most authors, the pay is absolutely terrible. The number of authors in the US who make a full time living at it is depressingly small.
But on the other hand, it’s the best job in the world because there’s no boss, no hours, and you just make up stories and stuff.
Author Name: Russell Newquist
Blog: http://russellnewquist.com/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/rnewquist
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rnewquist
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13656278.Russell_S_Newquist
Book Links:
War Demons – coming soon!
Who’s Afraid of the Dark? – http://amzn.to/2v0mW91
Knight of the Changeling – http://amzn.to/2v2ARtA
https://silverempire.org/
Lyonesse Short Fiction: https://lyonesse.silverempire.org/
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged Indie Author, Interview, publishing, Russell Newquist, Urban Fantasy, War Demons, Writing by S.D. McPhail. Bookmark the permalink.
1 thought on “Author Interview: Russell Newquist”
notsomoderngirl on August 13, 2018 at 4:06 pm said: | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line5988 |
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__label__wiki | 0.76724 | 0.76724 | Union Pacific’s Big Utah Stake
The railroad observes 150 years as an economic engine.
by JOHN McCURRY
Photo: GettyImages
On May 9, Union Pacific will observe its 150th anniversary by recreating the photo taken May 10, 1869, when the last spike was driven into place at Promontory Point, creating America’s first intercontinental railroad. Historic steam locomotives will be on hand. That will be the primary observance, but communities across Utah will take time to mark the anniversary.
The Union Pacific Railroad has been vital to Utah’s economy for 150 years. With 1,268 miles (2,040 km.) of track and an annual payroll of $124.2 million, it has been a catalyst for growth throughout the state. From 2014 to 2018, the railroad invested more than $329 million in Utah’s transportation infrastructure.
“In a lot of ways, Union Pacific and the communities it serves have grown up together,” says Nathan Anderson, Union Pacific’s senior director, public affairs, for Utah. “We have strong relationships with those communities. What we are celebrating, really, is the opportunity to execute the kind of trade that brings ideas and culture and goods and services across the state.”
Union Pacific has developed important infrastructure across Utah, including the $90 million Salt Lake City Intermodal Terminal. Anderson says Union Pacific is looking for opportunities to expand the use of its network where it make sense. He says the railroad is working on several projects it has to keep under wraps for now.
“Ultimately, these projects will allow growth without putting more traffic on the roads,” Anderson says.
In Salt Lake City, the state recently welcomed an announcement by San Francisco-based financial technology company plaid that it will open an engineering hub, adding to the city’s information technology and financial services cluster. Plaid’s technology allows consumers to connect their bank accounts to digital financial services applications. The firm plans to hire 50 engineers by the end of the year to populate a 17,000-sq.-ft. (1,580-sq.-m.) office downtown.
“In a lot of ways, Union Pacific and the communities it serves have grown up together.”
— Nathan Anderson, Senior Director, Public Affairs, for Utah, Union Pacific, on the occasion of the railroad’s sesquicentennial in May
“Plaid is adding the best and brightest talent to facilitate an ‘everybody wins’ financial system where technological innovation, protection of personal data, and consumer choice and control are all possible,” says Kira Booth, who will head the engineering team. “Plaid is focused on laying the foundation for fintech for decades to come, and is excited to lay down roots in a location that is equally as invested in the future of engineering and innovation.”
Another recent project and a big FDI win drawn to the state is an operations hub in Ogden planned by Swedish food and beverage manufacturer Oatly, which develops and produces oat-based drinks and foods. Its flagship product is its oatmilk, an original oat-based drink produced using patented enzyme technology that turns oats into nutritional liquid food.
A train loaded with containers leaves Union Pacific’s intermodal terminal in Salt Lake City.
Photo courtesy of Union Pacific
“As a 25-year-old company, we’ve been blown away by the enthusiasm and incredible demand for Oatly that we’ve seen here in the States over the past few years,” says Oatly U.S. General Manager Mike Messersmith “Through this partnership with the state of Utah, our upcoming factory in Ogden will help us keep oatmilk in all the many coffee shops, grocery stores and refrigerators that want it.”
The company worked with Atlas Insight LLC, a site selection firm based in New Jersey, to help with its location decision. The company ultimately chose an available food-grade facility at Business Depot Ogden as a turnkey solution for the company. Oatly plans to create up to 50 jobs over the next seven years.
One of the state’s biggest projects in recent years comes from a homegrown company, Merit Medical, which is investing $505 million in a massive expansion that will create more than 1,000 jobs. Merit is a leading manufacturer and marketer of disposable medical devices used in intervention, diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures.
“We are hiring students from our state’s great institutions of higher education as engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, marketing and business professionals,” says Fred P. Lampropoulos, Merit Medical chairman and CEO. “We are committed to growing our business with local talent in all areas.”
Union Pacific in Utah 2018 Fast Facts
Miles of Track 1,268
Annual Payroll $124.2 million
In-State Purchases $110.5 million
Capital Investment $58.7 million
Community Giving $456,700
Employees 1,284
U.S. Jobs Supported* 11,556
*Each American freight rail job supports nine jobs elsewhere in the U.S. economy, according to the Association of American Railroads
DEPARTMENTS: World Reports (Feb 11, 2019)
ASIA PACIFIC: Mobility Solutions for the Masses (Jan 7, 2019)
ONLINE INSIDER: Ready When You Are (Dec 6, 2018)
MILITARY & DEFENSE: Value Added (Oct 26, 2018)
BUSINESS CLIMATE OVERVIEW: The Crossroads of Commerce (Sep 10, 2018)
FORD FUELS DETROIT RESURGENCE: Train station project will be catalyst for urban renewal. (Jul 25, 2018)
U.S.-MEXICO BORDER CORRIDOR: Positive Signs on the Horizon (Jul 23, 2018)
OUTDOOR RECREATION: The Promised Land (Jun 29, 2018) | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6001 |
__label__wiki | 0.788851 | 0.788851 | Catching Up On The Week (Aug. 29 Edition)
August 29, 2014 NewsAC/DC, Anthony Gonzalez, Bad Lyrics, El Pintor, Interpol, lyrics, M83, Oasis, The National, The Stoogessymeo Leave a comment
Some #longreads for your Labor Day weekend and pieces to look over in between college football games…
As you may have noticed, we are eagerly anticipating El Pintor, the new album from Interpol. To help you feel the same excitement, we have interviews both old and new. Under the Radar posted a piece from 2002 when the band was fresh off their classic debut Turn On The Bright Lights, while Rolling Stone talks to the band as they return in 2014.
The AV Club sets their sights on The Stooges’ legendary album Raw Power for their Permanent Records feature, and that fact alone should spur you to read it. Elsewhere on the site, various writers discuss songs they love despite cringe-worthy lyrics. I personally take issue with the first selection of “Conversation 16” by The National, whose lyrics I actually enjoy–the shock that comes from the drastic change in tone quickly turns to amusement, and I always enjoy cracking up when listening to the purposefully humorous chorus.
Pitchfork has an in-depth interview with Anthony Gonzalez, the mastermind behind M83, who discusses his early years as the group’s first three albums are getting reissued. If you’re only familiar with the group because of “Midnight City” and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, I suggest you pick up these albums when you have the chance because they’re just as gorgeous, though with less of an 80’s influence (which to some may be preferable).
And finally, have some fun with Stereogum as they rank AC/DC’s albums and look back on the twentieth anniversary of Oasis’s Definitely Maybe. I personally was first introduced to Oasis with their follow-up (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, but for many people their debut still represents the pinnacle of the band’s career.
A Quick Letter to Trent Reznor
August 28, 2014 Odds/SodsGave Up, Mike McCready, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, Tighter & Tighter, Trent Reznor, We're In This Togethersymeo Leave a comment
Tomorrow night, we here at Rust Is Just Right are heading up to the wastelands of southern Washington, which means our readers will soon see an end to the mentions of a tour we’ve been talking about since the beginning of this site. That’s right, the mega-tour of 90’s powerhouse co-headliners Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails is making its way to the Portland area (without the initially-invited Death Grips, however). Though we saw both of these acts on their own respective tours last year, we were suitably impressed with their comeback performances that it was a no-brainer to shell out the big bucks to see these guys once again, if only for the possibility of a few changes to the setlist. To that end, we would like to formally request for Trent Reznor to dig deep and play some cuts from The Fragile at tomorrow’s show.
Nine Inch Nails became superstars with the critical and commercial success of 1994’s The Downward Spiral (the album whose twentieth anniversary is nominally the impetus for this tour), but it wasn’t until they released its follow-up The Fragile in 1999 that I climbed aboard the bandwagon. I was too young to appreciate TDS when it came out–it was simply too dark and scary for a kid who was still in elementary school, and I remember just seeing glimpses of the “Closer” video gave me nightmares (it didn’t occur to me that there was an actual song behind the video that could be played on the radio until years later). I had none of these issues when The Fragile came out, and even though it’s a behemoth of a double album, I enjoyed devouring and analyzing the music for hours on end.
The reputation of The Fragile has suffered a bit over the years due to comparisons to the ridiculous sales numbers of The Downward Spiral, and this analysis has cast a shadow onto the album’s artistic merits as a result, with many now concluding that it doesn’t measure up as a worthy successor. I would argue that as great as TDS is, it is with The Fragile that Trent Reznor truly proved his genius and bona fides as a composer. The album plays as an industrial rock symphony, with melodic ideas and figures that pop up in different variations throughout, giving a musical coherence to the work. Individual instruments are recorded with precision, providing ample space when required but also allowed to bleed together to create new gorgeous tones like a shoegaze record. Reznor also balances between natural and artificial tones with expert mixing both live and processed instrumentation. It is obvious to the listener that every second was planned and recorded with care, and the result is an album that even at its most brutal and devastating sounds absolutely gorgeous.
It looks that the band is playing a few of the usual suspects from this album on this tour, but I hope that Trent flips the script a bit and pulls off a couple of surprises. The crowd, which is full of diehards like me that grew up with The Fragile and listen to it on a regular basis, would go nuts if the band whipped out the epic instrumental “Just Like You Imagined” and lose their shit if they got to hear “Into the Void” once again. But I’ll be honest, the one song that I desperately want to hear is the one embedded above, the song that convinced me of the brilliance of Nine Inch Nails, “We’re In This Together”. I love the relentless drumbeat that drives the song, utilizing a trickier pattern than appears at first listen, I love the ever-evolving vocal melodies that emphasize and build on the emotions of the lyrics, but most of all, I love the fucking guitar in this song, especially one of the greatest noise-freakout solos I’ve ever heard. I realize the difficulty of putting all the elements of this song together live (which is why it’s only been done a handful of times), but I’m telling you, the fans would go crazy if it actually happened, and we will forgive any and all mistakes just for the gesture.
But don’t substitute “Gave Up”. That one is great.
And if the guys in Soundgarden are taking requests, please play “Tighter & Tighter”. It’s not necessary that you have Mike McCready come help you out, but we definitely would love it if he decided to help out on this one.
Beck or At the Drive-In/Mars Volta Lyric?
August 27, 2014 Odds/SodsAt the Drive-In, Beck, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, lyrics, Mars Volta, The Mars Voltasymeo Leave a comment
During last week’s big show, I remembered a bit that I thought would be a fun game for a music magazine or website: Is this a Beck lyric or an At the Drive-In/Mars Volta lyric? Both Beck and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (singer and wordsmith for the latter groups) are known for their lines that when read in isolation have little to no literal meaning, yet each can still captivate the listener due to their ability to craft a memorable phrase and use of bizarre imagery. With that in mind, we here at Rust Is Just Right are proud to just go ahead and do the game ourselves.
Here are a few of our favorite lyrics, and while we won’t reveal the artist, we will include a link to a video so you can confirm your guess. These should be relatively well-known songs if you’re familiar with the artist–we’re not going to try to stump you too hard.
1. “In the company of wolves was a stretcher made of cobblestone curfews; the federales performed their custodial customs quite well.“
2. “She’s got a carburetor tied to the moon; pink eyes looking to the food of the ages.“
3. “When they dance in a reptile blaze, you wear a mask, an equatorial haze; into the past, a colonial maze, where there’s no more confetti to throw.“
4. “This is the pocket-sized edition; rapid sleep through benediction; let’s just paint you a pretty face.“
5. “Past, present, and future tense, clip-side of the pink-eye fountain.“
6. “Heads are hanging from the garbage-man trees; mouthwash, jukebox, gasoline; pistols are pointing at a poor man’s pockets, smiling eyes with ’em out of the sockets.“
7. “Can’t you hear those cavalry drums hijacking your equilibrium? Midnight hags in the mausoleum where the pixelated doctors moan.“
8. “With a noose she can hang from the sun, and put it out with her dark sunglasses.“
9. “But have they kissed the ground? Pucker up and kiss the asphalt now.“
10. “He’s got fasting black lungs, made of clove-splintered shards; they’re the kind that will talk through a wheezing of coughs.“
Hope that was fun; maybe we can do it again some time.
Beck, Live at Edgefield
August 26, 2014 Live Shit, RecsBeck, Edgefield, Guero, Jenny Lewis, Live, Modern Guilt, Morning Phase, Odelay, Rod Stewart, Sea Changesymeo Leave a comment
Beck’s most recent album, Morning Phase, is a brilliant companion piece to the somber Sea Change, but his live show at Edgefield last week recalled a different era of his career–the rocking and free-wheeling days of Odelay. The attention of most of the public was on LA last weekend, but the best performance of the week took place about 800 miles north and a few days earlier. Beck and his backing band were energetic and fired up and delivered an absolute knockout of a show.
Beck kicks things off with a fiery “Devil’s Haircut”.
To be honest, this kind of a performance came as a complete surprise to me. I had seen Beck live once before, back during the Modern Guilt tour in 2008, and in many ways it was easily one of the most disappointing shows I’d ever seen. He and his touring band played well enough, so from an aural perspective it was fine, but Beck hardly moved at all the whole time, and didn’t seem engaged until late in the encore. Earlier this year, during the press tour in advance of the release of Morning Phase, Beck had mentioned that he had sustained a back injury and was in a lot of pain during that time, which helped explain the lackluster show. Still, I wondered if this was only a convenient excuse; given how switched-on Beck was on Thursday night, I’m inclined to believe him.
Beck wasted no time getting down to business by opening with a fuzzed-out rendition of “Devil’s Haircut” that had the crowd singing along to every lyric. “Black Tambourine” got a surprisingly welcome response from the audience, but it was their reception to “Loser” that inspired some deep thinking on my part. Consider for a moment how a tossed-off lark of a song like “Loser” is now recognized as a cultural touchstone; especially now that we’re in an era when culture and especially music is extremely fragmented, yet people of all stripes universally love this song. I want to be there for the day eighty years from now when anthropologists explain to a skeptical public that the highlight of the day for thousands of people was when they got to sing along in unison the lines “I’m a loser baby, so why don’t ya kill me?” Initially, the line was ironic; a decade later it was nostalgic; and twenty years later it’s practically warm and fuzzy.
Even the more sedate material was captivating.
Early on, Beck often made mention of a noxious odor that had settled down near the front of the stage, commenting at several pauses during the set about the unexplained smell. It was indeed unpleasant, but the band and the audience were able to ignore it soon enough, and the rest of the set went off without a hitch. Beck effortlessly incorporated the new songs from Morning Phase into the set without disrupting the momentum, though perhaps the trade-off was a near-absence songs from Sea Change, besides a gorgeous version of “Lost Cause”. It never felt like that Beck had to “slow things down” to get to the more delicate material, and songs like “Wave” and “Blue Moon” became even more powerful in their live versions. Still, the most memorable moments were when the band dipped into older material, like an extremely raucous version of “Novocane”, which morphed into a fierce solo-harmonica version of “One Foot In The Grave”, and a rowdy rendition of the oldie “Beercan”. I also enjoyed hearing a couple of songs from Modern Guilt, as the guys performed both the title track and “Chemtrails”; the latter was apparently a song in which Beck felt rusty, because he had the lyrics taped to a monitor and could be seen reading off some of the lines as he was performing, but it had no bearing on the performance, especially the roaring climax of the song.
As great as the set was, the encore blew it out of the water. After they closed with “E-Pro”, police caution tape was used to mark off the stage; bassist Justin Meldal-Johnson then returned and began whipping the crowd into a frenzy by asking if they felt like breaking some laws tonight. The band then launched into a highly entertaining performance of “Sexx Laws”, the police tape was cut, and the show continued. Beck kept the mood funky by calmly transitioning into fan-favorite “Debra”, spicing it up with some great ad-libs about Oregon and all the perks that his frequent flyer card apparently holds. During the final chorus, Beck changed up the lyrics and said he didn’t care about the sister (Debra), he just wanted to get with Jenny…and brought up opener Jenny Lewis to the stage, where they collaborated on an exceptionally amusing cover of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”. Beck and friends and family then finished the night with an extended version of “Where It’s At”, filled with solos highlighting the different members of the band, before it morphed into a dance party on stage with a cover of “Billie Jean”. All throughout the show, you could see Beck’s children running around backstage, but for the last couple of songs they became a part of the performance as they danced around on stage with the rest of the band; the presence of Beck’s son added some hilarity to “Billie Jean”, as he mockingly felt rejected every time Beck sang “the kid is not my son.”
The only bad part was that we had another day to wait before it was the weekend; that, and the fact that once the show was over we noticed the smell again. Otherwise, it was pretty close to perfect (though it would be great to hear some stuff from Mutations at some point, but I digress).
Over the Weekend (Aug. 25 Edition)
August 25, 2014 NewsAphex Twin, clipping., Music Video, Tame Impala, Useless Lists, VMAssymeo Leave a comment
Some fun stuff to flip through as you struggle to stay awake for another week of the Simpsons marathon…
In case you didn’t know, MTV aired their Video Music Awards last night, and I think the best way to sum up my feelings about the event is to quote AV Club writer Sean O’Neal: “Today is the 15th anniversary of me realizing I no longer care about the VMAs.” Nevertheless, Sean himself printed a “recap” of the show, but this was based purely on skimming articles about the show. If you’re still in the mood to talk about the VMAs, SPIN provides their own category of Worst Music Video and hands out their own award.
In a more substantial piece, SPIN also has an interview with Run The Jewels, and they talk about current events and race in America. With that, you should also check out the new track released by clipping. in the wake of the events of Ferguson.
We’ve mentioned that Aphex Twin is finally releasing a new album with SYRO, and now Pitchfork has given us a quick preview of a longer interview to be published at a later date; among the most important items mentioned is the pronunciation of the album title.
And finally, Pitchfork decided to use one of the dead weeks in August to go full List-mania, with lists covering the best albums, music videos, and tracks of the last five years. The fact that Celebration Rock is not the number one album pretty much calls the entire enterprise into question (and the fact that two of the three paragraphs written about the album are pure garbage is also another great hint), but if you’ve got time to kill, then I guess you could read it.
I will say that they are correct about how great Tame Imapala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” is.
August 22, 2014 NewsAir Supply, Alternative, FKA twigs, Gin Blossoms, Jamiroquai, Kraftwerk, Music Video, New Pornographers, R.E.M., The New Pornographerssymeo Leave a comment
For those of you looking for reading material during the commercial breaks of the Every Simpsons Ever marathon…
Everyone’s looking forward to the new album from The New Pornographers next week, Brill Bruisers, and they’re making the media rounds in preparation. Be sure to check out their interviews with Consequence of Sound and Pitchfork.
Pitchfork also has this look at the early-years of Kraftwerk, a period in which the band had yet to find the style that would come to define them.
If you’re in the mood for a troll-tastic list, there’s this countdown of the Best Video winners from the MTV VMA’s. You can tell it’s an awful list with its very first selection: a shitty argument stating that R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” is the worst in the 30 year history of the event.
[Ed. Note: “Sledgehammer” should be number 1, and “Virtual Insanity” should be 1a, with Chris Rock’s parody of the Jamiroquai video at 1b.]
Deadspin looks at the unlikely connection between the heavily-hyped FKA twigs and Air Supply.
AV Club has been doing a big feature about 1994 this week, and that includes a plea to listen to some Gin Blossoms.
And finally, The Guardian talks to several famous lead singers about the anxieties they face when performing.
Covered: “Cortez the Killer”
August 21, 2014 CoveredBuilt to Spill, Cortez the Killer, Covered, Crazy Horse, Guitar, guitar solos, Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horsesymeo Leave a comment
Covered is a feature where we examine the merits of various cover songs, debating whether or not they capture the spirit and intent of the original, if the cover adds anything new, and whether or not it perhaps surpasses the original. If we fail on those counts, at the very least we may expose you to different versions of great songs you hadn’t heard before.
Zuma is one of my favorite Neil Young albums, but there is one track that stands out clearly from the rest and is the major reason why most people have this record in their collections: “Cortez the Killer”. Even my mother, who is only a casual music fan and not really familiar with Young’s work, was compelled to remark about the song when she heard it for the first time, saying “that was beautiful.” The song is known for its epic guitar solos, but unlike the vast majority of songs with the same claim, the tempo never gets above an ambling pace. For over seven minutes, the audience is enraptured by gorgeous guitar lines that snake and wrap around the listener’s ears. It’s an amazing feat.
Over the years, a lot of people who enjoy proving how smart they are, have taken aim at the lyrics and dismissed the song because of the historical inaccuracies. True, to say “and war was never known” about the Aztecs, out of all the indigenous peoples of the Americas, is pretty ridiculous. However, the song came out at a time when historians were beginning to teach a revised version of the interaction between European settlers and Native Americans, and if Neil Young swung the narrative too far in the other direction, it’s understandable. However, consider that just saying “Cortez, Cortez…what a killer” was enough to apparently get this song banned in Spain during the 70’s, and that part was true. In the end, I’d just say to those critics to get over themselves and enjoy the true beauty of the song, and let the guitars wash over you.
You know how I mentioned above how it was “an amazing feat” for Neil Young and Crazy Horse to keep the listener’s attention for over seven minutes simply by the beauty of the guitar solos? Think how impressive it would be to do the same thing, except for twenty minutes. That’s what Built to Spill was able to accomplish, as recorded on their Live album.
Over the years, Built to Spill has been known to play several covers and do an outstanding job on each of them, ranging from classic rock staple “Don’t Fear the Reaper” to M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”. I remember seeing a particularly impressive version of The Smith’s “How Soon Is Now?”, with the band able to perfectly nail that distinctive effect for the guitar. But there may not have been a finer cover than their version of “Cortez”, which still amazes me to this day. Doug Martsch is a fair match for Neil Young’s distinctive whine, and that’s without even an attempt at imitation; Martsch’s vocals also carry an additional fragility or vulnerability, which helps bring out the beauty of the song even more.
The astonishing thing about their cover is that at no point when listening does it ever feel like “this is a twenty minute song”; it sounds like it takes roughly around the same time as the original, even when you’re listening to several rounds of solos at the end. And man, those solos…each separate round is able to offer new variations on the well-known melody without sounding repetitive, and able to galvanize the listener without showboating or grandstanding. The solos keep building and building, and then reach a glorious climax, before slowly receding into the ether, because you have to take some time to calm yourself after witnessing such beauty. It’s also way tougher to do than just fading out like the original did, though to be fair, that was apparently due to a lack of tape.
The point is, if you have nothing to do for the next half hour, listen to these two versions. You can thank me later.
Review: Alvvays – Alvvays
August 20, 2014 New Shit, RecsAlvvays, chillwave, DIIV, indie rock, Real Estate, Reviewsymeo Leave a comment
Summer may be winding down, but luckily it’s not over quite yet; there are still a couple more weekends for you to enjoy some sunshine and relaxation before the horrors of autumn begin. However, you might be getting a little annoyed with listening to the same Summer Mix playlist on your iTunes–a perfectly understandable concern. To that end, it is worth checking out the self-titled debut of the sunny beach-pop band Alvvays.
(Ed. note: from what I’ve read about the band, despite the odd spelling, the name is still pronounced “Always”)
There have been several bands that have mined this vein of indie rock in recent years, most notably DIIV and Real Estate; the trademarked trebly guitars laced with reverb, the simplistic percussion, and the general laid-back vibe are all present on the album. Even though there are many strong similarities between these groups, the upbeat disposition of many of the songs as well as the unique vocals of Molly Rankin help distinguish the group from its peers. Whereas Real Estate would be perfect for spending the day relaxing by the ocean, Alvvays fits better as the soundtrack to help get you amped on the car ride to the beach.
The album begins with a 1-2 punch of “Adult Diversion” and “Archie, Marry Me”, and it’s easy to see why these two songs were the first singles. “Adult Diversion” is propelled by a bouncy arpeggiated guitar part and airy vocals, a combination where one can note the apt comparisons to DIIV, but the true engine is the driving bassline, which provides both momentum and a great counterpoint. “Archie, Marry Me” is a a great pop song with a big chorus, with a style that recalls the Dum Dum Girls and their attempts to capture that 60’s nostalgia haze. While it’s easy to get caught up in the big sweeping hooks, the best part of the song is actually the feedback-drenched lead guitar in the second verse that provides a necessary subtle edge to the gauzy production.
The album is not without its problems, as the momentum begins to sag around the middle with “The Agency Group” and “Dives”. The latter is actually a well-done ballad with enough unique touches that are promising for the future, but within the context of the album it just ends up being a drag. Alvvays is able to avoid falling off the rails with the energetic “Atop A Cake” and its extremely catchy chorus, which should have you singing “How can I lose control when you’re driving from the backseat” long after you’ve finished listening to the album. Other highlights include “Ones Who Love You”, a great slow number that gradually builds into a shocking climax of “You can’t feel your fucking face” before breaking back down once again, and the midtempo song “Party Police”, which is built around an intriguing minor-key guitar lick and finds Rankin hitting an unexpected high note like Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries or Sinéad O’Connor.
When Alvvays is hitting on all cylinders, it’s a fun ride; unfortunately, there are a few too many moments when it stalls. That said, it’s a solid debut that can easily find a place in any future Summer Mix, and the band displays enough talent that it’s worth watching what they do in the future.
MusicFestNW 2014
August 19, 2014 Live Shit, RecsFucked Up, HAIM, Live, MusicFestNW, Spoon, The Antlers, tUnE-yArDssymeo Leave a comment
Portland celebrated MusicFestNW this past weekend, and it looked a little different than it had in past years. Instead of a colder, wetter version of SXSW (with a city more equipped to handle the traffic), we got a Northwest version of the current incarnation of Lollapalooza and other similar festivals. We didn’t have to buy tickets to multiple venues and plan across a whole week, but instead had a two-day festival in a specific part of the gorgeous Waterfront Park, soaking in that last bit of summer before the inevitable gloomy fall.
We decided to skip the first day since there were no acts that seemed worthy of shelling out the extra money for another day of tickets (with all apologies to Run the Jewels, for whom it would probably be worth to pay a full-day’s admission to see on their own). I’m going to avoid the opportunity to talk smack about bands for whom I don’t particularly care, because we here at Rust Is Just Right try to set ourselves apart by not indulging in condescending snark and instead promote what we enjoy. But in private, let’s just say there were a lot of good burns that were shared.
Portland’s Waterfront Park, on a non-MusicFest day.
Our plan on Sunday was to catch the lineup starting from The Antlers until the end, but thanks to several accidents on I-5 our ETA was delayed by about an hour. Luckily, we still caught the last few songs of The Antlers’ set, a circumstance which mimicked my previous limited encounter with their live show when they only performed a short showcase at SXSW. One would think that their delicate and fragile songs would not be ideal for a live show, especially in a large festival setting, but once again I came away extremely impressed with their performance. We were caught wandering around the backside of the cordoned-off grounds for “I Don’t Want Love” (mistaking beliving that there would be entrances on the bridge side), but we were still able to hear the devastating power of the song even filtered through the backstage equipment.
The Antlers: “Music Band Northeast, glad to play Music Fest Northwest.”
Once we finally settled in to the proper area, we heard a couple of songs from their latest album Familiars. I haven’t yet internalized the nuances of those songs, but I can assure you that they come off very well in a live setting. Perhaps the biggest surprise was their last song, “Putting The Dog To Sleep”. It’s a great closer on Burst Apart, but given the specific nature of the song, it wouldn’t appear to be the most natural way to end a set. The song was as cathartic as expected, but the band added an additional musical twist: first they began the natural breakdown of the song, taking pains to stretch out the chord progression while keeping the resolution slightly out of reach, but then building the song back up with an extended instrumental section that dazzled the crowd.
You know this was from early in the set because Damian Abraham’s shirt is still on.
We then made our way to the other end of the park, where Fucked Up was set to perform next–a transition that ranks among the most jarring ever scheduled at a music festival. Here is a great opportunity for praising the new setup of the festival, as this allowed minimal time wasted between different acts as they had the necessary amount of time to setup without holding the crowd hostage, and the distance between the two sets was both short enough for the walk to not be burdensome while long enough so that there was not any bleedthrough between the two stages. Someone deserves some extra kudos for that solid planning.
We’ve shown our love before with our glowing review of Glass Boys, but even we were taken aback at just how awesome Fucked Up’s set was at MusicFest. I’m willing to claim that their hour-long set alone was worth the price of admission for the full day’s lineup. There’s really nothing quite like seeing the giant hulking mass of positive energy that is Damian Abraham working his way through the crowd, giving hugs to folks passing by, climbing on top of the fence to sing out to the people on the river, and high-fiving a baby as the band ferociously kept up and played in lockstep. Seriously, Pink Eyes high-fived a baby–that immediately became an all-time top-five concert moment for me personally.
Pink Eyes, now sans shirt.
I believe most of the set was from Glass Boys and David Comes To Life, though I will admit that sometimes it can be difficult to tell certain songs apart. At least none of my personal favorites from The Chemistry of Common Life came up, though the rarity “I Hate Summer” made a welcome appearance, with a thoughtful introduction from Abraham on how one shouldn’t listen to personal attacks from others who are merely trying to shame people for no good reason. He also at other times mentioned the healthful benefits of weed and the terrible events occurring in Ferguson, MO, with each speech receiving thunderous applause. The band was tight, as I mentioned, but also could have benefited from an extra volume boost to help compete with Abraham’s sharp bellow, and also to help distinguish between the various components of their three-guitar attack. Unfortunately, it seemed that the raucous set eventually drove the crowd away, as it seemed after their initial welcome that many people grew tired of listening to an hour of hardcore, and eventually made their way back to the other end of the park. Then again, perhaps it was the heat finally getting to a few people, and the need to stock up on food. I hope it was the latter, because Fucked Up deserved a new wave of fans after that performance.
A glimpse of the color of tUnE-yArDs
We had previously seen tUnE-yArDs when they opened up for The National only a few months ago, and in between it seems the set morphed from less a capella and looped percussion to more synths and live percussion. That’s not to say that the music was any more conventional–there is still a dominant left-of-center sensibility. For those who are unfamiiliar, the music of tUnE-yArDs is filled with complicated rhythms and tribal influences with world music type lyrics. In other words, at many points through the set I thought I was living through a real-life Portlandia sketch. Despite this vague feeling of uneasiness, I still really enjoyed the tUnE-yArDs set, as did the hundreds of other people that packed the listening area.
I ate a lamb gyros.
We ate dinner during HAIM. Mine was delicious.
I save my worst photography for last.
Spoon closed out the festival with a fantastic headlining performance, with a setlist that went deep into their catalog. You may have noticed that we here at this site love the band quite a bit, and let’s just say that we loved every minute of their show. Britt Daniel, former Portland resident (who gave a shoutout to SE during “Black Like Me”), remarked that it had been a long time since their last show in the city, back when they performed at the Crystal Ballroom in 2009; as an attendee of that concert, I could only shout out “too long!”
Just to show that the festivities extended into the night.
In their live show, Spoon manages to perfectly balance between precision and spontaneity, as the band can maintain both a perfect verisimilitude of their albums and allow for individual players to freak out and revel in the moment. The band mixed in a healthy amount of their stellar new album They Want My Soul, and even some of the more experimental tracks like “Outlier” and “Inside Out” sounded perfectly at home within the set. The crowd roared when they heard old favorites like “Small Stakes” and “I Turn My Camera On”, but saved their most appreciative response for the hits from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga like “Don’t You Evah” and “The Underdog”. Personally, I was glad to finally hear some of Transference live, including an extremely passionate performance of “Got Nuffin'”, and to witness at least one Girls Can Tell song, the sublime “Anything You Want”. The only odd part was that besides Britt there seemed to be several band members that wanted to get out of the show in a hurry–the band ended up doing two encores, which seemed to be partly the result of some poor time budgeting. It may have been the result of getting used to one-hour slots on various festivals and not properly adjusting to a headlining 90-minute slot, but from a distance I could see the look on some of the faces of the band members that they were hoping to cut things shot. Despite this, Spoon more than justified taking the top spot on the bill; I’m just hoping for a proper show at some point from these guys in the near future.
August 18, 2014 NewsAphex Twin, Broken Bells, Cloud Nothings, Death from Above 1979, Interpol, Pearl Jam, Peter Matthew Bauer, Rick Moody, Rick Parashar, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Temple of the Dogsymeo Leave a comment
Kicking off the week with a ton of new music and exciting news, as summer slowly morphs into fall…
It began with cryptic message from a giant blimp, but it’s official: Aphex Twin is releasing a new album. Richard James most recently released music as AFX, (with the vinyl-only release of Analord, though a compilation of selected tracks was later sold as an Aphex Twin/AFX release on CD called Chosen Lords), but even then it’s been a long time since we heard new music from him as those records were last released in 2006. Syro will be the first Aphex Twin album since 2001’s Drukqs; no word on whether we’ll have any more creepy music videos, but the artwork announcing for the release seems to suggest as much.
Fans of the site should be well-aware of how excited we are for Death From Above 1979’s upcoming reunion, and a warm-up show brought us some additional material to help whet our appetite. A fan has uploaded another track scheduled to appear from the new album The Physical World, courtesy of a free CD handed out to fans at the show. “Government Trash” lives up to its name, as the song shows the harder-edged roots of the band, and is a perfect example of trashy punk.
Interpol today gave us another taste of El Pintor with the release of “Ancient Ways”. It’s an uptempo track that shows that the band is really intent on piling up instruments on top of each other, similar to the style of Interpol, but with some of the edge of their earliest work.
KEXP has been uploading videos from a number of different groups that have stopped by their studios, and they’re definitely worth the time to watch all the way through. So far I’ve watched Peter Matthew Bauer perform an excellent set with a full cast of backing musicians (which is sure to irk Rick Moody, since it contradicts his point) and Cloud Nothings rip through their latest, and I’m looking forward to checking out the Broken Bells and Wye Oak sets soon enough.
It’s always fun to hear bands talk shit about one another, and Kim Thayil provides quite a bit of it with these recent rips on Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins.
And finally, some sad news as Rick Parashar, a producer and engineer known for his work with the early years in the grunge scene in Seattle died a few days ago. He helped out with Ten and the Temple of the Dog album among others, a contribution that which we all appreciate very much. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6007 |
__label__wiki | 0.648211 | 0.648211 | Return to signetjewelers.com
Signet CSR
2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Creating Value Through Responsibility
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National Partnerships
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: United States
“All of us at ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are immensely grateful for our long-standing partnership with Signet Jewelers, who has raised over $66 million since our partnership began. The support from Signet Jewelers’ Team Members and customers is helping St. Jude lead the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer. We are thankful for Signet’s 19-year legacy of support and for the continued commitment to the mission of St. Jude.” Richard C. Shadyac Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer, ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
For nearly 20 years, Signet has been honored to support the lifesaving work of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (St. Jude). St. Jude’s work has a global impact in the fight against childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Through its tireless work, St. Jude has helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate in the US from 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80 percent today. Approximately 7,800 patients actively receive treatment from St. Jude each year.
As a result of our Team Members’ and Customers’ enthusiastic support, our collaboration with St. Jude, “Partnership in Caring,” has contributed over $66 million in 19 years. These resources promote the lifesaving work done at the hospital, including its groundbreaking research and ensuring no child is turned away due to a parents’ inability to pay.
This work never stops and neither do our efforts. From sales of collectible plush animals, St. Jude Charmed Memories and Mother’s Day Cards to Team Member payroll deductions, as well as corporate, and point-of-sale Customer donations, we continue to let hope shine for children and families in need. In March 2018, Signet Team Members who won the 2017 St. Jude Incentive Trip presented St. Jude with a $6 million donation, as we continue to move toward our commitment to raise over $90 million for the kids of St. Jude.
Signet's collaboration with St. Jude called, “Partnership in Caring,” has contributed over $66 million in 19 years.
St, Jude patient Amir, age two, sickle cell disease, with mother Deyona
CLIC Sargent: United Kingdom
We are proud to help CLIC Sargent in the fight for young lives against cancer. In 2016-2017, CLIC Sargent supported 7,200 young cancer patients and their families to limit the damage cancer causes in other areas of life besides health. Signet’s H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, and Leslie Davis stores sell plush bears to raise money for young lives against cancer. Since 2014, through our H.Samuel and Ernest Jones Customers purchase of nearly 65,000 bears and our Team Members fundraising activities, we have raised over ￡567,000.
“CLIC Sargent and Signet have been in partnership since 2014 for nearly 4 years and over that time we’ve raised over £500,000 together. One of our favorite activities is our fantastic teddy bears, which raise £50,000 every year and provides the opportunity to raise awareness of CLIC Sargent’s work. What is also brilliant is the campaign has two inspirational young children who were supported by CLIC Sargent to front the campaign, and our supporters tell us how much they love the adorable bear designs.” Rachel Kirby-Rider Director of Income and Engagement at CLIC Sargent
H.Samuel store managers, Myra McAdam (H.Samuel, Irvine) and Iain MacClure (H.Samuel, Ayr) climbed 3,200 ft to the summit of Ben Lomand, Scotland, accompanied by Iain’s dog, Hamish to raise funds for CLIC Sargent.
District Manager Phil Payne joined forces with Steve Smith (Store Manager) and Leigh Jackman (Assistant Store Manager) at H.Samuel, Staines to take on a 224 mile in-store static bike ride challenge for CLIC Sargent.
Through our partnership, Signet has raised more than £42,000
Barretstown: Ireland
Another way in which we help children and their families facing life-changing illnesses is through our partnership with Barretstown in Ireland. Barretstown provides free camps and programs specifically designed for children with a serious illness and their families along with 24-hour on-site medical and nursing care. This gives children a chance to enjoy experiences shared by their non-ill peers, while still ensuring they receive the treatment and support they need.
For the second year running, Signet held a 90 Days’ Challenge with Team Members across the business, working together to help raise thousands of pounds for our charities in the UK and Ireland. Team Members took on daredevil challenges, including skydives and abseils, as well as lung-busting activities, including marathon runs, long distance walks and cycles. Whether through pamper sessions, cake sales, leg waxes or hair shaves, our Team Members got into the charity spirit in every way imaginable for our two great causes.
Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations
In 2016, we launched our new partnership with 11 children’s hospitals across Canada where the greatest challenges in child health are tackled; these hospitals see the most critical cases. In 2017, our Canadian stores, Peoples and Mappins, offered Customers Travis, an adorable and cuddly plush. We sold more than 16,500 bears and raised over C$165,000, bringing our 2-year contributions to over C$165,000, for this amazing network of children’s hospitals.
This is just the beginning of a great partnership, and we are excited to see it grow throughout the years to come.
In 2017, Signet helped raise C$165,000
“It is an absolute honour to be a part of this fundraising campaign. It warms my heart to know that we can be a part of helping these brave little warriors. The children’s hospitals make miracles happen, and together we can help fuel these miracles and help make dreams come true. I can’t wait to bring more sparkle to more little eyes with Signet and SickKids. Yet another way we Celebrate Life.” Lori-Anne Leger Store Manager, Peoples 5302
View Our Partners and Friends
Environmental Stewardship Looking Forward
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__label__wiki | 0.554041 | 0.554041 | SLUTMOUTH
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An intersectional feminist magazine
White Professionalism and Code Switching: How White Supremacy is Sustained in the Workforce
By Sam Stroozas
Image Credit: Brad Amorosino
White Professionalism has become the norm in many business settings. It is thought of as the concrete outline that employees and employers must follow in order to have a cohesive workplace atmosphere. The mold is only functional for certain people, and that is those with the highest professionalism privilege; white people. White professionalism relies on eurocentric features and heightened racial awareness in the workplace setting by creating further division through what is defined as ‘appropriate’ and what is seen as the ‘other.’
These social constructs of white professionalism did not just occur, but have been elongated through years of white dominated infrastructure. Professionalism is about appearing the most white and the least poor you can present. It originates from white supremacy and articulates oppression through the workplace and beyond.
In an article on Everyday Feminism by Carmen Rios, they talk about how the office scene is only for certain identities, Rios says, “People like me – queer people, women, people of color, working-class people – aren’t supposed to be comfortable when we’re being professional. Not to go all ‘anti-capitalist regime,’ but professionalism is a tool of the elite to keep work forces ‘in their place’ – and often, that place is defined in opposition to communities of color, queer culture, and the actual working class. Professionalism reinforces a lot of ugly ‘isms’ and often intrudes in our lives silently and without any expectation of objection.”
Professionalism exists as a gateway that promotes further discrimination and permits division. It is reliant on elitism, and classism, and it masks implicit bias into work day attire, rules, and customs. No one really knows what a ‘work outfit’ consists of. It looks different for different people, different types of jobs, and different income levels. Many offices require semi-formal or formal dress codes but do not account for their newer employees who may have had lower paying jobs beforehand. The structure around what is ‘workplace appropriate’ and what is not does not consider wealth or accessibility because the rules are created by people who never have to worry about these issues.
Dress codes encourage code-switching for marginalized identities as they condemn originality and personality. Rios writes, “Often, these dress codes make ‘professional’ realms exclusive to people who can’t afford to look a certain way when they leave the house, and often those dress codes are meant to create a visual hierarchy between ‘professional’ people and the rest of the world. I live in Washington, DC, and this city is a huge suit store. It’s assumed that you have a blazer hanging in your office at all times if you’re like me and you don’t wear one to work, and the rest of the masses trudge back and forth in rain, sleet, and snow in impractical dress clothes and shoes. It’s not that all of the lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, and nonprofit sector employees here need to wear this stuff to work – it’s that the power structures in place here demand us to wear this stuff to earn respect. I’m not into that. One of the reasons I’ll put on that blazer in my office is to head to Capitol Hill. If I’m going to a meeting or an event in or around the halls of Congress or the White House, it’s expected that I show up dressed to the nines. This stirs up a lot of questions. Why can’t elected officials take me seriously in my actual clothes, being my actual self? Why do I have to dress a certain way just to interact with them?”
Code-switching is the central epidemic of white professionalism, Theresa Avila writes in Girlboss, “For women, people of color and those simply with a background not typically represented at their workplace, code-switching becomes a means towards an end. That is, alternating the language used at work is sometimes seen as a necessary practice for fitting in and possibly advancing professionally.”
This alternating language leads to many identity conflicts and reinforces the unison of a white hierarchy. Jonathan Rosa, a linguistic anthropologist and an assistant professor at Stanford University says code switching is “Wrapped up in our concerns about our own—and others’— language use is an inherent set of power relations and dynamics. It’s what leads to only certain populations being ‘marked,’ for their language usage, while others can fly by unnoticed. We create a model of personhood that becomes the default. And that can be problematic, since the imagined model of professionalism ends up drawing on a range of stereotypes associated with race, class, and gender.”
Professionalism further circulates as a model to govern a body of people and focus on exclusion. Code-switching looks different for everybody and it occurs it differing situations. Katiuscia Gray commented in an Essence article on why code-switching remains a contender, “They don’t want to show their ‘Black side.’ I don’t even know what a Black side is, but that’s what I’ve heard. They code-switch to make white people feel more comfortable and I feel no matter how comfortable you make them feel, at the end of the day, we’re still Black.” Gray says “Many people of color talk in a different tone of voice to not only conceal their blackness, but also don’t want to be deemed as the ‘angry Black woman’ or the fear of ‘getting in trouble’ when it’s time to voice their opinion. There is a sweet spot where one can be their authentic self at work in regards to style and tone of voice, while still maintaining a sense of respectability, professionalism, and assertiveness.”
Some companies such as Google and Twitter have created diverse employee resources such as “Black Googler Network” and “Blackbirds” to help discuss inclusion issues in the workplace. Essense says that these companies are, “employee resource groups made up of individuals who join together based on common interests, backgrounds or demographic factors such as gender, race or ethnicity, according to Society to Human Resource Management (SHRM).”
Acting white is often seen as a strategy to be seen in the workplace or society, and a huge part of this strategy that is often reinforced is the presentation of hair. Primarily Black women face discrimination in the workplace because of their natural hair. In an article by Ludmila Leiva in Refinery29, they talk about the comments and connotation that surrounds being Black women and wearing your natural hair, Leiva writes, “Today, Black women continue to face discrimination in the workplace. Whether it's racial bias and stereotyping, microaggressions from coworkers and superiors, or disproportionate instances of sexual harassment, Black women often experience a very different version of the workplace compared to their white — or even non-Black people of color — counterparts.These dynamics are particularly pronounced when it comes to hair. Today, the natural hair movement means that more Black women than ever are embracing their natural hair textures, which often means routinely switching up their aesthetics and using protective styles, like wigs, twists, and braids. Unfortunately, this also means dealing with an influx of unwanted commentary from other people in the office.”
This is an issue that presents itself in many forms of media but came into mainstream when Brittany Noble, a news anchor at WJTV, a station in Mississippi was fired after filing reports about discrimination in the workplace.
Noble quoted, “After having my son, I asked my news director if I could stop straightening my hair. A month after giving me the green light I was pulled back into his office. I was told ‘My natural hair is unprofessional and the equivalent to him throwing on a baseball cap to go to the grocery store.’ He said, ‘Mississippi viewers needed to see a beauty queen.’”
Noble went on to say, “I hope that corporations will take a look at their policies and handbooks. I want to help news organizations diversify their product because America is counting on us. Our newsrooms should reflect the community we serve. We’ve got to find ways to work together. My story is so much bigger than hair."
White professionalism not only infiltrates the lives of marginalized identities but it actively works to instill a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and ableist community in our workforce and society. There must be a fluid understanding of the intersection of identities and how we can create a world that works for all of those living within it, not just the peak of the white cooperate population.
Activism, feminist af, Mental Health, opinion, RepresentationSam Stroozas March 10, 2019 racism, discrimination, code switching, white supremacy
The Coming-of-Age That is Male on Female Violence
opinion, feminist afMadison McKeever March 12, 2019 male on female violence, sexism, gender, feminist af
You Can Keep Your Rum and Coke
Activism, feminist af, opinion, Mental HealthMadison McKeever March 10, 2019 mental health, college campus, patriarchy, rape culture, toxic masculinity, #metoo
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__label__wiki | 0.806288 | 0.806288 | Ken Griffey's Nike Cleats Are Part of His Hall of Fame Display
Swingman Nikes are part of the new Hall of Famer's story.
By Brandon Richard
As Ken Griffey Jr. prepares to join the ranks of baseball's immortals, his story can't be told without mentioning him as one of the game's all-time great pitchmen.
Griffey's most famous endorsement has been his partnership with Nike, which includes a line of "Swingman" sneakers and cleats that are still popular today. Throughout the 90s and 00s, Griffey broke record after record in style, showing off that beautiful swing in his signature footwear. So, it's only fitting that a pair of the Kid's Nikes are part of his Hall of Fame display.
Before tomorrow's official enshrinement, fans can stop by the Cooperstown facility, where a collection of Griffey memorabilia is on display. At the front, Griffey's black and silver Nike Air Griffey Max GD II cleats from the 2001 season. The story plate in front the cleats details Griffey's speed, defensive prowess and knack for stealing bases.
Griffey will be inducted tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. EST.
● Ken Griffey Jr.
● Baseball Cleats
● Nike Baseball
● MLB | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6018 |
__label__wiki | 0.532279 | 0.532279 | Superiorpapers.com > Asian nations
Asian nations
China has not only been one of the most influential countries in East Asia, but it has become one of the strongest nations in the world, having once taken up most of the territory in Asia. With such a history of territorial expansion and invasion, the extent of its cultural influence on other Asian nations is both unsurprising and inevitable: the influence it has conferred on other nations is very prominent.
One of the reasons behind this successful transference of culture is the ease with which other countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have accepted Confucianism, a philosophical and ethical system derived from the teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The ideology of Confucianism places an emphasis on human morality and good deeds, and is less a religion and more an elaborate set of teachings regarding socio-political and philosophical thought that encompasses ethics, familial obligations, honor, social responsibility and respect of history, ritual and ancestry.
The embrace of Confucianism has varied according to country, though its core concepts remain fundamentally unchanged. In any case, whatever the reasons behind the spread of Chinese culture, one element that has a significant impact Korea and Japan is music. Ch’in, is one of the oldest musical instruments of China, and is one example that best illustrates this influence in both countries. This paper discusses the evolution of ch’in throughout the region, and draws parallels between it and the Komon’go, an ancient string instrument from Korea.
Because both share similarities in terms of appearance, playing method and philosophy of play it is argued that the latter instrument is originated by the former. Ch’in and Its Structure The ch’in is a seven-stringed Chinese instrument similar to a zither or lute, alleged to have a history dating as far back as 3,000 B. C. This gives the ch’in the recognition of being an instrument of great antiquity, and as such is also called gu-ch’in, which literally means “ancient stringed instrument” in Chinese, which has been played for “more than two thousand years as it is still today.
” (Gulik, preface) The construction of ch’in is very unique and has been handed down from generation to generation. Standing at about four feet in length and bearing a width of about 0. 75 feet, the ch’in is possessed of a quiet elegance that is further reflected by a tradition of constructing it entirely in dark colors such as black, deep brown or rust brown. The musical range of the ch’in is about four octaves. (Lam 353) The ch’in’s surface is rounded, not unlike a roofing tile, and its bottom is flat and straight. It has a broad and sloping head with a narrow tail, with a vase-like form.
According to Britannica Online Encyclopedia, the body of the ch’in is, by tradition, representative of the 365 days of the year; meaning 3 chi (foot), 6 cun (inch) and 5 fen (one-tenth of inch). The thickness of each of the seven strings’ differs gradually, with the thickest string being farthest from the player’s body. These seven strings, made of silk, are commonly tuned to pentatonic scales and have thirteen inlays call hui along the side pinpointing the positions for left-hand finger movements along the strings. (Lam 354)
These huis are evenly placed across intervals that are marked usually by seashells, porcelain and in some cases, even gold. The center-most hui is the largest, and the rest of the hui spread outward are progressively smaller. The hui are numbered sequentially beginning with the one one closest to the bridge down to the one closest to the nut. “[Strings] are stretched over a narrow and slightly convex sound board, usually made of paulownia wood (sterculia plantanifolia); the underside of the sound board is closed by a flat base, usually made of zi (Chinese catalpa). ” (Encyclopedia)
The Versailles Treaty And The League Of Nations
Early Korea’s Distinctive Culture
The Industrialization of East Asian Countries
All Nations Must Bow Down In Worship
Sample Essay of Superiorpapers.com | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6025 |
__label__cc | 0.741027 | 0.258973 | 5 Internal Narratives That Keep You From a Fulfilling Career
By Joe Matar • August 8, 2013
Don’t let that annoying negative voice in your head keep you from a fulfilling career. You are so much better than that!
Do you have a brilliant business idea and want to strike out on your own, but feel you simply can’t—there’s too much holding you back?
Every day, we hear stories about people who are trapped and miserable in cubicles and corporate life. More often than not, we aren’t held back by circumstance or by indecision or even by our financial situation. We’re held back by that annoying voice in our head that’s absolutely sure we can’t do it.
Here’s what that voice tries to tell us—and how to tell it to quiet down:
“You don’t want to end up living in a van by the river.”
One of Chris Farley’s unforgettable Saturday Night Live characters was Matt Foley, the divorced 35-year-old motivational speaker who lived in a van down by the river.
What made this character so funny was how accurately he captured our preoccupation with social status, family and money, and how terrified we are when we perceive threats to these things. These are lizard fears, visceral fears about self-preservation that we inherited from our reptile ancestors.
Lizard fears aren’t all bad—some help alert us to danger and protect us from unnecessary risks—but if you let them dictate all of your choices, they’ll paralyze you. When you feel that swell of panic telling you that leaving your cubicle behind will end in financial ruin or starvation, take time to consider that fear critically. Chances are you’ll be able to drown out the lizard with logic and reason.
“Everyone will think I’m crazy.”
Even if you’re excited about your business idea, it’s easy to get bogged down in fears about what “everyone” will think about your decision to strike out on your own . We don’t want to be seen as ungrateful or foolish for leaving “stable” corporate work in an uncertain economy.
It’s good to respect the opinions of your family, friends and mentors, but you may encounter advice that’s overly discouraging. When this happens to me, I return to this mantra: I am the only one who lives in my skin. I trust my instincts.
“I can’t start over.”
If you’ve been in the corporate world for a while, you’ve probably developed valuable skills and some respect from peers. Leaving this behind for a new venture puts you back at the beginner’s stage—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Instead of seeing this career change as a step backward, try thinking of it as step forward into the mindset that comes with . It sounds easier said than done, but cultivating a beginner’s mind will increase the depth and pace of your learning and make the process more fun and exciting. Starting over gives you the opportunity to move forward without preconceived expectations or residual cynicism. It’s refreshing.
“It’s no better out there.”
It’s hard not to feel like corporate life might be as good as it gets. The idea of financial security and job stability is undeniably appealing (even if those are more of an idea than a reality in our current economy).
Working as an independent entrepreneur likely will be better. You’ll find freedom and relief in doing work you care deeply about on your own terms. But the best way to find out if you’re really cut out for self-employment is to spend some time doing it. If you’re unhappy, you don’t have to continue pursuing it. It’s not an all or nothing decision, and you can always go back if you want to.
“Don’t bother trying; you will fail.”
Fear of is nature’s way of telling us that there’s some risk involved in a situation. It’s an inevitable part of moving into a career as an entrepreneur, but trying to work against fear of failure can be exhausting.
It’s a better use of your time to find ways to work with the fear instead. When you feel panicked about the prospect of failure, ask yourself if there’s truth in the fear. A fear of failure might be legitimate if you’ve failed to plan for your transition into entrepreneurship, but you can address that fear with preparation. Research, connect with mentors and develop concrete strategies (and concrete backup strategies!).
If you’ve done everything you reasonably can to address a fear, move forward. Mitigate your risk by taking it slow and watching your results carefully. You’ll make mistakes, and that’s okay; think of them as opportunities to grow.
Pam Slim is an award-winning author, speaker and leader in the new world of work. To learn more about how to live a fulfilled life of self-employment, check out Pam’s creativeLIVE workshop, .
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__label__cc | 0.676801 | 0.323199 | Tag Archives: Danny Elfman
Dumbo (2019) Review
Based on Disney’s Dumbo by Otto Englander, Joe Grant & Dick Huemer and on Dumbo by Helen Aberson & Harold Pearl
Starring: Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Alan Arkin, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins
Music by Danny Elfman
A young elephant, whose oversized ears enable him to fly, helps save a struggling circus, but when the circus plans a new venture, Dumbo and his friends discover dark secrets beneath its shiny veneer.
First of all, I’m really sick of these Disney live-action remakes of animated classics. I don’t see the point. From recent trailers, The Lion King looks like a soulless copy and Aladdin looks absolutely dreadful. Beauty And The Beast pretty much sucked (but I can’t stand Emma Watson so that didn’t help). I didn’t mind Cinderella but I wonder if it would just annoy me if I watched it again now that I’m sick of all these live-action remakes. I’ve kind of vowed to no longer waste my money going to see this shit.
But I knew I’d go to Dumbo because it’s Tim Burton. I’m a hypocrite. I know his best films are far in the past but I still haven’t given up on him and I wanted to see what he’d do with this film. Plus Dumbo himself was so adorable in the trailers. I’ve always loved that baby elephant! Well, I enjoyed this film. It’s a good one to end on. I’ll happily watch no more live-action remakes after this one.
I feel like I have to justify liking a live-action remake. What can I say? I still love that baby elephant. Of course this comes nowhere near the original film and it breaks my heart that some kids may be watching these remakes before the animated films. Or not watching the animated films at all. For some reason, I prefer when these remakes aren’t an exact copy (which The Lion King looks like). I don’t mind having extra bits of story added on, making it feel like an entirely separate film and therefore not messing with the original film’s legacy in my mind. This movie isn’t Dumbo to me. It never will be. But I think they did well with the character of Dumbo himself and he was by far the best thing about this film (as he should be). Dumbo is the true star of this movie.
The reviews I’ve read have all said that it’s the human characters that let this film down. This is true, although they aren’t terrible. They’re bland but not hateful. The only truly weak one is Michael Keaton’s completely generic baddie but the rest are good enough to support the overall story about a flying elephant. Colin Farrell and his two children (Nico Parker & Finley Hobbins), who are the main human characters, are fine but these roles could’ve been played by anyone. However, Danny DeVito & Eva Green are fun to watch and perfect for Tim Burton’s films – you can understand why he sticks with his favorite actors in so many of his films. The human stories were good enough to keep the film interesting while not overlooking the fact that the one story that really matters is Dumbo’s. And I liked the ending. I’m fine with all the changes in the second half as it’s so different from the original that it hasn’t destroyed my love for the animated film. I also liked how they incorporated the Pink Elephants On Parade bit into this film.
Is it weird that I feel bad for liking the new Dumbo?? I do seriously wish they’d stop with these live-action remakes but, in this case, I was happy seeing this character in a new way. He’s always been a favorite Disney character of mine and I think they did a good job with the look him. They got a good balance between making him look like a real elephant but also sort of “cartoony”, and his adorable blue eyes are very expressive. They did a better job with him than with the other CGI animals in these Disney remakes. I also enjoyed the overall production design of this film, but that’s usually the case with Burton’s movies. None of these Disney remakes will ever top the animated classics but at least the 2019 Dumbo hasn’t destroyed the original film’s legacy for me.
I’ve added Dumbo to my full ranked list of all the Tim Burton movies I’ve seen HERE. I guess I better finally watch Dark Shadows as it’s the only full-length film he’s directed that I’ve not seen.
Tagged 7/10, Alan Arkin, Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Danny Elfman, Dick Huemer, Disney, Dumbo, Eva Green, Film, Harold Pearl, Helen Aberson, Joe Grant, Live Action, Michael Keaton, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Movies, Otto Englander, Remake, Review, Reviews, Tim Burton, Walt Disney
Ralph Breaks The Internet, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms & The Grinch Movie Reviews
Three more quickies today as I try to catch up on reviewing the 2018 films I’ve seen. Two of these were okay (just okay) and one was pretty dreadful…
Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018)
Directed by Rich Moore & Phil Johnston
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Ed O’Neill
Six years after the events of “Wreck-It Ralph,” Ralph and Vanellope, now friends, discover a wi-fi router in their arcade, leading them into a new adventure.
I love the first Wreck-It Ralph. I think it’s easily one of the better Disney films of recent years and I appreciated that it felt like such an original idea. Hell, it’s almost as good as Pixar’s films! (Almost). And being a lover of the Eighties, I of course loved the classic video game element. Therefore, it was likely that I wouldn’t enjoy this sequel as much. It doesn’t have the magic of the first film (as is often the case with sequels). And it also loses the simple video game innocence of the first film by making the Internet the focus of this one (and having all the brand names in your face constantly). I hate the Internet. Okay… I’m on it all the damn time… (like now). But I’d still rather be living in the pre-Internet Eighties again.
I’ll start with the best thing about this sequel: Ralph & Vanellope. I love these characters and they’re just as loveable in the sequel as in the first film. Actually, Vanellope is even better in this one – she’s much sweeter since becoming friends with Ralph. They make this movie worth watching and I did really enjoy seeing them again even though I didn’t like the story itself all that much. I also enjoyed the “Oh My Disney” bit. It kind of goes against saying I wasn’t crazy about all the commercialism but I admit that I love Disney. I’m a Disney whore! I love going into the damn Disney Store. I’m such a child. So, I did really like seeing Vanellope with all the Disney princesses. Those bits were a lot of fun and I liked spotting so many other Disney characters & references. Oh and I loved that one cameo (don’t want to spoil it)! Screw it – This is a Disney film. They’re allowed to Disney-fy the crap out of it! I liked those bits just fine.
Where it fails is when it talks about eBay & memes & viral videos & etc etc etc. And the end gets a bit bizarre and didn’t really work for me at all. I really missed the innocence of the first film. This was okay but where can they go from here? It was just a little disappointing but my expectations weren’t too high anyway since Disney sequels are rarely all that great. Oh, but the end credits scenes were brilliant! There are two: one partway through the credits and one at the very end. I highly recommend staying for them as they’re pretty much better than the entire movie itself.
The Nutcracker And The Four Realms (2018)
Directed by Lasse Hallström & Joe Johnston
Based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann & The Nutcracker by Marius Petipa
Starring: Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E. Grant, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman
This is a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s short story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and Marius Petipa’s The Nutcracker, about a young girl who is gifted a locked egg from her deceased mother and sets out in a magical land to retrieve the key.
Wow – this has very negative reviews & ratings on IMDb. I don’t fully understand why. I think people were definitely too harsh on this one. No, it’s certainly not great and is quite weak for a Disney film but it was lovely to look at and had a fun story. Hell, I enjoyed it more than that live-action and completely pointless Beauty And The Beast. At least this is a story I didn’t already know and isn’t a re-hash of a far superior film.
Maybe the story was a little too weird for audiences these days? People don’t really go for anything slightly bizarre anymore. As I said, it’s quite a lovely looking film and I liked that it felt a bit like Narnia at first. It makes for a good winter movie in the lead up to Christmas. I also thought the main girl was very good, just as she was in Interstellar (she was the only good thing about that overblown Nolan film).
And Morgan Freeman is in this. Yay! (Am I allowed to admit to loving him again yet? Are people over the “oh my god, he said flirty things to women!” bullshit?). And Helen Mirren – I like that saucy minx too. Unfortunately, Keira Knightley is in this as well. Have I mentioned that she annoys me? (Yes, I have. Many times). Speaking of her and how I said in my previous review that I’m a Disney whore: Knightley recently got on her high horse again and said she doesn’t let her kid(s?) watch Disney movies because they’re a bad influence and blah blah blah. Screw that. How about you talk to them & teach them the difference between reality & fantasy and then let them watch what every other kid watches and enjoys? Are they not allowed to watch this movie, then???
Anyway. This movie was okay but it was also missing something. I can’t quite figure out what it was missing, though. It has the right elements to make it a family classic but it’s already fading from my mind only a few weeks after seeing it. Maybe it’s Knightley’s fault! Her role is too big. She got on my nerves, especially with that stupid voice she put on. Yeah, let’s blame her. Otherwise, this is a decent enough family Disney movie that doesn’t quite deserve the horrible reviews it has had.
Directed by Scott Mosier & Yarrow Cheney
Based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Cameron Seely, Angela Lansbury
Narrated by Pharrell Williams
Plot Synopsis (via Wikipedia)
The plot follows the Grinch as he plans to ruin Whoville’s Christmas celebration by stealing all the town’s decorations and gifts.
Ugh. No. Okay – I’m a big fan of the 1966 American TV classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Who isn’t?! That show has been a yearly American tradition for ages now. It’s one of the most beloved holiday TV specials. That’s why they shouldn’t have done this film. They were never going to live up to something that is, quite frankly, almost complete perfection.
Speaking of movies fading from my mind only a few weeks after seeing them, I can barely remember a thing about The Grinch now. I remember liking his adorable and long-suffering dog Max, but the same goes for the 1966 version anyway. I think the biggest problem with this version is this: The Grinch isn’t enough of an asshole. TV Grinch was gloriously mean. Then, to make it even worse, this movie added a bullshit backstory to help explain why The Grinch is a bit of an asshole. We don’t need a stupid backstory! Can’t someone just be an asshole for the hell of it? I mean, I’m a bit of an asshole for no good reason. This is probably why I’ve always slightly preferred The Grinch before his heart grows. He’s damn funny at the beginning of the 1966 version. He’s boring as shit in this lifeless adaptation.
Oh well – I guess it’s still not as bad as that Jim Carrey monstrosity, which is one of my most-hated movies of all time. Just leave The Grinch the fuck alone, Hollywood. That’s what he wants anyway! Oh, and why the hell did they have Pharrell Williams only narrate this movie and not do the music as well? His music is one of the things that makes Despicable Me so great. Illumination is clearly never going to live up to that film ever again.
Tagged 4.5/10, 6.5/10, 7/10, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Angela Lansbury, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cameron Seely, Danny Elfman, Directed by Scott Mosier, Dr Seuss, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Ed O'Neill, Eugenio Derbez, Film, Gal Gadot, Helen Mirren, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Illumination, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Joe Johnston, John C Reilly, Keira Knightley, Kenan Thompson, Lasse Hallström, Mackenzie Foy, Marius Petipa, Matthew Macfadyen, Misty Copeland, Morgan Freeman, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Movies, Pharrell Williams, Phil Johnston, Ralph Breaks The Internet, Rashida Jones, Review, Reviews, Rich Moore, Richard E. Grant, Sarah Silverman, Taraji P. Henson, The Grinch, The Nutcracker, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Wreck-It Ralph, Yarrow Cheney
Before I Wake (2016) Review
Last year for my month of horror in October, I reviewed three Mike Flanagan movies: Oculus, Absentia & Hush. This year I’m reviewing three more: Gerald’s Game (reviewed Tuesday), Before I Wake and Ouija: Origin Of Evil (reviewed yesterday). Let’s see how Before I Wake compares to the rest of his films…
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Written by Mike Flanagan & Jeff Howard
Starring: Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Jacob Tremblay, Annabeth Gish, Dash Mihok
Music by Danny Elfman & The Newton Brothers
A young couple adopt an orphaned child whose dreams – and nightmares – manifest physically as he sleeps.
I actually quite liked this movie, although I can’t exactly say it’s “good”. In my review of Ouija: Origin Of Evil yesterday, I complained about how that was just another predictable supernatural film. Before I Wake is again more of the same but the overall story and some of the imagery made it feel a little more unique than Ouija. I enjoyed the story & the characters enough to overlook its flaws.
I watched this for two reasons: Mike Flanagan as well as Jacob Tremblay, who I thought was fantastic in Room. Tremblay gave one of the best child performances ever in that movie so I was curious what he’d be like in something else, especially a horror that’s not exactly “Oscar-worthy” like Room. Yeah…. He’s fine in this movie but it’s a role any child actor could’ve done. It’s a shame it was a bit of a waste to use him in this but I suppose his name is big enough now to help sell an unknown film such as this one. I’m curious to see how his film Wonder will turn out. Hopefully it will be a better role for him but I suppose no role will ever live up to the Room role.
Oh, look! Thomas Jane is in this! I’ve come full circle in my Stephen King/Mike Flanagan Week since Jane was in King’s 1922. I like Jane & he was fine as the adoptive father. However – it was the mother, Kate Bosworth, who had the bigger role. She was good (as far as acting in basic supernatural horrors goes). I’ve always liked her fine so it’s good to see her in something as it feels like she’s sort of disappeared. Small spoiler but not really as it’s at the start of the film: Jane & Bosworth are adopting Tremblay after the tragic death of their own son. I often avoid movies involving the loss of the child as I find that subject matter too upsetting but I think Jane & especially Bosworth did very well in conveying their grief. It may be why I liked this movie quite a bit more than Ouija even though I’m giving it a similar rating: I just really felt for the parents in this and for Tremblay & the revelation regarding his nightmarish “gift” of having his dreams come to life.
As to be predicted, his dreams are at first nice ones that bring beautiful things, such as a room full of colorful butterflies, to life. I liked these scenes a lot – it was great imagery for a horror movie. I can’t find images of the butterflies online for some reason. Anyway, as also to be predicted, the dreams soon turn to nightmares and the manifestation of a scary spirit of some sort. Yeah, I know: We’ve seen this sort of thing in loads of movies.
The movie then goes the way of most supernatural horrors: the end is a little messy and you’ll either like it or you won’t. I personally liked the direction the story went & how they chose to end this one. I’ll say the “revelation” was one that I hadn’t immediately predicted so it gets bonus points from me for that. Yes, I enjoyed Before I Wake but, as most films in this genre, the story will be one that either does or doesn’t work for you. It worked for me.
My Mike Flanagan Movie Ranking (from least favorite to favorite):
6. Oculus
5. Ouija: Origin Of Evil
4. Before I Wake
3. Hush
2. Absentia
1. Gerald’s Game
Tagged 6.5/10, Annabeth Gish, Before I Wake, Danny Elfman, Dash Mihok, Film, Horror, Jacob Tremblay, Jeff Howard, Kate Bosworth, Mike Flanagan, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Movies, Review, Reviews, Supernatural, The Newton Brothers, Thomas Jane
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016) & The Girl On The Train (2016) Reviews
Two quick reviews of two film adaptations of two books I read. My reviews of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs can be found HERE & The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins HERE. Okay, one is a thriller but the other is close enough to being a “horror” so I’m doing these for October Horror Month. Let’s see what I thought of the movies…
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016)
Screenplay by Jane Goldman
Based on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Starring: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, Ella Purnell, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson
When Jacob discovers clues to a mystery that stretches across time, he finds Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. But the danger deepens after he gets to know the residents and learns about their special powers.
When I was in the middle of reading this book years ago, I said to the hubby “Tim Burton needs to make this into a movie”. Imagine my surprise when Hollywood did something right for a change! He was the absolute perfect choice to adapt this book & he did a very good job with it. The problem is that 1) I didn’t exactly love the book, although I loved the “gimmick” of the old photographs that were used throughout it and 2) Tim Burton hasn’t made anything truly fantastic in years, which still breaks my heart as I absolutely adored his oldest films. I’d say this was somewhat a return to form for Burton but, as I said, I didn’t love the source material so was unlikely to love the movie.
From what I remember of the book, it seems a faithful adaptation until the end. But I didn’t care enough to continue reading the books so it’s possible the movie continues a bit into the next book for all I know? I wouldn’t say it renewed my interest enough to read the remaining books but I’d certainly watch a sequel if Burton makes one. The performances were pretty strong and, like Burton being the perfect choice for director, I think Eva Green was a perfect choice for playing Miss Peregrine. The child actors also all did a good job (I think Burton always does well in casting his films), with the lead young roles (played by Asa Butterfield & Ella Purnell) as the standouts. Terence Stamp & especially Judi Dench weren’t given much to do, which was a shame. And I enjoyed Samuel L. Jackson as always (who doesn’t love Sam Jackson?!) but he’s phoning it in a bit with this baddie role. Sorry, Mr. Jackson! I apologize a trillion times!
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is a good adaptation of a bizarre book thanks to its also bizarre director. And I liked the look & vibe of it, as I always do with Burton’s style. I wish I liked both the book and the film more than I do, though. I like “weird” so can’t really put my finger on why the story didn’t quite work for me. With the book, I think I just couldn’t connect with the characters. To be fair, I think Burton improved on this with the film and I’d say this is one of those cases where the movie might be slightly better than the book. It also helped that it got a proper ending, as opposed to the open-ended cliffhanger that just left me frustrated with the book.
The Girl On The Train (2016)
Directed by Tate Taylor
Based on The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Starring: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Haley Bennett, Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Édgar Ramírez, Lisa Kudrow
A divorcee becomes entangled in a missing persons investigation that promises to send shockwaves throughout her life.
I thought this book, although fun in a pulp-y sort of way, was pretty horrible. This was mainly because the characters were all truly hateful. The story itself was okay and I found it a very quick read as I wanted to get to the resolution of its mystery but, wow, I didn’t give the slightest crap what would happen to any of the characters. Not even ONE likable person? Really?? I’ll never understand stories that choose to make us despise everyone in them. And the thing with the baby upset me too much (and kind of pissed me off).
Well, the movie is a faithful adaptation, so… What can I say? I didn’t like the book so I wasn’t going to like a faithful adaptation anyway. The fact that is stars Emily Blunt, who is kind of a girl crush of mine, is what made me even bother to stick this on one evening & half pay attention to it. Meh. I don’t know. I just didn’t care. The actors did what they could with the material but the material was weak. Hold on a second – in this double review, Danny Elfman did the music for this movie but not the Tim Burton movie?! Now that’s bizarre.
Tagged 5/10, 6.5/10, Adaptation, Allison Janney, Asa Butterfield, Édgar Ramírez, Books, Chris O'Dowd, Danny Elfman, Ella Purnell, Emily Blunt, Eva Green, Film, Haley Bennett, Horror, Jane Goldman, Judi Dench, Justin Theroux, Lisa Kudrow, Luke Evans, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Movies, Paula Hawkins, Ransom Riggs, Reading, Rebecca Ferguson, Review, Reviews, Rupert Everett, Samuel L Jackson, Tate Taylor, Terence Stamp, The Girl On The Train, Thriller, Tim Burton
The Circle by Dave Eggers (Book Review)
The film adaptation of The Circle by Dave Eggers is out today in the US (there’s no current UK release date that I can find. Hmm…). It was directed by James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now) and stars Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane, Patton Oswalt, Glenne Headly & Bill Paxton (R.I.P.). I’ll probably try to go to the film at some point, so will of course review that if I do. For now, here’s my review of the novel…
The Circle by Dave Eggers
What It’s About: (via Amazon)
Fast, thrilling and compulsively addictive, The Circle is Dave Eggers’ bestselling novel about our obsession with the internet and where it may lead. When Mae Holland lands her dream job at the world’s most powerful internet company, she has no idea what awaits behind the doors of The Circle…
This is one of those books where I loved the concept & agreed with its stance that, basically, the Internet & big corporations (such as the one that Fincher’s The Social Network is about) are evil. Okay, yes – I’m a blogger and I admit that I love to tweet but I’d happily hop into a time machine to go back to the Eighties and live without this sort of technology as I think we were better off without it. The world is a dreadful place & we’re living in an Orwellian dystopia. But we actually brought this all on ourselves, which I think even Orwell didn’t fully foresee. Hell, even Orwell couldn’t predict something as absurd as the rise of the Kardashi-thingies & wannabes! 😉 I blame them for society’s devolution (enabled by the Internet, of course). But back to this book…
I bring up Orwell as The Circle is indeed in a similar vein to 1984. But dystopian novels are more popular than ever and this is yet another of many that come nowhere near that masterpiece. I was pretty disappointed with The Circle overall. I absolutely love this genre and, as I said, I fully agree with this novel’s beliefs so I did expect to thoroughly enjoy it. In fact, I’ve read 14 books so far this year (that’s a lot for me!) and this is possibly my least favorite. Damn. I didn’t expect that.
I found The Circle a bit too long & meandering. It started out okay but, by halfway through, it was becoming a bit of a chore to read as its lead character (Mae Holland, played by Emma Watson in the film) was becoming more and more and MORE unlikable. I think her character is the main problem I had with the novel as I always struggle to enjoy a book when I hate its main character. This can only very occasionally be made up for if the story is exceptionally good but, unfortunately, this isn’t the case with The Circle. I know the book’s whole point is that The Circle (the evil corporation in the story) is almost cult-like and that its believers follow blindly while the reader can see what’s really going on but, ugh, you just want to slap the shit out of Mae and knock some damn sense into her! I suppose Emma Watson is a good choice for the role in the film, though, as she’s seriously starting to get on my tits lately. But I’m hoping that the film will write her character slightly differently and give her some sense.
Well, I plan to check out the movie anyway since I always like to see how novels get adapted. Maybe they can actually improve on the book (it does happen sometimes). I still really like the overall idea behind the novel & its very obvious message even though I don’t think the story and its unlikable lead character do well to convey that message & the seriousness with which we should be taking it. I think I was just hoping for something a little more insightful and less obvious. The Circle doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know and I’m not sure if it was trying to be satirical or not but, if it was, it gave the novel an odd tone that didn’t really work. I prefer my dystopian literature to either be proper satire or full-on bleak, depressing dreariness! The Circle can’t quite decide what it wants to be but I do appreciate its effort to bring further attention to a very important topic we should be taking far more seriously. I think, unfortunately, the satire maybe doesn’t work simply because this book isn’t as exaggerated as Eggers may have originally intended. This story doesn’t feel like a distant future – it feels like it has already happened.
My Rating: 2.5/5
Here’s a trailer for the movie (as is often the case lately, I think it gives too much away):
Posted in Books, Reviews
Tagged 2.5/5, Adaptation, Bill Paxton, Book Review, Books, Danny Elfman, Dave Eggers, Ellar Coltrane, Emma Watson, Film, Glenne Headly, James Ponsoldt, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Movies, Patton Oswalt, Reading, Review, Reviews, The Circle, Tom Hanks, Writing
Goosebumps (2015) Review
I’ll be finishing Creepy Dolls Week tomorrow with a reblog of a review I did of a British horror classic which happens to contain a creepy ventriloquist’s dummy. Today I’m reviewing a fun recent kids’ film which also happens to contain a creepy ventriloquist’s dummy. What is it with dummies?! They’re clearly evil. Let’s have a look at the Goosebumps movie… 🙂
Directed by Rob Letterman
Based on Goosebumps by R. L. Stine
Starring: Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, Jillian Bell, Halston Sage
A teenager teams up with the daughter of young adult horror author R. L. Stine after the writer’s imaginary demons are set free on the town of Madison, Delaware.
This was my seven-year-old’s first proper live action “scary movie”. I’m happy to report that she loved it. I was too old for R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series when he started it but know I would’ve absolutely loved those books if they’d been around when I was younger. I grew up watching (the original) The Twilight Zone & The Alfred Hitchcock Hour from a very early age (probably 7 or 8) and have loved strange, scary, and/or supernatural & sci-fi stories ever since. As a pre-teen I got into Christopher Pike books (nice & weird – I loved those) and remember reading some pre-Goosebumps R.L. Stine (Twisted, The Babysitter, Blind Date – I had fun looking these up just now & remembering the covers!).
Anyway, I’m not going to force it but I’m hoping that this movie gets my daughter into liking these kind of stories a bit more now. Then she can be as weird as her mother! 😉 I’d love to read the Goosebumps books with her at some point. For those who’ve read them, what sort of ages would you recommend them for? I always thought they were aimed slightly older than this movie, which felt quite “young”. The movie stayed the right side of the line for my daughter – she was a little scared by some bits but I didn’t feel anything was too scary or at all inappropriate. If your kid doesn’t scare easily, I think this is fine for ages 7 & up. Goosebumps is a really fun family movie and, believe me, when you have young kids you appreciate when you start getting to watch some movies with them that you yourself can get some enjoyment from as well!
I of course won’t have had as much fun with this movie as those who read the Goosebumps series, though. I imagine this film was a real treat for his fans. The story’s setup is fantastic, which sees various R.L. Stine monsters brought to life when they’re accidentally released from the manuscripts he keeps locked in order to keep his out-of-control creations imprisoned. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, which was fine by me as I’m a Jack Black fan & my daughter already liked him thanks to School Of Rock. The film’s concept was very bold & I think it works really well. Imagine this same story with Stephen King. That would be interesting! Can you imagine someone letting Pennywise loose?! (Although, that’s kind of happening in the US & UK at the moment with those asshole clowns running around). Look! Gnomes! I adore garden gnomes. I never thought of them as murderous before this movie…
The werewolf was also pretty cool…
But, of course, the main “monster” unleashed from R.L. Stine’s books is Slappy, this evil-looking ventriloquist’s dummy…
Yep. Dummies are evil! I’ve always known that. There are other creatures that are set loose but these were my favorites & Slappy is definitely the best (and most evil) of them all. He’s not overly terrifying, though – he’s “kid-friendly scary”. If that makes any sense. He won’t be in my nightmares but my daughter might now have a lifelong (healthy) distrust of creepy dummies. Oh, there’s also an abandoned amusement park in this movie (complete with working electricity somehow). I loved the amusement park scenes – what a perfect setting for a kids’ film.
There’s not much more I can really say about Goosebumps other than that it’s great when they actually make decent family films like this one. However, I know you’re unlikely to watch this unless you have children between 7 & 13ish or if you grew up reading the Goosebumps books. Dylan Minnette is fine as the lead teenage boy & I have to say I far prefer this film to the wildly overrated Don’t Breathe (so very NOT a family movie, FYI! Just comparing as he starred in both plus I just reviewed that one recently). I enjoyed Jack Black as always but I thought the biggest stars of this film were Slappy & Stine’s daughter (played by Odeya Rush). She’s a strong female character, which is always important to me as the parent of a girl. I loved a final twist to this movie, which I saw coming from the very start since I’ve lived & breathed these types of stories for 30+ years but know my daughter will have thought “Wow!” to the twist. That’s what I want to see! Her loving a strong story & great twist ending in the same way I did when watching all those Twilight Zone episodes as a kid. I can see Goosebumps being a favorite movie for a lot of kids & thinks it’s one that my daughter will forever be fond of.
CREEPY DOLLS WEEK ROUNDUP:
– The Boy (2016)
– Magic (1978)
– Dolls (1987)
– Annabelle (2014)
– Finders Keepers (2014)
– Goosebumps (2015)
– Dead Of Night (1945)
– My Top Ten Creepy Dolls In Movies & Television
Tagged 7/10, Amy Ryan, Creepy Doll, Danny Elfman, Dylan Minnette, Film, Goosebumps, Halston Sage, Horror, Jack Black, Jillian Bell, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Movies, Odeya Rush, R. L. Stine, Review, Reviews, Rob Letterman, Ryan Lee
My Top Ten Horror Movie Scores & Soundtracks
A movie’s score and/or soundtrack of songs is extremely important to me as I think the right music can make a good movie into a great one or even a bad movie into a cult classic. When you think of the biggest Oscar films, almost all of them had award winning scores from highly respected composers. When I think of my own personal all-time favorite movies, the majority have brilliant scores that helped to suck me into that magical movie world that only the very best composers can help create. Can you imagine The Good, The Bad And The Ugly without Ennio Morricone’s amazing score?? (No. You cannot.)
I’m very picky when it comes to the horror genre & have loved very few horror films since the 70s & 80s. I do find it interesting that most of my all-time favorite old horrors are on this list of scores, though. It goes to show that they used to put so much more effort into these films than they do now, even down to the scores (but I do have a couple fairly current films on the list too). I think the score is even more important in horrors as the mood & atmosphere are fundamental to this genre. I don’t understand why so many modern horrors put so little effort into using a score effectively to create the right mood. Oh well – this genre is showing more promise again so maybe we’ll see a return to great horror scores.
More than anything, I love a good musical score that has been composed for a film but do also appreciate when a soundtrack of great songs, whether existing or new, are put together for a movie’s soundtrack. So my top ten will consist of scores but there are a few horror soundtracks that I really love so I didn’t want to exclude them.
Here are a few Horror Movie Soundtracks That I Love:
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Composer: AC/DC
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Composer: Danny Elfman
The Lost Boys (1987)
Composer: Thomas Newman Score/Various Artists Soundtrack:
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Composer: Tyler Bates Score/Various Artists Soundtrack
And now onto My Top Ten Horror Movie Scores (and their composers):
– The Fog (1980)
Composer: John Carpenter
– Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Composer: Krzysztof Komeda
– The Shining (1980)
Composer: Wendy Carlos/Rachel Elkind
– The Omen (1976)
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
10. It Follows (2014)
Composer: Disasterpeace
9. Suspiria (1977)
Composer: Dario Argento/Goblin
8. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Composer: Charles Bernstein
7. Psycho (1960)
Composer: Bernard Herrmann
6. The Thing (1982)
Composer: Ennio Morricone/John Carpenter/Alan Howarth
5. Jaws (1975)
Composer: John Williams
4. 28 Days Later… (2002)
Composer: John Murphy
Composer: Mike Oldfield
2. Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
Composer: Goblin/Dario Argento/De Wolfe Music Library
1. Halloween (1978)
Posted in "My Top" Lists, Movies, Music
Tagged 28 Days Later, A Nightmare On Elm Street, AC/DC, Alan Howarth, Bernard Herrmann, Charles Bernstein, Composer, Danny Elfman, Dario Argento, Dawn Of The Dead, De Wolfe Music Library, Disasterpeace, Ennio Morricone, Film, Goblin, Halloween, Horror, Horror Scores, Icons, It Follows, Jaws, John Carpenter, John Murphy, John Williams, List, Maximum Overdrive, Mike Oldfield, Movies, Music, Psycho, Ranked, Scores, Soundtracks, Suspiria, The Exorcist, The Lost Boys, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Thing, Top Ten
My Top Ten Tim Burton Movies
Happy Birthday to Tim Burton, who turns 58 today.
I figured it was time to do a full updated list of My Top Ten Tim Burton Movies. Okay – I WAS going to include only the movies he has directed but I just cannot exclude The Nightmare Before Christmas. That movie is SO Burton’s film – it doesn’t matter that he wasn’t the director. I also really liked his Vincent & Frankenweenie short films but will only list full-length movies.
Well, here’s My Tim Burton Top Ten! But I’ll rank all that I’ve seen…
The Rest:
18. Alice In Wonderland
17. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
16. Sleepy Hollow
14. Big Eyes
13. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children
12. Frankenweenie
11. Dumbo
10. TIE: Mars Attacks! & Batman Returns
9. Beetlejuice
8. Big Fish
7. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
6. Corpse Bride
5. Batman
4. Ed Wood
3. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas
1. Edward Scissorhands
Not Seen:
And here’s the Ice Dance scene from Edward Scissorhands. This is one of my all-time favorite movie scenes and Danny Elfman’s beautiful music in this clip still gives me chills every time I watch it. I watch this clip every once in a while for a pick-me-up (along with the final scenes from Cinema Paradiso & City Lights). Gorgeous. Perfection. This is the type of scene that made me fall in love with movies. 🙂
Posted in "My Top" Lists, Movies
Tagged Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Big Fish, Birthday, Corpse Bride, Danny Elfman, Director, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Film, Ice Dance, List, Mars Attacks!, Movies, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Ranked, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Tim Burton, Top Ten
Big Fish (2003) IMDB Top 250 Guest Review
Today’s IMDB Top 250 Guest Review comes from Zoe of The Sporadic Chronicles Of A Beginner Blogger. Zoe has already reviewed The Departed (HERE) and The Green Mile (HERE). Thanks for all the reviews, Zoe! 🙂 Now let’s hear her thoughts on Big Fish, IMDB rank 242 out of 250.
Here is another film I undertook to see for Table9Mutant and her IMDB Top 250 challenge. I have been having a blast with this as I have been given the opportunity to go back and revisit some great movies again, and there were quite a few that I had been meaning to get to again and look into. Without further ado, let me commence with sharing my feelings on Big Fish.
“A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal.” – Will Bloom
The story revolves around a dying father and his son, who is trying to learn more about his dad by piecing together the stories he has gathered over the years. The son winds up re-creating his father’s elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, the son begins to understand his father’s great feats and his failings. (IMDB)
“They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that’s true.” – Edward Bloom
An 8/10 for Big Fish. This is a Tim Burton film, and certainly one of his finest films. While you can see it is a Burton flick due to the fantastical presentation of things, the story reels you in more effectively than many he has told recently, resonating with you when all is said and done. Big Fish boasts a phenomenal cast and they all bring the goods to the table effortlessly. Helena Bonham Carter was, as always, incredibly impressive. There was plenty of humour to go around in this movie without it getting old or too extremely cheesy or feeling too forced, but not enough for it to take front and centre stage either. Jessica Lange was perfectly cast to play Sandra K Bloom, she was beautiful, sweet, caring and a wonderful mother and loyal wife. Alison Lohman could conceivably have been her when she was younger, and I liked that you could see that Lange had grown from the woman that Lohman was. Ewan McGregor was fantastic to watch as the young Edward Bloom, and wove an impressive story, undertaking to show you something whimsical if only you would accompany him on his journey. Billy Crudup played the embittered and frustrated son that still loves his father though he does not like him very much. He played that well and was convincing. At times I could understand his frustration, and then at other times I thought it was excessive. The costume design was just amazing in here, telling a story completely on its own. I like how the movie explored reconciliation (without it being some serious overkill crap) and how people identify things differently, and the truth is simply how something is perceived.
“I don’t think I’ll ever dry out.” – Sandra Templeton
There were so many scenes that were just put together so well and were just beautiful. I loved the scene where the young Edward Bloom finally sets eyes on a young Sandra Templeton and instantly falls in love. Time stops and it just lingers there, and he walks through it. Everything is frozen around him, the popcorn hangs in the air and gets brushed aside, he steps through hoops to get to her, the whole time completely enthralled, and the next thing you know time catches up, double time. It was just such an arrestingly beautiful scene and demands your attention, that you watch it and see how it all comes together. There are a few of these. This is also a beautiful story of true love and how it can last, how sometimes things just are perfect in life, and that is just that. The score worked for this movie, too, but I must say is rather forgettable when all is said and done at the end of the day. Typical Danny Elfman/Tim Burton collaboration, and that is by no which means said in a demeaning manner. Big Fish is inspiring, though at times it gets annoying to watch father and son arguing all the time. Albert Finney was great to play the old man that Edward Bloom became. It was a lovely journey to follow through, to see what the son thought of his father and his stories, to see how he desperately just wanted the truth and was willing to dig for it, and how his father was just a passionate storyteller who loved his son, no matter what his son thought of him.
“Everybody’s there, and I mean everybody. And the strange thing is, there’s not a sad face to be found, everyone’s just so happy to see you.” – Will Bloom
I must say that the present day storytelling was nice in the movie, but I was much more excited for and taken by the wonderful past experiences that Edward had to tell, the outline of his youth, the things that he had done, the places he had gone, the people he had met. They were insanely interesting and even though the tales are tall and a little ludicrous, when they are told the way they were laid out here, one is almost willing to forget that the movie is supposed to be deeply steeped in realism, and go out on a whim that Edward had the magical experiences that he proclaimed to. However, when the present rolls around again and you see it all as it is, that is when you know that he cannot seriously be telling the truth, everything is so plain and boring outside of his mind. Big Fish is a beautiful and stunning story, with an enchanting fairy tale element to it that works on many levels; this movie is definitely worth checking out if you have not done so already!
Tagged Albert Finney, Alison Lohman, Big Fish, Billy Crudup, Daniel Wallace, Danny DeVito, Danny Elfman, Ewan McGregor, Film, Guest Reviews, Helena Bonham Carter, IMDB Top 250, Jessica Lange, Marion Cotillard, Movies, Robert Guillaume, Steve Buscemi, Tim Burton
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) Review
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Directed by David O Russell
Cooper plays Patrizio “Pat” Solitano, a man with bipolar disorder who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents (De Niro and Weaver). Determined to win back his estranged wife, Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell (Lawrence). She tells Pat that she will help him get his wife back if he enters a dance competition with her. The two become closer as they train and Pat, his father, and Tiffany examine their relationships with each other as they cope with their issues.
My Quickie Opinion:
I’m determined to finish reviewing every single movie that I watched this year before the 1st of January. After this one, I have only 11 left to do. More about that later… But that means I’m going to make these reviews “quickies”.
I was a tiny bit disappointed with Silver Linings Playbook. It’s one of those where it got a lot of hype when it was out & I was eager to see it but just didn’t manage to while it was in the cinema. I finally saw it a few months ago and… Unfortunately, I just didn’t think it quite lived up to the hype & the Oscar nominations/win.
I think Jennifer Lawrence is a great young actress & I can’t wait to see her in more & more movies. But an Oscar WIN for this? I don’t know… She’s great in it & I liked her character & her character’s relationship with Bradley Cooper but I think this was a case of rewarding someone that Hollywood wants to see become a bigger & bigger star. Of course, I still haven’t seen any of the other nominees that were up against her (other than Naomi Watts in The Impossible) so I suppose I have no right to an opinion – Lawrence’s performance really may have been the very best one. Don’t freak out, people! Jennifer Lawrence is currently one of my favorite actresses – I’m only saying that I doubt this will be her best role in her whole career. I mean, she was even better in Winter’s Bone. Chill, people! Lawrence IS great in Silver Linings Playbook.
The best performance, however, was Bradley Cooper’s so it’s unfortunate that he wasn’t the Oscar winner in this film. I know he was up against very stiff competition, though, so he didn’t really have a chance. I’m not a Bradley Cooper fan. I don’t hate him – I just hadn’t really noticed him in anything he’d been in before this. I’m not a fan of movies like The Hangover so it was good seeing him in a very different sort of “actor-y” role. Yes, I said actor-y. God this review sucks. I’m tired. I really liked Cooper in this. Let’s move on.
The story itself was decent. Who doesn’t love a movie full of dysfunctional people? Although I just praised Cooper & Lawrence, a lot of the credit also goes to the script (or book, I guess) for creating these memorable characters. Robert De Niro was also very good as Cooper’s equally messed-up father. I prefer De Niro in these sort of roles.
Lawrence, Cooper & De Niro and their relationships with each other were definitely the highlights of the film.The rest of the film, sadly, has already started to fade from my mind three months later. So, yeah – Sorry this isn’t a very in depth review! The main other thing I remember, other than the dance competition which was indeed fun, was lots of football talk. Football football football. Ugh – I hate football! And I didn’t really connect much with any other characters in this beyond the three I’ve mentioned.
Silver Linings Playbook is a decent film with some memorable characters, a good mix of drama & laughs, and very good performances from the lead actors. However, I don’t exactly think it’s an all-time classic that’s up there with some of the other Best Picture nominees in Oscar’s history.
A Note From Me:
I hope you enjoyed that sucky quickie review. 🙂 These are the 11 movies I have left to write about – Feel free to put in the comments which movie you’d like to see a sucky quickie review for next. I’ll try to get to all of them!
Nowhere Boy
The Pink Panther (1964)
Man On A Ledge
I’d also like to say I’m sorry for not visiting many blogs in the past month or so. Things have been very hectic & I’m just not finding the time to keep up with reading everyone’s blogs. I’m curious – How do the rest of you keep up? I don’t find the Reader all that easy plus, when you’re a good week or two behind, it’s too much to go through that way. I also don’t want e-mails – they would pile up and it would take me weeks to read them all. I feel like I need to quit my job so I can blog full-time! 😉
Tagged 7/10, Anupam Kher, Bradley Cooper, Chris Tucker, Danny Elfman, David O Russell, Film, Jacki Weaver, Jennifer Lawrence, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Movies, Review, Reviews, Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6029 |
__label__cc | 0.637166 | 0.362834 | Forums > Substance Abuse Treatment and Rehab > Share Your Rehab Experience >
The Importance of Support
Discussion in 'Share Your Rehab Experience' started by gracer, Feb 18, 2016.
gracer Community Champion
This is not my own experience but a cousin of mine's. When he was brought to rehab due to cocaine addiction his parents were always there to support him especially when the rehab specialists would call on them for family counseling and open forum. They never missed any session which made my cousin realize how dedicated they were in wanting to help him sober up and live a new life.
My cousin is now out of rehab, he has been living an addiction free life for 7 years now. He and his wife now have 3 beautiful children that he uses as his inspiration in pursuing a fully sober life. I'm really happy for him because I saw how he struggled during the early days of his recovery. Now there's no more sign that he was ever addicted and he is now living a happy and peaceful life with his family.
gracer, Feb 18, 2016
deanokat DrugAbuse.com Community Organizer Community Listener
The support of family and friends when going through rehab is so important. My wife and I, along with our younger son, always participated in family therapy sessions and the open family forums when our son was in rehab. It makes a huge difference to the person with addiction when they know they are being supported.
deanokat, Feb 18, 2016
gracer likes this.
deanokat said: ↑
I agree! I think the presence and support of my cousin's parents were the biggest factors in helping him recover from his addiction. He must have seen how much his parents cared for him and he realized how much they really love him. Now he has so much love to give and share with them too and I can see how grateful he is that he is no longer in the dark world of addiction.
MrsJones Community Listener Community Listener
I wish I could say the same but I can't. My husband and I went through therapy which ended very badly. He refused to see how I was supporting him when we first sought help for his substance abuse. Even the therapist saw that he wasn't being cooperative as far as being honest about how his addiction had affected our marriage and lifestyle.
I eventually stepped away from his efforts to seek help because they weren't sincere. The time finally came when his life was at risk and this opened his eyes.
I am glad that for you and your family that it didn't have to come to that point. I do believe that family support is a very important part in recovery for the addict it just has to be accepted by the addict.
MrsJones, Feb 20, 2016
darkrebelchild Community Champion
The family is always the major support group for an addict. There must be understanding and patience, though there will be feelings of disappointment, betrayal and bitterness; it is necessary to take addiction as the common enemy and fight it as a couple or a family in order to move on to a better and brighter future.
darkrebelchild, Feb 23, 2016
SashaS Community Champion
I also agree that the presence of supportive family and friends is a positive thing. Without them, you have little of no motivation to do better and to help yourself. When my mother was in hospital, I brought a bouquet of flowers and a card for her and stayed by her side for the night, she thanked me for it and I knew I made her happy by doing so. Support helps and is an essential building block for helping addiction. The problem is too much support is bad, if you're always in their business and always telling them what to do and how to do it, you're just going to make things worse. Give them room to breathe, but be there for them when they need you.
SashaS, Feb 27, 2016
kgord Community Champion
Yes, I think you need to take your cues from the person in recovery as to how much support they want, and need. It is great to be a supporter, but as you mentioned, too much support can be counterproductive, and may actually get in the way of someone's recovery.
kgord, Feb 28, 2016
MrsJones said: ↑
I'm so sorry to learn that your husband's therapy ended badly. You are a very strong woman to have supported him all the way and it's also a good thing that his eyes have been opened to the negativity and dangers of his addiction. It just had to be the hard way for him. It is really true that the support of family is important but the most important thing is the acknowledgement of the addicted person with regards to his/her problem. A person can never be helped if he/she refuses to accept it.
gracer, Mar 1, 2016
MrsJones likes this.
@gracer. Thank you for your kind words.
The worst part for me was watching him spiral downward back then until he ended up in the hospital. It was really, really bad that I was scared that he was going to die that night.
The one thing that I would have to share with anyone who is going through this is to try and prepare for the worst scenario and quit pretending that it won't happen because it might.
MrsJones, Mar 2, 2016
Kyler Active Contributor
Out of true compassion, love and care comes support. If it is genuine support it affects the inner soul and it helps significantly. I can say from experience, without support, I would of not made it through anything or be who I am today. Influence or the environment affects a lot. For all those who are struggling, strive to get support.
Kyler, Mar 3, 2016
MrsJones, gracer and deanokat like this.
I agree with what you said MrsJones. Sometimes one mistake that we make as humans is to let ourselves believe that the worst things can't happen to us but the truth is that we're not invincible, no one is. I've also learned from the trials that happened to me. I used to make myself believe that the worst can't happen but they sometimes do and when they happen, they can hit really hard. We really have to prepare ourselves for the worst case scenarios of our lives so when they come, we won't get caught empty handed.
Vinaya Community Champion
Sometimes only support is not enough. The addict must respect the support you are giving to him. Giving support should also reciprocated by the expression of gratitude. I always support people who respect me, I don't give a damn to the people who are ungrateful.
Vinaya, Mar 14, 2016 | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6031 |
__label__cc | 0.745863 | 0.254137 | About LCD display pixel anomalies for Apple products released in 2010 and later
Learn about pixel anomalies, why such anomalies occur, and what to do if you think your LCD panel has more than an acceptable number of pixel anomalies.
Many Apple products use liquid crystal displays (LCD). LCD technology uses rows and columns of addressable points (pixels) that render text and images on the screen. Each pixel has three separate subpixels—red, green and blue—that allow an image to render in full color. Each subpixel has a corresponding transistor responsible for turning that subpixel on and off.
Depending on the display size, there can be thousands or millions of subpixels on the LCD panel. For example, the LCD panel used in the iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) has a display resolution of 5120 x 2880, which means there are over 14.7 million pixels. Each pixel is made up of a red, a green, and a blue subpixel, resulting in over 44 million individual picture elements on the 27-inch display. Occasionally, a transistor may not work perfectly, which results in the affected subpixel remaining off (dark) or on (bright). With the millions of subpixels on a display, it is possible to have a low number of such transistors on an LCD. In some cases a small piece of dust or other foreign material may appear to be a pixel anomaly. Apple strives to use the highest quality LCD panels in its products, however pixel anomalies can occur in a small percentage of panels.
In many cases pixel anomalies are caused by a piece of foreign material that is trapped somewhere in the display or on the front surface of the glass panel. Foreign material is typically irregular in shape and is usually most noticeable when viewed against a white background. Foreign material that is on the front surface of the glass panel can be easily removed using a lint free cloth. Foreign material that is trapped within the screen must be removed by an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store.
If you are concerned about pixel anomalies on your display, take your Apple product to an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for closer examination. There may be a charge for the evaluation.
Dark Pixel Anomaly Bright Pixel Anomaly Foreign Material
Learn more about pixel anomalies on earlier Apple products. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6033 |
__label__wiki | 0.885529 | 0.885529 | Home / East Sussex / Brighton and Hove / Brighton and Hove – St Nicholas (Old parish church)
Brighton and Hove – St Nicholas (Old parish church)
There was a church here in the C11, possibly rebuilt in the C13, though the oldest visible work is C14 and little beyond the arcades and tower survived C18 and C19 rebuilding. The fittings include a fine C12 font with carved figures and a C15 screen, as well as C19 work.
The original parish church of Brighton (in 1873 the title passed for 120 years to St Peter) is outside the confines of the old town by the sea, on a slope that today links it and the newer parts. Nothing of the church mentioned in Domesday Book (12,15) survives.
The first church was probably of some size, possibly as long as the present nave, though not necessarily aisled. The VCH (7 p260) suggests parts of the chancel and south chapel may be C13, but nothing is apparent and Quartermain shows a C14 east window ((E) p3). It is evident from what remains that the church was transformed, if not rebuilt, in the C14. Work includes the now much repaired five-bay arcades of the nave, with octagonal piers and double-chamfered heads. The high bases may not be in their original state. Fragments of curvilinear window tracery found in 1853 (SAC 84 p140) show the previous aisles were also C14, though they were only half as wide as the present ones. The low west tower is also as it was built in the C14, though the upper part was substantially rebuilt in the C19 after it was found during the restoration to be cracked (1 p211). Its arch is like the arcades and the exterior detail, though obviously renewed, is plausible, with square-headed bell-openings, battlements and a tiny ogee-quatrefoil west lancet over a moulded doorway. The present buttresses are certainly entirely C19, though the Sharpe Collection drawing (1802) shows what seems to be a clasping south west one. Dale (p1) suggests it may incorporate earlier stones. The chancel arch is like the nave arcades and the west respond of that from the chancel to the south chapel has three clustered shafts, adding credence to the belief that the chancel was also mainly C14.
A curious omission from the start was a clerestory, making the nave dark, though the lack made the squat tower more prominent. After the Reformation, as the population grew, galleries were added haphazardly. The aisles were mostly rebuilt with added dormers in the nave. Nibbs’s etching, made a year before the restoration, shows the result and corroborates Horsfield’s dismissive ‘a tasteless and unsightly edifice’ (I p141).
Though not started until 1853, the restoration had been planned in 1846 by R C Carpenter (1 ibid), then working on St Paul’s for H M Wagner, who by then had been vicar for over 20 years. Wagner was initially frustrated in his attempts to raise money by levying a rate (the costs eventually came to £5921 (PP125)) by the many dissenters and radicals in the town (Dale p3), but the problem was resolved after the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852, which led to a widespread wish for a memorial. It was decided to restore the church for this purpose, as the Duke as a boy had worshipped here (7 p202), whilst Wagner’s grandfather is said to have been the Duke’s tutor (6 p48) . H M Wagner himself had been tutor to his son and his presentation to the living in 1824 was largely thanks to the Duke’s influence (8 p48).
Carpenter doubled the aisles in width, with square-headed windows with pierced spandrels, and extended the north aisle alongside the tower. The walls were refaced in dark flint and diagonal buttresses added to the tower (2 pl 1). He replaced the old roofs and thoroughly repaired the stonework, with a new east window of Decorated tracery. The south chancel arcade was altered from two arches to one and he added a north vestry. However, Carpenter did not provide a clerestory and, as Somers Clarke recalled (AR 44 p108), the wider aisles and removal of the dormers made the nave stuffy as well as dark.
For over 20 years, Somers Clarke junior worked to remedy such deficiencies. In 1876 he extended the north vestry and re-ordered the chancel, replacing its Minton tiles by panelling (B 34 p370). He probably designed the five-light east window of 1882 in place of Carpenter’s smaller one, now at The Annunciation. The most significant improvement was a new clerestory, started in 1886 (CDK 1886 pt 2 p144). This entailed supporting Carpenter’s roof on jacks whilst the walls were built up and at the same time the aisle roofs were boarded (6 p48). Finally, in 1900 Somers Clarke’s partner J T Micklethwaite widened the south chapel (CDG 84 p141) and reinstated a second arch to the chancel. As well as redecorating it, he repaved and improved the chancel.
Fittings and Monuments
Churchyard cross: (by south doorway) Only the base of an undatable but pre-Reformation one remains, with a top placed on it by W H Godfrey in 1934 (6 p49).
Font: Probably Caen stone. It is later C12, with two scenes from the life of St Nicholas, the Last Supper (with only six Apostles, perhaps for lack of space) and the Baptism of Christ, across three arches. It has generally been held to be foreign and probably French and P M Johnston saw a similarity to a C12 monument at Fécamp in Normandy (5 p487) whilst George Zarnecki also suggested a link with Fécamp, though this has been questioned (www.crsbi.ac.uk retrieved on 1/4/2013). A link to Lewes Priory, which held the advowson by 1093, has also been suggested (VCH 7 p262). It was recut, possibly in either 1745, a date once carved on a curious base bearing the names of the churchwardens (shown on Horsfield’s engraving (I p142)), or in 1853.
Font cover: J B Philip (Roscoe p978).
1. (East window) C E Kempe, 1882.
2. (Aisles and south chapel) A fine series by Kempe, mostly dating from 1878 to 1887. The designs are more pictorial and less stylised than much of his later work. Though installed at different times, they form a sequence depicting the life of Christ, starting in the south aisle with the Annunciation, continuing in the north aisle with the Easter story and culminating in the Crucifixion in the east window.
3. (West window) C E Kempe, 1897.
4. Sir J N Comper, 1904 (Symondson and Bucknall p303). Despite the reputable source, this cannot be located, so either it has gone or the source confused it with other work by Comper known to be in the church (see under ‘Statue’ below).
Lectern: Somers Clarke, 1885 (CDK 1885 pt 2 p152).
Monuments:
1. (Under west arch of south arcade) Duke of Wellington, tall like a mediaeval market cross with arcaded tiers, listing his victories. Erected in 1854, it was carved by J B Philip (B 12 p209) and stood originally in the south chapel. By 1882 it was in decay and was in 1900 moved to the north aisle when the chapel was altered (6 ibid). After cleaning and restoration, it was moved in 2001 to its present position (6 p49), where the top appears to have been truncated to fit under the arch.
2. (South wall of tower) John Pankhurst (d1795) and family signed by Williams of Brighton. it probably dates from after the latest death recorded which is 1811.
3. (North aisle) Frances Crosbie Fairfield (d1830). She is shown being carried up to heaven by an angel, signed by R Westmacott junior of Wilton Place.
4. (South aisle) Dorothy Westmacott (d1834) Marble bust on a volute, by her husband, Sir R Westmacott (Roscoe p1363).
5. Robert Gibbings (d1844) by J Carew,(ibid p197).
6. Mrs Crozier (undated) by W Pepper senior (ibid p970).
7. (Churchyard) Phoebe Hessel (d1821) ‘She served for many years as a private soldier in the 5th Regiment of Foot’.
8. (Churchyard) Martha Gunn (d1815) She was the most celebrated of the ‘Bathers’ of Brighton who made sure that every visitor had the proper daily dose of seawater.
9. (Churchyard) Nicholas Tattershall, Captain of the ship in which the future Charles II returned to exile after the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
10. (Churchyard) Amon Wilds, architect and builder (d1833). A sarcophagus with shell decoration, which has been plausibly attributed to his son, A H Wilds (Watney p33).
10. (Churchyard) Anna Maria Crouch (d1805) by E Coade (Roscoe p285), though Nicholas Antram points out that the urn on top is signed by W Croggon, who did not join Mrs Coade’s business until after 1813 and took it over in 1821 (BE(E) p165).
Painting:
1. (East end and east wall of nave and in chancel) Designed by Somers Clarke and carried out by Kempe. Above the chancel arch are angels and foliage, now darkened and flaking. On the east wall the work includes embossed flowers.
2. (South chapel) According to a painted inscription, the walls were decorated by H W Smithers (a former churchwarden) in 1894, but little else remains, probably because of the work in 1900. However, painted decoration on the roofs is also said to date from 1894 and may have survived later rebuilding. It could be by Smithers as well.
Pulpit: Open ironwork, designed by Somers Clarke, 1867 (Dale p5).
Reredoses:
1. (Chancel) Probably part of Somers Clarke’s re-ordering of 1876, costing £230 and completed in 1880 with paintings by M R Corbet (CDK 1880 pt 2 p157).
2. (South chapel) J L Denman, 1909 (CDG 185 p83) and probably one of his earliest works.
3. (North aisle) Two painted boards with the Ten Commandments which look early C19 and were probably part of a reredos before 1864.
Screen: There is at least one reference to a screen before the Reformation (6 p46) and the present one is probably C15, though restored, but it is not certain that they are the same. This present one is not in situ, for it is the wrong way round and in 1853 was found to have been cut down to fit. It has a central opening and three each side containing crocketed ogees. In 1853 it was missing the beam at the top, which was reinstated by Kempe in 1887, with new gates by Somers Clarke (CDK 1888 pt 2 p141). The rood above of 1892 is by the latter (SAC 84 p141).
Statue: St Nicholas, Sir J N Comper, 1956 (Symondson and Bucknell ibid).
1. S Berry: The Impact of the Georgians, Victorians and Edwardians on Early Parish Churches – City of Brighton and Hove c1680-1914, SAC 149 (2011) pp199-219
2. S Clarke: St Nicholas’ Church, Brighton, SAC 32 (1882) pp33-74
3. W H Godfrey: Guide to the Church of St Nicholas, Brighton, (Sussex Churches no 17), 1951
4. J Hannah: On the Church of St Nicholas and its Ancient Fort, JBAA 42 (1886) pp26-34
5. P M Johnston: Carvings from the Tomb of Guillaume de Ros, Ant J 7 (1927) pp485-99
6. R Minton: St Nicholas Brighton Part 1, CBg 116 (March/April 2009) pp46-49
7. F E Sawyer: The Ecclesiastical History of Brighton, SAC 29 (1879) pp181-210
8. A R Wagner: The Wagners of Brighton and their Connections, SAC 97 (1959) pp35-57
Measured plan by W H Godfrey in VCH 7 p260
My thanks to Nick Wiseman for the photographs of the interior, monuments and glass
Categories: Brighton and Hove, East Sussex | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6035 |
__label__cc | 0.595707 | 0.404293 | Beijing and the Creative Downtown
Home /China, Civil Society, Population, Urban/Beijing and the Creative Downtown
China,Civil Society,Population,Urban |
Written by Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller.
Cities have become a central focus of study globally, as both residents and visitors continue to flock to urban areas and more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities. Places where artists, designers, and craftspeople cluster become magnets for residents, tourists, and economic development. Creative amenities including galleries, speciality restaurants and craft stores, and creative businesses such as architecture firms, design companies, and fashion production studios enhance the quality of life in any urban area. It’s common knowledge now that these creative hubs often are located in the centre of cities, where the building stock is cheaper and where these creative people can afford to establish studios, businesses, and amenities that serve them and their wide circle of friends.
Interventions incorporating the creative economy also have been gaining in popularity, including cultural districts, festivals and fairs, support for anchor cultural institutions, and the fostering of cultural entrepreneurship. Numerous municipal policy options may be implemented, such as tax incentives for developers incorporating creative amenities, and options that promote the clustering of the creative class. Academics and planners alike have observed and studied the cycle that often accompanies this kind of development, which begins with creatives agglomerating in an area and progresses to a stage wherein the cultural sector is priced out of the neighbourhood and relocates, beginning the cycle anew.
The Creative Downtown
Many policies and programs are aimed at the central areas of cities, or what commonly is thought of as “downtown.” What is the idea of downtown? It might include places such as historic city centres, central business districts, and areas in which residents, tourists, and creative producers and consumers cluster. There are numerous kinds of downtowns, such as: 9-to-5 business areas which are empty at night; oversaturated city centres that are losing their creative anchors; derelict downtowns experiencing blight; fabricated downtowns built from the ground up; and exemplary urban areas that are healthy, flourishing, and vital.
My research shows increased interest in downtown living, especially by millennials and baby boomers. Millennials love walking, buying local, and getting to know business owners. Baby boomers are empty-nesters leaving their suburban homes. They all want to be where the action is – and downtown is the place to be. It needs to be a downtown with shops, cafés, restaurants, and other amenities, so that these new ‘Center City Citizens’ can have fun after work or enjoy themselves during the day if they are retired. They need density. They need creativity. They need art and culture. But when prices go up, including live/work spaces, many creative people and cultural businesses are forced to leave the city centre, diminishing vitality downtown.
In understanding downtowns, we can look at ways that the creative sector has become perceived as an economic engine and a key tool in the policy toolbox for building the urban brand, drawing in residents and tourists, and spurring financial investment in the centre city.
Creative Beijing
There is increased interest in exploring the integration of arts and culture into the urban environment in China. In addition, the creative community’s role as a driving economic force has been widely recognised there. It is important to identify the assets, challenges, and opportunities in the city of Beijing from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders. These include policymakers, residents and visitors, artists and arts organisations, developers, commercial businesses, and creative entrepreneurs. There are numerous voices, financial and professional realities, and forces to be considered. Integrating arts and culture can build the brand, draw new residents, and attract visitors.
In Beijing, arts and cultural amenities abound, including the 798 Arts District, the trendy Caochangdi Art District and the destination 22nd Street International Art Plaza, as well as cultural anchor institutions like the behemoth National Centre for the Performing Arts and the National Art Museum of China. Together with the wealth of small and mid-sized cultural entities, these cultural destinations and experiences define the brand of Beijing as more than a highly-populated mega-city. A plethora of temporal cultural events, including China Fashion Week and the highly publicised Beijing College Student Film Festival offer opportunities for arts and culture take-up to residents and visitors alike, without financial barriers to entry. Additionally, Beijing is home to creative clusters such as the Dagao International Art Zone, which echoes New York City’s SoHo, and the fashion industry’s BIFTPARK — each of which foster innovation and cultural development, recognising that proximity is important in encouraging the growth of idea exchange.
Policy learning and adaptation
Policy theories and frameworks can be powerful tools in the service of analysing cultural policy learning and adaptation in Beijing. Since it is not feasible to penetrate the policy-making that occurs behind closed doors in the Chinese State, in my recent article on Beijing I employed a positivist method in looking at the outcomes of shifts in opportunities and subsequent policy interventions. The 798 Arts District and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) are two cases I discuss that illustrate theories and practice regarding policy entrepreneurship, cultural planning, and creative city-building.
The 798 Arts District is a case of policy adaptation, wherein the government supported a burgeoning arts destination after a struggle for legitimisation. The 798 Arts District now has become one of the largest of its kind in the world, drawing numerous local, national, and international visitors annually. The NCPA was brought to life as the result of what is known in the Multiple Streams Policy Framework (MS) as an open policy window, which in this case was the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in 2008. Numerous actors coalesced to seize this opportunity to feature China’s culture and creativity on the world stage, fostering the building of the massive performing arts centre. This is an illustration of the MS Framework, in which the three streams of problem, politics, and policy must align in order to enact change.
Since Beijing has numerous examples of creative clusters, arts districts, cultural anchors, and temporal events, it is a city from which other urban areas can learn. Studying Beijing’s creative hubs offers scholars, policymakers, urban planners, and the public the opportunity to look at ways that policy learning and adaptation are alive and well in China. Through the use of policy theories, we can analyse ways that China is incorporating lessons from cities around the world in order to formulate bespoke solutions to the challenges of fostering cities with a wealth of arts and cultural producers and consumers. Since many of these interventions occur in urban areas, it would be useful to apply the lenses of placemaking and cultural destination planning to these investigations. A deeper understanding of the creative downtown can inform policy formation as cities throughout the world strive to be financially healthy, socially just, and sustainably creative.
Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller is Assistant Professor in the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, Affiliate Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University. She serves as Academic Advisor to the City of Toronto’s Department of Economic Development and Culture. Her book, Planning for a City of Culture: Creative Urbanism in Toronto and New York brings a new, fresh perspective to the study of creative cities by using policy theory as an underlying construct to understand the role of arts and culture in both the transformation of Toronto and the revitalisation of New York during the decade of the 2000s. Image Credit: CC by Kristisan/Flickr.
Video Policy Brief No 6: Experiences of German NGOs with China’s Overseas NGO Law
Video Policy Brief No 7: Experiences of British NGOs with China’s Overseas NGO Law
TAGS: arts Beijing Civil society development | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6042 |
__label__wiki | 0.847476 | 0.847476 | Buy the gift of theatre
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About Rip It Up
The ultimate strictly boy band of dance bring the 60’s smashing into the 21st century, in an explosion of song, dance, acrobatics and amazing visuals!
Aston Merrygold (JLS) and Jay McGuiness (The Wanted) sing, while Harry Judd (McFly) is on drums and Olympic champion Louis Smith performs amazing gymnastic feats. But what shines through the most in this spectacular show is the fab four’s phenomenal dancing talent!
The boys are joined by an incredible cast of dancers, singers and musicians, to celebrate the iconic sounds, sights and events of the decade which transformed the 20th Century.
One of the most energetic shows to ever hit the West End stage, just watching will leave you exhausted. Dance the night away with music from the legends who shook a generation including The Beatles,The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Doors, The Mamas & The Papas, Dusty Springfield, Burt Bacharach, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, James Brown Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and many more.
With celebrity contributions on screen, footage from the era and a host of other visual delights, the show celebrates everything there is to love about the 60’s. The 60’s are back with a bang!
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Nearest Night Bus: (Charing Cross Road) 24, 176, N5, N20, N29, N41, N279; (Strand) 6, 23, 139, N9, N11, N13, N15, N21, N26, N44, N47, N87, N89, N91, N155, N343, N551
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The Shipping Department was established after decentralization was introduced by the Company in 1989. The intention was to set up a number of profit centers that would function independent of each other, irrespective of their sizes or the services being offered.
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__label__wiki | 0.919306 | 0.919306 | Sequoia India
Druva raises $51M in series E led by Sequoia, eyes IPO
“Since our last funding two years ago, we have expanded the scope of our product and scaled across geographies. We are now marching towards an IPO,” Milind Borate, founder and chief technology officer of Druva told ET.Shadma Shaikh | ET Bureau | September 28, 2016, 17:01 IST
Druva, a cloud data protection and information management provider has raised $51 million in series E funding in a round led by its existing investor Sequoia India, joined by new investors-- Singapore-based EDBI, Blue Cloud Ventures and Hercules Capital. It also includes contributions from existing investors including NTT Finance, Nexus Venture Partners and Tenaya Capital.
This brings the total venture capital investment in the company to $117 million.
“Since our last funding two years ago, we have expanded the scope of our product and scaled across geographies. We are now marching towards an IPO,” Milind Borate, founder and chief technology officer of Druva told ET.
The Sunnyvale headquartered company that counts over 4,000 enterprise customers in geographies, including the U.S, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific region is looking to expand its global footprint by serving more local markets in these regions.
“As we continue to grow in the enterprise business, we have a two point plan: to continue to innovate as much as possible in terms of our offering and to expand our global footprint,” Jaspreet Singh, founder and chief executive, Druva told ET.
While the Asia-pacific market will continue to be the focus, with emphasis on Singapore and Australia, there will also be a larger focus on European markets, including, Germany and Scandinavia, Singh said.
Founded by Milind Borate, Jaspreet Singh and Ramani Kothandaraman, the trio that worked together at Veritas Software earlier, Druva since its inception in 2008 has grown from a laptop backup service provider to an enterprise data protection and information management suite provider for large enterprises.
One of the few home-grown product startups, that have made it big globally, Druva counts, NASA, Cipla, Akamai and Marriott among some of its customers.
The company has offices in the U.S, the U.K, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Japan and India with most of its development operations being carried out from their Pune office in India.
Over the last two years, Druva increased its global presence, growing to over 400 employees and expanding direct presence, launching subsidiaries in both Japan and Germany, while simultaneously growing its enterprise customer base by more than 1,000.
Tags : Startups, Sequoia India, Sequoia Capital, investment, Druva | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6052 |
__label__wiki | 0.51079 | 0.51079 | George Washington and Abraham Lincoln knew, encouraged, and proclaimed the importance of Religion.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued this General Order regarding the observance of the Sabbath in the military. President Lincoln quoted two separate General Orders (February 26, and July 9, 1776) issued by George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
GENERAL ORDER RESPECTING THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH DAY IN THE ARMY AND NAVY
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Washington, November 15, 1862
The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for men and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the divine will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.
The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. “At this time of public distress,” adopting the words of Washington in 1776, “men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.” The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended:
The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.
George Washington’s original General Orders:
All Officers, non-commissioned Officers and Soldiers are positively forbid[den from] playing at Cards, and other Games of Chance. At this time of public distress, men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.
The Hon. Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment, with the pay of Thirty-three Dollars and one third pr month—The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly; persons of good Characters and exemplary lives—To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger—The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.
Politico: Tipping Has ‘Racist Past,’ So Raise The Minimum Wage
This Proves What? NBC/MSNBC Hype Video of Trump and Epstein at 1992 Party | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6055 |
__label__wiki | 0.553898 | 0.553898 | Mantua: the 2016 Italian Capital of Culture
The beauties of the Lombard city declared World Heritage by UNESCO
Foto: Mantova - Piazza Martiri di Belfiore
- 5 novembre 2015
The Lombard city of Mantua vigorously beat its rivals out, namely the nine finalists Aquileia, Como, Ercolano, Parma, Pisa, Pistoia, Spoleto, Taranto and Terni. Not only it received the "glory of capital", but also 1 million Euros to carry out all the activities related to this new title awarded.
Dario Franceschini -Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism - joyfully commented the success on the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, also stating that "every year there will be a new Italian capital of culture". This initiative aims at fostering the planning ability of Italian cities in launching cultural activities. The latters are usually regarded as a relevant catalyst for a higher social cohesion, creativity, innovation and an overall economic development.
Mattia Palazzi - Mantua mayor - pointed out his will to strengthen the institutional commitment for a great performance of the city after this important reward. So far, the Lombard city stands as a great venue, declared Wold Heritage by UNESCO for its unique architectural and monumental beauties left by the Gonzaga's dominance, which lasted for four centuries.
Among the exclusive sights and things to do, ten locations are definitely a "must see". Firstly, St. George Bridge and its panorama facing the Castle and the surrounding lake is followed by Palazzo Ducale. Landmark of the Gonzaga's family, its construction started in XIII century and it represents one of the biggest and majestic monumental buildings in Italy, visited every year by 200 thousand people.
The Camera degli Sposi, located in St. George Castle, stands as an amazing masterpiece by Andrea Mantegna, who tastefully decorated the room with frescos on the Gonzaga's family. The unique squares in the city centre - such as Piazza Sordello and Piazza Broletto,- are also to be seen, while enjoying a nice walk.
Finally, visitors might not want to miss St. Andrew Basilica, the Long Rio, the Fishmarket, the Te Palace, the Scientific Bibiena Palace, Valdaro's Lovers and the Literature Festival, happening every year in September. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6057 |
__label__cc | 0.705608 | 0.294392 | Review: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
3 out of 5 stars to Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, a new mystery and thriller novel set to release on June 13, 2017, by author Matthew J. Sullivan.
Why This Book
For all us readers, who wouldn’t love a book with such a title? And when you read the description, learning about a horrific murder from the past, a suicide in the present, and mysterious connections between all the characters, your intrigue and suspense spidey senses will climax. I found it on NetGalley and thought it sounded like a good debut author to take a chance on. And so, I requested it, got approved and dropped it into the reading schedule for this month… as it will be released to the general public in about 3 weeks.
Overview of Story
Lydia’s mother died during childbirth, and she was raised by a father who knew next to nothing about being a parent. Refusing the help from any other family or friends, he did his best to raise his daughter, making a few mistakes along the way. During her childhood, Lydia befriends Raj, whose parents own and operate a gas station & donut shop in their Colorado hometown. Lydia and Raj seem destined to be together in the future. When Raj and Lydia meet another young girl, the three try to maintain a friendship, but something disastrous takes place, changing the future of their lives.
Years later, Lydia works at a bookstore several towns away, but she no longer speaks with her father. One night, her friend Joey, a “BookFrog” released from prison for a childish prank that went wrong, commits suicide. He leaves behind a few clues and notes for her to find, which lead to Lydia finding something that connects Joey to her past and the vicious murder of her friend and her friend’s parents. Lydia begins to realize her own father may have been more involved than he’d led her to believe. Raj re-emerges in Lydia’s life after being absent for nearly twenty years, and together, they try to track down Joey’s biological family, in the hopes they can discover all the connections. And when they do, everything implodes on them.
Approach & Style
The story is told in past tense by a third person narrator, who follows Lydia around for most of the book. It jumps time frames from when she was about ten years old to the present, when she’s in her thirties. The primary story is discovering who murdered Lydia’s friend and her family, when Lydia was a child. It’s also about learning who Joey was and why he chose to leave clues for Lydia about both of their pasts. There are a few romantic elements between Lydia and her current boyfriend, as well as Lydia and Raj, her childhood friend who stirs up feelings again in the future. Woven into the story is the common theme of how the characters all love books throughout their lives.
There are a lot of different connections between the primary ten (10) characters, and it keeps you wondering just enough to feel some suspense. The murder scene with the “Hammerman” is dark and grotesque, giving just enough to your imagination while revealing a few core details of the hammer’s physical and emotional impact. I loved the scenes when Raj and Lydia were children. I could see their friendship blossoming. I could sense the growth between them and away from one another when meeting new people. I liked the father / daughter relationship. I felt a little slimy with the friend’s mother who seemed to sleep around a lot before she was killed. Sullivan has great character descriptions and imagination. The people all felt real, usually through their actions and with minimal physical descriptions.
Lydia is the primary character. She’s strong-willed, but has had some issues with relationships throughout her life. I don’t think she was as flushed out as a character as she should have been. There were a few holes surrounding: (a) why she and her father stopped speaking, (b) why she ran away, (c) why hasn’t she had many relationships beyond the guy she’s currently dating. It almost feels like there are some missing parts of her life which could have led to the suspense of what happened all those years ago.
Joey dies almost immediately, so you don’t get enough time with him. There are a few scenes that will immediately draw you to him, but not enough to warrant seeing him as a tragic man. He’s suffered, and he suffers a lot more when you learn in the last few chapters what became of him in the days leading up to his death; however, I wanted a longer story to have a better understanding of his lonely life.
Lydia’s dad became a recluse too quickly, and I didn’t buy his “love” for one of the other characters. Needed more story and detail around this section. He felt like two different people when looking at where he began and how he ended up.
Open Questions & Concerns
Although the motive and the killer became obvious about two-thirds thru the book, I felt there were too many open holes. I thought there were other murders happening, which confused me as to why the killer murdered anyone but the ones whom (s)he had a vengeance against.
The time gap left too much to my imagination. I wanted to know what happened in Joey’s life and in Lydia’s life to turn them into who they became. There were some details, but I often was left to my own devices, which is not always a good thing!
The ending in the epilogue was weak. It should have explored more about the immediate after-effect of all the drama.
There was another hole (until the ending cleaned it up a bit) failing to truly cover why the person who knew what the killer had done never stepped up and said anything to the police afterwards. Even if (s)he was scared, this was one of those situations where the police could have protected him/her from the killer. It seemed too much like a plot device, especially given everything else that was going on.
Author & Other Similar Books
Although the author co-wrote another book, it’s his debut as a single author of a thriller and suspense novel. It’s a typical suspense novel, jumping around between time periods and characters, dropping clues about the murderer along the way. I cannot think of anything it directly compares to, but has strong elements of family and trust.
The book is worth a read. It’s a good mystery, full of drama and emotionally-crippling scenes. It’s got a little horror and some suspense. Think of it like a good piece of cake, but it’s a bit dry at times and is missing a little more filling that would have held it together before we devoured it. As a result, you’ve got some crumbs on the floor, a funny little taste in your mouth and a bit of a thirst to read some more. I like the author’s style and would definitely read another book by him, assuming the plots are tidied up a bit more and the ingredients are fully flushed out.
For those new to me or my reviews… here’s the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you’ll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I’ve visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
This entry was posted in Book Review: Thriller & Suspense, Book Reviews and tagged book review, books, hammerman, Matthew Sullivan, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, Murder, mystery, netgalley, suspense, thriller.
365 Challenge: Day 71 – Dark
Dark: absence of, or very little, light
When I chose the word “dark” for today, I thought readers may assume I was going macabre and evil. And while that may be a good topic for the future, as there is a little sinister part of me that is dark (in the books I read), today, dark refers to the brightness of a light. So… now you’re probably thinking I’m a little peculiar to choose this as a personality-type trait. But it’s true, I prefer to be in dark, or less bright, environments. Perhaps I should explain…
I’ve mentioned before that eyesight isn’t one of my strengths, which has always meant I’ve felt ‘in the dark’ over a great deal of things. It also means my eyes are very sensitive to bright lights. As a result, I tend to keep the lights on a lower setting than most others. Whether I’m watching TV, resting, or even having a casual conversation, I prefer a dim light… sort of mood-inducing lighting. Even when I’m reading, the lights are on only as high as necessary to not strain my vision while reading the words. It feels more calming and relaxing, rather than as though I’m under a microscope being observed by everyone around me.
Many fear darkness. I do not. I’m not saying I’d be happy to be locked in a room with no lights, nor would I want to roam a dangerous place without any way to see what’s around me. I simply mean it feels natural to have a bit of shade, a way to hide a little, from the surroundings. Bright lights tend to make me feel like I should be up jumping around, being very active, almost on stage for all to see. My quiet nature likes remaining in the background, so this makes sense based on what I’ve noted before in the 365 posts.
But darkness is also a place to go when I need to think. I’m easily distracted by noise or moving objects. If I ever need to mull over an important decision, let my emotions control me, or absorb serenity, I need to be in the dark. To me, darkness is like that stage before life begins. It’s a moment of silence to ponder all that could happen… all that you want to experience. It’s the few minutes before the world consumes your innocence, your opinions and your actions.
Darkness, not bright light, is the initiation of something for me. And that seems a bit odd to say it aloud, but it’s how I associate change or transition. Darkness is that period between two situations, two people, two answers, two of anything… like bookends, leaving what happens in between as a place for all to see. And when I need to re-boot, darkness is the source of “new” for me. I see this as a healthy mindset. It’s not a fear. It’s not a way to avoid something. It’s how I can process growth. It’s that opportunity to reflect on what needs to transition.
Think about how you feel after an intense emotional situation. You’re drained. You feel winded. Your body might even hurt. You need to re-group. You need to find energy. Some people rush to the gym or a sport to revitalize. I search for darkness. I listen to the vacuum around me. My eyes search for the patterns or lines, drawing me towards things I could not see when I was distracted by everything the light had shown me. {I’m not being figurative here… I’m purely talking about true absence or presence of light}
Few often think about these things, from anytime I’ve mentioned it to others. How about you? Do you prefer light or dark lights? Which gives you more energy? What about the brightness of light propels or detracts how you behave?
This entry was posted in 365 - May 2017 Posts, 365 Day Challenge and tagged 365, 365 Daily Challenge, beginning, bright, change, dark, light, macabre, quiet, random, sinister, svil, transition.
Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
4+ of 5 stars to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the 4th book in the “Harry Potter” young adult fantasy series, written in 2000 by J.K. Rowling. Although this one was close to a 5 for me, I think it’s enough to give 1 book in the series a 5-rating, which means this one will stay at a 4. But I still loved and adored the characters, the setting, the story, the themes… all of it! Rather than go into a detailed review, as we’ve seen too many of them (always fun to read tho!), I’m just going to chat a little bit about the parts that I enjoyed the most.
1. The selection of the 3 students to participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It’s scary to think the schools condone putting the kids at such risk, but then again, I suppose they’d stop it just before anyone died or was hurt irreparably. To imagine the goblet of fire choosing one from each school, and then Harry’s name being cast as a fourth one… fantastic idea and approach. I felt the drama. And I loved having him put to the test mid-way thru the series… as he never seemed to be all that good of a student or a wizard!
2. The introduction of new characters in this one is intense. I loved all the folks at the various stages of the competition. To see feelings emerge for one another, to know they were going thru the same unrequited love and anger we all go through as teenagers. Was a good experience — I thought it was one of the more real aspects of the series.
3. The imagination for all the tournaments and the dance… fantastic. I wanted to be there watching it all happen. I can only imagine how it felt to write those scenes… knowing it would propel the characters forward in a very different path by the end. And to see the drama of how it all turns out.
I am feeling the need to re-read this series again soon…
This entry was posted in Book Review: Young Adult (YA) Fiction, Book Reviews and tagged book review, goblet of fire, Harry Potter, hogwarts, jk rowling, tornament, wizard, ya, young adult.
Review: Scarpetta
3 of 5 stars to Scarpetta, the 16th book in the “Kay Scarpetta” thriller series, written in 2008 by Patricia Cornwell. In this book, Kay takes an assignment in NYC, where she’s handling another crazy potential killer, but one who claims to have a connection to her — again. The past keeps creeping up in these novels… and sometimes it’s just too unbelievable. I enjoyed the book, and it’s better than the last few… but I’m being harder and harder on authors who write lengthy series. It has to be about more than putting out a book a year to make fans happy and to earn more money. I want depth. I need creativity. I want something new.
The good things about the book: lots of gore, detailed autopsy-type info, crazy loons for killers… it’s a good alternative to the norm of a cozy mystery or a historical fiction novel. I like how the books take me away from reality to a place I don’t believe exists, but I’m sure there are some people who deal with murderers like this every day. The other good aspect is the delving into cyber space. Given I work in technology, I love seeing all this stuff, assuming it’s well done. Sometimes it’s dummied down too much, sometimes it’s too detailed. Can’t make everyone happy all the time.
A decent book to read in the series, but still not back on track yet.
This entry was posted in Book Review: Thriller & Suspense, Book Reviews and tagged autopsy, book review, FBI, kay scarpetta, killer, Murder, mystery series, patricia cornwell, scarpetta, suspense, thriller.
Review: Plum Lucky
4 of 5 stars to Plum Lucky, one of four “in-between” novellas in the “Stephanie Plum” mystery series, written in 2008 by Janet Evanovich. As if she didn’t have enough already going on, Evanovich released several short books in between the various series she’d been writing, this time linking together Stephanie and Diesel, from one of her other book series. And as if Stephanie didn’t have enough going on with Ranger and Morelli, now she’s lusting after a possible ghost man. Well… so are we all, so are we all…
Atlantic City becomes the focus in this holiday edition where Stephanie’s tracking down her crazy grandmother. The antics with Lula are fantastic. Add in a few other core characters and you’ve got the usual ride. I like these because they are shorter, easier to read in full in about 2 hours. It’s humor and wicked fun wrapped up in memorable characters. Less about the mystery and suspense, more about the laughs. It’s a nice break, but I do prefer the longer mysteries.
This entry was posted in Book Review: Cozy Mysteries, Book Reviews and tagged book review, bounty hunter, Cozy, diesel, funny, janet evanovich, mystery, NJ, plum lucky, stephanie plum.
Review: If There Be Thorns
3+ of 5 stars to If There Be Thorns, the third book in the “Dollanganger” series written in 1981 by V.C. Andrews. After the first two books, I didn’t think you could keep the thrills and suspense going in this series, mostly because one family can only endure so much torture over the years. Surprisingly, I actually found I liked a large part of this book; however, it was a bit excessive and drawn out at times. The story, told from the perspective of Cathy and Chris’ kids, continues the saga of the torture from a wicked grandmother and mother, combining religious beliefs and family values. And it’s got a Gothic ending to keep readers enthralled the the concept of “payback’s a bitch!”
I love the series because it pushes the envelope. This one explores the theme of adoption, when two half brothers explore and learn who their fathers were and who they thought they were. Cathy and Chris are siblings, yet they are in a relationship and raising two kids. Jory and Bart are examples of good and bad growing up in a loving household, but tortured by the past. When Cathy and Chris’ mom re-enters the picture, you know something bad is gonna go down. And it takes one of the boys on a trail of vengeance. Mostly unrealistic, the books take you on a little jaunt into the wild imaginations of a tortured family who have done nothing but brought on their own destruction. Yes, some of them are innocent; some cross a line not really intending to harm anyone else. Others are truly out to instill pain, and some are just ill. Finding the balance among the different family members is good entertainment. There really aren’t any lessons in these books… just pure drama.
This entry was posted in Book Review: Young Adult (YA) Fiction, Book Reviews and tagged dollanganger, drama, faily, gothic, if there be thorns, incest, Murder, saga, V.C. Andrews, vc andrews, young adult.
Review: Daisy Miller
4 of 5 stars to Daisy Miller by Henry James, a story about a free and unattached American girl who is spending some time in Europe after being removed from American society for some time. She unwittingly defies the moral code of European society, never realizing it until the very end when she dies. All throughout the story, “Daisy does what she likes, responds to what she likes. To the world around her she is a young girl, an American girl, she represents a society and a sex. She is expected to be what she appears-whether that is an innocent girl or a fallen woman” (Allen 337). In America, Daisy was free to roam about, flirting occasionally with the men. Once she enters Rome though, her behavior with a “dubious native [is] in defiance of the system of curfews and chaperons which [the society] holds dear” (Dupee 298). James sets up the plot of the story by having Daisy run into a man who is also an American transplant. Frederick Winterbourne, a kind free-spirited and unemployed gigolo, has lived in Europe for quite a few years searching for an older, rich woman to marry. When he meets Daisy, he is immediately intrigued by the “pretty American flirt” (James 102). Once this connection is established, Daisy’s innocence becomes the focus of the text. In the very beginning, “when contrary to the code of Geneva, [Winterbourne] speaks to the unmarried Daisy, he wonders whether ‘he has gone too far.’ . . . When he attempts to classify her, she undermines all of his stuffy and inapplicable generalizations. He decides that [Daisy] may be ‘cold,’ ‘austere,’ and ‘prim’ only to find her spontaneous and as ‘decently limpid as the very cleanest water’” (Gargano 314). Daisy and Winterbourne have now established their relationship at this point; They are attracted to one another and would like to go and see the Chateau de Chillon. When Winterbourne asks her to go with him, Daisy says, with some placidity, “With me?”. Winterbourne responds by respectfully inviting her mother along also. However, after the flirtatious exchange between the two, “[Daisy] didn’t rise, blushing, as a young girl at Geneva would have done” (James 103). The process in which Daisy loses her innocence begins here.
However, James’s short story is told from the perspective of Winterbourne, which overshadows the true story of Daisy’s innocence. Readers see and understand Daisy’s actions through Winterbourne’s eyes and actions. After Winterbourne leaves town to care for his aunt, he and Edna find their way back to each other. However, Winterbourne is non-committal to Daisy because of her flirtatious behavior with him and other men. Nevertheless, Daisy is not alone when they meet up this time. She is dating an Italian man named Giovanelli, who is obviously only after her money. Daisy continues to see Giovanelli, but she also spends some time with Winterbourne. Society begins to see that she is involved with both of these two men, quite intimately apparently. Daisy’s mother thinks she is engaged to Giovanelli, but Daisy is also seen out with Winterbourne every once in a while. F. W. Dupee remarks that when society is “judging [Daisy’s] morals by her manners, they imagine the worst and they ostracize her. They are wrong” (Dupee 299). However, “all the chattering tongues of Rome do not bother Daisy. She knows that Winterbourne, the one person whose opinion she values, believes in her innocence and chastity” (Buitenhuis 310). Daisy later focuses her thoughts on Giovanelli, and ignores Winterbourne even though he has always believed in her innocence and cared for her.
After losing track of Daisy for quite some time, Winterbourne runs across her at the Colosseum in Rome. The Colosseum was known to be a place where young lovers would go to experience passion and love. Daisy and Giovanelli are standing in the arena when Winterbourne notices them. Winterbourne tries to leave without making his presence known, but Daisy sees him. He asks her if she is engaged to Giovanelli, and Daisy tells him that she is. Winterbourne, at this point, believes that Daisy is nothing but a flirt who toys with men’s emotions for her own self-interest. It was also very dangerous for one to go near the Colosseum at such late hours because it was common for people to catch Roman Fever, a form of malaria. When Winterbourne tells Daisy this, she seems to hardly care at all about getting sick, and her actions even lead the readers to believe that she is going there purposely. Daisy’s actions appear suicidal. Winterbourne is concerned and he “not only expresses his concern for her health so recklessly exposed, but [by doing so,] he also lets her see that he has lost faith in her purity” (Buitenhuis 310). Shortly after, Daisy takes ill and begins to die. On her death bed, she can only think of telling Winterbourne that she really is not engaged to Giovanelli, who skips out on her once she gets sick.
Daisy eventually dies from the Roman Fever. It seems as though “Daisy dies because she cannot be fitted into any European scheme of things” (Allen 337). At this point, “[Winterbourne] realizes too late that he could have loved Daisy, and that Daisy could have loved him” (Buitenhuis 310). It is sad that it has to come to this, but society binds women to the strict standards of what they can and cannot do. If Daisy was in America, she would have gotten away with her behavior, but she was in Europe. European culture expects women to conform to specific standards. Just as Daisy is expected to live by the customs of Europe, so is Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening.
This entry was posted in Book Review: Classics (Pre-20th Century), Book Reviews and tagged american, book review, classic, daisy miller, european, henry james, literature, realism, roman fever, rome, sex, women. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6058 |
__label__wiki | 0.579445 | 0.579445 | Are You Concerned About Your Child’s Social Media Use?
A new study reveals there’s so much more to the story.
Common Sense Media, Improving the lives of kids & families by providing the information, education, and voice they need to thrive in a world of media & technology
By Caroline Knorr
What teenagers look like they’re doing and what they’re actually doing can be two totally different things — especially when it comes to social media. A bored-looking ninth-grader could be majorly bonding with her new BFF on Snapchat. A 10th-grade gamer may complain loudly when you cut off his internet but be secretly relieved. An awkward eighth-grader may be YouTube’s hottest star. To find out what’s really going on in teens’ social media lives, Common Sense Media polled more than 1,100 13- to 17-year-olds in its latest research, Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences. The new study updates our 2012 study on teens and social media with surprising new findings that address many of parents’ most pressing concerns about issues such as cyberbullying, depression, and even the popularity of Facebook (spoiler alert: It’s not).
Why now? Today, 89 percent of teens have their own smartphones (compared with 41 percent in 2012). They grew up right alongside Instagram and Snapchat. They do research papers on Google Classroom, find emotional support on teen forums, share poetry on Tumblr, and are more likely to text “I love you” before they’d ever say it to your face. But concerns over the negative consequences of social media have grown in tandem with its popularity among teens. Grim reports on teen suicide, addiction, cyberbullying, and eroding social skills have caused many people, from parents to teachers to the tech industry itself, to look at social media as a potential contributor — if not the cause — of these issues. This survey clarifies some of those concerns and draws attention to the reasons some kids are deeply affected by — and connected to — their digital worlds. Here are some of the key findings from the report, what they mean for you and your teen, and what you can do about them.
They can’t stop. They won’t stop. Seventy percent of teens use social media more than once a day (compared to 34 percent in 2012). Interestingly, most teens think technology companies manipulate users to spend more time on their devices. Many of them also think that social media distracts them and and their friends.
What you can do. They know it’s getting in the way of important things, but they have a hard time regulating their own use. So, help them! Encourage them to be mindful of how they feel before, during, and after a social media session. If a certain friend or topic bugs them or brings them down, they can block that person or mute the thread. Challenge them to do a task with focused concentration and without getting distracted for longer and longer periods (set a timer!).
Thumbs mostly up. Only a very few teens say that using social media has a negative effect on how they feel about themselves; many more say it has a positive effect. Twenty-five percent say social media makes them feel less lonely (compared to 3 percent who say more); eighteen percent say it makes them feel better about themselves (compared to 4 percent who say worse); and 16 percent say it makes them feel less depressed (compared to 3 percent who say more).
What you can do. It’s good news, but it’s still important to check in. Ask open-ended questions about their social media lives: What’s good? What’s not so good? What do you wish you could change? And remember, social media is only one contributor to kids’ overall well-being.
Managing devices is hit or miss. Many turn off, silence, or put away their phones at key times such as when going to sleep, having meals with people, visiting family, or doing homework. But many others do not: A significant number of teens say they “hardly ever” or “never” silence or put away their devices.
What you can do. If your teen is the kind who can manage their own use, keep encouraging them. If not, set specific screen rules for around the house. Establish screen-free times (such as during homework) and areas (such as the bedroom). Have device-free-dinner nights — and make sure to follow the rules yourself.
Snapchat and Instagram are where it’s at. In 2012 Facebook utterly dominated social networking use among teens. Today, only 15 percent say it’s their main site (when one 16-year-old girl was asked in a focus group who she communicates with on Facebook, she replied, “My grandparents”).
What you can do. Familiarize yourself with your teen’s favorite social media by reading reviews or downloading it yourself and playing around with it. Friend your teen if they’ll allow it, but don’t force it; instead, make time for regular check-ins when you can ask what’s new on Snapchat and Insta and share your feeds with them.
Less talking, more texting. In 2012, about half of all teens still said their favorite way to communicate with friends was in person; today less than a third say so. But more than half of all teens say that social media takes them away from personal relationships and distracts them from paying attention to the people they’re with.
What you can do. This is where your guidance and role-modeling of healthy online habits is really important. Put down your own phone (better yet, set it to Do Not Disturb) when you’re with your kids. Encourage them to be more self-aware about their device use, especially when they come away from interactions feeling like they were distracted. And if you think they need a break, prompt them to go phone-free for a while.
Vulnerable teens need extra support. Social media is significantly more important in the lives of vulnerable teens (those who rate themselves low on a social-emotional well-being scale). This group is more likely to say they’ve had a variety of negative responses to social media (such as feeling bad about themselves when nobody comments on or likes their posts). But they’re also more likely to say that social media has a positive rather than a negative effect on them.
What you can do. You may not know whether your teen is vulnerable. In fact, they may not know it. Because vulnerable teens can struggle more in all areas, use your intuition to dig deeper if you sense something is going on. Help them to get the best out of social media and minimize anything that provokes a negative reaction. If they’re creative, support their efforts to share their work online, as vulnerable teens say that expressing themselves on social media is extremely important.
Exposure to hate speech in on the rise, while cyberbullying is less common. Only 13 percent of teens report ever being cyberbullied. But nearly two-thirds say they often or sometimes come across racist, sexist, homophobic, or religious-based hate content in social media.
What you can do. Talk to your kid about being a force for good on the internet. Explain that it reflects poorly on them if they like, share, or otherwise support messages of hate — even as a joke. If your kid knows the person spewing hate speech, then encourage them to block, report, or simply unfriend that person. Practice how to disagree with people respectfully and constructively. Encourage them to stand up for people who’ve been denigrated — without getting into an ugly flame war.
Express yourself! More than one in four teens says social media is “extremely” or “very” important to them for expressing themselves creatively.
What you can do. Be supportive. While there are some risks to putting your work online, it’s possible to do it safely, and it can actually help teens get their stuff noticed by schools, employers, and mentors. Help them use privacy settings on whatever platform they choose to share their work so they don’t expose themselves to potential predators. Offer advice on how to accept feedback and comments maturely. And find out how to protect their intellectual property. Who knows? Their online efforts in the teen years may pay off later!
– By Caroline Knorr, originally published at www.commonsensemedia.org
— Published on September 10, 2018
Mindful Screening// September 13, 2018
Concerned That Teens Are Constantly on Social Media?
by Common Sense Media
Wisdom// December 11, 2018
What Might Explain the Unhappiness Epidemic?
Wonder// January 24, 2018
This 1 Thing Might Explain The Unhappiness Epidemic | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6061 |
__label__wiki | 0.783501 | 0.783501 | President Trump Will Delay the Release of Some John F. Kennedy Assassination Records
TIME Immersive
Explore the Apollo 11 moon landing
Kennedy assassination
By Katie Reilly
Updated: October 26, 2017 8:03 PM ET
President Trump released 2,891 records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Thursday night, but will postpone the release of some documents for up to six months due to redaction requests from the FBI and CIA.
The agencies have been ordered to review the redactions during the next 180 days to determine if they’re necessary, according to a White House memo.
“I am ordering today that the veil finally be lifted,” Trump said in the memo Thursday night, adding that some agencies and executive departments had requested some information be withheld due to national security concerns. “I have no choice — today — but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our Nation’s security”
Trump ordered the documents to be withheld until no later than April 26, 2018. “This temporary withholding from full public disclosure is necessary to protect against harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure,” he said.
Thursday was the long established deadline for the release of all records related to the Kennedy assassination, based on a law passed in 1992. Trump has been touting the release this week.
Resolutions introduced in the Senate and House this month said there were about 3,000 unreleased documents pertaining to the Kennedy assassination.
Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6062 |
__label__cc | 0.749015 | 0.250985 | QMC in Cambridge and around the world
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Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is an exciting, modern computational technique which allows us to approximately solve the equations of quantum mechanics – which are far too complicated to solve exactly – and in most cases get essentially the right answer. Its key advantage is that, unlike with all other known highly accurate techniques, it is still possible to do the calculations for relatively large systems with many atoms – providing you have a big enough computer (and QMC is quite capable of using the biggest). Used in combination with other cheaper methods, it provides researchers with the final building block in an atomic scale micro-laboratory on their computer which can be used to simulate small parts of the real world. Its practical application to real-life problems – via a general, widely-distributed computer program system – has been pioneered in the United Kingdom by members of the Cambridge University Theory of Condensed Matter Group working out of the Cavendish Laboratory, famous throughout the world as the venue for amazing historical discoveries such as the electron and DNA. A number of their collaborators at various other universities – whose work is also discussed here – have also made fundamental contributions, both to the software, and to the field in general.
This page exists for the following reasons:
To tell you about the research of the U.K. QMC community. The site includes introductory and review information along with a library of as many of their relevant scientific articles as we can find (Click ‘Read’, ‘Community→Projects’ or ‘Community→Blog’).
It is the home of the Cambridge quantum Monte Carlo computer program system ‘CASINO’ . Here you can find all relevant information about this code, you can download it, and you can learn how to use it (click ‘CASINO’).
It is the home page of that considerable proportion of the world’s QMC researchers who meet annually in Vallico Sotto, Tuscany, Italy at the Apuan Alps Centre for Physics, and it provides a library of slides from essentially all the talks ever given at these meetings. The site also provides information about the annual QMC summer schools run by the TCM group at the same venue (click ‘Events’).
It attempts to provide a sense of community amongst QMC researchers; this is a participatory site where any approved user may contribute articles to at least the Blog and Projects section of this website (click ‘Community’). Active conversations also take place on the discussion forum – in practice mainly concerning the use and abuse of CASINO – but any relevant topics are encouraged (Click ‘Discussion Forum’).
It is the principal online resource for developers of the CASINO program (click ‘Software Development’).
It provides access to tools and data vital to doing calculations, such as our library of pseudopotentials and corresponding Gaussian basis sets (click ‘Pseudopotentials’).
This website (new from November 2013) replaced an old one built with 1970s static HTML and frames which, by the second decade of the 21st century, had begun to look rather tired. Not only does this new site have (we hope) some great content, but it has been designed to be as ‘social’ as possible: the site adapts itself for visualization on mobile phones, pretty much everything can be commented on, Twittered, Reditted, Facebooked, Google-Plussed etc., and content can be added by anyone who wishes to who is able to convince the Administrator that they should.
We hope you enjoy using these pages!
Mike Towler, Richard Needs, Neil Drummond, Pablo López Ríos | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6069 |
__label__wiki | 0.708836 | 0.708836 | Read Next: Jeffrey Epstein Bail Decision Delayed, More Accusers Coming Forward
September 8, 2017 1:48PM PT
University of California Sues Trump Administration Over Decision to End DACA
By Ted Johnson
Senior Editor @tedstew FOLLOW
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CREDIT: TASOS KATOPODIS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The University of California sued the Trump administration on Friday in a challenge to the decision to end DACA, a program that allows young, undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.
The lawsuit is the first to be filed by a university in an effort to retain the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that it was rescinding the Obama-era executive order that established the program, although it won’t be phased out for another six months to give Congress time to act to save it through legislation.
“Neither I, nor the University of California, take the step of suing the federal government lightly, especially not the very agency that I led,” said Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of California, who created the program in 2012 when she was serving as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
“It is imperative, however, that we stand up for these vital members of the UC community,” she said. “They represent the best of who we are — hard working, resilient, and motivated high achievers. To arbitrarily and capriciously end the DACA program, which benefits our country as a whole, is not only unlawful, it is contrary to our national values and bad policy.”
UC accused the Trump administration of rescinding the program on “nothing more than unreasoned executive whim.” The lawsuit was filed in California against the Department of Homeland Security and Elaine Duke, who is the acting secretary.
The program allowed those who came to the United States before age 16, including many with their undocumented parents, to remain in the country under a set of conditions. About 800,000 individuals are affected, and UC has about 4,000 undocumented students. It said that a “substantial number” of those undocumented students are in the DACA program, along with teachers, researchers, and health care workers.
The UC argues that the“capricious recession” of the program violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act. UC is offering legal services to the undocumented immigrants.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said that they do not comment on pending litigation. But in announcing an end to the program, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that it was based on an unconstitutional executive order that circumvented the authority of Congress.
The day after his announcement, a group of attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia filed suit to stop the Trump administration from ending the program, and said that it unfairly targeted Mexican immigrants.
Janet Napolitano | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6070 |
__label__wiki | 0.84213 | 0.84213 | Let Me Introduce You To 100 Legendary Games (Part 3)
bitmob October 31, 2009 1:52 PM
You’re now aware of my hatred towards the CDi Zelda titles, so why not spend this spooky Halloween browsing the third part of my 100 Legendary Games series? Perhaps you’ll spot a couple horror titles in there, or maybe you’ll find my exclusion of such innovative titles as Irritating Stick horrifying.
If by chance you’re new to this series, I decided to put 100 game cartridges and CDs in a pot and boil them, while inhaling their intoxicating fumes. These fumes allowed me to “accurately” rank these 100 titles in order from worst to best.
If you don’t see some of your favorite titles on this list, like say, Oblivion or Valkyria Chronicles, there’s a good chance that I haven’t played them. I only included games that I’ve beaten or achieved 90% or greater completion, so if you don’t see your favorite title, now you know why. Before delving into this list full of gaming chronic, you might want to check out Part One and Part Two.
I hope you enjoy the third entry of my 100 Legendary Games series!
Title: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time is often picked as the best Zelda title and for good reason. It was one of the first games to give us a massive world, it had spectacular dungeons, and it redefined 3D combat. This groundbreaking title came with a few disappointments, but it was still an epic adventure that I’ll never forget.
Title: Dead Space
Platform: Xbox 360
Survival Horror games changed significantly since the release of Resident Evil 4, but EA somehow put the horror back in this genre while making its game control like a dream. Besides delivering excellent controls, Dead Space featured nearly unrivaled sound, incredible visuals, and an impressive gameplay engine inspired by Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, Gears of War, and Bioshock. What more could a gamer ask for?
Title: Resident Evil 4
Even though Dead Space one-upped Resident Evil 4 in many ways, Resident Evil 4 was a fabulous title that not only showed people what the Gamecube was capable of — it delivered an immersive Survival Horror experience that felt unlike anything that had come before. Instead of featuring zombies, RE4 included Spaniards infested by parasites that acted far more intelligent than their undead brethren. This change in enemy types wouldn’t have meant anything if Capcom didn’t do away with archaic controls and gameplay elements that plagued previous titles in the series, so fortunately, they began with a clean slate. And to top off RE4’s impressive gameplay overhaul, it came with a series of spectacular bosses that few video games could match.
Title: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
More often than not, it feels like sequels retread familiar ground, so I was taken by surprise with Naughty Dog’s second Uncharted. Among Thieves made significant control advancements, it allowed players to partake in what would normally be cut-scenes, it delivered incredible environmental variety (along with some of the most spectacular visuals to ever grace a video game), and most importantly, it delivered a thrilling adventure that Hollywood movies could only dream of.
Title: Beyond Good & Evil
It’s a shame that I originally passed over Beyond Good & Evil, because when I played this underrated title in 2009, it delivered one of the best original video game experiences I’ve had in years. How did it accomplish this? Through its gameplay that is completely intertwined with its story. You won’t find yourself solving trivial puzzles here; instead, every action you take is a part of showing the true colors of a corrupt media organization who portrays itself as benevolent. You’ll rarely find an adventure title with as much gameplay variety as Beyond Good & Evil that feels so polished. Did I mention that this is also one of the only video games to feature a respectable female protagonist?
Title: Mass Effect
Anyone who’s played Bioware’s console RPGs will immediately understand the gameplay conventions found in Mass Effect, but they won’t realize that this is the best Star Trek video game until they complete it. Okay, so it isn’t really Star Trek, but as with previous Bioware titles, it features a wonderful storyline that allows the player to make decisions. What’s new in Mass Effect are the first-person shooter-like controls and excellent facial animations. Oh yeah, and the girl-on-girl action and “thrilling” elevator rides.
Title: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
This is sure to increase the amount of death threats I receive tenfold, but I loved The Wind Waker. The first revealed screenshot may have made me curse Nintendo, but when I saw the cartoony visuals in action, I ate my words. The Wind Waker may not have been the most original Zelda, but the beautiful cel-shaded visuals, excellent soundtrack, and spectacular finale make this one of my favorite Zelda titles.
Title: God of War II
When I heard that David Jaffe wouldn’t be helming God of War II, I feared the worst. Despite being somewhat of a cocky bastard, he’s a creative visionary that provided one of the most stunning games of the PS2 generation. Well, imagine my surprise then when God of War II ended up being just as spectacular as the original. It didn’t feel quite as fresh, but God of War II is still one of the best action games in existence. How could I have a problem with its thrilling Greek Mythology-inspired tale and its wonderful voice acting and sound design? Here’s hoping that the third God of War can deliver an equally rich experience.
Title: Suikoden
Platform: Playstation
Suikoden always looked a bit dated visually, but it was notable for telling an epic tale that was drastically different than that of its RPG contemporaries. While most RPGs focused on a group of adventurers embarking on a world spanning quest, Suikoden focused on a civil war occurring within one particular region.
What made this quest special was that you played as a renegade son of the Emperor’s highest ranking general. You begin your quest by serving the Scarlet Moon Empire, but once you understand that the empire has changed, you betray you father and join up with a liberation movement. Initially, you serve this movement by carrying out important errands, but eventually you rise to the top and have the opportunity to recruit 108 characters and build your own castle. I’ll never forget this mature RPG that made me feel as if I could influence the outcome of a nation’s future.
Title: Suikoden V
As with every Suikoden title, Suikoden V was overlooked, even though it returned to the series’ roots. It’s a shame, because this game’s politically charged narrative is one of the most exciting video game tales I’ve experienced since Suikoden II. It’s not as unique as the second game in the series, but its refined gameplay, interesting storyline, and excellent soundtrack made Suikoden V feel like the first true Suikoden since Suikoden II.
Title: Silent Hill
I ignored the Silent Hill series for over a decade, so I was quite surprised that this Survival Horror title made such an impression on me. Not only is it one of the scariest games I’ve ever played — it’s actually playable today due to its lack of tank controls. This incredibly atmospheric title also features competent voice acting (a rarity on the PSOne), and one of the most interesting video game tales I’ve ever experienced. So many questions are left unanswered, but you know a game has done something right when it causes you to think about its story after you’ve completed the game.
Title: Grand Theft Auto 4
I’ve always wanted to like the Grand Theft Auto series, but I just couldn’t get into Grand Theft Auto III and its two successors. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the open-ended gameplay — I just couldn’t stick with any of them for long due to their lack of a compelling storyline. Grand Theft Auto IV bucked this trend by providing a cast of memorable characters and a believable world. Sure, there were plot holes and the gameplay got repetitive at times, but I loved playing as the Eastern European immigrant, Niko Bellic who is one of my favorite contemporary video game characters.
Title: Terranigma
Platform: Super NES (UK Version)
I first played this lost Super Nintendo classic during summer 2009 after discovering it on Youtube, and it turned out to be one of the most interesting RPGs I’d played in years. This third part of the action-RPG series that includes Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia never made it to North America. It’s a shame that Terranigma remains unreleased, because its unique premise that involves a dualistic world and the creation and death of species really made an impression on me. Without a doubt, Terranigma is the most mysterious game I’ve ever played, and that alone makes it deserving of its position on this list.
Title: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Platform: Wii
Quite a few Zelda fans were disappointed with Twilight Princess, because of the “Been there, done that” feeling it emitted, but I was quite impressed with this Wii launch title. Even though Twilight Princess wasn’t the biggest evolution in the Zelda series, it managed to be my idealized version of Ocarina of Time. I’d always wanted to ride my horse through realistic forests, battle soldiers on horseback with swords and arrows, and play a Zelda without blurry textures, and Twilight Princess was the first Zelda to meet these expectations. It also introduced some creative new tools, Wiimote aiming, and one of my favorite Zelda soundtracks. Twilight Princess’ lack of 480p widescreen support was disappointing, but at least I finally got my hands on the version of Ocarina of Time I’d always wanted.
Title: Eternal Sonata
I never understood why this musical RPG received so much hate. Eternal Sonata introduced an innovative (and fun) combat system, it provided a unique premise that paralleled events that occurred during the life of a famous composer, and it included stunning visuals and music. As someone who enjoys history, I appreciated learning about the life of Chopin through in-game history tidbits featured alongside many of his famous musical compositions. I also admired the way elements of his life were integrated into the storyline. Some of the game’s characters could have been better developed, but regardless, I found this tale full of philosophical concepts and environmental themes quite interesting. Despite Eternal Sonata’s poor voice acting, the game managed to charm me.
Title: World of Goo
It’s rare when a title that comes out of nowhere impresses me, but World of Goo was one of those. This $15 WiiWare game secured its position as my favorite Wii release of 2008 not just because of the Wii’s lack of quality software, but because of its innovative physics-based puzzle gameplay that was part of a well-rounded package. Throughout the entire experience, designing structures to tackle the levels’ obstacles never got old, and it didn’t hurt that World of Goo also had charming visuals and music. World of Goo is easily my favorite puzzle game, so I hope to see more indie games of this caliber in the future.
Title: God of War
Anyone who’s played God of War knows that this title needs no explaining. It features one of the most badass characters to ever grace a video game, threesomes, monstrous bosses, and superb level design. If God of War was judged in RPG terms, it’d be a level 99 warrior equipped with the best uber gear. It’s that good.
Title: Metal Gear Solid 4
Say what you will about the Metal Gear Solid series’ lengthy cut-scenes, but there’s no doubt that they look spectacular. MGS4 was often lambasted for including “far more” cut-scenes than the rest of the series, but that really isn’t true — unless you count the lengthy ending. Regardless of whether or not you think that cut-scenes belong in a video game, it’s hard to argue with MGS4’s modern warfare storyline involving private military corporations. Also notable is the fact that this was the first MGS game to feature simplified controls and great camera angles, so players no longer had to wrestle with dated gameplay elements. I’m grateful for this, because it allowed me to have a pain-free experience with the best Metal Gear adventure since the original.
Title: Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime may not have used dual-analog control, but it was a spectacular reimagining of Super Metroid in 3D. I actually prefer it to that legendary title, due to the game’s highly immersive nature. Metroid Prime’s jaw dropping visuals, haunting soundtrack, and pure exploration not only made it one of my favorite Gamecube titles — it made it my favorite first-person single-player experience, period.
Title: Final Fantasy VIII
This Final Fantasy gets a lot of hate (even from series fans), which is unfortunate, because it was an incredibly ambitious title that aimed to evolve the series. For once, characters were actually realistically proportioned, and you could always see all of your party members on-screen. Final Fantasy VIII was also notable for featuring seamless gameplay to cut-scene transitions, and sometimes you could even control your character while in an FMV scene. The team behind Final Fantasy VIII also made the ballsy decision of doing away with armor, MP, and battle-earned money. Instead, you equipped magic and summoned monsters, and gained money by increasing your rank as a mercenary. Not all of the gameplay changes were great, but at least Square tried something new.
Title: Lunar 2 Eternal Blue
This underappreciated RPG performed an amazing feat — it managed to be an original (and compelling) character-driven RPG while providing enough nostalgic elements to appease fans of the first Lunar. The cast may not have been as memorable as the loveable crew of the original Lunar, but the surprise return of one of gaming’s greatest villains, and the addition of a Dark God with one of the most impressive “bad guy” voices I’ve ever heard in a video game make this a charming adventure. As with the first Lunar, Eternal Blue featured a wonderful soundtrack that covered a range of emotions, but it was also special for providing a darker storyline that presented the dangers that can result from the creation of powerful religious institutions.
Title: Earthbound
Platform: Super NES
It’s been ages since I’ve played Earthbound, so I can’t remember its quirky dialogue by heart, but I recall it gripping me with its setting that was a far cry from the fantasy and sci-fi trappings of most of its contemporaries. Earthbound wasn’t the first RPG to provide a Japanese take on ’60s era America (its Japan-only NES prequel had that honor), but it’s certainly the best. When you can beat up street thugs, insane retro hippies, and taxi drivers with baseball bats and bottle rockets, and wolf down hamburgers and ride a bicycle, you know you’ve got a great game. I just hope I wasn’t the only one who painted my town blue because of the Happy Happy Cult.
Title: Secret of Evermore
As with Mystic Quest, I’m once again, risking death at the hands of RPG fans. Secret of Evermore is an excellent action-RPG that I’d much rather play than Secret of Mana’s Japan-only successor. Why is it special? Evermore allowed a small town American boy and his dog to travel into a world created by eccentric scientists.
This world created by four individuals was divided into four different zones that each mirrored eras that Earth dwellers would recognize. One was a pre-historic period, another was a Egyptian/Greek/Roman hybrid, a third was similar to medieval Europe, and the final was a futuristic period. This quest was unbelievably atmospheric with some of the best sound design I’d seen on the 16-bit systems, and it had a much darker tone than most RPGs of that era. What’s even more astonishing is the fact that Evermore was the only Square title developed by an American team.
Title: Mother 3
Platform: GBA (Japan only)
Unlike Earthbound, this Mother title isn’t just about childhood and humor. A tragic event occurs early in the adventure that changes everything — it transforms a small happy town with a sense of community into a place only concerned with the pursuit of money. Even though Mother 3’s plot has some serious elements including death and a discussion of capitalism, it still manages to retain the Mother series’ signature humor. The battle system may feel a bit archaic, but this GBA title is one of the best RPGs released in recent years that is definitely worth a purchase if it ever comes to America.
Title: Final Fantasy V
Platform: Playstation (original: Super Famicom)
Us unfortunate Americans may have received Final Fantasy V late, but those of us weaned on the early Final Fantasies didn’t care that we were playing a seven year-old game in 1999. The story may have been a bit simplistic, but with characters like Gilgamesh that provided comic relief, the end of the crystals, and a superb battle system, Final Fantasy V managed to win our hearts. Someday, I’d love to go on this multiple world spanning quest a third time if I can ever find the time.
Title: Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid introduced one of my favorite video game characters, it featured an interesting narrative complemented by great voice acting, and it included innovative stealth-action gameplay. Not only did Metal Gear Solid get nearly everything right — it also was one of the first video games that didn’t glorify warfare.
Many movies and games portray war as a simple “good versus evil” affair, and rarely examine the ramifications of killing someone, but Metal Gear Solid does just that while providing a compelling gameplay experience. Even during actual gameplay, the player is encouraged to fight as few enemies as possible, so clearly, this non-violent atmosphere pervades the entire game. The camera and controls may feel a bit clumsy today, but this stylish stealth-action game still managed to impress me during my fourth play-through in 2009. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6072 |
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__label__wiki | 0.898504 | 0.898504 | Sewickley Academy boys lacrosse fights through growing pains
By: Shawn Annarelli
Friday, April 26, 2019 | 6:50 PM
With a young, small roster, Sewickley Academy boys lacrosse coach Trevor Adams has made this season all about executing fundamentals.
The team has proven it can be successful after a two-win season a year ago in a higher classification, but there have been growing pains.
“If we miss clears, it’s because we didn’t make the easy pass. If we didn’t get a hard ground ball, it’s because we didn’t fight hard enough,” Adams said. “Those are pieces we’re cleaning up, but our offense can move the ball and the defense can hold it down. It’s that transition we have to work on or we get stuck.”
Sewickley Academy’s April 18 game against Freeport showed both sides of its youthfulness.
Down 2-0 a few minutes into the first period, the Panthers were struggling to maintain possession beyond midfield against a physical Yellowjackets team.
Freeport didn’t slow down its offensive pressure, but Sewickley Academy senior goalie Josh Thomas answered the call by saving the next 10 shots to take a 2-2 tie into halftime.
“We knew they were a good team,” Thomas said. “I think the key was we started to communicate well, and we moved our feet. We made a few mistakes, but it was really a team effort to stick it out.”
Sewickley Academy went on to win 7-6, just days after losing a one goal game to South Fayette.
“I told them after that loss that we needed to show that, that isn’t who we are,” Adams said. “We needed to show we can come from behind. We needed to show we could hold a lead, and this was a great testament to their pride and effort.”
It’s the type of win that should give the team more confidence heading into the second half of the season.
“I feel like this will give us momentum to go to Trinity and play really well,” Thomas said. “I have a really good feeling about this, especially for all of our freshmen and sophomores and their development.”
Thomas was right. Sewickley Academy (5-4, 3-2) rolled through Trinity, 17-2, to move above .500 for the first time this season.
The team’s ability to endure difficult early stretches, Adams said, has been due to his veteran goalie and defense.
“Defensively, we’re really senior heavy,” Adams said. “That’s what has kept us in games, and that’s what allows us on offense where we’re so young. If we didn’t have those defensive senior anchors, I’m not sure that we’d always be competitive in every game.”
Thomas credited senior defenders Donald Belt, Clay Winningham and Dan Phillips with helping younger players develop.
The offense also has recently excelled, averaging 7.5 goals over the past five games.
“Last year, we had almost all freshmen on offense, and they’re all back as sophomores,” Adams said. “They’re starting to lead us down there. We also have a junior on offense, Ben Mahon, and he’s improved greatly as a player and leader.”
Sophomore Jack Wentz leads the team with 20 goals, and sophomore Matthew Meakem has 11 assists.
The Panthers just have to find a way to be more consistent in Class AA.
“It’s been phenomenal for us (moving down a classification),” Adams said. “We don’t have a ton of kids, and there’s no (junior varsity) team. We have kids who are gaining varsity experience, and weeks in double-A like this are perfect for their confidence and our growth as a team.”
Tags: Sewickley Academy | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6075 |
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Home Travel Destinations Asia Most Popular Places of Interest in Sri Lanka
Most Popular Places of Interest in Sri Lanka
Damjan Tanaskovic
Scrounging about for undiscovered gems of the world has never been a more daunting and energy-syphoning process.
The corners of this planet appear as if they’ve shrunk down to size, becoming ever smaller with less new lands to explore. Despite these dire prognoses, some places are still out there, tucked away for some late post-modern discovery. One of the destinations still largely veiled in secrecy is Sri Lanka, an island country in the unpredictable Indian Ocean. Places of interest in Sri Lanka come in various forms, competing for the attention of fervent discoverers.
What’s so inviting about this place, you might wonder? Well, as is the case with all the other lost jewels of planet Earth, the true satisfaction comes from demystifying that little that remains to be demystified. You won’t find rowdy droves of tourists here, nor will you find incessant hustle and bustle that often derive from the said tourists. While they’re off on some other, albeit more popular destination, you’ll get to have an adventure of your lifetime on an exotic island, walking in footsteps of an ancient civilization.
Bordering Sabaragamuwa and Uva provinces, Udawalawe National Park provides the wildlife displaced during the construction of a reservoir with a place to call home.
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Covered mostly in expanding planes with only a couple of mountains to tear the horizon, the area around the Walawe River is home to the widest of varieties of flora and fauna. Most notably, it is a home to the majestic elephants of Sri Lanka which are all but gone from the actual wilderness. Besides elephants, families of water buffalos, wild boars, mongooses and grey langurs wander the park, basking in the proximity of the Walave River. Other than these, most notable of all the animals (thanks to their likeness being featured on a series of stamps), you can run into an occasional Indian hare, jackals and macaques.
Nature wildlife preserves such as this one can be experienced as a part of a group similar to a safari tour, unravelling the story of Sri Lankan creatures from a safe distance.
At the very heart of the island, there exists a temple of immense cultural and spiritual significance. On the Kandy plateau lies the city of Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site trapped by rolling green heals surrounding the central province.
Besides being the administrative centre of the region, Kandy has a long and illustrious history. The Royal Palace has been home to more than a single monarch, however, there was much more to this grand complex than what you’ll be able to see today. The artificial Kandy Lake adds to the overall beauty of the landscape, but it’s not even remotely as interesting as the Temple of the Tooth.
This, the most sacred of sites in the Buddhist tradition apparently has a unique relic on display – Buddha’s tooth. If you happen to find yourselves in Kandy during summer, you’ll be able to observe Esala Perahera. It is at this event that the relic makes its way around town on the back of an elephant, supported by the beating of the drums and moves of the traditional dancers.
Before its long colonial history, Galle was more commonly known as Gimhathiththa. The former definitely rolls off the tongue more gently, at least for us European folk.
Much like in Kandy, there’s also a World Heritage Site to be found in here. Galle Fort was built by Dutch colonialists to protect the valuable harbour, whose prominence has survived throughout the years. It’s still the largest structure of its kind in this corner of the world. But, if forts aren’t your forte, pun intended, the Dutch have left the most astonishing villas, remnants of European colonial architecture that, perhaps, serve as a reminder of bleaker times.
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All around Galle, there’s plenty of natural beauty to be had as well, especially the meandering Gin River. If you’d fancy a good legend, head out the way of the Rumassala hill, where, as some people believe, certain events from Ramayana took place.
Locally known as Sri Pada, or ‘the sacred foot’, Adam’s Peak is one of the highest mountain peaks on the island.
As you may or may not have known before, most of the largest world’s religions trace their footsteps back to this towering mountain. When we say footsteps, we mean that quite literally, considering the existence of a mark resembling a foot located at the very summit. Depending on who you ask, the footprint belongs to Adam, or Shiva, or Buddha.
Besides this relatively important landmark, hiking up the trails leading to the summit will also reveal the green convexedness surrounding Adam’s Peak in the shape of its hills. One can easily realise why Adam’s Peak is among the most breathtaking places of interest in Sri Lanka and quite worth visiting. Whether you consider it a holy site or not is of little importance and its six trails should find themselves on your travel itinerary.
Believe it or not, Sri Lanka also has its own City of Light, but it’s something different altogether.
Nuwara Eliya is also known as the City on the Plain thanks to is highly hospitable position in the central province, even though it’s surrounded by hills on all sides. Hailing from Nuwara Eliya is some of the best tea you can have in Sri Lanka. That is yet another fragment from this country’s colonial history, only a different one in this instance. Hill Club, General’s House, Queen’s Cottage and their architecture, combined with all the tea plantations have garnered it the appropriate nickname of Little England.
Above all, you’ll find the highest peak on the island, Pidurutalagala, staring down at Sri Lanka from its 2,524-metre tall vantage point. Any real Sri Lanka tour should take you in this direction as the beauty and culture of Nuwara Eliya are just a couple of reasons to visit this picturesque region.
As is the case with Arugam Bay, travellers often come here for a relaxing day on the beach, sipping colourful drinks or engaging in a lively nightlife scene.
Unlike Arugam Bay though, Mirissa offers quite a unique experience that you’d do well to partake in. We’re of course referring to dolphin and whale watching, an activity that’s amazing no matter how old you are or who you’re travelling with. Mee the rich marine life of Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean from a relatively short distance and marvel at their gentleness and intelligence.
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Other than that, you can simply enjoy yourself in this quiet village, having drinks, going partying or participating in a wide variety of water sports and activities. Above all else, relax and have a good time in Mirissa.
Any visit in Sri Lanka has the potential of taking you to to not one but multiple World Heritage Sites, as this exotic island is swimming in them.
Polonnaruwa is most famous as the biggest congregation of ruins on the island. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the 10th-century architecture, this would be the place to visit. With so many ruins of stupas, temples, tombs and palaces, Polonnaruwa takes one of the highest, if not the highest precedence in any serious cultural exploration efforts. Without visiting the capital of old, you’re likely going to miss out on a big chunk Sri Lankan history and tradition, so make sure you come here while you’re visiting places of interest in Sri Lanka. The odds are you’ll find the most memorable and culturally elevating experience right here.
Arugam Bay
There’s a lot of culture and history to be found here, and plenty of it. There’s even the Kumana National Park for lovers of nature.
But most of all, there’s surfing in Arugam Bay! For those that have found Sri Lanka to be a bit of a buzzkill and whose adventurous soul is seeking indulgence, hit the waves at Main Point and feel the power of the waves coming in from the Indian Ocean. Unless you’ve had some practice in the past, the wisest course of action would be to take it easy as it can get pretty rough.
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Even if you don’t feel like facing the crashing waves head-on, there’s still the beach and it beckons the tourist come closer and relax. After all, not everyone is interested in incessant exploring without a breather. Some people would like to treat themselves to a nice relaxing holiday on a remote island and its sandy beaches.
In the north of the Matale District, you’ll find one of the most awe-inspiring places, commonly attributed the generous title of a wonder of the world.
Sigiriya, or ‘Lion’s Paw’, is a rock fortress overlooking the entire area. It gets its name from an actual lino’s paw carved in stone next to the entrance to the fortress. Sigiriya is a place where the stuff of legends is closely interwoven with the factual past. On the more factual end, history follows the lives of Kashyapa and his half-brother Moggallana. Having murdered their father and usurped the throne, Kashyapa walled himself off inside Sigiriya knowing that the rightful heir Moggallana will try and claim his right to rule. This page of the history books ends with Kashyapa’s death and Sigiriya falling to his brother’s hands, but not before he turned it into a pleasure palace.
More than anything else, Sigiriya is a spectacular landmark today worth a visit to Sri Lanka on its own merits.
In the north of the illustrious island nation of Sri Lanka, you’ll find Jaffna, also called the city of the temples and for a good reason.
Unfortunately, the beauty of this area has been marred by a recent civil war that ended ten years ago. However, most of the temples found in this city are still as grand as they ever were. Spiritual travel often leads people to this destination and for a good reason. It goes without saying that even those of no religious inclinations can find a lot of beauty and culture here. The most prominent of all the temples is probably the Nallur Kandaswamy temple, which also happens to be the largest Saiva place of worship in this part of the island.
These are just some of the most popular places in Sri Lanka. Just like with many other travel destinations, it would take a lot more time to truly get acquainted with the country and its people. There’s a lot of culture and history to be digested, so go easy and stay as long as you need to in order to really understand a place as wondrous and exotic as Sri Lanka. Make sure to have good insurance, a habit best practised on all of your journeys. After all, who knows how long it’ll be before the place starts seeing hordes of visitors, it might be better to quietly experience it while you still can.
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__label__wiki | 0.824798 | 0.824798 | 95-year-old charged as accessory to 36,000 deaths at Nazi concentration camp
By John Bowden - 11/24/18 08:37 PM EST
Prosecutors in Germany reportedly charged a 95-year-old alleged former guard at a Nazi death camp with more than 36,000 counts of accessory to murder.
CBS News reports that Hans Werner H., whose last name was not publicly released by police, was charged Friday and accused of serving as a guard at the Mauthausen concentration camp in northern Austria from 1944-1945.
More than 95,000 people, including 14,000 Jews, are believed to have been executed at the Mauthausen camp alone, some of the millions who died during the years of the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe. The 95-year-old suspect was not charged with any specific killings related to the camp's operation.
"With his service as a guard he aided or at least made easier the killing of many thousands of inmates," Berlin prosecutor Martin Steltner told CBS News.
Hans Werner was accused in the court filings of having "been aware that a large number of people were killed ... and that the victims could have only been killed with such regularity if they were being guarded by people such as himself."
Roughly the equivalent of a corporal during the war according to CBS, the suspect is alleged to have served as a guard both inside and outside the camp, as well as having run prisoner details at a nearby quarry.
His indictment in Germany comes several months after the U.S. deported Jakiw Palij, a 95-year-old man who was believed to be the last suspect of Nazi war crimes living in the U.S.
"To protect the promise of freedom for Holocaust survivors and their families, President Trump prioritized the removal of Palij," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time.
Tags Donald Trump Nazi World War II Concentration camps Germany Berlin | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6080 |
__label__wiki | 0.553851 | 0.553851 | Home Walt Disney Animation Studios Storytelling- Disney’s Lightning In A Bottle
Storytelling- Disney’s Lightning In A Bottle
It’s been two days since my return from Walt Disney World. Unlike other trips, I was there for 24 hours and got to sleep in a hotel room that no one in Disney history had slept in. I was one of the fortunate few who were invited to the Grand Opening of The Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. The story behind the new tower is based on the 7-minute film started by Dali and Disney in the 1940s and finished in 2003 under the guidance of Roy E. Disney, Walt’s nephew. During the magic and madness of my first media event, a recurring theme was ever present and resonated with me- the art of storytelling.
I’ve spoken on and written about nostalgia being the Disney Company’s catalyst for creating magic. Although I still believe it to be true, I now look at storytelling as nostalgia’s “partner in crime.” One doesn’t exist without the other. To this day, including the opening of The Gran Destino Tower, you won’t find anything by Disney that doesn’t have a storyline attached to it. Stories pull you in, you create the memories, which in return- creates nostalgia. Oh, the magic of it all!
Storytelling stimulates the imagination and builds a sense of wonder. It puts the storyteller in a position to capture the minds of those both young and old. Like all subjects of pop culture, there’s a G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time). I think we can all agree that the G.O.A.T. of storytelling was Walt Disney. It wasn’t just faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust that led Walt to create the most enduring tales of all time, it was a dedicated and conscious effort. For the Imagineers who worked alongside him, especially his “nine old men,” Walt conditioned them to incorporate a story in everything they do. So, what makes Walt (and by extension, the entire Walt Disney Company) expert storytellers? Two factors go into storytelling and Walt had mastered both of them- suspending reality and a focus on shared desires.
In my opinion, suspending reality is the main factor of becoming an expert storyteller. By doing this, the storyteller is creating a safe and magical world for the listener full of whimsical themes and powerful emotions. The listener is transported to a whole new world (pun intended) and will forever associate that escape from reality with the story you’re telling.
Walt’s focus on shared desires is the reason why every Disney and Pixar movie is so memorable. Walt recognized there were certain common struggles and desires that all humans experience. In all of us, we have the desire to be loved or feel like we belong. These desires, among many others, are why we become so invested in Disney’s stories. Case in point, Hercules. He sings, “I will go most anywhere to find where I belong.” Not to mention, I cry every time I hear that song and it motivated me during my first Run Disney race. Hercules and every other Disney character can vocalize what we can’t say or desire to say. As an adult, watching a Disney and Pixar movie is a cathartic experience. I’m an adult and mother of two little boys- it takes a lot to break me down. That being said, I still haven’t been able to make it through the first 10 minutes of Up. That’s expert storytelling at it’s finest, and only Disney can deliver it.
Few companies have managed to integrate storytelling, customer experience, and brand loyalty like Disney has. The Walt Disney Company is the best storytelling engine in the world. The way they’re able to formulate and deliver a story, elevated the brand beyond the orange groves of California to become a global force that’s captured imaginations from Orlando to China. The success Disney’s had is a direct effect of them building a team of Imagineers who are skilled at storytelling. My favorite Imagineer, Marty Sklar, once said- “Imagineers take ‘know your audience’ to a whole new level. When creating attractions, they experience the park as their guests do so they can understand how they feel every step of the way.” Imagineers truly believe in Disney’s mission, their brand and the story they’re telling and by doing so, Disney has already accomplished what other brands are still trying to do: Finding that perfect intersection where magical stories, human emotions, and the latest technology all meet. Once you have all those, you created lightning in a bottle. It’s one of the ways I explain how everyone at Disney still works as though Walt is working alongside them, they implement the fundamentals of storytelling that their founder set in place from the very beginning.
Walking under the train tracks, onto Main Street USA, you’ll notice a plaque with a quote from Walt- “Here you leave the world today, and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.” That would explain why every time I return from a Walt Disney World vacation, I feel the need to spend a day catching up on current events, I’ve completely forgotten about the real world. A Disney vacation suspends my reality and I’m able to escape. I and millions of other people crave that escape. It’s why we complain about the rising cost of ticket prices, but keep going back. My lost girl is found when I’m at Walt Disney World and I can be that carefree child again that I once was. The nostalgia gets you to the parks, Disney’s storytelling sells the tickets.
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__label__wiki | 0.948733 | 0.948733 | "Keeping the Powerful Accountable!" -- Lynn Bettis
Lynn Bettis
The Lens (https://thelensnola.org/2014/04/15/scientists-fear-bp-blowout-killed-far-more-birds-than-officially-reported/)
Scientists fear BP blowout killed far more birds than officially reported
By Bob Marshall | April 15, 2014
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Several hundred carcasses of brown pelicans oiled by the BP blowout were recovered, but the death toll may be higher by a large multiple.
Almost from the start, wildlife advocates described the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a war on the Gulf ecosystem. Few quibbled with that analogy as a record 210 million gallons spewed into the Gulf just 50 miles from one of the world’s most productive coastal estuaries.
Yet four years later, wildlife workers, especially those concerned about birds, are skeptical of one metric commonly used to assess wars of any kind: the official body count.
For example, the official count of brown pelicans killed by BP’s oil stands at 577, which doesn’t seem like a big hit on a population estimated in the neighborhood of 85,000. Similarly, the total of 6,381 for all birds killed in the Gulf from populations numbering in the hundreds of thousands would seem insignificant.
But wildlife specialists say those numbers are likely low by a factor of at least 10 — and no one should think the worst is over for the pelicans and a host of other less heralded bird species in the northern Gulf.
Accurate counts of wildlife deaths in spills are always difficult because stricken animals frequently crawl away to die or sink to the bottom of a water body, while others make easy targets for predators, said Melanie Driscoll, the National Audubon Society’s director of bird conservation for the Gulf Coast.
To compensate for those factors, spill specialists use multipliers supplied by computer models.
“A body count in these spills is just that — a count of the carcasses that were found, not an accurate picture of how many were really killed.” — Melanie Driscoll
In the Exxon Valdez event — a smaller spill in a smaller area than the Deepwater Horizon — scientists put the number of dead birds at 225,000, a figure arrived at after applying multipliers ranging from 10 to 30 to the total number carcasses of various species that were actually recovered.
“In some cases the multiplier can be 12 or 5 or even 20,” said Driscoll. “I’ve seen a number as high as 50 by one group for dolphins and whales in this spill. So that would mean if 20 dead dolphins were collected, you multiply that number by 50, and you get 1,000 – which would be much closer to the actual damage done.
“In this spill I would expect the multipliers for birds to be huge.”
That’s because recovery operations during the Deepwater Horizon disaster faced additional complications. The spill occurred at the beginning of the five-month nesting season for pelicans and other birds, and it covered a much larger area than the Exxon Valdez — 68,000 square miles compared to 11,000.
“The decision was made not try to recover dead birds from the nesting islands to avoid causing even more deaths,” said Driscoll. “That meant most of those sites were not searched until late August or early September at the earliest” — months after the disaster struck, in April.
The delay meant adult pelicans, their eggs and then their young were being contaminated as long as BP’s oil was in Barataria Bay. Plastic and cloth booms placed around the islands to collect the oil provided only marginal protection because the pelicans’ daily food searches took them into the oil-fouled waters beyond the booms.
Less fortunate adults were completely soaked in oil, and the heart-breaking photos of their struggles soon became iconic images of the disaster.
Pairs returning to their nests with oil on their feathers smeared the toxic substance on porous eggs they were incubating. And when the surviving young were old enough, they walked and swam through the weathered oil around the booms.
Driscoll said by the time search teams entered the islands, many birds that had died from oil contamination likely had decomposed or had been eaten by scavengers. Nor could there ever be an accurate count of the eggs that failed to hatch due to the oil.
She said the real toll on all birds in the northern Gulf could reach six figures because the delay in counting could mean “thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of carcasses just disappeared.”
The location of this spill would only add to the multiplier, she said. In the sub-tropical Gulf, predation takes place 24/7, 365, which means anything of food value doesn’t last long.
“It’s an incredibly productive system so that means there is also an incredible number of predators,” Driscoll said. “And this was spread over a really huge area, which complicated the collection as well.”
The difficulty of coming up with an accurate number has been compounded by the paucity of post-spill research on birds in the impacted area, Driscoll said.
“Of the $500 million BP set aside for research on Deepwater Horizon impacts, dozens and dozens of studies have been done on oysters and fish, and I know of just two that have been started on birds,” she said.
“I understand the studies on oysters and fish; everybody needs to know what’s happening in the food chain. But we are four years removed from the spill, and we don’t have answers to questions like what the long-term impacts could be.”
Research by government agencies as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment has been kept from the public. That’s because monetizing the damage done to fish, wildlife and habitat plays out like a personal-injury lawsuit, with opposing sides reluctant to tip off the other to their findings.
One study in Minnesota on the breeding success of white pelicans, winter residents of coastal Louisiana, is a cause for concern. October arrivals in Gulf waters, the whites would have missed most of the surface oil, but they spent the next six months feeding on fish in bays polluted by the disaster. The researchers collected 200 eggs that didn’t hatch and looked for evidence of oil contamination.
“The study is still under way, but of the first 30 un-hatched eggs they looked at, 90 percent had the chemical signature of Deepwater Horizon oil,” Driscoll said, “and 80 percent had the signature of the dispersant Corexit, which was widely used during the spill.
“Now there may have been other reasons why these eggs didn’t hatch. But what they found is significant — and it’s the kind of research we should be doing on many other species here in the Gulf, but we aren’t.”
One clue to the long-term impact of the spill on Louisiana brown pelicans could arrive this summer as many of the birds born during the disaster enter their first spawning season.
But while Louisiana residents are understandably focused on their state bird — which ironically was taken off the endangered list five months before the spill — Driscoll said the ornithological community has graver concerns about other species.
“Pelicans got a lot of attention, and deservedly so, but the reality is their populations have been doing quite well with all the help they’ve received from humans over the last 40 years,” she said.
“They have a fairly large population with as many as 70,000 to 80,000 in Louisiana alone, and many more in other states. But there are only 6,000 Wilson’s plovers in the entire Gulf, so losing even a small number of that species could be a real problem.”
In fact, the official list of birds killed by the spill shows only two Wilson’s plover carcasses collected. But that doesn’t assure Driscoll that the plover population escaped major damage.
“A body count in these spills is just that — a count of the carcasses that were found, not an accurate picture of how many were really killed,” said Driscoll. “What’s been so frustrating in our community is the lack of information.
“We just don’t know yet, and we might not for a long, long time.”
About Bob Marshall
From 2013 to 2017, Bob Marshall covered environmental issues for The Lens, with a special focus on coastal restoration and wetlands. While at The Times-Picayune, his work chronicling the people, stories and issues of Louisiana’s wetlands was recognized with two Pulitzer Prizes and other awards. In 2012 Marshall was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Loyola University School of Communications Den of Distinction.
More by Bob
BP settlement: Tens of millions for lawyers, not nearly enough for the coast
Opinion By Lt. Gen. Russel Honore | July 9, 2015
Why did BP’s stock rise after the settlement was reached: payments are low and slow — except to lawyers. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6082 |
__label__cc | 0.505405 | 0.494595 | Home News Report- Human Brain Can Sense and Respond to Changes to Earth’s Magnetic...
Report- Human Brain Can Sense and Respond to Changes to Earth’s Magnetic Field, Study Shows
The human brain senses and responds to changes in Earth’s magnetic field—a sense known as magnetoreception.
The Earth’s magnetic field is what causes a compass to point north, with the pin being drawn to the magnetic North Pole. This pole is, however, constantly moving. At the moment it is moving from Canada towards Siberia at an unexpectedly fast pace—something scientists are currently working to understand.
Being able to use the magnetic field to navigate is a phenomenon found across the animal kingdom. Migratory birds and sea turtles, for example, use it as part of their internal navigation systems to travel vast distances across the globe.
However, research into magnetoreception in humans has been limited. “Birds, bees, fish, bats, moles and many other animals have been shown in study after study to have a navigational magnetic sense,” Caltech’s Joseph Kirschvink told Newsweek. “In other words, they use the Earth’s magnetic field as a means of gaining information about what direction they are moving or pointed in—much like [how] humans have used the setting and rising Sun and the stars at night to orient themselves.
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“Given the ubiquity of organisms that have some form of a magnetic sense, the absence of such a sense in humans would be more surprising than its presence. That said, past attempts to demonstrate the presence of a magnetic sense in humans have failed the critical ‘acid test’ of science; these studies could not be replicated.”
The problem with testing magnetoreception in humans, Kirschvink said, is the experimental conditions involved. There are too many variables involved that could affect the results. For example, in some experiments, participants were blindfolded and transported to another location, then asked to point in the direction they came from. “Such studies lacked the necessary rigorous experimental controls,” he said. “Volunteers could consciously or unconsciously gain information about their surroundings and orientation by information other than the magnetic field and thus either knowingly or unknowingly ‘cheat.’”
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In his latest study, Kirschvink and colleagues from Caltech and the University of Tokyo found evidence to suggest the human brain senses and responds to the Earth’s magnetic field. In a small study—just 18 participants—the team monitored the electrical activity of people’s brains while manipulating the magnetic field. Their findings, published in the journal eNeuro, suggest humans do have magnetoreception.
“Unlike behavioral experiments, which are difficult to adequately constrain, a passive EEG [electroencephalogram] experiment enabled us to introduce multiple controls to not only eliminate non-magnetic sensory confounds and artifacts, but also to conclusively eliminate electrical induction and quantum chemistry as potential avenues by which magnetic field stimuli might enter into the brain,” Kirschvink said. The team found there was a drop in brain activity following short, controlled changes to the direction of the magnetic field around the participant.
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Far more research is needed to understand magnetoreception in humans. For example, findings only related to people living in the Northern Hemisphere, where the experiment took place. “What happens in the Southern Hemisphere? Do people who were born and raised there respond to the upwards magnetic fields, in contrast to Northerners who are used to the field pointing downwards? And what happens on the geomagnetic equator in places like Palau, or in space?” Kirschvink said.
“There are many things we need to do. Because we now know that the magnetic sensory system that our distant ancestors used was not lost completely, we might be able to find ways to bring it into conscious awareness.”
Artistic representation of Earth’s magnetic field. iStock
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__label__cc | 0.572587 | 0.427413 | The Hacker Wars
2014, Technology - 91 min 12 Comments
An eye-opening feature-length documentary, The Hacker Wars explores the duality of the modern-day hacker, and the government's response to their activities. The film profiles a few of the highest profile hackers who have tackled the secretive inner workings of corporations and governmental agencies, and faced severe punishments from law enforcement as a result.
Andrew Auernheimer - otherwise known as 'weev' - is perhaps the best known figure from this larger-than-life set of characters. A master troll who became a media darling, Auernheimer is shown on the eve of a long prison sentence at the film's opening. His crime? Exposing the email addresses of over 114,000 AT&T customers, including public personalities like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and news anchor Diane Sawyer. In his defense, he claims that he was merely shedding light on a major security flaw in the communication company's online operation. The FBI felt differently, and Auernheimer was eventually sentenced to over three years in prison.
Characterized by a tremendous aura of brash and arrogance, hacking maestro Barrett Brown is currently undergoing a sentence of over five years in federal prison for his crimes along with fellow hacktivist Jeremy Hammond, who was sentenced to ten years. Both are incarcerated for releasing sensitive correspondences from the email system of Stratten, a global intelligence company. Some of these emails insinuated involvements in insider trading and advanced knowledge of Bin Laden's hide-out in Abbottabad.
A large segment of the public view these figures as heroes who speak necessary truth to power.
The film is complimented by additional interviews with the journalists who have tracked the world of the hacker with great interest, including NBC News correspondent Michael Isikoff, and Pulitzer Prize winners Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges.
Sharply edited at a lightning-fast pace, The Hacker Wars questions the motives of law enforcement agencies that often seem too preoccupied with policing the release of information the public has a right to know. But the central pull of the film lies in deciphering the personalities of the hackers themselves. Are they anarchists driven solely by a need to instigate havoc and chaos? Or are they activists with good intentions? The answer could often be a little of both.
Directed by: Vivien Lesnik Weisman
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Leave a Reply to skilbhumen Cancel reply
Bert A. Craig - 08/17/2018 at 05:16
Video unavailable?
Esteban - 01/24/2017 at 19:48
Link broken :/
e - 11/06/2016 at 01:48
A bunch of narcissists who most likely got teased throughout their child hoods and are now adults that think they are changing the world by revealing information that everyone knows is happening already. weev is a toolbag trying to act like he has an IQ over 100 when all he needed was boobie milk as a child and a hug . Oh no the FBI and NSA has our emails, what will we do!?!
skilbhumen - 08/20/2016 at 09:07
this is just want we looking for xD
Ana - 08/03/2016 at 20:35
Horrible soundtrack. Excellent information.
qweev - 08/01/2016 at 05:57
This doc would be a lot better without the overly long and useless montages playing the worst bro step PLAYED SO F*CKING LOUD. Probably just just trolling us. They are so cool.
sandman - 07/27/2016 at 02:36
Not even 10 minutes into this documentary and my thought is this; "These that are rising up, yes indeed, they are the children of the hippy generation, taken up an explosive notch. You can't keep freedom and liberty down...it will always rise and take flight into the powerful light of true information/knowledge to advance the masses, not the select few." :)
Goldie - 07/17/2016 at 13:25
Kudos to the anarchists!!!! Stop believing the government, wealthy and their socially imposed meanings of words with their emotionally retarded tainted meanings. Look it up for yourself from a reliable source. Up with freedom, intelligence, creativity, knowledge!!!! Turn off your t.v.'s and think for yourself.
I don't know about all of you, but I'm sick of being pushed and held down over dumbass rules that serve absolutely no one. I'm grateful this bunch of hackers/trolls found a way to push back over the years!!!!
dick buttkiss - 07/08/2016 at 09:28
Do they show this guys swastika tat?
Cynthia McKinney - 07/05/2016 at 17:09
CACI was in Abu Ghraib; I'm down with WEEV, Barrett Brown, and the rest who tell the people of the U.S. the truth about how their tax dollars are spent.
Fred Williams - 07/05/2016 at 12:22
Chick on the cover is cute!!
User1 - 07/05/2016 at 05:28
More please.
Great reporting on our martyrs in the US. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6093 |
__label__wiki | 0.774014 | 0.774014 | Mark Towhey, Rob Ford’s former chief of staff, is writing a tell-all
By Steve Kupferman | September 10, 2014
By Steve Kupferman | 09/10/2014
Mark Towhey was Rob Ford’s chief of staff from 2012 until about a week after the start of the crack scandal, in May 2013, and his firing is already the stuff of legend. Ford reportedly dismissed his once-trusted lieutenant after Towhey advised the mayor to get help for his obvious substance problems—advice that wasn’t ultimately heeded until far too late. Now, it seems Towhey is writing a tell-all memoir of his time spent working for the mayor, beginning with the 2010 municipal election. The Star reports that the book will be released a few days before this year’s election, on October 21. Anyone hoping for damning new details may be disappointed, though. The publisher’s description says that the book “is not the account of a man eager to get revenge.”
Topics: Mark Towhey now what Rob Ford
One thought on “Mark Towhey, Rob Ford’s former chief of staff, is writing a tell-all”
christinaarcher says:
It’s about time. We have to see the emptiness that is Rob Ford. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6094 |
__label__wiki | 0.944776 | 0.944776 | Batavia Players invite all to ‘Come Back to the Five and Dime’
BATAVIA — Melinda Grimble is no newcomer to Batavia Players after being in charge of membership, the newsletter, box office and website over the last six years.
But this month she will come alive as Mona on stage.
“I was always behind the scenes. This has been on my bucket list,” she said in a faint Kentucky drawl. “It has been amazing. I’m using more of my accent. Mona is a lost soul. She wants to be accepted and will do anything to be accepted. She is very, very sad.”
Despite her character’s somber demeanor, Grimble described the show, “Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” as a comedy and drama rolled into one. The story is based on old high school chums that gather years later for a James Dean Club reunion. Although the tough, good-looking Dean has been long gone, his fans return to Kresmont 5 and Dime to drink beer, reminisce and learn some truths about the old gang.
It runs at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 at Harvester 56 Theater, 56 Harvester Ave. Batavia Players plans to offer more viewings of its shows as a way to accommodate those that can’t always make it during the debut weekend.
A native of Kentucky, Grimble’s southern accent came in handy not only for her portrayal of Mona but for others to mimic. The scenes capture a simpler time in Texas during 1975. Some characters — store owner Juanita, Stella and Edna — are played by one actor each throughout the story, while Sissy, Mona and Joe are each played by an actor of the past and of the present.
Joanne, played by Kathy Johns of Stafford, isn’t fooled by anyone’s fake exterior as she has a grasp on who everyone really is. Mona is a chronic liar, which makes it hard for Joanne to contain her anger. One fib has been that James Dean fathered Mona’s boy Jimmy. That has been the biggest challenge for Johns in playing her character, though Joanne has held tightly to her own secrets over the years.
“She knows who everyone is but they don’t know who she is,” Johns says of her cryptic part. “There are three friends from the past and three friends from the present. There’s a lot of good stuff there. They were friends in high school and still love each other. It’s a great show, a lot of fun. I think the audience is going to be lured in.”
Her son Nash Johns is the only guy in the show. He plays Joe, who professes his love to Mona, played by Erin Stamp, back in 1955. Stamp’s character has an awkward encounter with a lovesick Joe before fleeing the five and dime. That relationship doesn’t work out as other surprises are revealed.
“You turn a corner and there’s a plot twist, it’s a huge audience teaser,” 16-year-old Nash said.
The set is quite rich in props, from canned goods and sundries at the front of the shop to a jukebox, Orange Crush soda machine, James Dean posters and a black-and-white checkered floor. It’s a collection of goods purchased from e-Bay, unearthed in someone’s vintage storage and, for Dorothy Gerhart, discovered in a family friend’s barn. She gladly loaned the 100-year-old Christmas lights which now hang alongside the walls of the Kresmont shop.
She likes how the show takes some time to undress before the audience.
“The first half you learn about the characters and the second half you learn the truth,” Gerhart said. “You will go through just about every emotion.”
Fair warning that this production is not for the faint of heart or young children. Sissy in the present, played by Wendy Williams, has a good time drinking, swearing and proudly displaying her top-heavy figure. It has brought back memories of when Williams acted in the same show years ago in Cleveland.
“Sissy is bold and brassy and in your face, but she’s the one who’s had the most trauma in her life,” Williams said. “That comes out in a monologue. She is very vulnerable. I’ve loved watching the old Sissy. You get to see her experiences come alive. It gave me a clue to who I am in the past.”
If it sounds confusing, it all shakes out on stage. While the current scene happens, those characters freeze for a flash peek at what was happening 20 years prior. It all gels for an ending that is ... you’ll have plenty of chances to catch a show and find out.
Tickets are $13 for general admission and $10 for students and senior citizens. They are available at the door or by calling (585) 703-4866.
The Daily News (2/11/2016)
For online article, click here! | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6097 |
__label__cc | 0.629077 | 0.370923 | Posts Tagged ‘ Speech ’
(VIDEO) Gordon Browns push for a “New Global Deal”.
British prime minister addresses Congress
Gordon Brown’s speech to US Congress – the full transcript
Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged American leaders on Wednesday to “seize the moment,” in tandem with their European allies, to work through the global economic crisis and prepare for a future that brings a world order.
“Let me say that you now have the most pro-American European leadership in living memory,” Mr. Brown said.
“There is no old Europe, no new Europe, there is only your friend Europe. So once again I say we should seize the moment — because never before have I seen a world so willing to come together. Never before has that been more needed. And never before have the benefits of cooperation been so far-reaching.” (1)
(VIDEO) Chief Justice Roberts ‘screwed up’ oath of office
Chief Justice Roberts interrupted Obama early and then switched the order of some of the words, slipping up the new president and causing him to hesitate at one point.
ROBERTS: Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?
OBAMA: I am.
ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama…
OBAMA: I, Barack–
ROBERTS: …do solemnly swear…
OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…
ROBERTS: …that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully…
OBAMA: …that I will execute… [pause]
ROBERTS: …faithfully the office of president of the United States…
OBAMA: …the office of president of the United States faithfully…
ROBERTS: …and will, to best of my ability…
OBAMA: …and will to [the] best of my ability…
ROBERTS: …preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
OBAMA: …preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
ROBERTS: So help you God?
OBAMA: So help me God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.
(VIDEO) President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address
Added: January20, 2009 | Run TIme: 21:50
President Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th president of the United States and delivered an inaugural address focusing on the themes of sacrifice and renewal on January 20, 2009.
Obama’s Speech at the Lincoln Memorial
1/18/2009 Washington, D.C.
President-Elect Obama’s Speech at the Lincoln Memorial Today
WASHINGTON — On the eve of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday celebration and his own historic swearing-in as president, Barack Obama stood Sunday in front of the Lincoln Memorial, evoked the country’s heroes and heritage, and told the nation that “the dream of our founders will live on in time.”
Obama spoke during an afternoon celebration of his historic election, featuring musicians led by Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce as well as famous actors, all entertaining an estimated half-million people on the National Mall with songs and readings aimed at capturing the gravity of the moment.
Obama, the first black American to be elected president, looked out at the sea of people and told them,
“What gives me hope is what I see when I look out across this mall. For in these monuments are chiseled those unlikely stories that affirm our unyielding faith — a faith that anything is possible in America.”
(VIDEO) Dana Perino holds final WH briefing
Dana Perino offers best wishes to incoming press secretary, Robert Gibbs
Fri., Jan. 16, 2009
WASHINGTON – In her final briefing, outgoing White House press secretary Dana Perino offered best wishes to Robert Gibbs, the incoming press secretary for President-elect Barack Obama.
“Please go easy on him,” she told the White House press corps of Friday. Then she quickly added: “For a week.”
Taking the podium one last time as Bush’s spokeswoman, Perino turned the tables on the press with a slide show, roasting reporters, photographers and cameramen.
(VIDEO)John McCain concedes to Barack Obama
Nov. 4: John McCain concedes the presidency of the United States to Barack Obama and recognizes the significance of this election for African-Americans, saying, “we’ve come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation’s reputation.”
McCain: ‘The end of a long journey’
In a speech before supporters in Arizona, McCain praised Obama and urged all Americans to congratulate him and put aside their differences in the nation’s interest. “His success alone commands my respect,” he said. | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6098 |
__label__cc | 0.604301 | 0.395699 | Posts Tagged ‘Altmire’
Tax Increases on ‘Rich’ People Planned by Democrats Would Hit Over A Million Small Businesses
Let’s file this under the category, “Yet another stupid Democrat idea”: Let’s finance a socialized medicine plan that Americans don’t want by taxing the owners of small business who create the few jobs we’ve got left.
Tax Increase on ‘Rich’ People Planned by House Democrats Would Strike More Than a Million U.S. Small Businesses
By Christopher Neefus
(CNSNews.com) – More than a million small business owners and about two-thirds of the profits earned by U.S. small businesses would be hit by the income tax increase on the “rich” that House Democratic leaders want to enact to pay for the health-care reform plan President Obama wants passed this summer, a taxpayer watchdog say s.
Ryan Ellis, director of tax policy for Americans for Tax Reform, told CNSNews.com he calculated that 1.09 million of 21.5 million small business owners would see a one- to three-percent surtax on their profits in order to fund the House of Representatives’ trillion-dollar health care reform bill.
While only about five percent of small business owners would be exposed to the extra charge, Ellis says two in every three dollars of profit made by small businesses would be subject to it.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced late Friday that Democrats want to enact this tax increase.
The plan reportedly would include a one percent increase in the income tax rate paid by individuals earning $280,000 or more and by households earning at least $350,000. Steeper rate increases of up to three percent would be imposed on those earning $500,000 and $1 million or more. The committee hopes these income-tax rate increases will raise about $540 billion for the federal government over a decade.
Small business owners would be subject to the income-tax rate increases because many of them report the profits of their small businesses on individual tax returns. As a result, the roughly five percent who make more than $200,000 a year would be hit with the extra tax.
Ellis said the Obama administration’s claims that only a few small businesses will be affected misses the point. “(T)hat’s what the Obama guys will always tell you. It’s a small, single-digit percentage of small businesses that would be affected by this, and that’s absolutely true. It’s probably somewhere between five and 10 percent … of all small businesses.
“But if you actually look at the small business profits being reported, two-thirds of all small business profits are reported in these households.”
Indeed, IRS figures from 2006, the most recent year reported, show that $479 billion of the $707 billion in small business profits was reported by households in the top two percent of earners, those earning more than $200,000.
Republicans went on the offensive after Rangel’s Friday announcement. A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “In the middle of a serious recession, with unemployment nearing double digits nationwide, the last thing we need is a tax increase on small businesses, which will cost the American economy even more jobs.”
Blue Dog Democrats in the House also voiced some concern. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) told CQ Today, “I have a concern with going outside the health care system” when discussing funding options.
“I feel like the House has moved this issue so far to the left we’ve taken ourselves out of the discussion entirely.”
But Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) told The Washington Post that “if (the bill) works right,” the high earners who pay extra taxes will also see lowered health insurance premiums.
Ellis, however, is skeptical. “If you’re a very successful company and you’re making more than a million dollars a year,” he said, then at “a three percentage point surtax, you basically have to assume that their healthcare costs will go down by 3 percent of their profits in order to even themselves out.”
“That’s just not reasonable to expect,” he told CNSNews.com. “(T)here’s not one example of where the government is going to go in and take over something and start spending money on something and then it saves money.”
Rea Hederman, assistant director of the Center for Data Analysis at the conservative Heritage Foundation, also said small business owners will not see their money back unless they force their employees to take the proposed public health care option.
“The only way they would see reductions in health care,” he said, “is if small businesses just say we’re not going to offer health care to our employees all together, and I don’t think that’s a direction that people want to go,” Hederman said.
While the surtax for small businesses may top out at three percent, Hederman said, “in percentage terms, the tax burden is jumping somewhere between four and a half to five percent, and this is going to be combined with the expiration of some of President Bush’s tax cuts.”
The health care surtax would come in addition to the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of 2010, which will move the federal top rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.
In a statement, Thomas Hodge, president of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, said total top rates, including federal taxes, could push past the 50 percent mark in some states.
“Combining top federal and state rates, and factoring in all deductions, the government would be taking over half of every additional dollar from high-income taxpayers in two-thirds of the states under this latest funding scheme.”
According to Hederman, “Unfortunately, right now, businesses are going to have trouble pricing in (these) cost increases.
“(So) businesses will continue to try to wring out as much efficiency as they can in the labor force, and that means cutting back hours and cutting back jobs,” he said.
A May 2009 survey performed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, small business owners identified high taxes as the second biggest problem facing them, trailing only poor sales.
The tax increase, if enacted, would take effect in 2011.
People see the “small number” of small businesses affected by the tax and think it’s no big deal. But think about it: there’s the difference between small businesses that are truly small and small business that are big enough to actually hire people.
When I was a kid I had a paper route. I didn’t work directly for the newspaper; rather, I was listed as “an independent contractor.”
I had a small business. And like the overwhelming majority of small businesses, I didn’t make a ton of money, and I certainly didn’t hire anybody.
The small businesses that are going to be the most impacted – and the most negatively impacted at that – are the ones that hire people. And given that these small businesses are going to experience the double whammy of having to pay for Obama’s imposed health care burden even as their profits are taxed to pay for everyone else’s health care, there are going to be a lot of job losses, as surely as 1 + 1 = 2. Only a fool, or a Democrat, would 1) raise a business’ cost while 2) reducing its profits and NOT expect that business to cut back.
The Democrats’ plan imposes an additional 8% payroll tax on businesses unless they meet the Democrats’ health care requirements.
Another (related) factor that needs to be contemplated emerges from thinking about the concern of the blue dog Democrats regarding going outside the health care system to fund the Obama health care system. If the darn Democrat health care plan is REALLY something that will save money for the health care system, then why do you have to go outside the system to pay for it? Why impose so much in additional taxes for something that is supposed to cost LESS? The fact of the matter is that this thing is going to cost TRILLIONS. It will be like Medicare, with its $61.6 trillion unfunded liabilities, and which is expected to go completely bankrupt by 2015.
And a frightening corollary to that is exactly why people like me keep calling Obama’s health care grab “socialized medicine” to begin with. Because the plan will necessarily push people into the government plan in FAR greater numbers than Democrats claim will go in. Small business who employ most American workers, squeezed by the double whammy, will have absolutely no choice but to push their workers into the government plan.
Democrats naively argue that a government plan would not be intended to replace private health care plans, but would only reduce costs by “competition.” They just don’t have enough functioning brain cells to understand that a government system – which does NOT have to depend upon profitability the way private systems do, and which can draw its funding by forcing even its competition to pay for it through taxation – doesn’t “compete.” It devours. The way Republican Rep. Mike Pence put it:
But what I heard yesterday at my town hall meeting was profound skepticism about the introduction of a government option to compete with private health insurance companies within this economy. I think most Americans know that the government competes with the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck. It consumes it.
That, and of course, the fact that every conspiracy theory about government health care is about to come true: Democrats are openly claiming that they are going to use Obama’s health care plan as a backdoor to socialized medicine.
Bottom line: we’re going to tax our producers into non-producers in order to create a socialized medicine boondoggle that is going to be a disaster.
It is long past time we stopped listening to liberals’ Marxist class warfare messages. The rich aren’t the bourgeoisie, and the rest of us aren’t the proletariat. Rather than welcoming the government seizing the rich’s wealth to create one social program after another, we seriously need to start demanding that government finally get the hell out of the way and let all the people have the freedom to invest and spend as we see fit. For it is liberty and freedom, rather than tyranny and big-government control, that made this country great. And only returning to the fundamental principles of liberty and freedom are going to be able to get us out of the massive crisis that too much government has forced us into.
Tags:1.09 million, 50%, 8%, Altmire, Blue Dog Democrats, double whammy, employment, freedom, government option, health care, House Democrats, jobs, liberty, Medicare, Obama, Obama care, payroll tax, profits, public option, Rangel, rich, small businesses, socialized medicine, surtax, tax increases, trillions
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, Economy, health care, Politics | Leave a Comment » | cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line6099 |
__label__wiki | 0.54455 | 0.54455 | Posts Tagged ‘home schooling’
Obama And Democrat Party Want To Bring Sweden’s War On Parents By Government Takeover On America
Click on the link below to see the video of this terrible story:
http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnnewsplayer/cbnplayer.swf?aid=29058
Does this sound familiar to you? Read this trying to see how “rights” get turned on their head and perverted. The child has a “right” to daycare so the state forces parents to put their children under the totalitarian control of the state beginning at age ONE. And of course it is a bad thing for parents to “indoctrinate” their own children; they belong to the state and the state as god and as final arbiter of justice decides which indoctrination is proper.
Swedish Home-Schoolers Flee ‘Parental Inquisition’
By Dale Hurd
CBN News Sr. Reporter
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Sweden used to be synonymous with freedom and safety. The nation was a haven for political refugees from around the world.
But today, Sweden is creating new political refugees: the home-schooler.
One of the escape routes for home-schoolers from Sweden is by ship, two hours across the Baltic sea to the Åland Islands. It’s a part of Finland where the locals speak Swedish and where parents can home school in freedom.
Sweden’s home-school movement has been crushed by a state apparatus that wants children as young as one year old in daycare, and all children in a classroom with a state-approved curriculum.
“The Swedish government believes that [the] state takes better care of children than parents,” said Jonas Himmelstrand, president of ROHUS, the Swedish Homeschool Association.
“They [the government] are slowly going to more of a police state, where children are more controlled. They have to be in school,” he added.
Freedom in Finland
Himmelstrand and his wife Tamara were threatened with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of fines for home-schooling. The family slipped quietly out of the country and is beginning a new life in Finland.
“We had many friends tell us, ‘Please get out, we’re worried about you,'” Himmselstrand recalled.
Home-schooling parents Magnus and Cina Wallen-Henriksen worked in the music industry in Stockholm before fleeing to Finland.
“We were afraid to stay. Our children were in danger and our family was in danger,” Cina said.
“The choice [to leave] was quite easy to make,” Magnus added.
Most Swedish home-schoolers don’t make the decision for religious reasons, but because they see the educational and social development home schooling provides.
“We noticed our children are enjoying how they learn at home and in other places,” Cina explained. “Our children developed fast and good, both emotionally and social and intellectual.”
Government Takeover?
Before 2010, it was possible to home-school in Sweden. But new laws now ban the practice in almost all cases and forces private schools to teach the state curriculum.
Swedish human rights lawyer Ruby Harrold-Claesson calls what’s happening in Sweden a “parental inquisition.”
“Sweden’s treatment of parents in the area of education is totalitarian, essentially. They want to take children from birth to graduation and control them,” said Michael Donnelly, director of international relations at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.
Donnelly claims Sweden’s treatment of parents violates established standards of human rights.
“In fact, the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights signed in 1947 actually says … that parents have a ‘prior right’ to decide the kind of education their children should have,” he explained.
But Sweden’s ambassador to the United States said, “The [Swedish] government does not find that home schooling is necessary for religious or philosophical reasons.”
Fear of ‘Indoctrination’
Parents are pressured to put their children in daycare at age one.
“One mother told me when she went with her 18 month son to his medical checkup, and he was not in daycare. They said, ‘Oh, your son is not in daycare? But he has to go to daycare. He needs that and you need to work,'” Himmselstrand told CBN News.
“The argument they give about this is that every child has a ‘right’ to daycare. This is not a right that parents are allowed to interfere with.”
Donnelly said there is a bad historical precedent for Sweden’s control of children and education: the dictatorships of the last century.
“This seems to be what’s happening in Sweden,” he said. “They want to get the kids. They want to socialize them in the way they think is appropriate, and they don’t want the parents involved.”
Texan Lisa Angerstig married a Swede and lives in Uppsala with their four children. The couple is fighting fines levied over the home schooling of their son.
“Sweden does not believe it’s a parent’s right to choose how you raise your children, period,” Angerstig said. “They believe if you’re keeping your children at home, it’s possible you’re indoctrinating them.”
She believes the Swedish government’s actions prove it believes parents are a negative influence on their children.
‘No More Housewives’
A major issue for the Swedish government is gender equality.
The motto for a leading educator in the country states, “Sweden: No more housewives, but higher wages for women.”
Tamara Himmelstrand said she used to experience the daily disapproval of stay-at-home moms in Sweden.
“The incredible disdain Swedish society has for motherhood and the work that I was doing [made me feel like a bad person],” she said.
But Sweden’s experiment with state control of children and families does not seem to be going so well. The Swedish government’s own report shows the psychological health of Swedish youth is declining faster than in 11 comparable European countries.
“And this is being discussed [by experts],” Jonas Himmselstrand said. “Why are Swedish young people so psychologically unhealthy, so full of anxiety, so easily depressed?”
“If you ask any developmental psychologist in Sweden who is into this question, they would say, ‘You know, it has a likely connection to the fact that 93 percent of all 18 month to 5-year-olds are in daycare, often for many hours a day,” he continued.
Educational test scores have dropped as well.
“Sweden is one of the richest countries in the world. Our children should be doing absolutely the best of any country in the world, but they’re not,” Himmselstrand said.
The home-school families who have sacrificed so much by fleeing Sweden say it is a relief to finally be able to teach their children in freedom.
But what about the nation they left behind? One European Union study suggests Swedish family policy is making the nation’s adults worse parents.
Dale Hurd also reported from Uppsala, Sweden and Mariehamn, Finland.
Don’t think for a single nanosecond that this crap isn’t going on in Obama’s God damn America, too.
And in state after state and with politician after politician, wherever homeschooling is most under attack, Democrats are behind it.
None of this is anything new, folks. Socialists ALWAYS target the children.
Some quotes I’ve accumulated on liberal secular humanists wanting to destroy parents’ rights to parent so that THEY get indoctrination power:
Richard Dawkins says, “How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents? It’s one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in? What about bringing up children to believe in manifest falsehoods? Isn’t it always a form of child abuse to label children as possessors of beliefs that they are too young to have thought about” even as he demands the right to do just that with his atheistic evolution.
Richard Rorty argued that secular teachers ought to “arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own.” And he claimed that students are fortunate to find themselves “under the benevolent Herrshaft of people like me and to have escaped the frightening, vicious, dangerous parents.” He blatantly and arrogantly warned the parents who were literally paying to send their children to him, “we are going to go right on trying to discredit you before the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.”
Steven Weinberg wrote that “Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization”?
Christopher Hitchens wrote that “All religions and all churches are equally demented in their belief in divine intervention, divine intercession, or even the existence of the divine in the first place”? He wrote that, “How can we ever know how many children had their psychological and physical lives irreparably maimed by the compulsory inculcation of faith? He charged that “religion has always hoped to practice upon the unformed and undefended minds of the young.”
Richard Dawkins wrote, “The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism”?
Scott Atran said, “Religious belief requires taking what is materially false to be true and what is materially true to be false” in a warped commitment to “factually impossible worlds.”
Richard Dawkins: “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).”
Richard Lewontin says of education: “the problem is to get them to reject irrational and supernatural forces of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus, science, as the only begetter of truth.”
Carolyn Porco says, “Let’s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome – and even comforting – than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know.”
Woodrow Wilson – as president of Princeton and as an early progressive fascist – said, “Our problem is not merely to help the students to adjust themselves to world life… but to make them as unlike their fathers as we can.”
We won’t just be Sweden soon. We’ll be the worse of both Sweden AND Greece soon…
It’s all par for the course in Obama’s God damn America.
Tags:children, home schooling, homeschooling, Sweden
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, fascism, first Jeremiah Wright term, Politics, Religion and Culture, socialism | Leave a Comment »
Bill Maher Keeps Documenting The Fact That To Be A Liberal Is To Be A Hypocrite And An Abject Dumbass
Bill Maher had something to say about Rick Santorum’s wife and children:
BILL MAHER: But I bring up the old tale of the poisoned apple — no, not “Snow White,” that’s a fairy tale – because the Adam and Eve story is taken literally by half the country and it’s no coincidence that the type of tree which god forbade Adam and Eve eating from was the Tree of Knowledge. Rick Santorum homeschools his children because he does not want them eating that f–king apple. He wants them locked up in the Christian madrassa that is the family living room not out in public where they could be infected by the virus of reason. If you’re a kid and the only adults you’ve ever met are mom and dad, and then they’re also the smartest adults you’ve met, why not keep it that way? Why mess up paradise with a lot knowledge? After all, a mind is a terrible thing to open.
You can watch him make an ass out of himself and all of liberalism in general right here.
For the record, you can click on that link above or this one to read a little bit about how superior homeschooled kids truly are.
You can learn that home-schooled kids score highest on both the SAT and the ACT tests.
You can read about another “Christian madrassa” kid who was not allowed to eat the “f-ing apple of reason.” Who scored 1,570 out of a possible 1,600 on his SAT with a perfect 800 in math.
Or you can read this from today:
Virginia girl, 6, youngest ever in U.S. spelling bee
Reuters – 4 hrs ago (3/13/12).
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A 6-year-old U.S. girl will become the youngest contestant ever in the Scripps National Spelling Bee after winning a regional competition in Virginia.
Lori Anne Madison, of Woodbridge, Virginia, won the Prince William County spelling contest earlier this month, beating out 21 top elementary and middle school competitors. Her winning word: “vaquero,” a word of Spanish origin meaning cowboy.
“My parents quiz me. I read lists and I have a really good memory,” Madison, who is home-schooled, told Fox’s WTTG-TV, a Washington-area station.
Madison was believed to be the youngest competitor ever, the Cincinnati-based National Spelling Bee said on Tuesday. Based on incomplete records, the previous youngest contestant was 8, it said.
The spelling contest has been held annually since 1925. This year’s event will be May 29 to June 1 in Washington, with 277 participants from the United States, U.S. territories and other countries.
Madison will be sponsored by the News & Messenger newspaper of Manassas, Virginia.
(Reporting By Ian Simpson; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Philip Barbara)
In other words, evil doesn’t just make you liberal, it makes you a truly stupid human being who is catastrophically unable to understand basic reality.
And, yes, Bill Maher also provides a very graphic documentation of the fact that liberals are abject hypocrites:
This guy who mocks Rick and Karen Santorum as parents and mocks their children and mocks their religion – stupidly and falsely, I might add – also has called Sarah Palin a “cunt” and a “dumb twat” to document that he is an offensive misogynist bigot who makes Rush Limbaugh look like a saint in the pantheon of feminism by comparison.
For the record, I bet that dumb twat cunt Sarah Palin is smart enough to know that home-schooled kids run academic circles around their government-schooled competition.
But of course that won’t stop Barack Obama – in spite of all of his hoity-toity self-righteous sanctimony – from pocketing Bill Maher’s $1 million donation.
You see, Obama said “People’s families are off limits.” But what he clearly meant to say (you know how the media always reinterprets what Obama said so it won’t sound so damn stupid?) is that LIBERAL people’s families are off limits. Sarah Palin’s and Rick Santorum’s families are good for huntin’ and even better for eatin’.
Obama thanks you for your gift, Maher. And all liberals should also thank you for showing the world what liberals and liberalism is really like.
Of course, liberals could prove that wrong by refusing to watch his program so that Bill Maher ends up living in a box on the sidewalk like he ought to. But that aint going to happen: because liberals truly are abject hypcrite dumbasses.
Only a liberal would believe that a reasonably intelligent parent wouldn’t make a better teacher for his or her own child than a government bureaucrat who is warehousing forty of somebody else’s kids.
Tags:apple, Bil Maher, Christian madrassa, home schooling, hypcorites, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, virus of reason
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, first Jeremiah Wright term, Politics | 4 Comments »
The Manhattan Declaration As The New Barmen Declaration
Christians are hearing about the Manhattan Declaration with great excitement. It is a tremendous document with tremendous support from some tremendous Christian figures.
The actual declaration (linked to above) is some 4,000 plus words long, and is available to read at the link above. But here is the nutshell version:
Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.
We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
the sanctity of human life
the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I hope you stand with me – and with (at last count as of November 24, 2009) 106,738 other believers – and sign this declaration.
It reminds me of another time, and another declaration: the Barmen Declaration of 1934, which was a point-by-point denunciation of the fascist and racist ideological doctrines of Nazism and a positive expression of true Christian faith against a government and a culture that had become evil.
Adolf Hitler attempted to redefine – or “Nazify” – the Church and transform it into a component of his ideological agenda. At one point in its history Germany had been the seat of the Protestant Reformation, and while Germany had since become the most secular humanist nation in Europe, there was still a vestige of Christianity remaining. And Hitler wanted to harness that still-influential vestige toward his own ends. The government thus passed resolutions to limit the influence or dictate the agenda of the church. One demanded the purging of all pastors who rejected “the spirit of National Socialism.” Another resolution categorically rejected the very foundations of Judeo-Christian transcendent morality even as it tried to conflate “being a German” with “being a Christian”:
“We expect that our nation’s church as a German People’s Church should free itself from all things not German in its services and confession, especially from the Old Testament with its Jewish system of quid pro quo morality.”
The German Confessing Movement was a reaction against the German government’s attempt to impose its agenda upon the Christian Church in Germany. As Gene Edward Veith put it in his book Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview:
The Barmen Declaration thus sets itself against not only the German Christian aberration but against the whole tradition of modernist syncretism that made it possible.
[Article 1 affirmed Christ as the transcendent authority and source of values (as opposed to the German race, the Nazi revolution, or the person of Adolf Hitler)]. Article 2 asserts the sovereignty of Christ over all of life. Article 3 asserts Christ’s lordship over the church and rejects “the false doctrine, as though the Church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political conventions.” That is to say, the world does not set the agenda for the church. Article 4 teaches that church offices are for mutual service and ministry, not for the exercise of raw power. Article 5 acknowledges the divine appointment of the state, but rejects the pretensions of the state to “become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church’s vocation as well.” Article 6 affirms the church’s commission to proclaim the free grace of God to everyone by means of the Word and the sacraments. “We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans [pp. 60-61].
One article, entitled “Hitler’s Theologians: The Genesis of Genocide,” takes time to describe how various key German liberal theologians systematically tore apart the Bible and orthodox Christianity – and in so doing systematically undermined the ethics and morality of the German people in preparation for the hell to come. The author begins with Friedrich Schleiermacher, called “the founder of Liberal Protestantism,” and profiles the “contributions” of Friedrich Nietzsche, Julius Wellhausen, and Adolf von Harnack.
Georg Lukacs has observed that tracing the path to Hitler involved the name of nearly every major German philosopher since Hegel: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Dilthy, Simmel, Scheler, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Weber [page 5, The Destruction of Reason]. And Max Weinreich produced an exhaustive study detailing the complicity of German intellectuals with the Nazi regime entitled Hitler’s Professors: The Part of Scholarship in Germany’s Crimes Against the Jewish People. Ideas have consequences, and it was the ideas of these liberal theologians, philosophers and scholars who provided the intellectual justification and conceptual framework for the Holocaust. Thus Nazism did not merely emerge from a liberal theological system, but from a distinguished secular humanist intellectual tradition as well — a distinguished intellectual tradition that had repudiated all the moral and spiritual values inherent to the orthodox Christianity of the Confessing Church.
Josef Hromadka wrote that:
“The liberal theology in Germany and in her orbit utterly failed. It was willing to compromise on the essential points of divine law and of “the law of nature”; to dispose of the Old Testament and to accept the law of the Nordic race instead; and to replace the “Jewish” law of the Old Testament by the autonomous law of each race and nation, respectively. It had made all the necessary preparation for the “Germanization of Christianity” and for a racial Church.”
Veith subsequently says, “in deciding whether or not to sign the Barmen Declaration … the dividing line was clear.” And he states, “The German Christian theologians predictably denounced the confessional movement as being ‘narrow’ and ‘fundamentalist.'” He rightly described the opponents of the Barmen Declaration as being “modernists,” “existentialists,” and “dialectical” in their thinking. The theologians who rejected Barmen were men like Emanuel Hirsch, who taught that the resurrection of Christ was only a spiritual vision, and that the idea of a physical resurrection distorted Christianity by focusing attention to the hereafter rather than to the culture and community of the present.
In short, it was Christians who thought like the evangelicals and fundamentalists of today who signed the Barmen Declaration and openly opposed Nazism, and it was “Christians” who thought like the mainline liberals of today who stood for the German Christian Nazification of Christianity and for the resulting Nazification of German ethics and morality.
Confessing Church pastors and priests who resisted this Nazification of the church paid dearly. Thousands of clergymen were hauled away to the concentration camps. According to the Niemoller archives, 2,579 clergymen were sent to Dachau alone – and 1,034 of them died in the camp. And that only refers to the priests and pastors – not the untold thousands of devout Christians such as the Ten Booms who perished in the death camps for their opposition to Nazism.
An article entitled “Asking ‘Why Nazism?’” reviewing a book by Dr. Karla Poewe has this:
“One of the dangers of liberal Christianity, where all sorts of interpretations are permitted, is that it can easily slip into becoming a new religion,” Poewe says. “This is what happened. In a bid to rid Germany of what it saw as Jewish Christianity, several home-grown practices sprang up, including some that incorporated Icelandic and pre-Christian sagas, as well as ideas from German Idealism.”
Although initially these new religions were separate and disorganized entities, they eventually came under the umbrella of what was known as the German Faith Movement. Hitler saw in it a mechanism for transmitting and reinforcing the National Socialist worldview. “He shaped its followers into a disciplined political force but dismissed its leaders later when they were no longer needed,” Poewe says.
We’re clearly not to the point where Jews, or Christians, or anyone else are being gathered by the thousands and placed in death camps. But we’re beginning to see a trend that is frightening, as government, with the assistance of liberal “Christian” churches and organizations, are trying to impose their will upon the church and its agenda.
We’ve had a “hate crimes” law imposed upon us that makes homosexuality a protected behavior. And one evangelical expresses the Confessing Church position in a nutshell:
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said in a written statement the bill “is part of a radical social agenda that could ultimately silence Christians and use the force of government to marginalize anyone whose faith is at odds with homosexuality.”
In another recent case, a Christian mother who has homeschooled her child is being forced to put her ten-year old child in public school, not to improve her academic education, but to limit her exposure to Christianity and forcibly expose her to a government-approved “public” point of view:
According to the court order, the guardian concluded that Amanda’s “interests, and particularly her intellectual and emotional development, would be best served by exposure to a public school setting in which she would be challenged to solve problems presented by a group learning situation and…Amanda would be best served by exposure to different points of view at a time in her life when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief and behavior.”
This is a shocking case, in which the government is usurping both parental and religious freedoms. And there are many similar usurpations today, in which our government is actively opposing Christian values.
Nearly fifty million babies have been killed in this country by a government-sanctioned “pro-choice” system. Gene Edward Veith addresses the “pro-choice” movement and its philosophical underpinnings:
Existential ethics brackets the objective issues on abortion entirely. At issue is not some transcendent moral law, nor medical evidence, nor a logical analysis. The content of that choice makes no difference. If the mother chooses to have the baby, her action is moral. If she chooses not to have the baby, her action is still moral. If she bears a child against her will or aborts a child against her will — then and only then is the action evil. Those who believe that abortion should be legal do not consider themselves “pro-abortion.” They are “pro-choice.” The term is not only a rhetorical euphemism but a precise definition of existential ethics.
Existentialism is also reflected in those who are “pro-choice” but personally oppose abortion. They do not believe in abortion for themselves, but refuse to impose their beliefs on others. In this view, a belief has no validity outside the private, personal realm of each individual. Moral and religious beliefs are no more than personal constructions, important in giving meaning to an individual’s life, but not universally valid. Or, to use another commonly accepted axiom, “what’s true for you may not be true for me.”
Such a view of truth flies in the face of all classical metaphysics, which sees truth as objective, universal, and applicable to all” (page 96, Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview).
We can return to the historical analysis of Nazism presented by Karla Poewe, and what happened when such “anything goes” belief systems were allowed to rule. [I have written an article describing how existentialism became a primary component of Nazism, and link to it HERE].
Before we leave the issue of abortion as a vile violation of Christian ethics and morality, let us consider one more voice:
“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” — Mother Teresa
Christians should fight for life. And allowing a human being to live should not be a “choice,” but a duty.
In 2003 one David Allen Black wrote an article bearing the question, “Do We Need A New Barmen Declaration?” No Christian with a knowledge of history can answer any other way than, “YES!”
The Barmen Declaration was written in 1934, but in many ways it was already too late: The Nazis were already in power. Hitler was in his second year of power; and the ideas of the liberal theologians, the existentialist philosophers, and the amoral intellectuals were already firmly in place.
It is my fervent hope that we finally have that “New Barmen Declaration” to answer the evils of our own day. If we already should have written one, then every day that passes is one more day wasted; if we are acting pro-actively, then let us thank God that we acting before it is too late.
From the UK Telegraph:
At last, Christians draw a line in the sand against their PC secularist persecutors
By Gerald Warner UK Last updated: November 24th, 2009
At long last, Christian leaders have faced up to their persecutors in the secularist, socialist, One-World, PC, UN-promoted axis of evil and said: No more. In the popular metaphor, they have drawn a line in the sand. For harassed, demoralised faithful in the pews it will come as the long-awaited call to resistance and an earnest that their leaders are no longer willing to lie down supinely to be run over by the anti-Christian juggernaut. This statement of principle and intent is called The Manhattan Declaration, published last Friday in Washington DC.
It is difficult to believe that so firm an assertion of Christian intransigence in the face of persecution will not have some beneficial effects even here. For this Declaration is no minor affirmation by a few committed activists: on the contrary, it is signed by the most important leaders of three mainstream Christian traditions – the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and Evangelical Protestants. For an ecumenical document it is heroically devoid of fudge, euphemism and compromise.
The Manhattan Declaration states that “the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions”.
For Barack Obama, the PC lobby, the “hate crime” fascists and, by implication, their opposite numbers in Britain, the signatories have an uncompromising message: “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.” That is plain speaking, in the face of anti-Christian aggression by governments. The signatories spelled it out even more unequivocally: “We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but we will under no circumstances render to Caesar what is God’s.”
In a world where a Swedish pastor has been jailed for preaching that sodomy is sinful, similar prosecutions have taken place in Canada, the European Court of Human Rights (sic) has tried to ban crucifixes in Italian classrooms, Brazil has passed totalitarian legislation imposing heavy prison sentences for criticism of homosexual lifestyles, Amnesty International is championing abortion, David Cameron has voted for the enforced closure of Catholic adoption agencies, and Gordon Brown’s government has just been defeated in its fourth attempt to abolish the Waddington Clause guaranteeing free speech – this robust defiance is more than timely.
The signatories are unambiguously expressing their willingness to go to prison rather than deny any part of their religious beliefs. Those signatories are heavyweight. On the Catholic side they include Justin Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia; Adam Cardinal Maida, Archbishop Emeritus of Detroit; the Archbishops of Denver, New York, Washington DC, Newark, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Louisville; and other Bishops. The Orthodox include the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America and the Archpriest of St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. There are also the Anglican Primates of America and Nigeria, as well as a host of senior Evangelical Protestants.
In terms of influence on votes and public opinion, this is a formidable coalition. It has served notice on the US government that further anti-Christian legislation will provoke cultural trench warfare and even civil disobedience. As regards the sudden stiffening of resistance among the usually spineless Catholic leadership, it is impossible not to detect the influence of Benedict XVI.
We need more declarations like this, on a global scale, and the requisite confrontational follow-up. This is Clint Eastwood, make-my-day Christianity – and not before time. From now on, any governments that are planning further persecution of Christians had better make sure they have a large pride of lions available for mastication duties. The worm has turned.
As a young Christian, I was inspired by the music, lyrics, and album cover of Keith Green’s album, No Compromise. The cover says it all:
The Manhattan Declaration – like the Barmen Declaration – calls for Christians who are willing to stand up and be singled out even in the face of persecution or punishment.
I hope you are willing to be one of those Christians.
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