1619-1621 Main Street
Robinson Building
Possibly built as early as the summer of 1866 on land owned by John Rawls, 1619-1621 Main Street is one of several structures on this commercial corridor built during the Reconstruction era. William and Selina Robinson owned the property as early as 1879, and it passed down to their daughters following Selina's death in 1922. The Robinsons were active members of the Jewish community in Columbia; William served as a founding officer of the Hebrew Cemetery Society, a “free cemetery or burial ground for Hebrews,” today known as the Beth Shalom Cemetery at 1300 Whaley Street. By 1898, The State newspaper referred to the building as the "Robinson building."
The original footprint of the Robinson Building, seen here in the 1904 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. The Chinese laundry was owned by Yee Ching and the "fruit" was a fruit and confectionery store run by G.K. Xepapas. Image courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia
The expanded footprint of the Robinson Building, seen here in the 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Image courtesy of South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia
Montgomery, the Moving Picture Man was one of the many owners of the Grand Theatre. Reprinted from the 1912 Garnet and Black yearbook
The new facade of Allan's. Reprinted from The State newspaper, October 26, 1952.
The Robinson Building briefly housed a wax museum in 1979 and 1980, as seen in this photograph by Russell Maxey. Image courtesy Russell Maxey Collection, Richland Library
Historic Columbia staff with the recovered sign in 2017. Historic Columbia collection
Between 1904-1909, the Robinson building expanded to include a large theater at the rear. On April 26, 1909, the Grand Theatre opened as a vaudeville house that offered both live performances and moving, motion, pictures. In operation from 1909 until 1914, the Grand changed ownership frequently. The building also underwent extensive renovations around 1910, which included adding the name “Robinson” to the façade. Among the more celebrated acts that The Grand brought to Columbia were the Zam Zacks, “who [did] a sensational knife-throwing act in which [a] lady [was] surrounded with knives, any one of which, if there happened a misthrow, [would have] imperiled her life,” according to The State newspaper.
In 1936, the Allan Shop, owned by the Picow family, opened in the building's 1619 address. It later became Allan’s Clothiers, which expanded to include the entire building in 1948. In 1951, Allan’s made modifications to the façade, adding pink marble, metal jalousie windows screens and a new paint scheme done with “harmonizing paint.” This is also when the oversized, neon Allan’s sign was placed on the front of the building. Allan’s would remain at 1619-1621 Main Street until the store closed its doors in 1971.
In 1983, Andy Zalkin’s Army-Navy Store relocated to a portion of the Robinson building, where it operated until 2016. In 2016, the building was bought by LTC Health Solutions, which oversaw a major rehabilitation of the property began. The original core of the 1866 building remains intact, as does one of the building’s original windows that was obscured during the 1910 renovation. Intricate tile work and a steel beam that extended the façade from the 1910 renovation were found. Informed by the building's history and the rediscovery of the original sign from The Grand Theatre, the new restaurant and bowling alley was named The Grand on Main, which opened in late 2017.


Similar to the 1982 Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson duet "The Girl Is Mine," Monica and Brandy try to convince each other that they're the object of a guy's affection on "The Boy Is Mine." Such lightweight pining also characterizes "Inside," "Angel of Mine," "Keep It to Myself," "Misty Blue" and a remake of the Richard Marx ballad "Right Here Waiting." Monica longs to rescue a former boyfriend from a "life of doing the wrong things" on the streets ("Street Symphony"). She's willing to meet someone's needs at any cost on "For You I Will."
When the singer learns that her lover got another woman pregnant, her biggest gripe is that he didn't wear a condom ("Ring Da Bell"). Disturbing rappers (Outkast) lend their voices to the love-hate anthem "Gone Be Fine." At first glance, "First Night" seems to set sexual boundaries by saying, "If I [make a move] it won't be right/ I don't get down on the first night," but suggests that teens having sex on the second or third date would be okay.
A talented vocalist, this teenage diva stumbles when it comes to choosing her material. Some songs are harmless fun. However, several cuts communicate flawed sexual morals to her legion of young fans. That inconsistency undermines the smooth sweetness of The Boy Is Mine.
This million-selling album peaked at 2 on the R&B chart. ""Angel of Mine"" and ""The Boy Is Mine"" both spent multiple weeks at number 1.
Bob Waliszewski


Cheer Up Love
The Pieces of My Spirit Strewn
Lovely in Her Bones
Private View (Blog)
Damaris Athene
© Damaris Athene 2019 All rights reserved
Suzi Morris
September 11, 2018 in interview
Damaris Athene: Suzi can you tell me a bit about yourself?
Suzi Morris: I was born in Ayr in my grandparent’s house and educated in Glasgow. My mother who was also an artist, died when I was fifteen after a long illness, so I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I come from a medico - scientific, art background. My father was a scientist so I grew up surrounded by National Geographic magazines and science journals, which inspired me to see more of the world. I left home when I was just 17.
DA: And where is Ayr?
SM: Ayr is a seaside town on the west coast of Scotland, 25 miles south of Glasgow. When I left Scotland, I spent a year in Carlisle on a foundation course before moving down to London to what was then Kingston Polytechnic, where I studied Illustration and Design for my BA; but I always knew deep down that I wanted to be a painter. I don’t know whether it was just at that time or in those days, but back then being a painter wasn’t seen as a proper job.
DA: It still isn’t to be honest. You still have people that will think, ‘Oh I need to do Graphic Design, because it’s applied’ rather than pursuing Fine Art, which is their true passion. It’s sad.
SM: It is sad. I’ve always had that love of paint since I was a child. When I was a student I took some really basic jobs and lived in sometimes-awful accommodation so that I could afford to buy quality art materials. At school I was forever in the art room painting and my reports always said ‘Susan has such a vivid imagination’. I think that was down having this sensitivity to unseen energies, often common among artists. When you just absorb too much at times.
DA: I’m the same.
SM: Really? And we both share an interest in exploring the corporeal and the abstraction of the human landscape! I think artists have a tendency to be sensitive. It’s one of the reasons why I have to be solitary when I’m painting.
DA: How did your life lead up to becoming a full-time painter?
SM: I worked in a design consultancy for a while but I didn’t have a passion for the corporate world and I was always more driven to paint. During the eighties, trompe l'oeil made a come back so I spent some time undertaking painting commissions in peoples’ homes. I was married for a long time and ended up going overseas seeking out opportunities to teach art. I really wanted to see the world.
DA: Whereabouts did you travel to?
SM: I’ve spent time in India, the Philippines, and Africa when it was still dealing with the AIDS epidemic in the nineties. As a consequence of the disease being so misunderstood initially, there were orphanages full of small children with HIV who had been abandoned by their families. I wasn’t painting for myself at that time but I loved sharing materials for mark making and watching children’s innate creativity. I think that some of the ordeals that I experienced through travel have made me who I am. Perhaps why I have no desire to paint the ‘visible’ world? In later years I worked in art direction for film, which allowed me to keep travelling. It was while I was working in film that I was encouraged to pursue my painting on a full-time basis. There comes a time when you’ve got to follow what’s in here *points to heart*. I feel that finally I’m doing what I want to be doing. In 2012, I met Eileen Cooper, Keeper of the Royal Academy and she suggested I apply to The City and Guilds of London Art School, and from there I went on to undertake the doctorate.
DA: How did you find your MA at City and Guilds?
SM: It was rather like joining the special forces of art schools! I had been out of education for some time so it was pretty challenging. I would be working on PowerPoint presentations every week and used to be in the studio from 8am until 8.30pm. I loved it though and it really helped to develop my practice.
DA: God, every week. That’s intense! And your doctorate at the University of East London. Can you tell me a bit about that?
SM: While I was on my MA, I had been fortunate enough to meet two leading German companies, Schmincke and Da Vinci. I was doing some filming for them and they kindly supported my doctorate. I love learning and felt at the time that I had only just scratched the surface in understanding my practice so undertaking the doctorate seemed like a natural progression. I was also interested in delving deeper into the concept of the Sublime - my own life experiences seemed to fit with this notion in so many ways. My director of studies and my supervisors at UEL were very insightful at helping me to realise just how much the language of medicine, genomics and clinical virology inform the decisions that I’m making in painting. Then began my relationship with Imperial College who continue to be really supportive. UEL was three of the toughest years of my life, yet three of the best.
DA: How wonderful and such an achievement.
SM: I feel that I began to find a truth in my painting that’s been incredibly hard to reach.
DA: Can you tell me more about your practice itself?
SM: Scientific research is a stimulus for me, which often provides triggers to inform new work. Plus I’ve always loved the qualities of oil paint. How pigment changes depending on its environment and how it can be manipulated to behave so differently. It’s so unpredictable, rather like the body. I work in multiple layers of translucent glazes, building the image up over long periods of time. Parts of the image get obscured through editing the work while other parts are destroyed and then resurrected from earlier layers. It’s not until the work is finished that I appreciate the art historical references, theory, personal experience and research that’s fed into it. The connection between the body and the performance of painting is fundamental. The imagination is massive and there’s so much I still want to do. I need another hundred years! *laughs*
DA: *laughs*
SM: It’s a bodily experience painting. The title of my thesis is ‘The Viral Sublime and the Bodily Experience of Painting’. It was through delving deeper into my practice that I realised how the body and painting contribute to a physical artwork. Merleau-Ponty writes of how our bodies are integrated into the fabric of the world and how painters are able to live purely in this enmeshment with the world and express it visually in their works (Merleau-Ponty, Eye and Mind, 2c, see 161d). I’m not a great one for theory but I enjoy Merleau-Ponty. I also draw connections from American artist Ross Bleckner, and Santiago Ramón y Cajal. I so admire his drawings related to neuroscience. I made a painting recently; ‘The Burden of the Dendrite’.
DA: Good title! *laughs*
SM: Dendritic ulcers! *laughs* Another painting - ‘The Naked Virus’. There’s so much emotion in that painting. I realised once it was finished that it was deeply connected with the anxiety over my eye problems at that time. It marked a turning point in my research regarding the part that the subconscious plays in painting. It’s like when you go to the studio, you start off with five or six people with you in your mind, and one by one they leave until you’re left with your body and your subconscious. If I’m lucky I leave the studio too! *laughs* Then you never know what’s going to happen, but on reflection the painting always seems to relate to what I’ve been researching. It’s fascinating. I love being an abstract artist because you never know what you’re going to get. I like how James Elkins describes painting as ‘liquid thought’.
DA: Oh wow, that’s beautiful. It’s like you’re channeling your thought through your body.
SM: Yeah. I’ve started in the last year to use parts of the body to manipulate the paint. Exploring paints inherent qualities and working more intuitively to see what comes.
DA: You’ve touched on this a bit but how do you usually work?
SM: Alone in the studio with either Ennio Morricone or Chopin’s nocturnes… something classical to take me away someplace else. The light and the line are the two fundamentals that always seem to remain.
DA: The one over there hasn’t got a line yet.
SM: Not yet, no.
DA: Is the line the final thing?
SM: Often, yes. They are like the minimalist figure in the landscape. Nodding to Modernism and the colour field painters, namely Barnet Newman. I call them biomarkers because biomarkers in science are used for many things, one being to measure our individual susceptibility to things, which I find fascinating. I’m interested in the body and the corporeal. Our bodies have such wisdom if we can just access it. I love reading about epigenetics, and how through editing the human genome science is changing the face of medicine as we know it. It makes me think of Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ where the natural processes of birth, ageing and death are no longer recognisable. What might it be like to be human in the future?
DA: Completely. Do you not fear that at all? Is it only excitement you feel?
SM: There’s a bit of fear since germ-line engineering in the wrong hands could be annihilating. But fear of dystopian change shouldn’t blind us to the benefits to society, as this type of science could signal the end of so many inherited devastating genetic diseases. With gene editing technology scientists can sever the DNA of certain viruses, so perhaps many conditions, which are incurable today, will become curable. I’m hopeful that in my lifetime CRISPR technology might release me from the virus that causes Keratitis. It’s a virus that I fight with on a daily basis and have done for decades. Science is achieving incredible things just now in curing certain cancers and other deadly diseases. It’s an exciting time to respond to the science of my time in terms of my practice.
DA: It makes me think, what would happen if no one died of diseases? The population would grow exponentially, and we wouldn’t be able to support ourselves. It’s difficult!
SM: It is a daunting prospect. When I read about science extending the human life span through deciphering the genetic codes responsible for controlling limb regeneration it’s like the stuff of science fiction. Whatever would happen to the pensions crisis!
DA: Yeah, exactly! It’s a pretty big problem! But then I guess if you were coming to later life in a healthier state… it’s just prolonging the inevitable surely.
SM: Yeah, people would live a lot longer but as you say a healthier old age would be better.
DA: But would you be immortal if you could be?
SM: Oh no, no. I wouldn’t want to live forever, would you?
DA: No! Not at all.
SM: No, I’m exhausted *laughs* But I’d like at least another 20/30 years of painting if that’s possible?
DA: Hopefully you will! I guess with your eyes as well, how much does it affect your painting?
SM: It does affect my painting in that I paint how I see. My long-term fascination with blur against sharpness maybe due to my left eye having scarring in the line of vision causing permanent blurring, but I also have areas of sharpness. So as long as medicine can keep the virus in its latent state my eye will be fine. It’s just my left eye that’s the real problem. So, I like to believe that I’ll always be able to paint.
DA: Fingers crossed.
SM: I won’t deny that’s it’s a huge anxiety.
DA: Yeah, for anyone, let alone an artist where there are more levels of anxiety to it. Sight is integral…Can you tell me about your gallery representation? How did you start your relationship with NoonPowell Fine Art?
SM: Rachel the gallery director was looking for new artists at the time. She had seen my work online and was so enthusiastic about it.
DA: Do you have any upcoming shows or anything you’re specifically working towards?
SM: I’ve had a really busy year with shows. I’ve just finished a painting that has sold to a film producer in Los Angles so that’s great. I’m also going to be exhibiting in a group show coming up at Mall Galleries through NoonPowell, and I’m preparing to present a talk about how medical research inspires my practice, at Imperial College this September. The Department of Medicine have been really supportive throughout my doctorate so I’m looking forward to engaging the public through becoming more involved at Imperial as artist in residence.
DA: That’s wonderful, congratulations! What’s your favourite piece that you’ve made? I know it’s a tricky question.
SM: It is, because they all have a part of me. Perhaps ‘Truth Lies and Hidden Realms’ and the other is ‘The In-between’ which is now in a private collection. I was trying to think about why they’re favourites. Possibly some of it is the time that I spend with a piece and whether it becomes a turning point in my practice. All the work is very labour intensive and these particular pieces were painted over two years. ‘The Inbetween’ was painted at such a difficult time in my life. I had lost two studio spaces because they were sublets and I was trying to sell my property in the country and find somewhere to rent in London at the height of the property boom in 2014. At one point I was actually living in my studio in Peckham. There was a huge sense of solace in being in my studio painting. I think studio time is really precious anyway because we all have to do admin and all the other stuff that comes with being a professional artist. The relationship with both these paintings during that period was very intimate. This can make it hard to let a painting go, but at the end of the day, it’s that sense of solace that I feel in making a painting that I want to transmit out into the world. I always remember Eileen Cooper’s advice to ‘not become collectors of your own work’. Her words always ring in my ears whenever I find it hard to let go of a piece. We live in such a chaotic horrid world that’s why I’m doing it at the end of the day.
Come and see Suzi’s work in ‘Sensibilities of Belonging’ at the Mall galleries, The Mall, London SW1 from 11th to 16th September 2018. Click here for more information.
Find out more about Suzi’s work:
Tags: artist, female artist, artist interview, painting, fine art, interview
Natalia González Martín in her studio
Natalia González Martín
February 15, 2018 in interview
Damaris Athene Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
Natalia González Martín I grew up in Spain in a very small village. I went to school there and that’s quite a boring part of my life, until I was 18 when I came to London for my foundation diploma at City and Guilds, where I also did my BA. Now I’m trying to be a practicing artist, trying to live off that and see what happens. Complicated! With part-time jobs, little things, whatever comes. Recently I opened this space in my own home to promote the work of other artists and curators.
DA What’s that called?
NGM Subsidiary Projects. Some friends and I wanted to do an exhibition and we set up a space in my house. It’s too perfect not to continue doing it so I’ve gone further with it. More than just putting my own work and my friends’ work. I find other people and it’s a great way of getting in touch with different artist that I didn’t know about before. I’m not asking economically for anything, it’s art for the sake of art. I think everyone after Uni goes through a period of disenchantment with the art world. I wanted to make something genuine and for the process of experimentation. You can take a risk and make something that doesn’t work at all and you don’t have the pressure of having to answer to a big gallery. I think it’s relieving to have a space like that that isn’t just your studio.
DA Can you tell me about your practice?
NGM The very basics of it is archaeology. Around 2/3 years ago I realised that was what linked everything together. I had always been extremely interested in materiality in a very visceral way. My dad is a vet so I’ve seen a lot of horrid, horrid carcases through his work. I always saw it as something quite appealing and, colour palette wise, quite beautiful. I incorporated that with artefacts and history through objects. Now it’s turning into this experimentation of the things man have made with their hands. Forms we’ve been drawn to and ways of representation of materials, but giving it that organic quality that I cannot seem to get away from. Which makes sense with my idea of archaeology itself, because I see it as nothing stable, something quite alive. Not in a beautiful sense, in a precarious way. It has so much potential to decay and be forgotten and die.
View of Natalia González Martín's Studio
DA How do you usually work? You graduated in the Summer of 2017, and you’ve been working as an artist since….
NGM It’s hard to keep up the momentum after Uni and I think everyone finds themselves in this place of ‘What were all of those ideas?’ ‘Where have they gone?’ ‘I had so many ideas for the Degree Show’ and now they go back to basics. That’s what I’ve done - going back to the first sources that inspired me and continuing to analyse them. Maybe it’s because there’s no pressure of having a mark on what you’re doing and it’s finally more for yourself. It doesn’t last but you’ve got this period just for yourself. It’s enjoyable to go to the most naïve, basic aspect of that. ‘I’m just going to do this’ - there is a reason but at the beginning it’s ‘because’ and then it all comes together. It’s challenging after Uni.
DA What were the things you were drawn back to?
NGM I had completely left out figuration and now I see myself representing certain images that I had in the back of my head, trying to do them accurately or just replicating an image, which at the end of Uni I was almost against. Like, ‘Oh no, you cannot just make an image and that’s it’. I find it so vital for going back to progress somehow. I don’t know, maybe I had left out so many materials because I had also thought that they’re not professional enough or…I don’t know, you have that pressure when you’re at Uni, especially towards the Degree Show, and you have to deliver this very stable product. It doesn’t have to be that stable after which is nice.
DA Some freedom.
NGM Yes, in many ways. In materials, in presentation. It cannot go on forever otherwise it’ll all crumble, but for a bit I think it’s healthy.
DA You said you’d been working Part-time trying to support things. Is it a patchwork of work to try and pay your rent?
NGM Yes, I'm a part-time Art Teacher, doing freelance private classes. I’ve also been working at Block 336, at the private views. It’s nice because it doesn’t take too much time from the studio. However, I am looking into getting something more constant. I had a bad experience just after Uni. I was freaking out looking for jobs and I found this one Photographer job. Everything seemed ideal, apart from the fact that it was a recent graduate job and the pay was nothing. Legally there are some things you cannot do for free and I feel people really abuse recent graduates. It was taking all my time, some days were 10 hours long. I chose the studio and not being able to pay rent!
DA It’s tricky, a lot of the friends who I studied with have stopped making work - they had to earn money and when you lose momentum it’s so hard to start up again.
NGM Almost impossible. I think we invested too much money in University to let it go. I’d rather starve for a few months than loose the dynamic of coming to the studio.
DA What difference have you found between studying in Spain and studying here?
NGM The thing is in Spain I’ve never studied Fine Art in my A levels (Bachillerato). You can find one that is artistic but because it’s Spain, it’s a very old minded country, and it doesn’t have a good reputation. I chose what we call ‘pure letters’ - Latin, Greek, History of Art. Fine Art in Spain is very academicist and not conceptual at all. No self-development of practice. You don’t have your own studio. The exam, for example, will be copying a torso very accurately, which is more of a skill than a profession. Then at the same time I’ve seen some things lacking in the English system - there's not much emphasis in the history of Art itself, which I missed. I think it would be great to do a course in Spain and learn everything until the 18th century and then come to England to learn all the rest. So, just a bit of a balance. I’ve seen what is missing in the two of them.
DA How have you found living over here? You’ve been here for 4 years now.
NGM It sounds a bit like the typical story – a small village girl coming to a big city, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like the right place. Some people say, ‘Oh in London you can feel lonely in such a big city’, but I don’t feel that as much. There’s too much going on. I think it’s too easy to get by. I really like this city. Never going to leave until they kick me out. They’re trying but no way. I’m waiting for Theresa’s call!
DA *laughs*… What have you been doing since your graduating?
NGM I had a solo show at St Catherine’s Church, in Neasden. The building is so beautiful I almost didn’t want to put anything in it! I could put up some of my pieces but I had to keep it palatable for the church goers. You don’t want to disturb too much and it’s tricky because you do want to put across a message that’s risky.
DA Are you religious yourself?
NGM I am not religious. In my work there is a lot of religion, because of my Catholic background. We love the icons! I think that comes across in my work. I’m drawn to the aesthetic of processions and celebrations.
DA What have you been working on recently?
NGM I’ve been really interested in marbling and limbs. I have a need to completely cover something in marbling and maybe put it in weird spaces. I’m into the idea of art in non-art spaces. There is this Instagram profile called Great Art in Ugly Rooms where they post pictures of famous artworks in motels or toilets or McDonald's, etc... It’s such a great concept! It goes as well with the idea that I put into my work of the value of art. Is it the piece? Is it where the piece is? Is it what has been said about the piece? I’m sceptical that it’s not the object itself at all. Maybe changing the context will enhance that?
DA Have you got any spaces in mind?
NGM Well the other day I put some clay sculptures in Sainsbury’s. I took some milk off the shelves and just displayed them.
DA Ah, brilliant!
NGM More than the display itself it was the peoples’ reactions. No one, literally no one, was weirded out that I was taking these big sculptures out of my bag, placing them there and looking at them. Everyone went through them to get their milk and went back to the queue. None of the Sainsbury’s people said anything. So that was surprising – no impact at all.
DA Wow, do you think they just were too busy to bother? They thought – Oh that’s weird – but didn’t think much of it. That’s so interesting.
NGM I don’t know if it’s something to do with England. If you see a horse riding a bicycle no one will look. They’re not surprised…It’s not like not surprised it’s very polite. I think it would really change if I did it in Spain. I want to try it and see the peoples' reactions.
DA I think you should do it again and you should film it.
NGM Yeah, I mean I have a Sainsbury’s next to my house, I can always use it. It’s my new gallery space.
DA They might start knowing you, 'Come along at 12 o’clock on a Sunday to see the sculpture in the milk fridge!'
NGM Maybe I should advertise it! Who knows! Free marketing.
DA What have you got planned for the future?
NGM Applying to more contests and getting more of those dreadful rejection emails. I’ve learnt that we have to live with that. It’s part of it. I was considering a Masters degree but I think that England is far too expensive and I think the masters is like a business. You cannot pay that much money to receive so little space and tuition. I just feels wrong. I’m against it but at the same time I feel like it’s the only way to do it. Maybe I’ll go back on my word and do a Masters. Maybe that’s the plan.
Find out more about Natalia González Martín's work:
Subsidiary Projects Website
Subsidiary Projects Facebook
Subsidiary Projects Instagram
Tags: artist, female artist, painting, sculpture, interview
A blog where I, Damaris Athene, interview different female artists. A step towards challenging the gender imbalance of the art world.
All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.
Mellissa Fisher
Thanks to @LondonSculpture for a great wax sculpture course last week. Can’t wait to do more experiments in the stu… https://t.co/LKoMApV5nD
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BUSINESSES will be eligible for land tax rebates and most Tasmanian shacks will be exempt from the tax under changes announced by Premier David Bartlett yesterday. The changes, worth $19 million this financial year and $31 million next financial year, include: •Businesses with land values of more than $350,000 will be eligible for rebates this financial year reflecting the new land tax rates. •Land tax benefits to businesses and private investors across the board will be on the component of their land tax value over $350,000. •The rate of land tax on land values of more than $350,000 will be immediately cut from 2 per cent to 1.5 per cent, and those valued at more than $750,000 will be cut from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent. •The new rates will apply from July 1, 2010, but to assist industry in the transition to the new rates, a cap will ensure no eligible business pays an increase greater than 100 per cent this financial year and in 2010-11. •Landlords will be required to pass on land tax savings to their business tenants, with the Government considering legislative measures to ensure this happens. •Shacks with a land value of up to $500,000 from 2010-11 will be exempt from land tax. •From 2010-11, intending first home builders will be given up to two years to complete construction in order to be eligible for a full rebate on the land tax they have paid on their block. •The Government will provide up to $4 million additional funding to the Valuer-General to enable revaluations to occur every two to three years, rather than every six. •From 2010-11, those running a small business from their home will no longer pay land tax on the part of their home used for businesses purposes. Announcing the package yesterday, Mr Bartlett said his Government had taken its "eye off the ball" in relation to land tax but that it was now acting in response to community anger and to protect jobs. He said he could guarantee the Government would meet its financial targets despite the cost of the reforms. "The Government is using the state's stronger-than-expected revenues to provide tax relief to businesses that will employ more Tasmanians and keep our economy strong," he said. "But we are also using our financial position to look after those Tasmanians saving to build their first home, to family shack owners and to people who run a business from their home." Last month Mr Bartlett said no changes would be made to land tax until the outcome of the federal taxation review being undertaken by Treasury head Ken Henry was known. Yesterday he said Mr Henry had been kept informed of the changes. Changes to the land tax rate and the exemption of shacks and home businesses will require legislation. THRESHOLDS 2009 LAND TAX THRESHOLD BY STATE NSW: $368,000 Victoria: $249,999 Western Australia: $300,000 Queensland (residential): $599,000 Queensland (commercial): $349,000 South Australia: $110,000 Tasmania: $25,000
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/silverstone-feed-data/84989bf6-ea06-4434-8946-ead431fc6989.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpg
December 10 2009 - 12:45PM
Most shacks now exempt from land tax
LORETTA JOHNSTON
BUSINESSES will be eligible for land tax rebates and most Tasmanian shacks will be exempt from the tax under changes announced by Premier David Bartlett yesterday.
The changes, worth $19 million this financial year and $31 million next financial year, include:
Businesses with land values of more than $350,000 will be eligible for rebates this financial year reflecting the new land tax rates.
Land tax benefits to businesses and private investors across the board will be on the component of their land tax value over $350,000.
The rate of land tax on land values of more than $350,000 will be immediately cut from 2 per cent to 1.5 per cent, and those valued at more than $750,000 will be cut from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The new rates will apply from July 1, 2010, but to assist industry in the transition to the new rates, a cap will ensure no eligible business pays an increase greater than 100 per cent this financial year and in 2010-11.
Landlords will be required to pass on land tax savings to their business tenants, with the Government considering legislative measures to ensure this happens.
Shacks with a land value of up to $500,000 from 2010-11 will be exempt from land tax.
From 2010-11, intending first home builders will be given up to two years to complete construction in order to be eligible for a full rebate on the land tax they have paid on their block.
The Government will provide up to $4 million additional funding to the Valuer-General to enable revaluations to occur every two to three years, rather than every six.
From 2010-11, those running a small business from their home will no longer pay land tax on the part of their home used for businesses purposes.
Announcing the package yesterday, Mr Bartlett said his Government had taken its "eye off the ball" in relation to land tax but that it was now acting in response to community anger and to protect jobs.
He said he could guarantee the Government would meet its financial targets despite the cost of the reforms.
"The Government is using the state's stronger-than-expected revenues to provide tax relief to businesses that will employ more Tasmanians and keep our economy strong," he said.
"But we are also using our financial position to look after those Tasmanians saving to build their first home, to family shack owners and to people who run a business from their home."
Last month Mr Bartlett said no changes would be made to land tax until the outcome of the federal taxation review being undertaken by Treasury head Ken Henry was known.
Yesterday he said Mr Henry had been kept informed of the changes.
Changes to the land tax rate and the exemption of shacks and home businesses will require legislation.
2009 LAND TAX THRESHOLD BY STATE
NSW: $368,000
Victoria: $249,999
Western Australia: $300,000
Queensland (residential): $599,000
Queensland (commercial): $349,000
South Australia: $110,000
Tasmania: $25,000


Books Kids Nonfiction 1,000 Facts about the White House
1,000 Facts about the White House
Sarah Wassner Flynn
National Geographic Children's Books
Welcome to the White House! Go behind the scenes to get a 360-degree view of America's most famous president’s residence, from how it was built in 1792 and the fire of 1812, to today's state dinners, celebrations, celebrity pets, and more. Discover through 1,000 fun-to-read facts what it's like to live and work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the quirky rules of the house and how the Secret Service keeps it safe. Find out how the kids who have lived there play, watch movies, and entertain friends. With a treasure trove of material from the White House Historical Association, this book presents a fascinating story of the building and the many people who have shaped its 225-year history.
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Tons of Awesome Facts!
'1,000 Facts about the White House' by Sarah Wassner Flynn is definitely worth reading. From facts about why the rooms are named as they are in the White House to interesting facts about first ladies, pets, and food as related to the presidency, there is something for everyone.
There are plenty of interesting facts that even the most well-versed presidential fanatics can find at least one that they may not have known before. It is also nice how the facts are arranged so that the connections are pretty sequential. Learning the layout of the White House and when certain wings were added adds a lot to the points being made, showing that the home has evolved as time has passed.
No matter whether your favorite president is George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, or anyone who has come before or after, you are sure to find something that will engage your interest and round out your understanding of not only the White House, but also the importance of the highest office one can hold in the United States.
Kids Nonfiction
Lincoln's Grave Robbers
Category: Kids Nonfiction


The Autopsy of Jane Doe Movie – First look!
Two new official pictures of The Autopsy of Jane Doe, the upcoming psychological horror movie starring Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox, have shown up online, take a look below:
(Click on a picture to enlarge.)
“In small-town Virginia, police are called to a gruesome crime scene where a family has been massacred in their own house. In the basement, an even more disturbing discovery is made: the partially buried corpse of a nude woman. The cops take this unidentified victim to a small, family-run morgue, where they ask proprietor Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) to perform an urgent forensic analysis in order to help determine what happened at the blood-stained house. Tommy’s son Austen (Emile Hirsch) cancels a date with his girlfriend (Ophelia Lovibond) in order to help his father perform an autopsy, and the two Tildens set about their grisly examination in the morgue basement.
Working late into the night as they methodically peel back layers of skin, muscle, and bone, Tommy and Austen are baffled by the lack of external signs of trauma on the victim and the alarming extent of her internal injuries. Increasingly perplexed and frustrated by these forensic anomalies, the pair begins to succumb to late-night jitters, getting spooked at apparitions that seem to be lurking in the shadows. As the dread mounts and the atmosphere gets thick with evil, it becomes apparent that the Tildens’ fate is intertwined with a darkness that neither of them can comprehend.”
So an evil demon was hiding in that corpse’s stinky innards?
The film is directed by Andre Ovredal based on a script by Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing.
11 September 2016 tags: The Autopsy of Jane Doe
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Swarbreck Surname Ancestry Results
Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'swarbreck'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 7 records (displaying 1 to 7):
Get all 7 records to view, to save and print for £32.00
swanwich swanwick swanwicke swanwyk swanwyke swany swanynglee swanyngton swanzey swanzy swap swapeltrot swapes swaphel swapp swapson swarama swarb swarbeck swarbreake swarbreek swarbricj swarbrick swarbricke swarbridge swarbrook swarbrooke swarbruck swarby sward swarder swardiere swardill swardiston swardo swardridge swards swardt swardy swardz
Official Papers (1694-1695)
The State Papers Domestic cover all manner of business relating to Britain, Ireland and the colonies, conducted in the office of the Secretary of State as well as other miscellaneous records. Here we have the period from January 1694 to June 1695.
SWARBRECK. Cost: £4.00.
Inhabitants of Poulton le Fylde in Lancashire (1790-1797)
The provincial sections of the Universal British Directory include lists of gentry and traders from each town and the surrounding countryside, with names of local surgeons, lawyers, postmasters, carriers, &c. (the sample scan here is from the section for Bridgnorth). The directory started publication in 1791, but was not completed for some years, and the provincial lists, sent in by local agents, can date back as early as 1790 and as late as 1797. This particular list was included in the appendix of late returns.
Deaths, Marriages, News and Promotions (1851)
Death notices and obituaries, marriage and birth notices, civil and military promotions, clerical preferments and domestic occurrences, as reported in the Gentleman's Magazine. Mostly from England and Wales, but items from Ireland, Scotland and abroad. July to December 1851
The Law Times: Birth Notices (1869)
Volume 47 of The Law Times, 'The Journal of The Law and The Lawyers', a weekly publication, runs from 1 May to 30 October 1869, issues number 1361 to 1387. Regular features include Birth, Marriage and Death announcements.
Missing Next-of-Kin and Heirs-at-Law (1880)
The Unclaimed Money Registry and Next-of-Kin Advertisement Office of F. H. Dougal & Co., on the Strand in London, published a comprehensive 'Index to Advertisements for Next of Kin, Heirs at Law, Legatees, &c., &c., who have been Advertised for to Claim Money and Property in Great Britain and all Parts of the World; also Annuitants, Shareholders, Intestates, Testators, Missing Friends, Creditors or their Representatives, Claimants, Unclaimed and Reclaimed Dividends and Stock, Citations, Administrations, Rewards for Certificates, Wills, Advertisements, &c., Claims, Unclaimed Balances, Packages, Addresses, Parish Clerks' Notices, Foreign Intestates, &c., &c.' The original list was compiled about 1860, but from materials dating back even into the 18th century: most of the references belong to 1850 to 1880. For each entry only a name is given, sometimes with a placename added in brackets: there may be a reference number, but there is no key by which the original advertisement may be traced. The enquirer of the time had to remit £1 for a 'Full and Authentic Copy of the Original Advertisement, together with name and date of newspaper in which the same appeared'.
Surgeons (1928)
The Royal College of Surgeons, established by royal charters, issued this calendar 1 August 1928, including official lists of all its fellows, members, licentiates and diplomates. The register of fellows gives full name (surname first) and address (in italics), with dates of admission as fellow and member. The list of members gives year of admission, full name (surname first) and town or country of residence. The lists of licentiates give year of admission and full name, but no indication of current address: entries of fellows of the college are prefixed with a double dagger, those of members with an asterisk. The lists of diplomates give year of admission and full name (surname first), with those diplomates who were neither members nor fellows of the college indicated with a dagger. This is the index to the members.
Doctors trained in Britain or Ireland but living abroad (1948)
The Medical Directory was split into several sections. The Practitioners Resident Abroad section covered all medical practitioners who, having qualified in Britain or Ireland, were living abroad. Each year a schedule was sent to each doctor to be returned to the publishers, so as to keep the directory up to date. In the directory the doctor's name is given first, in bold, surname first, in capitals; then current address. Next are the qualifications; the italic abbreviations in parentheses following the qualifications indicate the medical school at which they were gained. Then there is a list of posts and honours within the profession, starting with those then current; previous posts are preceded by the word 'late'. Finally, brief details are given of any publications. Inclusion of names in the list did not imply a right to practise in the country of residence.


Americans should reclaim the Betsy Ross flag instead of abandoning it | Opinion
Nike dropped plans for shoes featuring the Betsy Ross flag, which some white nationalist groups have co-opted as a symbol.
Americans should reclaim the Betsy Ross flag instead of abandoning it | Opinion Nike dropped plans for shoes featuring the Betsy Ross flag, which some white nationalist groups have co-opted as a symbol. Check out this story on commercialappeal.com: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2019/07/08/betsy-ross-flag-nike-controversy/1675249001/
John R. Vile, Guest columnist Published 3:00 p.m. CT July 8, 2019 | Updated 5:39 p.m. CT July 8, 2019
SportsPulse: The latest Nike-Kaepernick shoe debacle isn't an opportunity to pick sides but a chance to take time to learn lessons about our own country's history, says USA TODAY Sports' Christine Brennan. USA TODAY
John R. Vile is dean of the University Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University and the author of "The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes in U.S. History, Culture and Law."
In recent days, Nike has scrapped plans for a line of shoes featuring the so-called Betsy Ross flag because of concerns that some racist white nationalist groups have used it as their symbol. This is a case where it would be better to seek to recapture the flag than to abandon it.
As a people we live by symbols. Some symbols, like the Confederate flag, come with such historical freight that they may better be relegated to museums and private graveyards than to wearing apparel or public marches. This doesn’t give racists, or any other hate groups, the right to appropriate the Betsy Ross flag any more than they have the right to monopolize any other cherished American symbol.
The Tennessee Smokies Double-A baseball team came under fire Thursday, July 3, 2019, after it posted a tweet showing the Betsy Ross flag etched into the infield. Nike reportedly designed a shoe featuring the early flag but pulled it after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick complained. (Photo: USA TODAY Network - Tennessee)
The Betsy Ross flag consist of 13 white stars in a blue canton with 13 alternating red and white stripes in the field. The likelihood that Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, designed this flag is fairly remote and originated from a speech about 100 years later. In addition to being popular during the Revolutionary War era — numerous African Americans who served in George Washington’s armies would have rallied to this flag — it was quite popular during the both the centennial and bicentennial celebrations of the Declaration of Independence. Like the Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry and that was sewn by Mary Young Pickersgill, one attraction of the Betsy Ross flag is that we associate it with a woman, who like African-Americans of her day, did not have full citizenship rights.
Dr. John R. Vile is a professor of political science and dean of the University Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University. (Photo: MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)
The colors of the flag are largely derived from the flag of Britain. The idea of setting stars in a circle or in rows where none was larger or stood in distinction from others was meant to represent a new small-r republican constellation in which a single monarch or sun king would no longer dominate.
Whatever the flaws of the new nation that the Betsy Ross flag represented, the Declaration of Independence, which served as its birth certificate, proclaimed that “all men are created equal” and that all were equally entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
More: Tennessee Smokies delete tweet showing Betsy Ross flag drawn on infield
In the early 19th century, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison described the U.S. Constitution as “a covenant with death” and “an agreement with hell” because of its failure to condemn slavery. By contrast, Frederick Douglass observed that the American framers had envisioned a nation where they thought slavery was on a path to ultimate extinction and that it was better to work within the Constitution than to abandon its nobler principles. During the fight for women’s suffrage and later marches for civil rights, demonstrators proudly waived American flags even though they knew that they still represented unrealized ideals.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan have burned crosses, yet we still humbly display them in our churches. We further ennoble our symbols as we refine our nation’s principles.
This undated product image obtained by The Associated Press shows Nike Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July shoes that have a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle on it, known as the Betsy Ross flag. (Photo: Nike via AP)
The Betsy Ross flag and our current stars and stripes are collective symbols, and we would be foolish to concede them and the patriotic emotions they evoke to the most extreme elements and un-American elements among us.
If these flags are endangered, let’s show some of the courage that has kept our nation free and recapture them rather than let them remain in enemy hands.
Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2019/07/08/betsy-ross-flag-nike-controversy/1675249001/
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Sexless marriage? The sex therapist’s advice for jaded couples
It’s official: long-term couples are having less sex than ever before. The psychologist Dr Stephen Snyder says any couple, even after decades, can rediscover their mojo
Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd portray modern marriage in the film WanderlustALAMY
Sex is in trouble — especially married sex. The latest National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3) showed that British adults are having less sex. More are reporting no sex at all in the past month, compared with data from a decade ago. A recent report in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) said this was particularly true for people in relationships.
According to the data, the steepest drop in sexual frequency was seen in those who were married or cohabiting. What’s this all about? No one knows for sure, but it’s clear we’re living through a period of rapid cultural and technological change, with many more opportunities for distraction. Which is probably not great news when it comes to married sex. As Jean Twenge,…


Famous for its charcoal grilled stakes, seafood dinners, live entertainment and illegal backroom gambling, Babette's was a staple of Atlantic City nightlife throughout the 1920s. Located at 2211 Pacific Avenue – property now occupied by the Trump Plaza Casino – Babette's was owned by Dan Stebbins and was originally called the Golden Inn.
In 1920, a young singer and entertainer named Blanche Babette came to Atlantic City, where she met and married Dan Stebbins who owned a small club on Pacific Avenue known as the Golden Inn. The pair expanded the facility and renamed it Babette's in the 1930s. While Dan Stebbins managed the business side of the nightclub, Blanche handled the revues: designing costumes, arranging the music, rehearsing the chorus line, and introducing the acts.
Stars like Eleanor Powell, Jack White, Joe Penner, the Carlisle Sisters, comic Little Jerry Bergen, and Velma and Buddy Ebsen performed there. Visitors included Jimmy Walker, Mayor of New York; Rudy Vallee; the Three Stooges and Milton Berle.
The décor of Babette's was famously unique. It was fashioned in a nautical theme which included a bar in the shape of a ship. It is rumored that a trapdoor that led from the horse room – an illegal backroom gambling center where individuals placed bets on horse races – to the roof of the building, from which one could then access the Stebbins' home.
During a federal investigation in the 1930s, Babette's was targeted for its gambling and horse-race betting operations. In 1943, Sheriff James Carmack led a raid on Babette's. Racing sheets, craps tables, roulette wheels and telephones were seized. Stebbins ultimately paid $5,000.00 in fines.
In 1950, the Stebbins retired from the business and sold the nightclub. Dan Stebbins passed away in 1960 and Blanche in 1963.
An ad for Babette's in the 1946 Atlantic City City Directory. (H009.BabettesAd1946CityDirectory. Atlantic City Heritage Collections, Atlantic City Free Public Library.
Vicki Gold Levi. Atlantic City: 125 Years of Ocean Madness. New York: C.N. Potter, distributed by Crown Publishers, 1979.
Jonathan Van Meter. The Last Good Time: Skinny D'Amato , The Glorious 500 Club & the Rise and Fall of Atlantic City. New York: Crown, 2003.
Jim Waltzer and Tom Wilk. Tales of South Jersey: Profiles and Personalities. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
US Department of Justice and US Department of Treasury. The Case of Enoch L. Johnson: a complete report of the Atlantic City investigation conducted jointly by the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice. [United States: n.p.], [1942].
Local History Biography File – "Stebbins, Blanche Babette"
Local History Subject File – "Nightclubs"
Atlantic City City Directories


Australia Dumps Another Prime Minister for Pushing Climate Policies
Myron Ebell • August 31, 2018
Map of Australia overlaid with Australian flag
Climate policy has once again toppled a prime minister in Australia. After Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton threatened to challenge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership over climate policy, Turnbull on May 18th agreed to drop the National Energy Guarantee, legislation to implement Australia’s pledge under the Paris climate treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% below 2005 levels by 2030. But that was not enough to save Turnbull.
Dutton then challenged Turnbull, but Turnbull survived a vote on August 21st by Liberal Party members of Parliament, 48 to 35. Dutton resigned from the Liberal-National Coalition government, but on Wednesday the 22nd Turnbull appeared to win back support from other government ministers who had voted against him.
The next day, Thursday the 23rd, Dutton presented a petition signed by 43 Liberal members of the House and Senate—a bare majority—asking for a new leader. After Turnbull resigned as party leader and prime minister on Friday the 24th, an election was immediately held. Three members—Dutton, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and Treasurer Scott Morrison—contested the election. Bishop was eliminated in the first round, and Morrison then defeated Dutton 45-40 to become leader of the Liberal Party and thus prime minister. Morrison is a member of the establishment wing of the party and was a strong Turnbull supporter.
Malcolm Turnbull resigned his parliamentary seat on August 31st, thereby triggering a by-election in the wealthy Sydney suburban constituency of Wentworth. A date for the election has not yet been set and the parties have not selected candidates, but early polls show a dead-even race between the Liberal and Labor parties. A Labor victory would end the Coalition government’s one seat majority in the House of Representatives.
Morrison is Australia’s seventh prime minister in eleven years and fifth in the last five years. Most of them were ousted because they insisted on pursuing unpopular climate and green energy policies. Turnbull now has the distinction of being toppled twice, the first time in a party revolt led by Tony Abbott.
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Latin American states urged to ease entry for fleeing Venezuelans
Editor | August 24, 2018 | Middle East | No Comments
The United Nations has urged Latin American countries to ease entry for thousands of people fleeing Venezuela’s deepening economic and political crisis.
The call on Thursday came after Ecuador and Peru announced tighter entry requirements for Venezuelans.
“We recognise the growing challenges associated with the large scale arrival of Venezuelans,” UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement issued jointly with the International Organization for Migration.
“It remains critical that any new measures continue to allow those in need of international protection to access safety and seek asylum,” Grandi added.
Led by President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has been struggling with hyperinflation, economic recession and shortages of essential goods, including food and medicine, as well as a political crisis that has left much of the country polarised.
According to the UN, 1.6 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015, 90 percent of whom went to countries within South America.
This week, Ecuador and Peru said that those without valid passports would be denied entry, in a move affecting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who were previously allowed to cross the border with paper ID cards instead.
The UN agencies warned that the new passport requirement will expose people to “further risk of exploitation, trafficking and violence”.
Ecuador recently declared a state of emergency in three northern states and has called for a regional summit to discuss the mass exodus, which sees up to 4,200 Venezuelans arriving in the country daily.
“It is the moment to exchange opinions, to see what different countries are doing in different aspects,” Santiago Chavez, Ecuador’s vice minister for human mobility, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The worst that can happen to the country [Ecuador] is migratory chaos,” he added.
Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from the Ecuador-Peru border, said that “there is a lot of anxiety among all these Venezuelans who are trying to get into Peru” before a Saturday deadline where they will be required to have a passport to cross the border.
“There is a lot of expectation that there will be a lot of people coming here in the next few days,” she added.
‘We are stranded’
For its part, Colombia on Wednesday said it wanted a special UN envoy and a “multilateral emergency fund” to help manage the mass exodus. More than a million people have entered Colombia in the past 16 months alone.
Colombia has granted 800,000 of them temporary residence, but many want to travel onwards to Peru, Chile or even Argentina, which has taken in more than 30,000 Venezuelans under a law that allows foreign nationals to remain in the country “when there are exceptional reasons of a humanitarian nature”.
“What is happening in Venezuela is of such gravity that it looks as though we were going through a terrible war like Syria – except there is no war,” Trino Marquez, a sociologist in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, told Al Jazeera.
“And there is the expectation that things will get even worse,” Marquez added.
Many Latin American governments initially welcomed the migrants with open arms, remembering Venezuela’s role in welcoming those fleeing dictatorships and conflicts in the past.
But the exodus has ballooned this year, stretching social services, creating more competition for low-skilled jobs and stoking fears of unrest.
Earlier this week, residents in a northern Brazilian town drove hundreds of Venezuelans back over the border.
“There have been days of tension at the border between Brazil and Venezuela, especially at the town of Pacaraima where a shelter where Venezuelans were living was attacked and set on fire, with a group of Brazilians pushing about 1,000 Venezuelans to the Venezuelan side of the border,” said Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima.
She added that those who had managed to come back were living in shelters.
“I cannot go back to my country, we cannot survive there,” Ricardo Rondon, a Venezuelan in Pacaraima, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s a disaster and I won’t go back as long as Nicolas Maduro is in power. We are stranded.”
Venezuelan migrants at a temporary shelter in the San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima [Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters]
On August 20, Maduro’s government rolled out a new currency, slashing five zeroes from the bolivar in a bid to tame the country’s rampant hyperinflation.
The new bolivar, which will be in circulation alongside the old currency during a transitional period, will be pegged to the country’s state-backed cryptocurrency, the petro.
Maduro, who says that he is the victim of a US-led “economic war” designed to sabotage his administration through sanctions, said that using the petro will abolish the “tyranny” of the dollar and lead to an economic rebirth in Venezuela, an OPEC member state and home to the world’s biggest crude oil reserves.
But many fear the measures could worsen the situation.
“There has been complete confusion and paralysis since these new reforms came into place,” said Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman from Caracas.
“There is little confidence that these new measures are going to make things better … and people believe that the only way out of this crisis is leaving this country,” Newman added.
But for many, this is not a realistic option. The country has all but stopped issuing passports due to ink and paper shortages, as well as bureaucratic problems. Those who can afford it have paid fees and bribes upwards of $2,000 to get a new passport.
“I need to leave but how? There is no way to get a passport unless you pay $2,000 under the table, which I don’t have,” a Venezuelan citizen told Al Jazeera.
Venezuela’s gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped by about 45 percent since Maduro took office in April 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“There is no work, I can’t support my family or buy milk or diapers for my baby, so I have no choice but to leave,” Alejandro Blanco, another Caracas resident, told Al Jazeera.
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Medal Of Honor Developer: "Afghanistan Sort Of Chose Us"
This spring, one of the biggest war video game franchises will be set in a current war, the conflict in Afghanistan. Why? Not politics, a developer told Kotaku. Not current events.
"We never chose Afghanistan," Medal of Honor executive producer Greg Goodrich said in a recent interview in New York City. "Afghanistan sort of chose us. We had a story we wanted to tell and it was about a certain group of individuals. And that's where they happened to be. And so we ended up there."
This new Medal of Honor puts players in the boots of various soldiers during an undated but clearly early part of the US-led NATO war in Afghanistan that began in the fall of 2001. Players spend much of their time in the game controlling elite Tier 1 operative soldiers, the type of bearded super-soldiers who have performed some of the most elite and dangerous missions in the way.
Goodrich denied that setting the game during this modern conflict was an attempt to grab the attention of potential players who might be gripped by current events as opposed to the fictional future combat of competing series Modern Warfare or the older wars depicted in other major war games. "I don't think about that at all," he said. "We have a story to tell: Our story, our characters and the quality level at which we're telling our story will engage people whether it's there or anywhere else. The backdrop is just that. It's a historical backdrop that has rich history. It all adds to that recipe that goes into making a great storytelling experience, beyond the locale, beyond the time of day, beyond the audio or music."
The enemy in the new Medal of Honor will be Al Qaeda and foreign fighters from areas like Chechnya. They will exhibit fighting tactics seen in the real conflict.
Beyond providing a new enemy, Goodrich said Afghanistan unexpectedly provided the game developers, the diverse terrain they wanted. "What Afghanistan gives us is that the average consumer is going to expect a certain thing: a very dry, arid rustic terrain," he said. "That's a part of Afghanistan. Helmand Province is a very dry rugged terrain. But when [the soldiers who consulted on the game]started bringing in photographs and we started looking at video, the different terrain of that country I was surprised... I've seen photographs that I would swear was Vietnam. I've seen snowy mountain peaks... What this does is it gives us a visual cascade of terrain that is going to be appealing to the consumer."
So the game won't be using its Afghanistan setting to press any political buttons. Usually the big war games don't, even, when setting themselves in a current war, it seems they could.
Medal of Honor ships this spring for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
PIC via Flickr, taken by U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jim Downen
mrwaffle @Mr Waffle
lol, so it's set in the "we're heroes come to save the day!" part of the War on Terror, and not the quagmire that is still going on today. Gotcha.


High street shopsGames, gadgets and toysGifts, books and stationary
Smiggle, the world’s hottest stationery brand, was born in 2003. The ultimate creators of colourful, fun, fashion-forward stationery. The first Smiggle store opened in Melbourne, Australia and word spread fast about the bright pens, notebooks and gadgets that filled a tiny, but very special place.
The concept took off and the company soon hit 20 stores, where it caught the eye of the Just Group - Australasia's most exciting fashion & apparel retailer. Smiggle joined the Just Group in August 2007 and has not looked back since!
In 2008 Smiggle jumped the seas and opened its first international store in New Zealand. In 2011 Smiggle expanded into Singapore, and in 2014 Smiggle opened its doors in the UK, and in 2016 Smiggle says hello to malaysia and hong kong! It's all part of the grand plan to be the world's most exciting and famous stationery brand. Check out our store locations.
The product range is now bigger and better than ever, with the team at the Smiggle Design Lab drawing inspiration from all over the globe. Our ultimate goal is to inspire and develop the creative spirits of our customers, by delivering original, fun and affordable stationery.
Smiggle products are all about great design and innovation, bold colour, quirky graphics, great value and most of all - giving our fans the tools they need to have fun!
We think we've created a place that's well worth a peek. It's small, it's not spacious, and it's incredibly bright, with friendly and passionate Smigglers who will happily take you through the range.
So come on in, experiment, explore, poke, prod and play, because a visit to our stores is just like a hug from your best friend. Where a smile meets a giggle, it's the world's greatest place.
Visit our website and browse our latest offers and visit us in store
Unit L3 Overgate Centre, Dundee, DD1 1UF Dundee, Dundee City
9:00am - 5:30pm Monday:
9:00am - 5:30pm Wednesday:
9:00am - 5:30pm Friday:
9:00am - 5:30pm Sunday:


Disorientated Feelings (Part 48)
The only school that is best suited for my son is Mizuho Academy: the school that seem to have some special magic to it. Saeko and my husband, who have both respectively studied and worked there for a number of years, claim that they have no role in it. It's more of based on the situation, my son's character and age, and so forth.
Sadly, there's no other school that could accept both my son's feminine behavior, and prevention of being picked on because of his young age and quite a number of people whom I don't even know being able to recognize me on the streets because I hold a high-level position of Hatsuya, which many people are familiar with. Sending him to a normal school would mean that he could be an easy target to be bullied, or, worse, be kidnaped to force me as a highly ranked Hatsuya staff to do something undesirable. This would be a different story if my son could even defend himself.
I have 3 daughters and a son, but with this, it's making my only s…
609th post: When not to round off numbers
You come across a number that looks something like
27634279.3478295 and wonder how to round that off. Most people would just simply say 30 million or 25 million. Sometimes, however, knowing what the exact number can be important. Makes a difference when over/under estimation is involved, but when it comes to just talking to people about how big the number is, saying this can be quite a mouthful.
Anyway, I'm here to talk about rounding off numbers that you would come across for money. Before I go on, note that some countries uses "." or a space to separate 3 digits of whole numbers, and "," for decimals. For countries like India, the first group contains 3 digits, but subsequent groups contain only 2 digits.
Situations where you are more likely to come across more than 2 decimal places for money (or, depending on currency, trailing digits that are more than the lowest denomination) when calculating taxes or dealing with foreign currency. Here's an example of …
608th post: Small Change in foreign Currency
Having been to many different countries, I have accumulated quite a number of coins. As you probably know, the money changer do not carry coins besides that of the local currency. Sure I could create a collection out of these, but there are extras left over for it. How to deal with these?
I don't know what is the smallest denomination the money changer would accept, but it's certainly banknotes instead of coins. I have received RM1 notes, which are worth only US$0.31, and sometimes, the highest denominated notes of that currency aren't worth much, so exchanging a few pieces, and getting the equivalent in foreign currency back as thick stacks of notes.
Well, if going to the country again, make sure to bring those coins along, and try to use as much of the smallest denomination as possible, or pay in a way that you don't get small denominations. Example: Paying the exact change (or as close as possible) with as many of the low-denominated coins as possible instead of…
606th post: Behind the scenes
I've talked from time to time about my posts (blog stories and anime posts especially) being late/early and such.
However, with a lot of things to do, including doing household chores, it's hard to keep a schedule. Blog stories are supposed to be out once a week. But as time went past, they get unknowingly longer and longer (in terms of the number of words per part/post). On top of that I have a busier schedule and things that have higher priority that it's hard to maintain that.
Eventually, that weekly thing became every fortnight Mondays, and now... well whenever I say it's ready. Sometimes, it just sits in my drafts for days and then publish it at a later date without any editing. Before you ask, it's not scheduled either.
Also, I am writing only because I want to write what I want, but, unfortunately, I don't earn enough from those to make a living. (Not even enough to afford one subway train ride) Wasting my effort on something that doesn't reward me …
Alternate Dimension (Part 85)
At work, Hitoko (the one whom I rescued a while back) showed something that required my attention: there is something detected in the mountain ranges at the northern part of the country that is related to the phenomenon of people being turned young girls. Ironically, Hatsuya had also given me the same assignment at the same area with very vague detail and an almost immediate timing that implies that they knew that Powell had already told me.
Hatsuya said that I could go there with what I'm wearing at that moment without the need for any additional clothing as my body can withstand extreme conditions that normal people can't, but added that the same doesn't apply to how I would feel about it. Obviously, I don't want to go a mountainous region wearing nothing but summer clothes. Plus, they could track my location and see what I'm seeing, which I can't disable it myself as it's part of my body. For the latter, it's deeply implemented into my eyes that the …
Teary Promise (Part 15)
Hisakawa seemed to have problems with the people with a certain group of people in an area near where we are now. Quite a number of people have seen her at Powell Research's official events in that Mizuho uniform, enough times for people to see it as her "trademark" outfit. This means that she would be recognized instantly.
For her to get into a disguise is nearly impossible as her Mizuho uniform can't be removed, including the name tag that has a completely different name written on it. The shape of that name tag, and her (larger-than-average) breasts, could still be seen even with multiple layers of clothes worn over it. She added that she hates wearing skirts, which is ironic as she's wearing one now and is never seen wearing anything else. Hisakawa is such a beautiful and elegant woman that I can't ever imagine her as a man.
Hisakawa's phone started ringing. She answered it, but not long after, she started crying.
Hisakawa: "What do you mean? Didn…
Disorientated Feelings special: College Graduation Trip
My friends and I have planned a trip to head to New York via car as part of the graduation trip. My university is located about 40 km south east from San Fransisco, but New York city, which is on the other side of America, is 5000 km away from here. I'm leaving behind things that I don't need with a friend, so I had to fly back to California to pick them up before heading back to Japan. It's hard to book flights due to the unpredictability of the trip that could exceed the original plan by as much as a week or more. I could get a standby ticket if I want to get to the earliest available flight at that time, but only if there are still seats available at the time the regular check-in closes, which, considering that the international airports of California and Japan are major stopover airports, that's not guaranteed.
For this trip, we would be traveling in two cars. Whose car? Well, from someone who is joining the trip who lives closer to New York than California: one of…
Disorientated Feelings special: College Graduation...


TRUMP-KIM SUMMIT: Will De-Nuclearization Instill World Peace?
The first ever live face-to-face encounter of a sitting U.S. President and a reigning North Korean leader was witnessed by the world in the hotels near Singapore's Sentosa Island on June 12, 2018 to sign the agreement of denuclearization of Korean Peninsula.
The long going war between the two nations and the exchange of insults a month before the summit has got everyone biting their nails off. This was the biggest historical event with quite a background on it. If implemented in right spirit, this peace agreement between North Korea and The United States of America can bring the ever-going violence and rivalry between the two countries that poses threat to world peace may give a sigh of relief.
The Korean Peninsula war in 1950 came to an end after the intervention of the US led-coalition army.
Heart burn with the loss during the war, the North Korea was left with a big scar and a grudge against the USA.
Ever since, the North Korea has been on its mission of US invasion.
On succeeding his father and earlier ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un unleashed the incessant attacks on USA.
Last year after Kim Jong-Un, the dictator of North Korea conducted multiple nuclear tests and continued with his programme of attacking the United States which raised questions about world peace that led to foundation of this summit.
South Korea, which shuttled between The USA and North Korea set up the Trump-Kim meeting and is of the view that Kim Jong-Un has genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons in return for economic benefits.
During their summit at a border truce village, Moon, South Korean President and Kim vaguely promised to work toward the "complete denuclearization'' of the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said that all the tunnels at the country's north-eastern testing ground will be destroyed by explosion, and that observation and research facilities and ground-based guard units will also be removed.
The North Korean leader seeks a deal in which he gives away his intercontinental ballistic missiles but retains some of his short-range arsenal in return for a reduced US military presence in the South.
THE DEAL: Key Points
The United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) commit to establish new US - DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
The US and The DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The US and The DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
The deal seems to bring peace in the world with the denuclearization of the ballistic missiles by North Korea. After signing the Agreement, Donald Trump said "better than anyone could have expected... It is a tremendous honor, and I have no doubt we will have a terrific relationship."
North Korea's party line has been amended to focus primarily on economic development on the rationale that North Korea has achieved its nuclear goals.
By giving Kim the respect that comes with interaction on an "equal footing," Trump has front-loaded symbolic expressions of his intent to improve relations, further instilling faith in the agreement.
North Korea has suspended its Anti-US rally to show the zeal towards denuclearization.
There is a risk that leaning too heavily into an attempt to end the Korean war and replace it with a permanent peace might change the relationship without addressing the underlying risk that accompanies a nuclear North Korea.
Bringing the Korean War to an end could result in exposure of South Korea to North Korea with their short range arsenal still in place. This could undermine the alliance between The USA and South Korea.
North Korea has been making vague promises for over three decades.
The Korean side of the agreement falls short of details and is very vaguely worded, presenting no timeline for the initiation of the denuclearization.
Two weeks after The Singapore Summit, 38NORTH(North Korea's analysis outlet) witnessed nuclear infrastructural developments of a new cooling water pump house, a number of new buildings, a completed construction on a cooling water reservoir and a possible radiochemical laboratory. This could nullify the Global peace efforts taken by the United States.
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