A family focus at the heart of government
Connecting parents with politics
Speech to Fawcett Society
Attlee Suite, Portcullis House
Family the framework for women's lives
When I made my first speech on the family I was young and single. Two parents (who were getting on with their lives) and a gaggle of sisters.
Then married, children, two parents (still getting on with their lives) and a gaggle of sisters.
Now my children are getting on with their lives and we take more care of our mother as she is widowed and still a gaggle of sisters.
No grandchildren yet but the next generation has arrived through my great nephews and great niece.
Ask about something that happened in the past and women date it by their family events- it was after our Sion was born, it was before your dad died, it was when Shane was still with Sandra.
Most of what we become starts at home; our values and much of our knowledge is what we learn at home from parents, from spouse or partner, from brothers and sisters, from our children. The family, put simply, is the framework of our lives. It is everything for young children and becomes, as people age, once again just about the whole of their lives.
This is not a notion which is, or should be, separate from politics or public policy. It is central to it.
I want to argue, today that far from being marginal, or separate from mainstream politics
* Family policy is key to Labour achieving our aim of equality and opportunity
* That family policy is not just no less important than economic or social policy, it is central to it
* That family politics must be very careful and respectful of family autonomy. Taking their cue from the family, not dictating to it. Listening to parents, not lecturing at them.
* That though Labour has opened itself up to the importance of family policy, family policy must stop being the poor relation and become central.
Why families matter to all of us
Families matter to all of us as individuals but it matters to society too. It's at home where you learn to stand up for yourself and to compromise. Not just life skills for every individual but what is necessary for successful communities. It's at home where you first learn social behaviour.
It's at home where you learn to learn, as Michael Young said, the family is the most important educational institution. More important, even, than school.
Home is where your health is determined and where, throughout your life, you get most of your healthcare. It provides the bedrock of mental and physical well being.
Home is where you feel (or should feel) secure and learn to value security.
Home is where you understand the way generations depend on each other. Where you have your strongest connections with the past and the future.
What matters to families must be at the heart of policy making.
It has taken a long time to get this recognised as belonging in the mainstream political agenda.
I remember when I asked my first question to the prime minister in l982. It was about after-school clubs for working mothers in my constituency. In those days you could talk in Parliament about the money-supply, motorways and the mines. But my question about my constituents' need for after-school clubs was greeted with derision not just from the Tory government benches, but from our side too. They thought that wasn't politics; that it was a private matter. Now no one questions their importance, just our progress in ensuring they are there for every community.
I can remember too the unease and embarrassment at the time which greeted demands to get the law to tackle domestic violence. Now no-one would decree the priority we give within the criminal justice system to tackling domestic violence or argue now that it was a private matter between husband and wife.
And I remember too when, as Shadow Employment Secretary, I developed the policy of a Low Pay Commission to set a National Minimum Wage underpinned by statute, I argued this as a question of time as well as money. You have to tackle poverty pay otherwise parents have to work all hours and don't have enough time to care for their children in the way they want. Though the proposal for a statutory Minimum wage was bitterly opposed by the Conservative Government as well as the CBI the Tories now embrace it and the director general of the CBI who led the attack on us went on to chair the Low Pay Commission.
These issues and family policies that are about time, as well as money, about services to support families, have migrated from being seen as just the private sphere, and no business of public policy, onto the public policy agenda. But I believe that family policy has yet to be understood as pivotal to our public policy aims.
Though Labour in government has made great strides forward, Politics in this country has yet to fully recognise something that has always stared us in the face. Every area of policy-making touches families and is influenced by them. So every area of policy making, whether it is social and economic policy, housing or agriculture, environment or criminal justice, must take families into account- how they make the policy work, how they benefit from it. What they are doing now. As a first thought, not an afterthought.
Labour is the true party of the family
When I was first elected to Parliament, conventional wisdom had it that the Conservative Party was the party of the family. This came to mean two things. One, that Mrs Thatcher's government wanted to unravel the welfare state and shift the burden back on to women at home for services no longer supported by government. And, two, as Conservatives, they opposed the change in women's lives which saw women equalling men in educational qualifications and going out to work.
I was advised that I would do best if I steered away from family issues, that this was narrow and I would get myself "labelled."
But Labour understood and responded to the change in women's lives and aspirations and the huge impact that has on families and so it was that Labour became the "party of the family of the 21st century." The 1997 government marked a watershed for families with more time off for parents, the Minimum Wage, the new deal to help unemployed people back into work, massive investment in childcare, education and health services, a stable economy, low unemployment, tax credits for poor families, a better deal for pensioners.
Now David Cameron is trying to reclaim the family. But though the Conservatives now recognise the transformation of family life, they show no readiness to go beyond warm words. For the Tories, talking about families is a way to show the Tories have changed and so win support. For us, it's not about getting votes off families but delivering for them, with the recognition that the family is key to our aim to tackle disadvantage and ensure equality in a strong economy and a fair society. The Tories will stop at warm words and will go no further. We have not shrunk from public investment and legislation and we must go further.
Families are the key to equal opportunity
Families are not just vital for the individual, but also for our public policy objectives, for their central importance in achieving the aims that define Labour.
The key to social mobility and equal opportunity is not just a matter of class or economic privilege. It is not even just a matter of gender parity. It's a family matter.
I firmly believe that stable, secure stimulating and supportive families are the key that unlocks social and economic well-being. The key that opens the door to mobility and opportunity for everyone.
If our quest is to end disadvantage and inequality - and it is - then we must start with families.
I want public policy to make it possible for family to trump class disadvantage. To help end the inequalities that hold back human talent, turn people against one another, generate fear, conflict and hopelessness. We want families to help every individual to do their best in the world, not only for themselves, but for everyone around them - relatives, neighbours, workmates, fellow citizens - and for coming generations as well as their own.
Government can help make that happen. It's what families want to do for themselves and it's what government should back families up to do.
But this cannot be by trying to assert one model of the family. Families come in all shapes and sizes. It's not the format of the family that matters, but how it functions. How it helps family members to learn, to live with others, build strong relationships, demand rights and exercise responsibilities, tolerate and care for one another.
And this is not just about those who have children. We don't all have children, but we all have a stake in them growing up well and happy. And all of us have, or have had, parents.
The responsibility of government is to create the conditions in which families can do their best.
The importance of understanding change
When I talk now about family policy inevitably, I don't mean quite the same as I meant when I used the same phrase twenty or even ten years ago.
Good politics depends on understanding how things change and making sure that policies keep in touch with changing times.
In past centuries, family policy changed to meet changing economic and social circumstances.
In the industrial revolution, government passed laws to protect women and children who moved out of work in family groups and were exploited in factories. No worry about allegations of the nanny state there. This was family policy for the 19th century.
After two world wars, the Labour government created the welfare state provided free healthcare and education, unemployment benefit, free orange juice, affordable housing, cash allowances for women with children. Again, no worry about the nanny state allegations. This was family policy for the first half of the twentieth century.
Then, in the 1960's and 70's in an era of social liberalisation, Labour governments passed laws against sex discrimination and made divorce and family planning easier, gave new rights to married women. Family policy for the second half of the 20th century.
The makings of a modern family policy
And the New Labour government, as I have said, has given us family policy for the dawn of the 21st century. But we need to look ahead again to help families meet the challenges of the future.
Today family policy needs to acknowledge that mothers have entered the workforce and fathers are set to play a bigger role at home. Mothers working helps the family budget and fathers' greater role in the daily care of their children strengthens the relationship to the advantage of both child and father. The focus of trade union bargaining has shifted from just getting better wages to getting flexible conditions that allow men and women to combine work and family responsibilities.
And the world of work has changed too.More services, more retailing, more skilled and white-collar work. A 24-hour, seven-day-a-week culture. Less manufacturing and manual work. People expect to change jobs, are more likely to work part-time. And the beginning and end of the working life is changing as paid work continues to start later and end later in life.
There's been a big change in the age when women start having children and how many they have. For some, later parenthood is a matter of personal choice or the time taken to find the right partner. But for others it's not really a free choice but instead them delaying having a child so they can first get a firm foothold in the world of work before they 'risk' having a family. The knock-on effect is profound. It is harder to conceive when you are older. And the demands of work (particularly to pay for the cost of your home) can force you to limit the size of your family. The health and well-being of children and mothers and personal choice should decide the age of childbirth. Not the labour market. This is not something that we should allow, by default, the labour market to be dictating.
Parents having fewer children than they want not only represents a personal disappointment for those who want to have a bigger family, it also contributes in two ways to the demographic problem of an ageing population.
Older parenthood means older grandparents. I delayed having my children, like many of my generation. I was 37 when I had our youngest. If she leaves it till she's 37 to have her children, I'll be 74 when I get to be a granny. Far from being an active leaping about granny, I might even need my daughter to do a bit of shopping for me. The growing gap between generations means grandparents who are less helpful, more dependent. And smaller cohorts of the generation who will pay taxes to fund the pensions of their parents and grandparents. It is parents who should have the choice; they will make the right choice for themselves and their family. Not the labour market.
Families are where we first learn about the obligations that generations owe to each other. They are the reason why many of us feel so intensely that we must act against global warming. Many more of us now understand much better what terrible damage we are doing to the planet, that we are on the brink of ecological disaster that threatens the lives of our own children and grandchildren.
Family policy exists in a context of new international tensions. New sources of conflict between faiths and ideologies that scarcely registered in British politics 20 years ago. From the 'cold war' to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. From London bombings fuelled by the struggle between unionists and republicans in Northern Ireland, to London bombings by disaffected young Muslims. I have said that families are the place where we learn about tolerance and compromise. Strong, stable families are our best defence against social conflict. The more we can do to give families a sense of security and confidence, the more we enable them to turn outwards to respect and help their neighbours, not just inwards to protect their own.
In this changing world, we understand better what it takes to tackle disadvantage and promote genuine equality of opportunity. We know that equal opportunity in employment is limited unless work is shared more equally at home. Measures against sex discrimination will leave plenty of women mired in disadvantage unless they go hand in hand with action against racism, against discrimination on grounds of disability.
I think we can see more clearly how families provide the infrastructure on which society and economy depend. If roads and railways and energy supplies and telecommunications are the hardware, families are the software - without which all that hardware is useless.
Making Family policy for the 21st century
So we have to make policy that listens to and understands how 21st century families are responding to these changes.
I firmly believe the next stage of policy must be designed by and for families themselves. So I do not propose to set out an exhaustive list of new policies today. What I will be doing over the coming months, is putting a renewed focus on what I have done over the past decades - making the connection between parents and politics, listening to what parents say they want. Listening to what their demands of government are. And we will need to show them that, as with any area of vital public policy, we will be prepared to deploy the necessary public investment and legislate where required.
I will listen to what parents say and give them the confidence that we will act. The Childcare Commission which I chaired in 1999 was based on listening to what parents wanted from childcare and work flexibility. Mothers in Manufacturing was a report based on listening to what mothers working in the East Midlands leather industry told me about their babies, their parents and their relationships. It was listening to them that underlined to me the importance of getting work patterns right, not just for children and their parents, but also for the parents' relationship. Though we've acted to improve maternity pay, introduce paternity leave and greater flexibility since then - in no small part due to what they said - we still have not done all that we need to do to really let them be the sort of parents they want to be.
Public policy for families will not be right unless families shape it. And currently people see precious little connection between their family and politics. People are familiar with Labour's determination to ensure a strong economy and good hospitals and schools. But family policy, is incredibly difficult territory. Any time government broaches the subject, parents feel judged. So, for example, when we press for more childcare for children of working mothers, mothers who are at home with their children feel criticised and mothers who are working feel they are being pressed to work even more. And when we argue for more rights for part-time workers, mothers working full-time feel blamed. So we need to be careful and we need to listen.
Of course we have many ideas of where further change is needed. Let's start with money.
The pay gap has narrowed but it's still 12.6%. While the average wage has increased by £2.71 per hour since 1999, the minimum wage has gone up by only £1.45 per hour.
Unequal pay between men and women prevents fathers playing a more active role in their children's early years.
It entrenches the division of labour in the home - women have to take time off when the baby is young because the father's pay is better. And that cements the father's exile from the home. She goes out to work less - he works longer to earn more and sees less of the children. Everybody loses.
If we want to make sure that all families can be the key to social mobility and equal opportunity, we have to tackle poverty and we have to tackle unequal pay and it is because it is important for family policy that I have proposed that we have compulsory equal pay audits in both the public and private sector and set a target for ending unequal pay between men and women
And let me just point to another modest proposal that could give practical help with family finances. I'm thinking of those events and activities that family members plan for and do together. Weddings, christenings, holidays, Christmas and other religious festivals. I've already said that if your family is lower down the income scale you are not only poor in money terms but poorer in terms of time. And when it comes to saving it costs you more. The tragic failure of Farepak showed this all too clearly.
Government could do more to help families save for these shared events. By setting up a Family Events Savings Trust. This could support a range of savings plans, including, for example, an 11-month tax-free savings plan, with interest paid at the end. And there could be a top-up for poor families.
This would help families plan for and save for what they want to do and spend time together. And it could offer a practical way of stopping those events, which are such a great source strength for families, becoming a financial booby-trap which undermines them instead of supporting them.
And there's one more very important point about money. Pensions. Because women live longer than men, earn less than men, take time out of paid work to look after children and the elderly they get lower pensions and are more likely to live in poverty in old age.
We can't let caring for families be a ticket to poverty in old age. That?s why our forthcoming pensions changes are so important.
"I hated it, I hated the guilt, I felt guilty all the time. When you get home tired and miserable, you're juggling it all. You're trying to be a good mum, but you're trying to bring in the money as well."
Ann, Coates Viyella, mother of 5 year old child, returned to work at 12 weeks
Now let's talk about time. We now know only too well that we can't end the pay gap between men and women unless we tackle the issue of time. Nor can we hope to enable fathers to have more time with their children unless we tackle the issue of pay.
It's partly a circular issue, of course. The minimum wage and tax credits have helped greatly. But particularly for women and men who are lowest paid and have least control over their work, parents need to be able to fit their work around their family without losing out on better work prospects.
This is not just when children are very young. It matters throughout a child's school years.
It seems that the more we recognise how important it is to children that both their parents are actively involved in their upbringing, the more parents are under pressure to spend long hours away from their families, earning a living. However, the solution doesn't lie in some kind of throw-back to the 1950s, sending mothers back home from the workplace.
The answer is yet better maternity and paternity pay and leave and to make sure both parents have flexibility in their working lives - so that they, and not just their employers, have power to choose how best to mesh together earning and caring - to combine their responsibilities at work and at home.
I want to see the legal right to request flexible work which Labour introduced, much more strongly entrenched, more widely recognised.
We'll find out more about how families themselves think this can best be done.
But why don't we put this right into every person's employment contract. We know smoking is bad for your health, so we put a notice on every cigarette packet. We know work flexibility is good for the family, so why don't we require every contract of employment - as well as setting out the details of pay and hours - to set out the employee's right to request flexible work and the employer's obligation to consider it reasonably. And shouldn't all workplace notice boards carry a poster setting this out. Parents should not feel they are on their own trying to struggle to balance work and family. They are not. The government is backing them with legal rights.
Flexible work for people with family responsibilities should be vigorously adopted by employers too, because it helps them to build and sustain a committed, skilled and experienced workforce. There is a good business case for this.
"I didn't see my boyfriend after the baby. I worked 5 - 10. I'd leave for work as he'd come in."
Amy, Coates Viyella, returned to work when child was 6 months old
"Shifting the baby from place to place shifted our marriage from place to place as well. It was a vicious circle"
Deborah, Courtaulds, mother of 5 year old daughter
"Our baby never sees his mum and dad together. It's a struggle on all sides - for me, my husband, our parents and especially for our baby."
Amber, Pretty Polly, returned to work at 8 weeks for both children
"When I get in from work, he's not there. When he gets in I'm asleep. We leave each other messages."
Joan, Coates Viyella, returned to work when child was 6 months
"At the mother and baby club you see how other children of the same age are doing. You exchange ideas of how to solve daily problems, but I can't go now I'm back at work"
Stacey, Courtaulds, mother of 14 month old baby, returned to work at 14 weeks
"It's the mothers' right to take the child to the mother and toddler club. It helps bring them on. If it's your first child you learn from other parents."
Jane, Burberry's, mother of 2 children
"There's no time at work to talk about these things with other mums"
Vicky, Courtaulds, mother of 3 year old child, returned at 7 months
I'd like to turn to the question of the practical support and advice that families need, the sort of advice and information that was exchanged between all mothers when hardly any worked and every day included the chance to chat at the school gate or in the mother and toddler group. This is not about helicoptering in expert help, which can sap the confidence of parents.
Can we knit that experience and support back together through a voluntary network like the one that has done so much to bring victim support to every community which has public funds sustaining the infrastructure and well-trained volunteers providing support.
Public services cannot substitute for families, but they can and must support them. And public services need families in order to give of their best. They depend on each other and public policy must be based on an understanding of how the two work together.
To enable families to function at their best Government must keep on investing in child care and in services to support people looking after disabled and elderly relatives.
Invest and legislate
A decent income. Time to care as well as to earn. Practical support that meets the real needs of families. These things combined will back up families and help open the doors to opportunity for every individual, regardless of class or race or gender or disability.
We mustn't shrink from investing in measures that meet the needs of families. I hope that before they say the public purse can't afford it, those who themselves can afford good childcare for their own children but who want to cut public spending, will reflect on the misery and anguish of hard-working parents on low incomes who tear their hair out trying to patch together arrangements between family and friends.
Nor must we shrink from using legislation where encouragement and exhortation is not enough.
So I hope that employers' organisations will reflect on the sheer misery and anguish of hard-working parents bringing up children on a low income before they decry as unnecessary, proposals for greater legal rights.
Politicians in the 19th century did not simply exhort mill owners to limit children's working hours, to treat their infectious diseases and to teach child employees to read and write. They legislated and so should we.
Family policy in a parliament of women and men
And we need a body politic confident in its ability to have those discussions with parents and make those decisions. And that has to mean women and men are equally represented. It is unthinkable that a parliamentary debate about, or cabinet decision on, family policy should be the exclusive province of men. That is one of the many reasons we had to increase the number of Labour women MPs in Parliament and increase the number of women Ministers in Government.
The Labour Government since 1997 has done as much as it has on family policy largely because of the influx of women MPs. Quite simply a PLP made up of 97% men (as Parliament was when I joined in 1982) would not have done the job. My view is we would have done none of this had we remained as the Conservative Party still are - a party of men. Although they talk a lot about women in Parliament, disgracefully, they've got 179 male MPs and only 17 women - and of those, only 3 are younger women from the 2005 intake.
It is, however, gratifying to see the Tory men (and indeed women) who over the years have heaped such derision on us, Labour's women, now agreeing with the arguments we have been making for many years.
But Labour's women and men have established Labour as the party of the family in deeds as well as words and we want to do more. To take it to the next stage we now need to create a new connection between parents and politics and put the family at the very centre of all policy.
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Home / Shipping News / International Shipping News / Corvus Energy expands to meet demand for battery-powered marine vessels
Corvus Energy expands to meet demand for battery-powered marine vessels
Canadian-Norwegian energy storage solutions provider Corvus Energy expands battery production facilities in Vancouver, Canada and announces intentions to build a factory in Bergen, Norway.
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada and Bergen, Norway – July 11, 2018 – Corvus Energy is pleased to announce two production and R&D expansion plans underway in Canada and Norway. The new battery factories will be more modern and more automated than other similar factories, result in eight times the production capacity compared to today.
Corvus Energy is a world-leading supplier of batteries for ships. New factories will increase production capacity 8-fold.
First, the Corvus Energy factory in the Vancouver, Canada region will be expanded and upgraded to house a 200 MWh semi-automated battery production facility. A new product R&D, design and engineering facility will also be developed. The expansion is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2019.
Secondly, a 400 MWh fully automated factory and a new marine system testing and development facility will be built in the Bergen region of Norway to fulfill strong growth in the Norwegian market resulting from new ferry tenders and high demand for hybrid energy systems in the offshore and shipping sectors. The new factory, test and development facilities are expected to be completed by the summer of 2019.
The market for maritime batteries has seen strong growth in recent years, and Corvus Energy is one of the dominant suppliers in the market. The company develops and sells specially designed battery storage solutions for the maritime and oil and gas sectors and is a world-leading supplier of batteries for ships.
“There is an electric revolution going on in the maritime sector, and we want to deliver the best solutions in the industry. These strategic locations of our R&D and production facilities will enable us to quickly test and develop new systems that can meet the future needs of the industry. Further, by switching from manual processing to automated production, we will increase production capacity and remain price-competitive,” says Geir Bjørkeli, CEO of Corvus Energy.
“There is an electric revolution going on in the maritime sector, and we want to deliver the best solutions in the industry.” Geir Bjørkeli, Chief Executive, Corvus Energy
Strengthens the maritime cluster
Corvus Energy is a partner in the NCE Maritime CleanTech industry cluster, which is assisting with consultancy and project development in the planning phase of the Norwegian factory.
“We have a strong maritime cluster in Western Norway, and the Corvus facility will strengthen our position as a global hub within maritime environmental technology. With a battery factory in the Bergen area, the industry will have close access to core products that are vital to ensuring that shipping is more environmentally friendly and more profitable for the ship owners,” says Hege Økland, CEO of NCE Maritime CleanTech.
“It will be natural for us to link our R&D activities with other relevant R&D institutions. In this way we can strengthen the cooperation between industry players and research institutions, which will be beneficial to all parties,” says Corvus Energy’s Bjørkeli.
Corvus Energy was established in Canada in 2009 and has its head office, sales, product R&D, design and engineering, and production facilities in Vancouver, Canada. The Norwegian part of the business, Corvus Norway, was established in 2015 and currently operates sales, service and marketing activities in the Bergen, Norway area. Investors include Equinor Technology Ventures and Norsk Hydro of Norway, and BW Group of Singapore.
As the leading manufacturer of energy storage systems for maritime applications, Corvus offers the innovative Orca ESS solutions portfolio and has unsurpassed experience from 140+ projects, totaling over 100MWh and 2 million operating hours.
Source: Corvus Energy
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University of Toronto Quarterly
A Short History of Progress (review)
Joseph Heath
University of Toronto Press
10.1353/utq.2006.0104
A Short History of Progress
Joseph Heath (bio)
Ronald Wright . A Short History of Progress Anansi. 212. $18.95
For those who loved Jared Diamond's runaway bestseller Guns, Germs and Steel, but don't particularly feel like wading through all five-hundred-plus pages of his more recent Collapse, an agreeable alternative would be to flip through Ronald Wright's A Short History of Progress, the book version of his 2004 Massey Lectures.
In a mere 132 pages of text, Wright works through the same talking points, but with a great deal more pizazz. For example, his retelling of the Easter Island story, which Diamond first began publicizing over a decade ago, has considerable zip. The environment movement needs more people like Wright, who can worry about the fate of the earth so poetically: 'How long can it withstand a blaze of consumption so frenzied that the dark side of this planet glows like a fanned ember in the night of space?' he asks.
Both Wright and Diamond are 'environmentalists' in both the normative and the explanatory sense of the term. They think that we should take better care of the planet. More controversially, they think that the environment constitutes the central variable when it comes to understanding variations in human culture, settlement patterns, and population levels, along with the 'rise and fall' of human civilizations.
Diamond actually has a rather nuanced five-point classification of primary influences on the success of human civilizations, some of which include social factors (such as interaction with hostile neighbours). For Wright, on the other hand, it's all about the topsoil. Keep your topsoil in good shape, civilization flourishes. Wreck your topsoil, it's game over.
So why did the Roman empire collapse, while the Chinese were always able to stage a comeback? Whatever the proximate causes (corruption, plague, barbarian invasion, etc), the ultimate causes were environmental. The Roman empire 'impoverished the soils of southern Europe.' Chinese civilization was able to persist thanks to the miracle of the Yellow River, with its 'lump sum deposits' of renewed topsoil, making the land 'almost endlessly forgiving.' [End Page 208]
Of course, what follows from this sort of environmental reductionism is the occlusion of any social factor as an explanatory variable. But having discounted the role of culture and social institutions in explaining civilizational collapse, Wright is left with almost nothing useful to say about what we, as a society, should do about our environmental problems (other than make 'the transition from short-term to long-term thinking'). In particular, he has no sense of the way that the development of the market economy makes the task of environmental sustainability in some ways easier, but in other ways more difficult. Indeed, one of the central lessons learned over the past twenty years about the inadequacies of 'limits to growth'-style environmental thinking is that we cannot ignore the way that the price system dynamically adjusts both production and consumption to conditions of relative scarcity.
It should also be mentioned that Wright's presentation is marred by some genuinely silly speculative asides. For example, he suggests that the disappearance of Neanderthals and their replacement by Homo sapiens may provide 'stone age forebodings of the final solution.' 'If it turns out that the Neanderthals disappeared because they were an evolutionary dead end, we can merely shrug and blame natural selection for their fate. But if they were in fact a variant or race of modern men, then we must admit to ourselves that their death may have been the first genocide.'
This makes one wonder just what Wright thinks an 'evolutionary dead end' is. It's not as though certain genetic variants just give up one day and decide to stop reproducing. Getting killed off, either directly or indirectly, by conspecifics or otherwise, is what makes a particular variant an 'evolutionary dead end.'
Neanderthals may have disappeared because Homo sapiens girls didn't like boys with heavy brow lines, or they may have disappeared because Homo sapiens boys threw rocks at them. Since either explanation is equally plausible, there is something rather tabloid about Wright's suggestion that we may be 'genetically predisposed by the...


Greenwich’s Tysen Comizio commits to play football at UPenn
David Fierro | October 2, 2018
Greenwich's Tysen Comizio carries the ball against Trumbull on Sept. 8 at Greenwich High School.
Photo: Lindsay Perry / For Hearst Connecticut Media
From Greenwich’s 2017 season-opener against Trumbull when he totaled 141 receiving yards, to last week’s football game against Norwalk, which saw him rush for 117 yards on just 10 carries, Cardinals senior running back Tysen Comizio has been a formidable force out of the backfield.
And plenty of schools at the collegiate level have noticed.
The University of Pennsylvania was one of the schools that saw the qualities Comizio brings to the Cardinals on a daily basis and Comizio made UPenn his choice.
The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Comizio announced future football plans on Twitter Wednesday.
“Extremely excited and proud to announce that I have committed to the University of Pennsylvania,” Comizio said.
An All-FCIAC selection as a junior, Comizio rushed for 1,379 yards with 20 touchdowns last fall. He also had 34 receptions for 382 yards and four touchdowns in 2017. Through three games this season, he’s rushed for 262 yards on 32 carries (8.2 yards per carry) and has reached the end zone six times.
Cardinals coach John Marinelli saw Comizio burst onto the high school football scene last year, but wasn’t surprised by his success.
“I am so happy for him,” said Marinelli, whose Cardinals sport a record of 3-0. “Some kids don’t put the work in and don’t realize what’s attainable. Tysen realized what he needed to do and he worked his way to have this opportunity to commit. To me that makes it all the more special.”
Marinelli is impressed with how diligent Comizio is in terms of honing his skills and keeping himself well conditioned.
“He’s not going to Penn because he is tall or fast, he worked his way into being a tremendous football player,” Marinelli said. “That’s’ what makes it more special.”
Comizio is following his father’s footsteps to the University of Pennsylvania. Richard Comizio, Tysen’s father, starred at running back for Penn from 1984-1986. He rushed for 596 yards his first season on the squad, earning the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Year Award. As a junior, Comizio gained 779 yards and was a Second Team All-Ivy League selection. His senior season saw him rush for 1,104 yards, which was then, a program record.
So Tysen Comizio will look to continue a legacy upon his arrival at Penn next fall.
“For him, it was a really tough decision, but UPenn is like his second home,” Marinelli said. “It came down to education and their football team has a strong tradition. He is a highly recruitable athlete who was being looked at by a lot of places. All the schools loved how strong he was, how he finishes runs and how he runs through the holes.”
In Comizio, Marinelli sees a player with a wide range of skills capable of handling multiple tasks.
“He is patient, quick, athletic and he reads his blocks well,” Marinelli said of Comizio. “As a running back in the spread, you have to be a blocker sometimes, which he does well. He is also really strong, it takes more than one guy to knock him down and he usually falls forward for positive yards. With him, it’s a combination of everything, he is the full package.”
dfierro@greenwichtime.com
About David Fierro
Old Comments
Ace's Dad says
Wow, that’s awesome. Congratulations Tysen, and Best of Luck playing at the next level !


An Army of Ants, A Colony of Bats, A Pounce of Cats
Animal Group Names
by Dr. Sherry L. Meinberg
In the Nick of Time
Dr. Sherry L. Meinberg
Alzheimer’s ABC
Seizing the Teachable Moment
A Squirm of Worms
A Cluster of Cancers
Dimensions : 8.5x11
Dimensions : 11x8.5
There are many ways to say a group of humans, like people, family, clan, tribe, troop, community, crowd, crew, gang, mob, rabble, team, and many more. And, too, there are several ways to describe groups of animals. Some of those names are in our everyday language, like a flock of sheep, a pack of coyotes, a cloud of gnats, or a school of fish. Other names are used only in certain areas of the country, so they might not be so well known. Some animal group names are the same, like a herd of deer, a herd of antelope, a herd of moose, a herd of buffalo, a herd of cattle, and so forth. Understand that there is more than one group name for most animals. Some animals have from two to seven group names. For instance, a group of camels can be called a caravan, a train, a flock, or a herd. But only one group name is printed herein for each animal. The artwork is provided by the winners of the Animal Groups Art Contest. The winners are from different grades, in different classes, in different schools, in different cities, and several states.
In addition to being an educator for over 50 years, Dr. Sherry L. Meinberg has written 18 books, and has been honored with well over 100 awards.


Thousand Islands National Park
By Caroline Morrow
Photos and Text by Caroline Morrow
The Thousand Islands stretch across 80 kilometers of the St. Lawrence River sandwiched between Canada and the United States. The region is part of the Frontenac Arch, a granite outcrop that reaches from Algonquin Provincial Park to the Adirondack Mountains. Remnants of this ancient mountain range peek through the river producing 1,864 islands. Many are so tiny that they support nothing more than a tree.
Parks Canada performed a controlled forest fire to help with the regeneration of native plant species.
Although the islands can sometimes feel overrun by boats, if you tough it out until the shoulder-seasons you’ll have the misty mornings and haunting loon calls all to yourself.
The Thousand Islands are a fern heaven. With all the lushness, it can sometimes feel slightly Jurassic.
The islands have a long and rich history. First Nations fished in the area for thousands of years, entrepreneurial pirates smuggled rum through its channels and many a great ship sank in its rocky shoals. During the early 1900s, a large number of islands were sold to private ownership. Concerned locals petitioned the government to secure public access. In 1904 the St. Lawrence Islands National Park (now Thousand Islands National Park) was established. It is one of the oldest National Parks in the country and the first in Eastern Canada.
Springtime in the Thousand Islands is mayfly season. Thankfully, they don’t do much more than photobomb your sunrise shots.
The Bridge to the U.S.A. as seen from Ivy Lea. Crossing the bridge puts you high above the St. Lawrence and offers incredible views of the Thousand Islands.
Looking across to Georgina Island on a calm summer morning.
Park rules and visitor attitudes differ between islands. Personally, I am inclined towards those with fewer docks and a ban on portable generators. Gordon Island, Leek Island and Mulcaster Island are three of my favourites. Gordon Island has a century-old stone gazebo and a number of wood-fired cook stoves that have long been used by fisherman to cook up the day’s catch. Mulcaster is a favourite for its cliffs and rugged coastline, whereas Leek Island provides a sandy beach that can only be accessed by paddling or swimming.
Photos (C) 2015 Caroline Morrow
Caroline Morrow found a way to combine all the things she loves— food, travel, language, photography, urban spaces and the environment through Travel Photography. Her recent travels include Iceland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. She currently lives in Kingston, Ontario and studies Urban Planning. You can follow along through her social media accounts:
Photo of Caroline by Troy Glover
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Senator Tom Cotton - Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington — in conversation with Bret Baier — at Politics and Prose at The Wharf
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 - 7:30pm to 8:30pm
NOTE: Unlike most Politics and Prose events, this one will be starting at 7:30pm instead of 7pm.
Dating to 1784, the 3rd Infantry Regiment at Arlington National Cemetery is the oldest active-duty regiment of the U.S. Army. Membership in the Old Guard is one of the highest honors a U.S. soldier can receive, and Tom Cotton was privileged to serve in it for sixteen months between combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this moving and inspiring memoir, Arkansas Senator Cotton, a rising star of the Republican Party, offers a heartfelt glimpse of a revered part of American tradition. He recounts the Guard’s rigorous selection process, chronicles its traditional duties, which include performing military-honor funerals and welcoming heads of state, and writes movingly about presiding over the laying to rest of soldiers killed in the 2007 Surge. Senator Cotton will be in conversation with Bret Baier, Fox New chief political anchor.
70 District Square SW
Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery (Hardcover)
By Tom Cotton
Published: William Morrow - May 14th, 2019
Not Signed or Personalized
/event/book/clay-risen-crowded-hour-theodore-roosevelt-rough-riders-and-dawn-of-american-century
Clay Risen - The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century


Flyers’ MacDonald to miss six weeks with lower-body injury
September 9, 2018 Wayne Fish breaking news, Hockey, Philadelphia Flyers
Another key figure in the Flyers lineup has gone down with a significant injury long before the regular season begins.
Last month, No. 1 center Sean Couturier suffered a knee injury in a charity game which will keep him out of action until the middle of preseason.
Sunday came word that veteran defenseman Andrew MacDonald suffered what general manager Ron Hextall is calling a “lower-body’’ injury during an offseason workout. He is expected to miss at least six weeks.
That means he probably won’t be back until near the end of October or about 10 games into the season. The Flyers open regular-season play in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights on Oct. 4.
MacDonald, who turned 32 this past Friday, is coming off what was arguably his best season as a Flyer, playing in 66 games with six goals, 15 points and a plus-8.
Since coming to Philadelphia in a trade with the New York Islanders during the 2013-14 season, MacDonald has played in 244 games with 11 goals, 52 assists for 63 points.
MacDonald caused a stir a few years ago when he was given a five-year, $30-million contract. During the 2015-16 season, he was sent down to the Phantoms for 43 games, making the signing look somewhat questionable.
But MacDonald has bounced back to have two solid seasons.
With MacDonald out for training camp (which opens Friday) and the preseason, the door is left open for some young defense prospects to possibly win a temporary job with the team.
Some candidates to look for include Phil Myers, Samuel Morin and Travis Sanheim, as well as veteran T.J. Brennan.


Name: TWILIGHT TIME
Number: TWILIGHT312-BR
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1970) (SPECIAL PROMOTION) (BLU-RAY)
Starring: Harry Andrews, Hugh Griffith, Anna Calder-Marshall, Timothy Dalton, Pamela Browne, Ian Ogilvy
Directed By: Robert Fuest
Composed By: Michel Legrand
“Recurring moments…when it’s possible to comprehend something of the wild and beautiful physical environment out of which Emily Brontë created her unique novel of transcendental love and hate.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times
“The intensity of the relationships is well-portrayed…The film looks very good…It also sounds very good, with an excellent score by Michel Legrand that can stand as a work of art in its own right.”
– Enoch Sneed, The Spinning Image
Another passionate adaptation of Emily Brontë’s superbly strange, enduringly classic novel, this Wuthering Heights (1970) stars Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall as the doomed and deathless lovers, Heathcliff and Cathy. Directed by Robert Fuest (The Abominable Dr. Phibes); shot at wildly beautiful Yorkshire locations by John Coquillon (Straw Dogs); co-starring the stalwart likes of Harry Andrews, Pamela Brown, Julian Glover, Hugh Griffith, and Ian Ogilvy; and featuring a stunning score by the incomparable Michel Legrand.
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition / 1.85:1
AUDIO: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA
SUBTITLES: English SDH 1970 / Color
RATED G
Special Features: Isolated Music Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historian Justin Humphreys / Original Theatrical Trailer
Limited Edition of 3,000 Units
PLAY DIRTY (1968) (SPECIAL PROMOTION)
THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT (1977) (SPECIAL PROMOTION)
THE HAPPY ENDING (1969) (SPECIAL PROMOTION)
Posted by James Shertzer on November 30, 2017 3:29 PM
The Michel Legrand score (featuring the haunting song, "I Was Born in Love With You") is perhaps the best thing about this film, but overall, it's not a bad picture. It can't hold a candle to Wyler's classic 1939 version with Olivier and Oberon, but in a way, it doesn't try to. I think of this is an adaptation for the hippie generation. Dalton is his own Heathcliff. There's good supporting work from some of England's finest character actors of the period, too. American-International production values tend to be on the skimpy side.
Posted by Mark Turner on January 30, 2018 6:42 PM
Let me say up front that my wife is a big fan of the original movie version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS that starred Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. I know she's watched it more than once and enjoyed it each time she has. Apparently all of those times were when I wasn't home because I've yet to see that version. So this one, shot in 1970, is my first exposure to the story of Cathy and Heathcliff.
The Earnshaw family in England isn't the most posh of the lot but they are well off. One night the master of the house (Harry Andrews) returns home to Wuthering Heights with a young boy in tow. His wife eludes that this is an illegitimate son but he insists that the boy is merely an orphan he saved from the streets. The young boy, Heathcliff, grows up among the Earnshaw children, favored by young Cathy and with contempt by her brother Hindley.
The children grow up, Hindley (Julian Glover) goes off to school and Cathy and Heathcliff fall madly in love with one another. All of this is under the watchful eye of servant Nellie (Judy Cornwell). Things change when Mr. Earnshaw passes away. Hindley returns to take over things with a new wife in tow. Immediately he has Nellie and Heathcliff move out of the house to more suitable accommodations for their stature in life.
The bitterness between Heathcliff and Hindley continues. Cathy and Heathcliff prank the nearby Linton house, the end result being Cathy falling and injuring herself. The Linton's take her in and son Edgar immediately falls in love with her. Enjoying the attention Cathy gives back what she receives and provokes Heathcliff when she sees him next. In a rage he leaves all behind at sets out on his own.
Three years pass and Cathy has forgotten Heathcliff. She's now married to Edgar. Hindley has lost his wife when she was giving birth and has fallen into being an alcoholic who is in the midst of gambling away Wuthering Heights. At this time Heathcliff chooses to return, polished and refined and no longer the dirty farm hand he appeared to be when he left.
Cathy and Heathcliff once again fall hopelessly in love and meet behind the scenes. She doesn't intend to leave Edgar though and Heathcliff, now more vengeful than romantic, begins to seduce Edgar's sister Isabella. A pregnant Cathy seems to want her cake and eat it too remaining married and longing for her ex-love while he sets out to destroy those who thought themselves better than him.
I won't go on so as to not spoil the ending for those who've never seen it. Suffice to say that I wasn't thrilled with much of this movie. I found few characters to sympathize with, especially the two star crossed lovers at the center of it all. Both seem narcissistic as if all others should cater to them only. Their romance revolves around cheating on their respective spouses, of talking adoration for one another while doing as much mental harm to one another at the same time. Talk about confused.
The movie was made by AIP, American International Pictures, which was synonymous with drive in fare at the time. This was an attempt to make a more artistic costume drama on their part and it does look great. But the plotting is slow, the jumps in time unexplained and the overwrought emotions of characters off-putting. Fans of the story may enjoy it but my guess is most won't.
And yet Twilight Time has once more offered the film in pristine condition. Their presentation here in blu-ray format looks great. Would that the movie itself were as good as the efforts Twilight Time put into it. Extras include an isolated music track, an audio commentary track with film historian Justin Humphreys, the original theatrical trailer and writings by film historian Julie Kirgo. As with all Twilight Time releases this is limited to just 3,000 copies so if you're a fan then make sure you buy your copy as soon as possible.


Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats at Newport Folk Festival (photo by Laura Fedele/WFUV)
WFUV Staff
Team FUV made its annual pilgrimage to Fort Adams State Park for the Newport Folk Festival.
Our friends at NPR Music recorded sets, and you can hear these performances on the radio tonight from 6 p.m. to midnight in a special Newport Folk Fest Highlights show on FUV: Elvis Costello, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, River Whyless, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Violent Femmes and Ryan Adams.
There's a visual recap in the Newport 2016 photo album on the WFUV Flickr Stream, and some of the FUV staff had Newport reports to share too.
FRIDAY - From Rita Houston
This was year 57 for the Newport Folk Festival, and year 20 for me. This little gathering has grown into a full-on, three-day festival, and the Friday kickoff was a day packed with sunshine, sweet sounds, and a few surprises by the sea.
I love a day that starts with a boat ride! The first order of business was catching a water taxi to Fort Adams State Park. Then an early-day highlight was catching St. Paul and The Broken Bones on the main stage, with an energetic, horn-fueled set that introduced material from their much-anticipated second album. The new songs stretch beyond the retro soul that put this band on the map and prove that these guys are more than just a throwback. The crowd loved them. Always-engaging frontman Paul Janeway kicked off his shoes and delivered a soulful set that touched on so many elements of Southern and American music.
Midday, word started to spread about a surprise appearance from Kris Kristofferson! Newport Folk keeps it so real, always finding ways to honor the past while celebrating the present. The back story is that Kris played here once before — reluctantly and unannounced — when Johnny Cash insisted he get some stage time. It was the first time many heard "Me and Bobby McGee" and other songs that would grow into classics. Now 80 years old, Kristofferson returned with his daughter Kelly and did a 40-minute acoustic set for a packed, hushed, lucky, intimate crowd.
k.d. lang made her Newport debut in 2016, as part of the new case/lang/veirs project. The unexpected and remarkable trio first got together three years ago at k.d.'s initiation, and is now on tour playing songs from their new album and adding in some from their own catalogs. If I had to pick just one, I'd say that this set was the absolute highlight of the festival for me.
Other high points included sets from Matthew Logan Vasquez (from Delta Spirit), Brett Dennen, Aofie O'Donovan, Violent Femmes and Flight of the Conchords.
There are so many reasons why the Newport Folk Festival has become one of the most desired tickets on the festival scene. I'll be back for year #21!
SATURDAY - From Alisa Ali
So many great moments at Newport on Saturday! One standout for me was Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (although "day sweats" would be a better name, since they played during the hot hot heat of the afternoon). I love playing "S.O.B." on the radio, but man, hearing it played live to an audience that was just waiting to scream out "SON OF A BITCH" was exhilarating!
I also felt so blessed to hear the legendary Graham Nash sing. I had my niece with me while he did "Teach Your Children," and I almost cried.
But then I had tears of laughter thanks to Ryan Adams. That guy is part musician and part comedian. He was saying he was grateful that Napalm Death cancelled so he could play a set. He also made jokes about Jack Johnson and Father John Misty, but it was all in good fun. Of course the real draw of Ryan Adams is his music. He played a bluegrass set, giving his songs really creative and imaginatively new arrangements. "Winding Wheel" and "Let it Ride" never sounded so good! (I do still love the originals arrangements too, though.)
Dancing under the sun to his set may have actually been my festival highlight, but then came Patti Smith, who is just so inspirational and powerful. Her combination of poetry, electric guitars, voice, and spirit was transformative. She has a way of making you feel like you can do anything. Sometimes we all need a reminder that "people have the power!"
SUNDAY - From Carmel Holt
A richly diverse range of sounds filled the final day of Newport. It was a day of moving solo performances, not-so-solo performances, collaborations, gospel spirit, new discoveries, and mainstays.
The South was well represented, providing the bookends to the Sunday lineup, and a lot in between. I started with Asheville, North Carolina band River Whyless, a new folk rock band that infuses their songs with hints of South African rhythms. Soon after, Louisville, Kentucky folk artist Joan Shelley delivered a set of her lovely songs in a sweet duo. Then it was on to a rollicking set by Juno-award winning Canadian newcomers, The Strumbellas. Then it was back to the South, for a similarly high-energy, joyful folk-rock set on the main stage from the Oh Hellos, a new discovery for me.
FUV fave Son Little put on a fantastic show with his band, leading them through soulful faves “O Mother,” “Lay Down,” and a killer finish with the rocker “The River.” And as powerful as those last few bands were, filling their stages with stompers, there was an equally powerful set from an artist to watch out for, the pint-sized Julien Baker (another Southerner, from Memphis), who brought the crowd to their feet with her heartbreakingly beautiful songs, sung armed only with her electric guitar, and a soul-baring voice.
Speaking of power, another beloved FUV artist, Glen Hansard, took the main stage by storm for what was billed as a solo set, but was hardly so. Jocie Adams (The Low Anthem, Arc Iris) served as his vocal foil, and he came with a trombonist, as well. Then he pulled a member of the audience on stage, who got doubly-lucky when Elvis Costello came out to sing with them.
Ireland had two amazing artists at Newport Sunday, as Conor O’Brien, aka Villagers, came to do his very first Newport performance. His full-band set included a lot from his recent album, Darling Arithmetic (“Hot Scary Summer” was a highlight, dedicated to Donald Trump).
Then it was a full-on dance party, as New Orleans institution Preservation Hall Jazz Band played to a packed tent. Not one person was standing still, and every face had a smile.
One of the most anticipated Sunday moments was the reunion of Middle Brother, bringing together Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, John McCauley of Deer Tick, and Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit (who also was here to do a solo set earlier this weekend). The band joked that they were going to play “their whole catalog”—which would be their only album, marking its fifth anniversary this year. It was a fantastic set which no one wanted to end, least of all the band.
The three were backed by Dawes, who continue to earn their reputation as not only a great band in their own right, but also as ace collaborators. They proved that this year, backing up Elvis Costello who also had been billed as “solo.” Dawes and duo Larkin Poe accompanied Costello through a brisk and favorite-filled set that included “Everyday I Write The Book,” “What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love & Understanding),” “American Mirror” (another reference to the political landscape), and a wonderful version of “The Scarlet Tide,” bringing out Preservation Hall Jazz Band for the second time. Glen Hansard and Conor O’Brien also joined in, making for a very full “solo” set, indeed!
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros were in full effect, making the tent feel like part traveling medicine show, part love-in. Alex Ebert crowd surfed twice, invited a fan to sing on stage, and in general brought some much-needed hippie love to Sunday afternoon. (How many people are in that band now, anyway?) Earlier in the day, Durham, North Carolina's Phil Cook’s Southland Revue brought a true gospel show to that same tent, with a set that featured The Blind Boys of Alabama.
And closing the incredible day: The Alabama Shakes! The Athens, Alabama band has had an amazing year, winning multiple Grammys for their latest album, Sound & Color. Brittany Howard is a force of nature, and she brought the festival to a rousing and soulful close. (Plus it was not lost on me that the headliners on both Saturday and Sunday nights were bands led by women.) The slower-burning songs, like the title track to that album, were striking; rockers like “Don’t Wanna Fight” were impossible not to sing along to. Brittany Howard brought out Dawes for their third appearance on the main stage and the warmth between Brittany and Taylor was visible. The smiles and hugs they shared echoed the vibes of the day, and the whole weekend.
Another reminder that even in the darkest times, music can bring us together, and yes, change the world. Here’s to another great Newport on the books!
Funding for WFUV’s ongoing coverage of live concerts and festivals comes from the Agnes Varis Trust, supporting affordable access to the arts, education and healthcare.
WFUV at Newport Folk Festival 2016
2 years ago ago by WFUV Public Radio. WFUV at Newport Folk Festival 2016
2 years ago ago by WFUV Public Radio. Amasa Hines: Newport 2016
2 years ago ago by WFUV Public Radio. The Staves: Newport 2016
2 years ago ago by WFUV Public Radio.
Newport 2016 Newport Folk
FUV Music Weekends
with WFUV Staff


Interview with Director of SEAT Sport Jaime Puig "We've covered all of our expectations"
Martorell 05/08/2015 - The 2015 SEAT Leon Eurocup 2015 has arrived at the midway point of the season. After the weekend at the Red Bull Ring where the fourth round of the championship was played out, the single-make series is taking a well-earned breather. Jaime Puig, Director of SEAT Sport, continues work however in order to maintain the level of success enjoyed thus far by the SEAT Leon Eurocup. With more than 30 entries every weekend, 32 at the Red Bull Ring alone, the international series is in good health and showing enviable growth in just its second season. Only a few weeks ago SEAT Sport shipped the 100th unit of their Cup Racer model; a car which is displaying a great level of evolution and potential. These factors give Puig an immense level of satisfaction for the work committed to the project and, above all, high enthusiasm for the second half of the '15 campaign that fires into action on the 19th and 20th of September at the Nürburgring.
We're halfway through the SEAT Leon Eurocup 2015. What is your impression and evaluation up until now?
"We've met and covered all of our expectations. The amount of entries has been really good for the last few races and we actually superseded 30 drivers at the Red Bull Ring with 32 enrolled. We're really happy because a lot of people have put their trust in us. Many new drivers, with five female racers also getting involved in the battles each weekend, taking good positions including a Pole and a podium, as we saw with Lucile [Cypriano]. So I have to say that everything has been going really well. We are doing all we can from our part, the circuits are good and the organisation is making a sound job. We hope we can carry on this way until the end of the season."
A few weeks ago you shipped the 100th SEAT Leon Cup Racer and the driver Loris Hezemans took Pole Position and the first race win with it at the Red Bull Ring…
"That was a real co-incidence! We shipped the 100th SEAT Leon Cup Racer and then watched it take 'pole' and win the race. In the SEAT Leon Eurocup there are normally thirty entries, which is to say there are thirty cars. This means that the rest of them have been sold to race in other series and other international championships. When you organise a series like this then it is easy to sell a certain number of cars because you are essentially making up your own grid. The difficulty is in selling it to the professionals that contest other competitions. We have cars all over the world and this is really satisfying for us. We've established that it runs very well in various conditions. For this we've really happy and will continue to work hard so that the level does not drop."
There are a lot of new drivers trying and really liking the SEAT Leon Cup Racer. Is this one of the keys to success of the SEAT Leon Eurocup?
"When you make a new car you always have to make sure that it is a step beyond the older model. In our technical department, led by Xavier Serra, they were thinking hard and I remember there were some doubts: "Jaime, maybe it won't be so fast". The commercial department were also pushing hard in terms of it being an affordable price because it is easy to make a fast car but afterwards it can be too costly or too expensive to maintain. All of SEAT Sport has worked a lot in this direction and given everything to create something that we really wanted: quick, competitive, reliable, fun and easy to drive but also a tool for anybody who wants to push to the extreme. For this we have drivers of all types, from the more 'gentlemanly' to younger drivers who just want to rule the world.
This is one of the key points and people are happy. The car is reliable and people do not continually need spares. But if they do need them then they can see that there is a full servicing facility at the races, so if something needs to be done then it can be realised. We fill the trucks with all the components we need to cover a race weekend. This is one of the successful aspects, from a sporting point of view, in how the events are and how the people are treated and all the communication that is going on. Technically, we have made a good car."
Where do you see the SEAT Leon Eurocup heading?
"At the moment we are focusing on three years in Europe. Then maybe to more places. What we really want to do is make a platform where people can arrive, enter, race and stay as many years as they want. I think it has to be a jump to go to other championships. Luckily with this car you can now compete in other national and international championships. So it will be a quick jump to head to other places. I have always said, also in other competitions that we have organised previously, that a driver who can be fast here can also be quick in other competitions."
Interview with Director of SEAT Sport Jaime Puig
The SEAT Leon Eurocup 2015
The drivers of the SEAT Leon Eurocup 2015
Stian Paulsen, Pol Rosell and Jaime Puig
Jaime Puig, Director of SEAT Sport
SEAT starts production of a new gearbox
An electric 600 in the classroom
SEAT and Grupo Sesé link up via drone.


Begin HIV treatment immediately says major study, ending long debate
By Jon Cohen May. 27, 2015 , 5:30 PM
A study in 35 countries that involved 4685 HIV-infected people has ended early because results showed that immediate treatment cut the risk of disease and death in half. The data, revealed today at a teleconference held by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), brings to a close a divisive issue. The United States and many other countries already recommend treating everyone diagnosed with an HIV infection, but guidelines in the United Kingdom and elsewhere call for starting treatment only after immune system damage occurs, in part because of worries about long-term toxicities of the drugs.
As NIAID Director Anthony Fauci explained, evidence suggested that early treatment benefited people but no randomized, controlled clinical trial had ever proven it until now. “These findings clearly demonstrate that starting antiretroviral treatment sooner rather than later is of significant health benefit to the HIV-infected individual,” Fauci said. “These results are certain to impact medical treatment guidelines.” He said the new findings also validate the push to use treatment as a prevention tool, as other studies have shown that HIV-infected people on antiretrovirals (ARVs) are far less likely to transmit the virus to others.
The Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment (START) trial began in March 2009. At the time, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended starting ARVs only after a person’s CD4 count had dropped to 200 or less per microliter of blood. CD4s are the white lymphocytes that HIV targets and destroys; normal counts range from 600 to 1200. START enrolled HIV-infected people who had more than 500 CD4s and had never taken ARVs. It randomly assigned half the participants to start treatment immediately, while the other half were offered ARVs after CD4 counts fell to 350 or they developed an AIDS-defining illness. The trial assessed development of the following “events”: AIDS, serious non-AIDS related ailments, and death. START planned to end in December 2016.
A data safety and monitoring board that intermittently reviewed the START data—which were blinded to researchers—notified study leaders this month that after an average of 3 years of observation, the early treatment group had a 53% reduction in risk of suffering an event. Specifically, 41 people who received early treatment had an event versus 86 in the deferred treatment group. No evidence surfaced of increased drug toxicities in the early treatment group. All participants are now being offered treatment, and the trial will continue to follow participants through 2016 as originally planned to assess whether other differences surface because of the delayed treatment. NIAID, the study’s main sponsor, alone has spent $154 million on the trial to date.
Michael Saag, who directs the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, initially thought START was a waste of money: He was already convinced by both the biology and less rigorously designed, smaller trials that earlier treatment made eminent sense. “I didn’t think the juice was worth the squeeze,” he says. But his initial reaction to these data? “Wow,” Saag says. “I was guessing that this is what they would find, but I frankly didn’t expect we’d see it as early as now. Maybe this effect is even more profound than I was thinking before the trial. And it makes me want to redouble my efforts to identify everyone who is infected and get them on therapy as fast as possible.”
Saag, who sits on the WHO panel that issues international guidelines for HIV treatment, says the new data will likely influence the next revision. “I don’t see any way the WHO can ignore these data,” he says, noting that some poorer countries might still have to prioritize treatment to sicker patients.
The United Kingdom’s HIV treatment guidelines, now being updated, seem certain to change, too, says Ian Williams, an epidemiologist at the University College London who chaired the panel that wrote the previous version. “The START results are clearly very important and impressive,” he says, “and I fully expect will result in a review and change in the guidelines for 2015.”
doi:10.1126/science.aac4655
Jon Cohen
Jon is a staff writer for Science.
First Ebola case in African border metropolis heightens worries, elevates Ebola concerns
Starving children often don’t recover, even when fed enough. Restoring their gut bacteria could help
Surging cases have dashed all hope that polio might be eradicated in 2019


Cowgirls Play in 5th place Game
By Jody Brozik | January 25, 2017 - 7:19 pm | January 25, 2017 Sports
White River beat Colome girls 57-26 in the fifth place game of the Southern Plains Conference tournament Saturday in Gregory. Colome was led by Abby Kortan with eight points and Callie Heath scored seven points. The Cowgirls made 8 of 13 field goals.
On Friday, Colome defeated Gregory 46-32. Callie Heath had 14 points and 7 rebounds. Kortan added 13 points. The Cowgirls went 19 of 55 from the field.
Robert “Bob” Ryno, 80
By Jody Brozik | January 25, 2017 - 7:15 pm | January 25, 2017 Obituaries
Bob was born May 15, 1936 to Ralph and Neva (Eaton) Ryno at their home on the northwest corner of Wood. Bob attended Cody Township School and graduated Wood High School in 1954. Shortly, thereafter, he joined the Army; completing basic training at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, Fort Carson, CO for infantry training then sent to Korea. He returned from the Army in 1956.
Upon his return, he was a delivery truck driver for Kaplan Tires of Winner, SD. He returned to the home place, north of Wood, to help his father on the ranch. Shortly thereafter, he was united in marriage to Frances “Babe” Belak on June 25, 1960.
In 1966 he purchased his first two thoroughbred mares from Gene Strain.
He and Babe purchased the old Leat place, south of Wood, and also the Standard Oil bulk business from Rex Sinclair, in 1969. They spent the rest of their lives building a beautiful home place, raising their two kids, Karla, born in 1962 and Marty, born in 1963.
Bob put off his horse racing career until Karla and Marty were thru high school. He sold the bulk business to Scott Dimond in 1997, his brother, Larry, watched the cattle herd, and he devoted the rest of his life to his true passion, racing horses.
Bob’s most notable accomplishments, during his racing career, included two horses in the Hall of Fame at Canterbury Downs in Shakopee, MN. Little Bro Lantis was born, raised, and trained on the home place. KZ Bay was Kentucky bred and purchased as a yearling. Bob brought her to South Dakota where he trained her and raced her at Canterbury Downs, River Downs, Churchill Downs, Remington Park, Woodbine and Franklin Downs.
The ultimate racing accomplishment was winning the Lady Canterbury feature race at Canterbury Downs on 6-22-1997. This race was a one mile turf race; KZ Bay went off the board at 32 to 1 and won the race, going wire to wire. K Z Bay was the first local mare to win the race against shippers brought in from all over the country. The grandstand erupted with cheers as she came charging down the home stretch and hit the wire, two lengths in front.
Bob’s love of horse racing was only surpassed by his love of family, friends and particularly his granddaughters, Robin and Teneil. He could be found pulling the girls on sleds across the pasture, rigging a swing on the horse walker so they could swing while he walked the horses, and just spending time with his good ‘ol kidders.
W. P. “Pete” Olson, 103
On Jan. 17, one week shy of his 104th birthday, Weldon Peter “Pete” Olson passed away at his home surrounded by several members of his family.
Pete was born Jan. 24th, 1913, on the family farm in Knox County Nebraska to Peter and Alma Olson. He was the oldest of five children.
Pete was a smart child and his teachers recommended he skip the 6th grade. He was later elected president of his class and graduated from Wausau, High School. He moved to Tripp County to farm with his Uncle Frank Lundgren.
He married Ruth Mack on April 5, 1941 in Ainsworth, Neb. and they enjoyed life together for 72 years. Pete and Ruth enjoyed dancing to waltzes and polkas. They decided on raising a large family. They had 13 children and were blessed with lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren who loved to spend time on the family farm. Pete enjoyed playing games such as Trivial Pursuit and cards with the family. All of his life, Pete was an avid reader enjoying books on tape when his eyesight was too weak. And, of course, he loved to rock the newest grandbaby.
Pete and Ruth moved to the farm in Ideal in 1947. Pete became very active in the community serving on the school board, various boards at the Ideal Presbyterian Church, the Ideal Township board and the Ideal Tigers Country basketball team board. As a member of the school board, Pete helped to start the hot lunch program at the Ideal school. He also loaded his car many times to transport students to Rosebud, SD, for dental and medical care. Pete and Ruth enjoyed living and raising their children in such a supportive community. Pete was able to go Christmas Eve Service at the Ideal Presbyterian Church in 2016 for his last venture from home.
Roy Melvyn Lilly, 72
Roy Melvyn Lilly was born on March 4, 1944 at Gregory Hospital to Oliver and Ruth (Kenaston) Lilly.
Roy attended grade school through 8th grade at Kansas Flats and graduated from Colome High school in 1962 and went to work on the farm with his dad. He joined the National Guard in October 1962 and served with the 730 Medical Clearing Company until 1968.
Roy was united in marriage to Carol Ring on October 10, 1970 in Colome, to this union three daughters were born, Linda Jane, Brenda Jean and Rhonda Joy.
In July of 1992 Roy decided to try something other than farming/ranching and went to work at the Colome School. He worked for the School for 20 years and always enjoyed the kids. Roy always said that the best kids always come through the doors of the Colome School. After he retired, he still drove the school bus, he just found so much joy in seeing the kids and enjoying the scenery.
Roy was an active member of the Calvary Chapel Church as he served several years as a Church Board member, Sunday School Superintendent and Sunday School Teacher.
Roy was a kind hearted Christian, that always put others before himself and saw the good in everyone. He had a wish for everyone to know and walk with the Lord. Roy had 2 passions, the love for the Lord and the love for his family. He enjoyed playing cards at night with Carol and at family gatherings, he also enjoyed his summers by having a large garden and taking time to enjoy baseball games in Minnesota and Kansas City with his daughters and grandkids.
Roy passed away January 17, 2017 at the age of 72 at the Winner Regional Hospital.
Kenneth Watson, 70
Kenneth Leroy Watson was born July 15, 1946 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and passed away on Saturday, January 14, 2017, at age 70 in the Winner Regional Healthcare Center.
Ken graduated from high school in Ulysses, Kansas in 1963 and joined the Navy the following fall. He served in the Navy and Navy Reserves for a total of 14 years, including two tours in Vietnam. Ken cherished his time served in the military and was proud to say he served this great country.
On May 31, 1975, Ken married Lori Stritecky at the Colome United Methodist Church. They moved to Sioux Falls where he worked various jobs until he graduated from Southeast Area Technical Institute with a degree in Electronics. They had two sons, Kevin and Ryan.
In 1979, they moved to Crooks, SD where Ken was active in the community with the Crooks VFW, Tri-Valley Booster Club, Crooks Optimist Club, served on the church board of Benton Lutheran Church, and various baseball programs in Crooks. While in Crooks for 22 years, Ken and his family created lifelong friends not only in Crooks but the surrounding communities which he cherished until his death. He always cherished teaching and coaching not only his own two boys, but numerous kids of the community and showing them life lessons through sports. He was active in the Tri-Valley School district where his sons attended school and graduated from. If there was one thing Ken loved was attending the various activities with friends and supporting his beloved “MUSTANGS”. Ken was a current member of the Winner United Methodist Church and Gregory American Legion.
After their sons graduated from high school, Ken and Lori moved to Gregory, SD in 1998 for 5 years. He then followed his wife with her Traveling Nurse Career. They bought a home in Peoria, AZ in 2007 where he worked as a cashier at AJ’s Fine Foods and Bashas’ Grocery Chain until his retirement in 2013. He was a season ticket holder for the Arizona Cardinals for seven years and enjoyed going to various Arizona Diamondback games and spending time with his family in the Phoenix area. Ken always had a passionate side for animals especially his fur babies Gizmo and Bella.
Due to health issues they recently moved back to Colome, SD in July 2016 to be closer to family and friends. With his love for sports, Ken touched many lives teaching and mentoring kids in the various baseball and basketball programs in the Crooks and Sioux Falls area, but most of all was looking forward to watching his grandchildren grow up. In addition to family time, he also enjoyed his boating, coin collecting, camping, pheasant hunting, cheering on the Denver Broncos and bowling. Ken always wanted was best for the kids of the community and always strived to get the best out of the kids he taught and coached.
Varney Daryl “Butch” Bancroft, 75
Varney Daryl “Butch” Bancroft, age 75 of Vermillion, SD passed away Thursday January 19, 2017 in McCook, NE.
Butch was born on May 3, 1941 in Redfield, SD to Leonard and Genevieve (Bennett) Bancroft. He grew up in Burke, SD and graduated from Burke High School with the class of 1960. He married Karolee Gatson on June 10, 1962. He served in the US Marine Corp from 1965 until 1968, serving in Vietnam. After his discharge, he worked for Northwestern Bell Telephone Company (which later became AT & T) for over 40 years. After leaving AT & T, he opened T.D.C. where he worked on phone systems in South Dakota. He enjoyed hunting and was very artistic with his drawings and making wooden houses. He loved his family, especially his children and grandchildren. He was much loved by his family and will be greatly missed.
New Concealed Carry Weapon Permit and Permit System w/ Audio and Video
By Jody Brozik | January 25, 2017 - 6:49 pm | January 25, 2017 State
Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced a new concealed carry weapon permit program and permit design. Secretary Krebs said, “This permit is more official looking with a reflective hologram very similar to a driver’s license without the photo id. Because of the substantial increase in concealed carry weapon permits issued in recent years we needed to change the way the permits were produced to increase efficiency and decrease costs while also improving the quality and style of the cards. When I studied the work flow process time to produce the old cards I realized there was room to cut costs on labor. We have cut the cost of each permit from $4.75 to $1.48,” stated Secretary Krebs. Much of the cost was due to the amount of staff time to assemble the old permit by hand.
Permits issued have nearly tripled in the past 10 years. In 2016 Secretary Krebs issued an all-time high for new and renewed permits of 30,029. In 2006 the Secretary of State’s office issued 11,763.
There are over 96,000 active permit holders that currently have the previous style laminated card that has been accused of resembling a library card.
For those wanting to upgrade to the new looking permit:
If they just want the new looking permit, address changed, name change (because of marriage) the request comes to the SD SOS office by writing a letter to request a replacement with the new permit to the Secretary of State’s office with name, date of birth, address, signature, permit number and a check for $2 made out to the Secretary of State’s office.
PUC’s Chris Nelson Appointed to National Board of Directors
South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson has been selected to serve on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Board of Directors, a group tasked with overseeing NARUC’s efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of public utility regulation. This is Nelson’s second appointment to the association’s supervisory board. He earned his first seat in January 2014 when he was selected to serve as chair of NARUC’s Committee on Telecommunications.
Appointed to a new seat by NARUC President Robert Powelson of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Jan. 12, 2017, Nelson will serve on the board through October 2018. Along with other board members, he will focus on strengthening state commissions by engaging in public policy discussions, recommending resolutions to the NARUC membership and advocating among federal agencies.
“I’m grateful to serve on my national association’s board of directors. This leadership position allows me to guide the direction of our organization in a manner that serves the needs of South Dakotans,” said Nelson.
Nelson has been a member of NARUC since 2011. He was part of NARUC’s Task Force on Federalism and Telecommunications and has been appointed by the Federal Communications Commission to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, representing the interests of NARUC.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard appointed Nelson to the PUC in January 2011 to fill a vacancy. Nelson was elected in November 2012 to continue serving the remaining four years of the term. He was re-elected to the PUC in November 2016 to a full, six-year term. Prior to joining the commission, Nelson served eight years as South Dakota’s Secretary of State.
A Peaceful Transition of Power
Every four years after a presidential election, Americans from all corners of the country flock to Washington, D.C., to attend the incoming president’s inauguration ceremony. At noon on January 20, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump becomes President Donald Trump, after he is administered the oath of office by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
The oath of office of the President of the United States is only 35 words long, and is stated in the United States Constitution: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The first president to take the presidential oath was George Washington at his inauguration on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City, the temporary seat of government at that time.
President Washington also set the precedent of delivering an inaugural address following his swearing-in ceremony, a tradition that has led to some of the most renowned quotes from our presidents. Washington swore to preserve “the sacred fire of liberty” and uphold the “Republican model of Government.” Other famous lines from inaugural addresses include John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” and Ronald Reagan’s “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” These remarks continue to inspire Americans today.
The entire ceremony takes place on the West Front Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, as it has since 1981. Attendees fill the National Mall from the Capitol steps to the Washington Monument, all to catch a glimpse of living history. Following the swearing-in and inaugural address, an inaugural parade and numerous balls take place throughout Washington, D.C.
While January 20th is the official day the president takes office, months of preparation have gone into the planning of the inauguration ceremony and official events, such as the parade and the formal balls. Since 1901, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies has been in charge of setting up the swearing-in ceremonies. Thousands of men and women have been working behind the scenes to plan the ceremony and make sure the Capitol remains secure. I’d like to thank them for their hard work, as well as all the members of the law enforcement community who have been putting in long hours leading up to inauguration weekend. Their job protecting the attendees at the inauguration is incredibly difficult, and their dedication to the security of the attendees is deserving of praise. Without their commitment, this very special day for our nation could not run as effortlessly and with the dignity it deserves.
In his inaugural speech, Thomas Jefferson said, “But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle…We are all republicans. We are all federalists.” His wise words ring true today. Though we may disagree with one another on certain policies, we are all Americans, and our presidential inaugurations reflect a decidedly American ideal: the peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next.
Path Forward for Trafficking Survivors
I’ve heard stories like this many times over, even from within South Dakota: A young woman falls behind on rent or faces other financial straits. Someone steps in to help, but the apparent act of kindness comes with certain strings attached. It might begin as a requirement to just “hang out.” Perhaps they begin to date. But then, the threats come – both physical and emotional. A financial reliance has been established – perhaps a drug or alcohol addiction as well – so it’s difficult to find a way out. Within months, maybe even weeks, a supposed friend becomes the victim’s trafficker.
The manipulative control persists, often resulting in multiple run-ins with the law. Many victims are arrested, brought up on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, prostitution or drug trafficking. Even if they’re able to escape the horrors of trafficking, these criminal records can chain them to their past and leave them vulnerable to being exploited or trafficked again.
According to a recent survey by the National Survivor Network, around 80 percent of trafficking survivors surveyed had lost or not received employment because of their criminal convictions. Around half had suffered from barriers to accessing housing. Trafficking survivors deserve a fair shot at rebuilding their lives, but that’s difficult when housing, employment, and education are out of reach.
With this in mind, I helped introduce the bipartisan Trafficking Survivors Relief Act earlier this year. This legislation would create a process in which trafficking survivors with non-violent federal offenses could ask a judge to free them of their records, vacating arrests or convictions that were a direct result of being trafficked. I’m hopeful this legislation will help relieve survivors of the past, open doors for them, and offer a path forward where healing can begin.
If enacted, this bill would build on our accomplishments from last Congress where we passed one of the most comprehensive anti-trafficking packages seen in a decade. The legislation allocated more resources for survivors, offered more tools to go after traffickers and buyers, and put policies in place to prevent trafficking.
The mission to end human trafficking is one that each of us can participate in. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the signs of human trafficking. Is someone you know not free to come or go as they wish? Are they fearful, anxious, tense or paranoid? Do they appear malnourished or show signs of abuse? Do they lack control over their own money or financial records? These are just some of the indicators a victim may exhibit. To learn more, I encourage you to visit humantraffickinghotline.org.
Additionally, if you or someone you care about is being trafficked or at risk, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline immediately at 1-888-373-7888. Correspondence with the National Hotline is confidential and you may request assistance or report a tip anonymously.
Those who have been trafficked should be treated as survivors, not criminals. I’m hopeful our latest proposal can help clear the path for them to rebuild their lives.
Would you rather be able to fly or take back one bad decision per day for the rest of your life?
Fly!
Take back one bad decision
Rodney Grossenburg, 87
Zelda Dummer, 79
Vern Modine, 82
David Leber, 56
Pheasants Take Care of Rockets
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