PHILIP HAMMOND HANDS HIS FISCAL GIFT RIGHT BACK / THE FINANCIAL TIMES OP EDITORIAL
| Etiquetas: Government Budget Deficits, United Kingdom
Philip Hammond hands his fiscal gift right back
This Budget is the largest discretionary fiscal loosening since the OBR’s creation in 2010
Philip Hammond: near-term giveaways followed by longer-term takeaways © Tolga Akmen/FT
In normal circumstances, Philip Hammond, chancellor of the exchequer, would have been in a far more comfortable position in delivering his Budget on Monday than he or his predecessors since the financial crisis 10 years ago. As he repeatedly reminded his listeners, the fiscal squeeze was coming to an end. Above all, he had more money to play with than he expected.
Alas, these are not normal circumstances. The uncertainty of Brexit hangs over prospects. Mr Hammond is a sensible man who hopes for a sensible deal. Unfortunately, he is surrounded by people who think crashing out of the EU without one would be just fine. Brexit is bad enough. But this notion is lunacy. He (and we) must hope it does not happen. The UK needs to agree a reasonable exit with its EU partners, a sufficiently long standstill and a mutually beneficial final relationship. If this does not occur, the Office for Budget Responsibility might have a very different view next time it considers prospects for the UK.
Before considering what Mr Hammond made of the position he is now in, we need to recognise that the economy is in far from excellent condition. As the OBR notes in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook, economic growth is “near the bottom” of the league, among the Group of Seven leading high-income economies. While employment performance is very good, as the chancellor stressed on several occasions, productivity performance remains miserable. Output per hour actually fell between the last quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018. The only good news is that it shrank less than forecast last March. Truth be told, the OBR’s medium-term forecast is also miserable: 1.3 per cent growth this year, followed by 1.6 per cent in 2019, 1.4 per cent in 2020 and 2021, 1.5 per cent in 2022 and 1.6 per cent in 2022. By pre-crisis standards, this is simply awful. (See charts.)
So how, given this far from cheerful economic picture, does the chancellor find himself with a great deal of money to spray around? The main answer, as the OBR, admits, is that: “The public finances have performed better so far this year than we and outside forecasters expected back in March, even though the economy has grown less quickly.” As a result, the starting point is £11.9bn lower borrowing this fiscal year than expected last March. The OBR also now forecasts a modest improvement in prospective economic growth due to “a downward revision to our estimate of the sustainable rate of unemployment and an upward revision to potential labour market participation”. Taking all this together, concludes the OBR, the underlying improvement in the budget deficit rises to £18.1bn by 2022-23. At 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product, on average, this would have been sufficient to balance the budget by 2025.
The government has decided to give the “fiscal windfall” back to the public. Far and away the biggest amount, as the chancellor noted, is due to the commitment to extra spending on the National Health Service, already announced by the prime minister. The cost of this extra spending on health rises from £7.4bn in 2019-20 to £27.6bn in 2023-24. The rest of his package has what the OBR calls “the familiar Augustinian pattern”: give us frugality, but not yet. Thus there are near-term giveaways followed by longer-term takeaways. Maybe the chancellor is insuring against the possibility of a general election in the relatively near future.
Giveaways include raising the personal tax allowance to £12,500, oiling the introduction of the controversial universal credit and freezing fuel duties — just what a government supposedly committed to tackling climate change ought not to do. The main takeaways are a new (and itself welcome) tax on digital businesses, a further tightening up on people who work through a company they own, and changes to national insurance contributions. It also appears that departmental capital spending has been cut from 2019-20 onwards.
In all, this is the largest discretionary loosening at any fiscal event since the OBR was created in 2010. It has disposed fully of the windfall, leaving the finances almost where they were expected to be back in March.
Does this make sense? This has an economic and a political answer.
The broad answer to the economic question is that the forecasts show a steady decline in public sector net debt from 85 per cent of GDP in 2017-18 to 74.1 by 2023-24. They show a cyclically adjusted surplus on the current Budget throughout the forecast period, rising to 1.3 per cent of GDP by 2023-24. They also show public sector net borrowing falling to 0.8 per cent of GDP by the latter year. Ordinarily, this should be enough to sustain confidence in the UK. But Brexit is one huge uncertainty. The possible election of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party is another. Mr Hammond does not control either possibility. He can, however, seek to influence them.
This is where the politics come in. Mr Hammond is indicating to his colleagues that, provided they are reasonable and give prime minister Theresa May the latitude she needs to reach a Brexit deal, sunlit uplands of growth and fiscal largesse lie ahead. In any case, the need for brutal cuts in unprotected spending should be at an end. But, if Brexit turns into a disaster, that may well not remain true.
He is also indicating to the public that due to “their hard work” — a debatable description of the decisions taken over the past eight years — good (or at least better) times now lie ahead. This, it is surely clear, is the only platform the Conservatives can credibly use as a basis for appealing to the country for support. They cannot argue the economic recovery has been satisfactory, because it has been very far from that. They cannot deny they have imposed a fiscal tightening that a large proportion of the people believe was painful and, in important respects, unfair. But they can at least seek to argue that it was necessary, that it is over and, above all, that Labour would throw everything that has by now been achieved into jeopardy. In truth, this is the only basis on which the Tories can campaign. Will it work? In time, we will find out.
AMERICA´S MIDTERM ELECTIONS TURN MENACING / PROJECT SYNDICATE
| Etiquetas: Democracy, U.S. Economic And Political, War on Terror
America’s Midterm Elections Turn Menacing
With the approach of crucial congressional and state elections, no one should be surprised that domestic terrorism has emerged from the ranks of President Donald Trump's hyper-partisan supporters. In fact, given Trump’s pattern of incitement, many have warned that some of his followers would resort to violence.
WASHINGTON, DC – With the approach of this year’s midterm elections in the United States, domestic terrorism is starting to dominate the political landscape. First, barely two weeks before Election Day, an angry supporter of US President Donald Trump began sending 14 bombs to prominent Democrats and others whom Trump has frequently attacked. (None of the bombs exploded.) Then things became much worse, with the murder, on a Saturday, of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Today, a polarized and anxious American public finds itself with a president totally unsuited to, and not very interested in, comforting the nation, much less trying to lead it away from the hate and deadly partisanship that he has stoked.
Had the 14 crude bombs, which the FBI called “potentially destructive devices,” worked as intended, the bombmaker could have killed or gravely injured a who’s who of Trump adversaries. The list included two former presidents (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder; a former CIA director; a former director of National Intelligence; two likely Democratic presidential candidates in 2020; a black congresswoman whom Trump frequently describes as “low IQ” (a common racist charge); two prominent Jewish billionaire philanthropists, one of whom, George Soros, is a frequent target of Trump and the subject of various right-wing conspiracy fantasies; and the actor Robert De Niro (who began his speech at this year’s Tony Awards ceremony by declaring, “Fuck Trump”).
Though Trump had frequently singled out many of the bomber’s targets at his rallies – still attacking Hillary Clinton, his election opponent in 2016, for example, and then smiling as his audience chanted “Lock her up” – Trump’s defenders tried to throw the spotlight elsewhere. The mail bombs, they claimed, were a “false flag” operation by the left, with some of the Democrats even sending the bombs to themselves in order to blame Trump.
So it was highly inconvenient for true believers when the would-be bomber turned out to be a fanatical Trump supporter who lives in Florida and drives a white van covered in hate-filled depictions of his targets. US law enforcement agencies – another frequent target of Trump – are extremely good at tracking down miscreants: the suspect was arrested four days after the first bomb was discovered in Soros’s mailbox.
The most disheartening aspect of the entire episode was Trump’s utter incapacity as a national leader. But that should surprise no one. How could a president who has thrived politically on dividing the American people, who has been spewing hate, sowing resentment, and at times even encouraging violence at his rallies, suddenly be – or even pretend to be – a healer? In fact, Trump’s pattern of incitement and routine denunciations of the media as “the enemy of the people” had convinced many that some of his followers might resort to violence against members of the press.
The day after the discovery of the bombs sent to the Clintons and the Obamas, among others, a subdued Trump read a prepared statement at a prescheduled White House ceremony, condemning “acts or threats of political violence” and saying that the nation must unify.
It didn’t last. By that evening, at a rally in Wisconsin, he was making fun of his “trying to be nice” act and blamed the media for the violence. And soon he was back to whipping up fear of a caravan of refugees from Honduras. Though still roughly 1,000 miles from the US border, Trump portrayed the refugees as an imminent national security threat, warning, without evidence, that “Middle Easterners” were among them.
Trump’s rallies are now almost a daily event, and his lies are even more frequent than before. With the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate to be chosen on November 6, the upcoming midterm election is widely regarded as the most consequential in memory, perhaps ever. The Republicans’ two-year lock on the entire US government – the House, the Senate, the presidency, and, with the recent addition of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court – could be broken.
The midterm election following the election of a new president is often considered a verdict on the incumbent, and his party usually loses strength, particularly in the House. But Trump has made the midterms about himself to an unprecedented degree. He tells audiences that though he’s not on the ballot, they should vote as if he were (though his approval ratings are in the low forties).
It has long been believed that the Democrats are more likely to win the House than the Senate, because several of the Senate seats in play are held by Democrats in traditionally conservative states. Trump’s determination, or anxiety, that Republicans maintain control of both chambers is understandable. Should the Democrats take over the House, newly empowered committee chairmen, armed with subpoenas, will launch investigations of a broad range of administration actions and agencies, where extensive corruption is suspected.
But the real, almost palpable, fear on Trump’s part is that a Democratic-controlled House will focus all manner of investigations on him personally: his acceptance of Constitutionally forbidden “emoluments” from foreign countries; his failure to separate himself sufficiently from the family business; his tax returns; his unauthorized foreign wars in Yemen and Syria; and of course his official and private dealings with Russia. At least the House is likely to have the conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to consider. In other words, no more lapdog Congress.
But if the Republicans maintain control of the Senate, there will be limits on what the Democrats can achieve. Even if the House were to impeach Trump – no sure thing – convicting him in the Senate would be extremely difficult. Whether a Democratic House would even proceed in that direction has been the subject of intra-party debate.
The nightmare election possibility for the Democrats is continued Republican control of both chambers. In that case, Trump will feel vindicated and more liberated than ever. He might then fire a raft of officials, treat immigrants still more harshly, and try to shut down Mueller’s investigation of his campaign’s possible collusion with the Kremlin and Trump’s probable obstruction of justice.
The conventional wisdom may prevail, with the Democrats winning the House but not the Senate. But the polls have been fluctuating. And since Trump’s stunning election victory in 2016, most observers have become more cautious about predicting outcomes.
Elizabeth Drew is a contributing editor at The New Republic and the author, most recently, of Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall.
THE SURPRISING LOSERS IF U.S. LEVERAGED LOAN BOOM FIZZLES THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
| Etiquetas: Banks And Banking, Private Equity
The Surprising Losers if U.S. Leveraged Loan Boom Fizzles
U.S. regulators and others are casting a closer eye over aggressive loans for private-equity deals
By Paul J. Davies
The $1.3 trillion market for risky loans used in private-equity deals has regulators worried.
Activity in the U.S. market has boomed and it is U.S. officials leading the warning calls. But, while U.S. investment banks lead many businesses, it is the big Europeans that punch above their weight in U.S. loans and that face the bigger risks. For Credit Suisse , Barclaysand Deutsche Bank ,leveraged loans bring in a bigger share of investment bank revenue than they do for JP Morgan ,Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs .
Standards in the leveraged loan market have been slipping as more aggressive private-equity deals have pushed debt multiples higher and eviscerated the traditional protections, known as covenants, that allow lenders to intervene if borrowers start to struggle.
The latest warning on leveraged loans came from Federal Reserve banking regulator Todd Vermilyea last Wednesday. He highlighted many of the aggressive practices that have been regularly covered in this column and told an industry conference that the Fed was taking a closer look at banks’ risk management. Janet Yellen, former Fed chair, also raised concerns about the market last week in a newspaper interview, while Fed officials at their latest monetary policy meeting discussed the growth of loans, loosening of standards and role of non-banks in the market, according to minutes released this month.
Federal Reserve banking regulator Todd Vermilyea said the Fed was taking a closer look at banks’ risk management. Photo: chris wattie/Reuters
Meanwhile, the Bank of England’s financial stability committee said it would assess the risks posed to banks by this market in this year’s stress test after it noted that global leveraged loans were larger than U.S. subprime mortgages in 2006 and growing as quickly.
European banks and some U.S. brokers like Jefferies Financial Grouphave been competing harder in leveraged loans in part because they don’t do so well against top U.S. banks in winning mandates to advise on mergers and acquisitions, according to an industry report from Morgan Stanleyand Oliver Wyman earlier this year.
Last week, Deutsche Bank was quizzed on its third-quarter results call by analysts about whether it was the right time to be increasing its market share in leveraged loans. Christian Sewing, the chief executive, said he was absolutely confident Deutsche wasn’t taking undue risks.
JP Morgan has the most revenue from U.S. leveraged loan deals this year so far—a spot occupied by Credit Suisse for each of the past five years, according to Dealogic—although this revenue is still less important to JPMorgan than it is to Credit Suisse.
Banks tend not to hold these loans. Instead, they sell them to other investors, especially mutual funds and collateralized loan obligations. However, if the market freezes, banks can get stuck with this debt, as many discovered to their dismay in 2007.
Any effort by regulators to cool the market, or any market problem that stops banks from selling the loans, would have a cost for all those involved: For the Europeans, though, the proportion of revenue and capital affected would be greater. Leveraged finance revenue is worth about 12% of advisory and capital raising revenue on average for the three Europeans, according to UBS ,while it is worth just 7% for the five largest U.S. banks.
These banks might ultimately thank the Fed, or another regulator, that acted to cool the market. Foregone revenue notwithstanding, it could save them from a bigger accident to come.
WHAT IF WE´RE ALL COMING BACK? / THE NEW YORK TIMES OP EDITORIAL
| Etiquetas: Human Being
What if We’re All Coming Back?
The prospect of being reborn as a poor person in a world ravaged by climate change could lead us to very different political decisions.
By Michelle Alexander
Opinion Columnist
CreditCreditJosh Haner/The New York Times
I can’t say that I believe in reincarnation, but I understand why some people do. In fact, I had a bizarre experience as a teenager that made me wonder if I had known someone in a past life.
I was walking to school one day, lost in thought. I turned the corner onto a wide, tree-lined street and noticed a man on the other side heading my direction. For an instant, we held each other’s gaze and a startling wave of excitement and recognition washed over me. We spontaneously ran toward each other, as if to embrace a long-lost friend, relative or lover. But just as we were close enough to see the other’s face, we were both jolted by the awareness that we didn’t actually know each other.
We stood in the middle of the street, bewildered. I mumbled, “I’m so sorry — I thought I knew you.” Equally embarrassed, he replied: “Oh, my God, this is so strange. What’s happening right now?” We backed away awkwardly — me, a teenage black girl; he, a middle-aged white man. I never saw him again.
The incident shook me deeply. This was not a case of mistaken identity. Something profound and mysterious happened and we both knew it. Still, I’m not among the 33 percent of Americans (including 29 percent of Christians) who believe in reincarnation. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking that if more of us did believe we were coming back, it could change everything.
At first, I thought about reincarnation in the narrowest possible terms, wondering what future life I’d earn if karma proved real. It’s a worrisome thing to contemplate. It’s easier to speculate about what kind of future lives other people deserve. Maybe Bull Connor — that white supremacist Alabama politician who ordered that black schoolchildren protesting segregation be attacked with police dogs and fire hoses — has already been born again as a black child in a neighborhood lacking jobs and decent schools but filled with police officers who shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe he’s now subjected to the very forms of bigotry, terror and structural racism that he once gleefully inflicted on others.
This kind of thought experiment is obviously dangerous, since it can tempt us to imagine that people have somehow earned miserable fates and deserve to suffer. But considering future lives can also be productive, challenging us to imagine that what we do or say in this life matters and might eventually catch up with us. Would we fail to respond with care and compassion to the immigrant at the border today if we thought we might find ourselves homeless, fleeing war and poverty, in the next life? Imagining ourselves in those shoes makes it harder to say: “Well, they’re not here legally. Let’s build a wall to keep those people out.” After all, one day “those people” might be you.
Once I entered college, I found myself less interested in karma and more interested in politics. It occurred to me that if we’re born again at random, we can’t soothe ourselves with fantasies that we’ll come back as one of the precious few on the planet who live comfortably. We must face the fact that our destiny is inextricably linked to the fate of others. What kind of political, social and economic system would I want — and what would I fight for — if I knew I was coming back somewhere in the world but didn’t know where and didn’t know who I’d be?
In law school, I discovered that I wasn’t the first to ponder this type of question. In his landmark 1971 book, “A Theory of Justice,” the political philosopher John Rawls urged his audience to imagine a wild scene: A group of people gathered to design their own future society behind “a veil of ignorance.” No one knows his or her place in society, class position or social status, “nor does he know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence and strength and the like.” As Rawls put it, “If a man knew that he was wealthy, he might find it rational to advance the principle that various taxes for welfare measures be counted unjust; if he knew he was poor, he would most likely propose the contrary principle.” If denied basic information about one’s circumstances, Rawls predicted that important social goods, such as rights and liberties, power and opportunities, income and wealth, and conditions for self-respect would be “distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these values is to everyone’s advantage.”
Back then, I was struck by how closely Rawls’s views mirrored my own. I now believe, however, that the veil of ignorance is quite distorted in an important respect. Rawls’s veil encourages us to imagine a scenario in which we’re equally likely to be rich or poor or born with natural talents or limitations. But the truth is, if we’re reborn in 50 years, there’s only a small chance that any of us would be rich or benefit from white privilege.
Almost half the world — more than three billion people — live on less than $2.50 per day. At least 80 percent of humanity lives on less than $10 per day. Less than 7 percent of the world’s population has a college degree. The vast majority of the earth’s population is nonwhite, and roughly half are women. Unless radical change sweeps the globe, the chances are high that any of us would come back as a nonwhite woman living on less than $2.50 per day. And given what we now know about climate change, the chances are very good that we would find ourselves suffering as a result of natural disasters — hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts and floods — and enduring water and food shortages and refugee crises.
This month, the world’s leading climate scientists released a report warning of catastrophic consequences as soon as 2040 if global warming increases at its current rate. Democratic politicians expressed alarm, yet many continue to accept campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry that is responsible for such a large percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s nearly impossible to imagine that our elected officials would be so indifferent if they knew climate scientists were foretelling a future that they would have to live without any of the privileges they now enjoy.
Rawls was right: True morality becomes possible only when we step outside the box of our perceived self-interest and care for others as much as we care for ourselves. But rather than imagining a scenario in which we’re entirely ignorant of what the future holds, perhaps we ought to imagine that we, personally, will be born again into the world that we are creating today through our collective and individual choices.
Who among us would fail to question capitalism or to demand a political system free from corporate cash if we knew that we’d likely live our next life as a person of color, earning less than $2.50 a day, in some part of the world ravaged by climate change while private corporations earn billions building prisons, detention centers and border walls for profit?
Not I. And I’m willing to bet, neither would you. We don’t have to believe in reincarnation to fight for a world that we’d actually want to be born into.
Michelle Alexander became a New York Times columnist in 2018. She is a civil rights lawyer and advocate, legal scholar and author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
PHILIP HAMMOND HANDS HIS FISCAL GIFT RIGHT BACK / ...
AMERICA´S MIDTERM ELECTIONS TURN MENACING / PROJEC...
THE SURPRISING LOSERS IF U.S. LEVERAGED LOAN BOOM ...
WHAT IF WE´RE ALL COMING BACK? / THE NEW YORK TIME...


How to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ Draw
John Seroukas 1543902708
With the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ draw only days away, we have all the information you need to follow who the Westfield Matildas will be pitted against.
The draw will be broadcast LIVE and FREE on SBS on Sunday, December 9 at 4am AEDT.
READ: How Australia reacted to Sam Kerr's Ballon d'Or effort
GALLERY: Unveiling of a unified brand for Westfield Matildas and Caltex Socceroos
INFO: How to watch Westfield W-League Round 6
The eighth edition of the tournament will be held from June 7 to July 7, 2019, with 24 nations to compete to be crowned world champions.
In 2015, Australia finished second in their group behind the United States, earning them a Round of 16 clash with Brazil.
Kyah Simon’s 80th-minute strike sent Westfield Matildas fans into raptures and earned the side their first knockout stage win at the tournament, setting up a quarter-final against Japan.
Caitlin Foord celebrates her hat-trick in the Westfield Matildas' 5-0 victory over Chile.
That was as far as the Westfield Matildas would get as Mana Iwabuchi’s strike on 87 minutes saw Australia eliminated.
The Westfield Matildas are four years wiser and stronger - can we go one step further than last time?
Click here to see the full match schedule.
This article was originally published on the Westfield Matildas website.


Review: “Mandy”
By jasonbleau October 11, 2018 October 10, 2018
5 Comments on Review: “Mandy”
I don’t review a lot of “on demand” movies. I try to see most films in the theater when I can but occasionally one comes along that has a release so limited but is still so popular that I just have to seek other ways to view it ASAP. One film lately that has gained a lot of buzz is “Mandy”, an action horror film that, to be blunt, is one heck of an odd ride. I’ve had a few people ask me to review this movie and even more have recommended I watch it regardless so I finally did…TWICE…and boy was it an interesting ride. So is “Mandy” the must see horror experience everyone is making it out to be or is it more overrated than we’ve been led to believe? Let’s take a look. This is my review of “Mandy”.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT
“Mandy” takes place in 1983 and stars Nicolas Cage as Red Miller, a logger who lives in a cabin with his girlfriend and artist Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). One day Mandy catches the eye of Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache) the leader of a local cult called the Children of the New Dawn. Sand orders his followers to abduct Mandy and Red and attempt to woo Mandy to no avail. Embarrassed and insulted Sand and his crew execute Mandy and leave Red to die only for Red to escape and go on the warpath in a relentless and bloody quest for vengeance that not only pits him against the cult but a band of drug addicted demonic bikers as well.
WHAT WORKED
Oh man where do I start with this film? “Mandy” is so creative, so inspired and so unique that I had to watch it twice and wait a few days to write this review because I needed to let it all sink in. It’s not like it’s an impossible film to follow either. The basic premise is actually pretty simple. It’s the way it’s presented that makes it feel like such a unique project. Director Panos Cosmatos clearly has a respect for the craft. He had a vision and he saw it through. “Mandy” is filled with artistic merit and sly callbacks to horror genre staples that, unless you were looking for them, you’d never even realized were fit into the movie which is how homages are supposed to be really. The film borrows concepts and ideas from the past but embraces its own identity using colors pallets, unique filters and intriguing character, set and weapon designs to truly take on a vision all its own. To put it simply “Mandy” is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It kept me invested. I never knew what to expect and that made it both fun and engaging.
Nicolas Cage is absolutely amazing in this film. The eccentric actor is known for his famous outbursts and overacting but I don’t ever remember him playing in a movie that actually benefited from his unique performance style the way “Mandy” does. Cage is completely out of his mind as Red especially in the aftermath of his on-screen girlfriend’s execution. He just leaves it all out there and it’s fantastic. His energy, his psychotic break, his ruthless bloodthirsty anger it all works and allows us to really grasp the pain and frustration this man is feeling and how desperate he is to do right by his lost love. I mean I think we see Red go through all the stages of grief in one great long shot and it’s just mesmerizing. Nothing in his world matters but vengeance. He’s got tunnel vision and is purely driven by adrenaline and rage and it’s just fantastic.
The supporting cast isn’t bad either. I found Andrea Riseborough to be delightfully charming as Mandy Bloom, Red’s girlfriend and the namesake of this film. Riseborough is the perfect antithesis to Cage choosing to utilize a more subtle approach for her character that makes her feel more innocent and her inevitable demise that much more heartbreaking for both us and Red. I also enjoyed Linus Roache as Jeremiah Sand, the leader of a crew of cultists who attack Mandy and Red. Roache brings to life a delightfully delusional individual who is clearly solidly sold on his own ego and superiority but by the end of the film we see there’s more beneath the skin and he’s more human than he ever would admit. I loved these characters. They’re unique, they’re memorable, they’re odd, they’re layered and they’re well-acted. I just enjoyed seeing this cast together and watching them all embrace unique personalities in a twisted reality.
All in all, the best thing about “Mandy” is that it’s just different. It reminded me of “Mother!” which was one of my favorite movies from 2017, however “Mandy” is more subtle with it’s significance while being much more brutal in its violence ditching shock value for just straight up awesomeness. “Mandy” feels like a movie that is hiding something more profound underneath but even if you choose to ignore the hidden themes there’s so much insane and crazy action and unique visual appeal that it’s still worth every second just for the experience alone. Just to give you a few examples of what you get from this movie: a handmade full metal ax that looks like something from a heavy metal band, demonic blood-craving bikers on LSD, a chainsaw duel and about five solid minutes of Nicolas Cage losing his mind in his underwear chugging a bottle of vodka. It’s just as cool and twisted as it sounds really and none of it feels like fan service or a desperate search for attention. The music (composed by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson), the color pallet, the shooting angles, the character designs, the setting….it all comes together to create a stylish and truly unique action horror experience that wins you over even when you’re not quite sure what to make of it all.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
On the flip side all of this craziness can also admittedly be a bit much. It’s really hard to lose track of where “Mandy” is going at times and that can be frustrating. It’s a film that demands repeat viewings and even after two run-throughs of my own I still had to do a bit of research to fully grasp everything that took place so don’t go into this movie expecting to be spoon-fed. You’ll be disappointed. Of course Nicolas Cage’s crazy approach to acting is also an acquired taste all on its own so part of your enjoyment of this film may come down to just how much mind-numbing violence and Cage’s unhinged lunacy you can stand. If you’re not patient or if you don’t take the time to invest in the story then it will lose you easily and that’s partially because the film is split into two halves. Literally the first hour is all setup and the second hour is where all the violence comes in. It’s a setup that works in the end but can be trying if you’re just expecting Nick Cage killing people from start to finish.
While I did compare “Mandy” favorably to “Mother!” I can’t say this film completely avoids the same pretentiousness the later film was accused of by many last year. I loved the style and the creative choices used to bring “Mandy” to life but because the underlying meaning of it all is so hard to decipher it’s easy to write a lot of things off as Cosmatos embellishing and showing off how unique and insightful he is as a director without actually going anywhere with it. I’ll admit the first time around I felt there were a few moments where the stylistic choices didn’t really make sense. There didn’t seem to be any purpose beyond just doing something different although I found myself respecting these creative choices in my second go around because I already knew the bigger picture. In the end how much you enjoy “Mandy” will depend on how open your mind is going into it. It will either irritate you to no end with its in-your-face “this means something” presentation or it will have you enjoying yourself through thought provoking imagery and style as you read between the lines. Either way “Mandy” provides plenty of substance and mindless blood-stained fun, but how much fun may be all in how you look at it.
“Mandy” is a crazy, fun, artistic and stylish horror action masterpiece. I can’t sugarcoat that. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before and not only had me completely invested from start to finish, but brought me back for a second viewing to try and figure out what I missed and delve deeper into the world that director Panos Cosmatos created. An unhinged performance by Nicolas Cage makes this movie all the more enjoyable finally giving the actor a story and setting that allows him to let loose without it feeling overplayed or out of place. A competent and capable supporting cast only adds to this thrill ride of a mind bender that left me speechless and in awe by the times the credits rolled. I loved it, and while it may not be for everyone and has a slight tinge of pretentiousness about it I would still recommend “Mandy” to anyone as a unique cinematic experience that shows the true potential of its up-and-coming director and its often underappreciated leading man.
Tags: Mandy Review
Published by jasonbleau
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The word “masterpiece” sold me. I’ve been curious about this one but WOW! High praise. I’m giving it a look.
jasonbleau says:
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I know it might be an acquired taste but I truly found it fitting of being considered among the best in the genre from the past decade. I even enjoyed it more that “Hereditary” which, while a great film, didnt hold my attention or fascinate me near as much as “Mandy” did.
Sam Simon says:
I truly hope this movie will arrive to my favourite cinema (the only one in town with non-dubbed versions)! I only read good things about it… Thanks!
Sartaj Govind Singh says:
This is an excellent review that significantly touches upon some of the strengths of the film. I particularly appreciated your points about the visuals as well as your comparison to Darren Aronofsky’s mother!
I think Mandy is a film that presents the manly revenge thriller at its most artistic and visionary.
You can find out more in my review below:
https://sgsonfilm.net/2018/11/05/brief-consideration-mandy-2018/
If you find the piece to your liking, then please comment and follow.
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Amending the Fair Elections Act - Macleans.ca
Amending the Fair Elections Act
The government and opposition trade proposals
by Aaron Wherry
Adrian Wyld/CP
The Procedure and House Affairs committee begins this morning the task of reviewing the Fair Elections Act clause by clause and if you’ve ever wanted to see what 344 pages of amendments looks like, here are the compiled submissions of the Conservatives, New Democrats and Liberals, along with Green MP Elizabeth May and Independent MP Brent Rathgeber. (Note: Some of the proposed amendments seem to duplicate each other, possibly the result of MPs from different parties each submitting the chief electoral officer’s suggestions.)
Both the New Democrats and Liberals would restore vouching and eliminate the proposed ban on any use of the voter information card to substantiate one’s address, but the New Democrats have also included a proposal to adopt Manitoba’s allowance for the swearing of a written oath to establish identity.
Mr. Rathgeber’s proposals are designed to allow independent candidates to file as such before the writ period and begin collecting donations—thus limiting the advantage that party candidates currently enjoy over unaligned candidates.
Ms. May throws in proposals to create a voter contact code of conduct, new rules for the televised debates and a requirement that the minister shall engage in “extensive consultations” with the chief electoral officer with respect to any proposed amendments of the Elections Act.
The government has so far only signalled that it will support a specific set of amendments, so it remains to be seen how many, if any, of the opposition’s proposals will be accepted. The committee conceivably has to be done with the bill by the end of this week.
Fair Elections Act


KIDD KRADDICK MORNING SHOWKIDD KRADDICK MORNING SHOW
Big Al Busted At The State Fair Of Texas
KiddNation.com
Big Al said he couldn't go to the fair, so what was he doing at the fair then?
J-Si had plans to meet his wife and some of her friends at the fair, but he didn't really want to go apparently because his car didn't have enough charge to get there and get home! That's when Kellie said she and Allen were going to the fair and they'd give him a ride and invited Big Al along. Al declined.
After arriving at the fair they were told that someone else saw Big Al at the fair a few minutes before and this surprised Kellie and J-Si because he wasn't supposed to be there, but they were cool and it left them wondering what he was doing at the fair and why he didn't let them know he was there to hang together. Also, we find out that J-Si ended up being a loner amongst all the people in the fair.
Filed Under: big al, fair, kidd kraddick morning show, State Fair
Categories: Kidd Kraddick


News > Business Hour >
Nevada’s 2017-2018 construction wage survey released
The Office of the Nevada Labor Commissioner has released the 2017–2018 Construction Wage Survey for contractors throughout the state. Completed surveys are due by 5:00 pm on July 17, 2017, in order to be included...
Itronics Inc., a growing and diversified fertilizer, silver, and minerals producer, today announced that its 2016 Corporate Profile is available on the Itronics’ website at www.itronics.com/profile.shtml, under the “About Us” tab. It includes the Company’s...
The Meadowood Mall is looking ahead to holiday shopping season, and in preparation, many retailers will be participating in a job fair to get employees on boarded and working before the holiday rush. More than...
Pershing Resources Company, Inc., (OTC PINK: PSGR) reported its second quarter 2016 financials today. The financial statement can be viewed on the OTC Markets website at: http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/PSGR/filings or on the Company’s website at: http://ir.pershingpm.com/otc-filings.
Pershing Resources Company, Inc., (OTC PINK: PSGR) announces that it has brought on Dr. Duncan J. Bain P.Geo., President, Duncan Bain Consulting Ltd., as Chief Consulting Geologist on its New Enterprise Project near Kingman Arizona....
Nevada’s unemployment rate rose slightly to a seasonally-adjusted 6.4 percent in June, but experienced strong job growth. In June, the Silver State experienced the strongest over-the-month gain in employment in 11 years, adding a seasonally-adjusted...
Today the Federal Communications Commission votes on a plan to open a new part of the wireless spectrum to encourage the development of the next generation of cell phones and wireless devices called 5G. FCC...
Chewy.com located at the USA Parkway is having a hiring event Thursday July 14 at the Whitney Peak Hotel – Downtown on N Virginia St at the Reno Arch. Hours are Noon until 4:30 PM...
International Game Technology PLC will report second quarter 2016 results for the period ended June 30, 2016 on Thursday, July 28, 2016.
Infor, a leading provider of beautiful business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, today announced that Boomtown Casino and Hotel in Reno, Nevada, has entered into an agreement with Infinium Software, Inc.,...
Gold Standard Ventures Corp. today reported that a comprehensive bottle roll cyanide leach program on its 100%-owned Pinion oxide gold deposit in the Carlin Trend, Nevada, returned weighted-average gold recoveries of 69.2% for 10 mesh...
Pershing Resources Company, Inc. announced that it has received a majority shareholder vote “in favor” of eight measures proposed at its July 8th Special Shareholders meeting. The Company sought shareholder approval for eight proposals aimed...
Tahoe Resources Inc. declared its seventh monthly dividend for 2016 of USD $0.02 per common share. Shareholders of record at the close of business on Thursday, July 21, 2016 will be entitled to receive payment...
Rapid Fire Marketing, Inc.’s newly appointed CEO, Ziyad Osachi, announced the business’s milestones for the next twelve months as follows: 1. Bring our reporting current with the SEC. This is being undertaken at the present...
Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX)(TSX:ABX) (Barrick or the “company”) has published its 2015 Responsibility Report, which provides a detailed and candid look at the company’s environmental and social performance. The full report is available on Barrick’s...
RENTCafe released a study regarding apartment sizes in the US. Reno ranked 16 on their list of cities with the smallest apartment sizes. For the full report visit http://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/us-average-apartment-size-trends-downward/.
Grand Sierra Resort and Casino (GSR) has several positions to fill in the food and beverage, culinary, housekeeping, stewards, hotel operations and security departments as well as positions at The Beach, Bowling Center, Fun Quest...
Tahoe Resources Inc. announced that the Company has acquired from Goldcorp Inc. for $12.5 million in cash Goldcorp’s 2% net smelter return (“NSR”) royalty related to production at Tahoe’s 100%-owned Bell Creek Mine. The parties...
Pershing Gold Corporation, an emerging gold producer, today announces completion of the Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) on its Relief Canyon Mine in Pershing County, Nevada. Mine Development Associates of Reno completed a PEA for the...
A new analysis by Carinsurance.com crunched eight different motoring metrics, from federal data on traffic fatalities to gas prices, in order to determine which states offered the best (and worst) driving experience. Nevada ranked ninth.
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Title: Application of thermal neutron radiography for the mass transport of moisture through freezing soil
Author: Clark, Michael A. R.
Awarding Body: University of Aston in Birmingham
Current Institution: Aston University
http://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/14320/
This thesis reports on the development of a technique to evaluate hydraulic conductivities in a soil (Snowcal) subject to freezing conditions. The technique draws on three distinctly different disciplines, Nuclear Physics, Soil Physics and Remote Sensing to provide a non-destructive and reliable evaluation of hydraulic conductivity throughout a freezing test. Thermal neutron radiography is used to provide information on local water/ice contents at anytime throughout the test. The experimental test rig is designed so that the soil matrix can be radiated by a neutron beam, from a nuclear reactor, to obtain radiographs. The radiographs can then be interpreted, following a process of remote sensing image enhancement, to yield information on relative water/ice contents. Interpretation of the radiographs is accommodated using image analysis equipment capable of distinguishing between 256 shades of grey. Remote sensing image enhancing techniques are then employed to develop false colour images which show the movement of water and development of ice lenses in the soil. Instrumentation is incorporated in the soil in the form of psychrometer/thermocouples, to record water potential, electrical resistance probes to enable ice and water to be differentiated on the radiographs and thermocouples to record the temperature gradient. Water content determinations are made from the enhanced images and plotted against potential measurements to provide the moisture characteristic for the soil. With relevant mathematical theory pore water distributions are obtained and combined with water content data to give hydraulic conductivities. The values for hydraulic conductivity in the saturated soil and at the frozen fringe are compared with established values for silts and silty-sands. The values are in general agreement and, with refinement, this non-destructive technique could afford useful information on a whole range of soils. The technique is of value over other methods because ice lenses are actually seen forming in the soil, supporting the accepted theories of frost action. There are economic and experimental restraints to the work which are associated with the use of a nuclear facility, however, the technique is versatile and has been applied to the study of moisture transfer in porous building materials and could be further developed into other research areas.
Keywords: Civil Engineering


UA President Jim Johnsen joins national leaders at the U.S. Naval Academy to discuss Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at America’s Colleges, Universities and Service Academies
University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen joined the nation’s top military leaders for a two-day national discussion on sexual assault and harassment on the campuses of America’s colleges, universities and service academies. Johnsen was part of a leadership panel with other prominent higher education leaders, and will present at a breakout session on April 4. Nearly 400 people from universities, academies and government are attending the event at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
During the April 4 breakout session, Johnsen will lead the discussion on examining how campus leaders should establish appropriate standards, transparency and set the tone for dealing with sexual assault and harassment. He will also discuss actionable research that enables the cultural transformation required for sustaining a positive culture that works to build awareness about sexual assault and harassment.
“The University of Alaska has worked tirelessly to improve our campus culture; create a respectful environment for faculty, staff and students; provide ongoing training; and set expectations for improving the safety and climate on all our campuses,” Johnsen said. “The University of Alaska has led the effort to create a culture of respect at UA. Four years ago, we became the first university in the country to publicly admit our shortcomings in this area, and willingly commit to addressing sexual harassment and assault.”
UA self-identified serious problems and pro-actively launched efforts to correct them. In February 2017, the university signed a Voluntary Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which reviewed the university’s compliance with federal laws and regulations against sexual assault and discrimination, and outlined specific steps to improve safety and the campus climate throughout the University of Alaska system.
“We have made great strides and remain resolute in our commitment to creating a culture of caring and respect on all our campuses,” Johnsen said. “I am honored to be here and to share with other higher education leaders what we have learned on this journey.”
The National Discussion is a collaborative forum to develop partnerships, share best practices in prevention and leverage research to create safe and healthy learning environments. The goals of the gathering are: to share evidenced-based practices to reduce sexual assault and sexual harassment at colleges, universities and service academies; identify and discuss the positive and negative social and environmental factors and behaviors influencing the conditions surrounding sexual assault and sexual harassment; and to cultivate a network of senior leaders, experts and dynamic thinkers who will continue to communicate towards the goal of reducing sexual assault and sexual harassment at colleges and universities.
DOD Public Affairs Offices are planning to live-stream during the National Discussion from the main auditorium.
--30--


Homework Help >
Writing Well: Neat and Tidy: Classify-Divide
Neat and Tidy: Classify-Divide
Writing Well
You Got Some 'Splaining to Do, Lucy: Exposition
The Perfect Couple: Cause and Effect
Alike and Different: Comparison and Contrast
You Could Look It Up: Definition
“How to” Essays: Process Analysis
Question: What do the following sentences have in common?
In California, it is illegal to set a mouse trap without a hunting license.
It is illegal to use a lasso to catch a fish in Tennessee.
If a man is wearing a striped suit, you cannot throw a knife at him in Natoma, Kansas.
Unless you have a doctor's note, it is illegal to buy ice cream after 6 P.M.in Newark, New Jersey.
In Minnesota, it is illegal to tease skunks.
Answer: They are all laws. Or, they are all very strange laws. If you realized this, you have the basic strategy for classify-divide essays.
A classification system is useless if the categories overlap.
When you divide, you separate items from one another. When you classify, you group things in categories of similar objects. For example, a bookseller would classify The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well with The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style because both deal with English and writing. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Shakespeare would go on a different shelf, however, because its distinguishing features are different. It describes one particular writer and his works, rather than instructing readers on the basics of writing.
Write Angles
Each classification system will vary, depending on the person creating it. When you're writing a classify-divide essay, any system is valid, as long as it is logical, sensible, and instructive. Division is also called “analysis.”
Here's the basic rule for a valid classify-divide essay: The classification system must serve a larger purpose other than just making piles of things. Otherwise, it's just an empty exercise. You might as well clean your garage, walk the dog, or call your mother. (So, what are you waiting for?)
The following essay divides and classifies dolphins according to their characteristics. As you read the essay, see if you agree with the method of classification. What does it suggest about the author's purpose?
There is a great deal of confusion over what the 40 different species that belong to the family Delphinidae are called. For example, is a small cetacean a “dolphin” or a “porpoise”? Some people distinguish a dolphin as a cetacean having a snout or beak, while a porpoise usually refers to one with a smoothly rounded forehead. The larger members of this porpoise and dolphin family are called “whales,” but they nonetheless fit the same characteristics as their smaller relatives. The number of different names for these creatures reflects the confusion of long-ago sailors as they tried to classify them. Unfortunately, identifying them in their home in the sea is not easy, for the main differences between members of the species is in their skeleton structure.
The size of the bottlenose dolphin varies considerably from place to place. The largest on record are a 12.7-foot male from the Netherlands and a 10.6-foot female from the Bay of Biscay. The heaviest dolphin on record weighed in at 1,430 pounds. A newborn calf, in contrast, is 38.5 to 49.6 inches long and weighs between 20 and 25 pounds.
They are mainly fish-eaters. In the wild, the bottlenose feeds on squid, shrimp, and a wide variety of fishes. In some waters, the bottlenose have gotten in the habit of following shrimp boats, eating what the shrimpers miss or throw away. They often hunt as a team, herding small fish ahead of them and picking off the ones that don't stay with the rest of the group. And they eat a lot! A United Nations report claims that a group of dolphins off the California coast eat 300,000 tons of anchovies each year, whereas commercial fishermen take only 110,00 tons.
There has been a great deal of discussion about the intelligence of these creatures. Whales have the largest brains—over 20 pounds—of any species, but does this mean they are smart? All cetaceans can “read” vibrations that flood their watery home. Thanks to this skill, they can recognize what kind of fish they are chasing and the shape of the ocean floor and objects on it. In turn, they can give off signals of various kinds, sometimes called “voices” or “songs.” These sounds enable cetaceans to “talk” to each other. In a laboratory, dolphins have been trained to crudely imitate the trainer's speech.
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well © 2000 by Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D.. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book direct from the publisher, visit the Penguin USA website or call 1-800-253-6476. You can also purchase this book at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
Writing Well: You Got Some 'Splaining to Do, Lucy: Exposition


“If you’re serious about sharpening your skills as a journalist, sign up for Caitlin’s seminars now — all of them. You’ll gain from her hard-earned experience, practical wisdom, and unabashed love for this tough, rewarding, essential calling. She is a gifted teacher and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.” — freelance writer Robert Lerose
Have you ever dreamed of publishing your writing?
Maybe you’d like to find more readers for your blog and could use some coaching to win them; Broadside was chosen six times by WordPress editors for Freshly Pressed (now named Discover) and named one of their 22 best blogs on culture, with more than 16,000 followers.
Whether you want to write for a digital site like Quartz or Salon, for a major national magazine like Marie Claire or Smithsonian or maybe to conceive of and propose a non-fiction book, I can help!
I’ve done all of these things, have won a National Magazine Award in Canada, the nation’s top honor for journalists and am the recipient of five journalism fellowships.
A former reporter for the Globe & Mail, Montreal Gazette and New York Daily News, I can help you pitch, sell and produce the high quality work that the most demanding editors and clients expect.
In person, via phone and Skype, I’ve taught students worldwide, and helped them publish in The New York Times, the Guardian, cosmopolitan.com and others.
As a journalist with only a few years experience, I appreciated her willingness to share her expertise and experiential wisdom. If you have a chance to take a class with her, don’t hesitate. Great value.
— Lisa Hall-Wilson
“It was definitely incredibly useful for me.”
— Daniel Malak, public relations, Motionloft
If you’re a public relations professional wanting to up your pitching game, I also review press releases and pitches, and offer practical individual webinars to help you get your story ideas more often read and better used — I recently helped the Jacob Burns Film Center, a respected art film house here in New York.
Please email me at learntowritebetter@gmail.com.
I look forward to working with you!


#WeAreBristol - inspiring film launches new initiative to unite city
"Some folk might harbour prejudices against others because they don’t know them, but when they get talking they realise that under the cloak of skin colour, race and dress, the other person is just like them.”
Neil Maggs
The participants of We Are Bristol - a new campaign in the city to bring people together (Image: WeAreBristol)
A new campaign has been launched to celebrate the differences between people in Bristol.
The #WeAreBristol campaign started with the screening of a film at the Watershed on July 19.
The campaign has been created by Bristol City Council and various partners, and it is asking people to "positively challenge people to look for similarities with their neighbours and wider areas".
Sixty strangers have been randomly chosen for a social experiment led by Bristol University professor Bruce Hood, with the hope of showcasing and celebrating what people from all over the city have in common.
This is taking place amidst the backdrop of the national context, and current Brexit debate, which has seen many argue the nation is more divided than ever.
Bristol reggae legend Jashwha Moses dies before release of greatest hits album
Bristol, a city of sanctuary, with a proud record of migration, is wanting to make this point loudly and proudly.
Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said: “Fractures across the political landscape have led to a growing feeling of division amongst the people that live and work in Bristol.
"We believe that no matter where we’re from, what we believe or how we choose to live our lives, we still have things in common.
“This campaign will celebrate those things and bring people together around the pride we share for our city."
You can watch the full video here
Participants chosen for the campaign come from a range of backgrounds and different communities in the city. Of the list 34 were women and 26 men, 44 white and 16 other ethnicities, with 32 parts of Bristol represented.
The youngest person is 16, and the oldest 77, with a combined total of 1,181 years experience of living in the city.
The group were asked a series of questions in the film, such as ;have you ever been with someone when they die?' to 'have you helped someone have a baby?', and even 'are you an addict?'
Participants were moved around the room at the Bottle Yard studios where it was filmed, according to what they answered.
Being a Crown Court witness: Everything you need to know
As questions increased in their personal nature and intensity, participants were met with applause for their honesty and bravery. That exercise, according to Professor Bruce Hood, was a way of demonstrating how different, yet similar we can all be.
Participants who signed up were unaware of what would happen on arrival. Antonette, the oldest in the group at 77, who is originally from Barbados, turned up thinking it was something do with performing.
She said: “I just love to act, so applied to take part thinking it would involve some sort of performance. What we ended up doing came as a bit of a surprise. It was fantastic.”
She added: “It really got us talking. Some folk might harbour prejudices against others because they don’t know them, but when they get talking they realise that under the cloak of skin colour, race and dress, the other person is just like them.”
Bristol's Sikh soldiers honoured in new book from city author
The film, which was inspired by the ‘All That We Share’ campaign created by TV 2 in Denmark, is the first part of the #WeAreBristol campaign, which will be running across the city over the summer. It is due to start over the weekend at Harbour Festival.
The campaign is supported by 10 local partners including Fable studios, Avon and Somerset Police, both of the city's universities, the Watershed and Bristol Airport.
For more information on the look out for the facebook and twitter page with the hashtag #WeAreBristol
For the latest news in and around Bristol, check back on Bristol Live's homepage
Marvin Rees


Miami Street Photography Festival
by Billy Kung
As the only festival of its kind in the United States, the Miami Street Photography Festival (MSPF) has come a long way since its inaugural inception four years ago. Born out of the Miami Street Photography Club—a non-profit organization with a vision to elevate Miami as a center for photography—the first annual MSPF opened in the Wynwood art district during Miami Art Week in 2012 and featured Magnum photographer Alex Webb, poet Rebecca Norris Webb, National Geographic’s Maggie Steber, and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Rick McCawley.
Today, the MSPF shows significant and rapid growth, with more than 55 countries represented in the 2015 edition. With the additional support of Susan Meiselas and other master photographers, alongside a large social media following and the continued support of global partnerships, MSPF has now found a new home at HistoryMiami’s newly established Center for Photography, a Smithsonian affiliate.
In many cases, a street photographer refers to someone who conducts his photographic business taking tourist photos in front of famous landmarks such as the Niagara Falls, or the Eiffel Tower, charging customers a fee for the photographic print. However, the kinds of images shown at MSPF, for the most part, are works from photographers who have tried to take their images without being noticed by the unassuming subjects. Snapshots of ordinary people going about their business, unaware of the photographer’s presence is really at the core of what street photography is. But it would be misleading to state that pictures without people are excluded from this genre altogether. The work of the great French photographer Eugene Atget, for instance, features no people at all, yet through implication and inference, he suggests presence in the midst of absence, while attempting to reveal the life of the street as it is inhered in the location itself.
The streets are one of the richest sources for those who are interested in the study of humanity. It commands a trained eye and endless amount of patience and a good deal of instincts for any photographer in his readiness to respond to errant details, chance juxtapositions, odd non sequiturs, peculiarities of scale, and the quirkiness of life on the street. The combination of the camera and the street yields a type of image that is idiosyncratic to photography in a way that formal portraits, pictorial landscapes, and other kinds of genre scenes are not. At times, street photographs have an imaginative life all of their own, one that sometimes seems quite independent of whatever intentions the photographer may have had, in fact, the ephemeral quality of the instantaneous moment and the evanescence of the image might be thought of as reflecting the anonymity of the photographer himself. Like the subject of the picture, the photographer who captured the moment frequently proves to be a rather elusive, transient figure.
Among the thousands of entries that were submitted to the annual MSPF contest, the top three 2015 finalists are: 1st place Swapnil Jedhe (India); 2nd place George Marazakis (Greece); 3rd place Lauren Welles (USA), and by people’s choice Marcin Ryczek (Poland), were chosen by a panel made up of Magnum photographers David Alan Harvey and Bruce Davidson; teacher and photographer Harvey Stein; National Geographic’s Maggie Steber; and photojournalist Peter Turnley. While the remaining finalists were selected by a panel of judges: Umberto Verdoliva, Mary Cimetta, Stefano Mirabella from SPontanea Collective (a collective of Italian photographers dedicated to street photography); and Germany’s Fabian Schreyer and India’s Vineet Vohra from The Street Collective (an international group of street photographers). It is an impressive roster of some of the finest photographers and a testament to the visions of its founder, Juan Jose Reyes, who not only recognized the importance of this genre in photography but also the commitment and courage required to successfully bring it into fruition.
SWAPNIL JEDHE, India. First Place. Courtesy the artist and MSPF.
GEORGE MARAZAKIS, Greece. Second Place. Courtesy the artist and MSPF.
LAUREN WELLES, United States. Third Place. Courtesy the artist and MSPF.
MARCIN RYCZEK, Poland. People’s Choice. Courtesy the artist and MSPF.
Billy Kung is photo editor at ArtAsiaPacific.
Blog Me-Mo: Memory in Motion
Spain Italy
Blog Ishiuchi Miyako: “Postwar Shadows”
Japan USA


Ever The Land
Ever The Land | KCET
Pacific Heartbeat
"Ever The Land" explores the sublime bond between people and their land. For the past 150 years, longstanding grievances over extreme colonization tactics have defined the Ngai (tribe) Tuhoe and New Zealand governments relationship. In 2014 history was made when the Tuhoe's ancestral homelands were returned, the New Zealand government gave a official apology and Tuhoe built the first ever "Living Building" in Aotearoa, New Zealand as a testament to their values and vision of self-governance.
Cyril Pahinui: Let's Play Music - In Memoriam
Master slack key musician Cyril Pahinui jams with some of the most revered and talented musicians in Hawai‘i in intimate kanikapila-style backyard performances.
Corridor Four
Isaac Ho'opi'i saved numerous people from the Pentagon during the September 11 terrorist attacks. This documentary illustrates Isaac's story in the aftermath of 9/11.
Te Kuhane O Te Tupuna (The Spirit of the Ancestors)
This documentary film is a journey from Easter Island to London, in search of the lost Moai Hoa Haka Nanaia, a statue of significant cultural importance.
Leitis In Waiting
"Leitis in Waiting" tells the story of Tonga's evolving approach to gender fluidity through a character-driven portrait of the most prominent leiti (transgender) in the Kingdom, Joey Mataele.
Prison Songs
The people imprisoned in a Darwin jail are shown in a unique and completely new light in Australia's first ever documentary musical.
Next Goal Wins
In 2001, the tiny Pacific island of American Samoa suffered a world record 31-0 defeat at the hands of Australia, garnering headlines across the world as the worst football team on the planet. "Next Goal Wins "is an inspirational story about the power of hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and an object lesson in what it really means to be a winner in life.
Poi E: The Story of Our Song
Not many songs in the history of the Universe have the power to bridge cultures, save towns, change lives, travel the world, set records and give pride to a culture, a community, a language and a people. "POI E: the story of our song" is the unbelievable true story of a song that did and the man who did it - Dalvanius Prime. "POI E: the story of our song" is a film about the New Zealand entertainer Dalvanius Prime, who returns home to Patea from the cabaret stage of Australia to nurse his dying mother.
Making Good Men
What would you say if you came face to face with your childhood bully as an adult? Maybe you have it all mapped out in your head, maybe you've practiced your speech a million times. Or were you the bully? Have you ever thought about whether you would acknowledge your past, given the opportunity? In this moving and remarkably told story, two high profile men, a former All Black rugby player and a Hollywood actor, reveal their unforgettable account of bullying with unprecedented honesty.
Being Bruno Banani
"Being Bruno Banani" tells the unique story of the first and only Tongan Luger who managed to qualify in an amazingly short amount of time for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Through his name he also acted as the first "living brand" using a completely new and disputed way to get around the strict IOC's Olympic advertising regulations.


Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv
Lithuanian-born Israeli Jewish legal scholar
Melinda C. Shepherd
Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Learn more.
This article was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year, an annual print publication that provides an overview of the year’s most-notable people and events. Unlike most articles on Britannica.com, Book of the Year articles are not reviewed and revised after their initial publication. Rather, they are presented on the site as archival content, intended for historical reference only.
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Lithuanian-born Israeli Jewish legal scholar (born April 10, 1910, Siauliai, Lith.—died July 18, 2012, Jerusalem), gained religious and political influence far beyond his roles as an ultra-Orthodox expert on the Torah and the Talmud, a hard-line member (1950–74) of Israel’s highest rabbinic court, and the leading spiritual authority of the ultra-Orthodox political party United Torah Judaism. Elyashiv was descended from a long line of Ashkenazi non-Hasidic Orthodox rabbis; his father was chief rabbi of Gomel (now Homyel, Belarus), and his mother’s father, Shlomo Elyashiv, was a respected kabbalist. Elyashiv’s family (they adopted his maternal grandfather’s surname) immigrated in the early 1920s to British-mandated Palestine, where he attended religious school and gained a reputation for his scholarship and legal analysis. During his 60-year career, Elyashiv issued a number of noteworthy rulings on Jewish law, including an edict that brain activity cannot be used to ascertain death and a ruling that banned Orthodox Jewish wives (who are required to cover their hair in public) from wearing wigs made from human hair obtained in India (because the hair might have been rendered “impure” in a Hindu ceremonial cutting).
Władysław II Jagiełło
Władysław II Jagiełło, grand duke of Lithuania (as Jogaila, 1377–1401) and king of Poland (1386–1434), who joined two states that became the leading power of eastern Europe. He was the founder of Poland’s Jagiellon dynasty. Jogaila (Jagiełło in Polish) was one of the 12 sons of Algirdas (Olgierd),…
Algirdas, grand duke of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, who made Lithuania one of the largest European states of his day. His son Jogaila became Władysław II Jagiełło, king of united Poland and Lithuania. Algirdas was one of the sons of the country’s ruler, Gediminas, and he began his long political…
Rolandas Paksas
Rolandas Paksas, prime minister (1999, 2000–01) and president (2003–04) of Lithuania. Although he began his political career as a communist, Paksas became prominent in conservative circles and later emerged as a leader of Lithuania’s Liberal and Liberal Democratic parties. He was Europe’s first…
Šiauliai, Lithuania
July 18, 2012 (aged 102)
Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis - Biography of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv


Reflections on Megrahi's release
Because I am too busy these days, most of the posts I wish to write never see the light of day. However, this particular one was called to life by Highlander's post Donkeys Vs People: The Media Circus. After reading it, I immediately decided to leave aside all other matters that can be postponed and write down my thoughts.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is a Libyan intelligence officer who had become the sole convict for the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 but was "freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government on 20 August 2009 following reports that he had terminal prostate cancer and had less than three months to live". In order to be freed, Megrahi had to drop his appeal.
The release made unhappy just about everybody. Most victims' families, US government and many ordinary Westerners are outraged that the convict was allowed to return home as a free man and received a hero's welcome, while most Libyans seem indignant because he is still considered guilty and his appeal will never be processed.
The Lockerbie bombing set a sad record in the number of civilians killed in a single terror act - 270. As far as I know, the previous record was in the distant 1925 - the St. Nedelya Church bombing in Bulgaria, by communist terrorists. So Lockerbie opened a new era in the history of terror and is undoubtedly very important. However, I must admit that I have never made efforts to be very informed about it. The details of the case are too far from my field of competence, and the information available in public space has been from the beginning too tainted with unsubstantiated guessing and apparent deliberate disinformation to be useful.
If you ask me what I think of Mr. Megrahi's guilt (or lack of it), I'll frankly say that I don't know. As I recently wrote on Anglo's blog, "I generally trust British justice, and I surely don't believe the fancy conspiracy theories circulated around. However, a miscarriage of justice can always happen, especially when a horrible crime is committed and the public insists to have somebody - anybody - punished". I would add that Britain has had sad precedents in convicting innocents after large-scale terror acts - the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. Indeed, their cases were examples of inquisitional-type justice relying heavily on confessions, while Megrahi never confessed anything. However, the little I have read about his case has left in me the impression that linking forensic evidence to him depended too much on the testimony of a single person, some shopkeeper from Malta. While this does not prove Megrahi's innocence in any way, it makes me doubt that his guilt has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. But again, I don't know the details of the case even to the degree that has been released to the public, and so I may be wrong.
At some time after Megrahi's conviction in 2001, new arguments for his innocence began to be circulated in public space. They can be found on the Web very easily, so forgive me for not linking to them. I just don't wish to, because they do not sound to me believable at all, but rather look like a smokescreen. Briefly, it is claimed that Megrahi has been framed by CIA in order to shield the real perpetrators Iran and Syria, because Libya allegedly was a more convenient target than them. Let me quote what I wrote two years ago on Highlander's blog: "I won't bet my hand that Al-M. is innocent. If he is, I'll think this is despite the "new evidence" disputed now in all media, not because of it. This "evidence" has all the elements of the most persistent Western myths of recent time: the big bad USA deliberately (rather than by honest mistake) going after those innocents who are most suitable targets for the moment, retired CIA officers becoming whistleblowers (this agency's retirement rules definitely need scrutiny) and a conspiracy which managed to remain secret for many years despite involving dozens of people of all sorts. Not that it is impossible. No laws of physics forbid it. But it is highly unlikely. Besides, if it happened this way, why didn't CIA plant evidence also against Al-M.'s co-defendant and buy more reliable witnesses?We must keep in mind that European culture is tolerant to evil. This helps explain many things about Europe. E.g. the abolition of death penalty. I was all for it. It was said to me and others that death penalty isn't needed to protect the society from a murderer, because if the murder is a really grisly one (or more than one), he will be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. And now, after we have abolished death penalty, we are said that no European country has life imprisonment without parole. Letting a murderer walk free after several years in prison is at the basis of today's European psyche. People are conditioned to perceive this as normal. So give people the benefit of the doubt, but beware evil. Don't count on anybody else to stop it. There is nobody."
I still have mixed thoughts about death penalty. I am concerned about the innocents that will inevitably be wrongly convicted from time to time, I worry about the reflections of the death sentence on those who pronounce and execute it, and I am just disgusted by the idea of cold-bloodedly taking the life of a person unable to defend himself. However, I must admit that my opponents were right in one thing - that abolition of death penalty will allow release of any convict as soon as it becomes politically advantageous and the public is looking aside. In Megrahi's case, I fear how easy it turned to make witnesses withdraw their testimony or bring 3rd people to testify that they have bribed the witnesses; and because, unlike Bulgaria, it is (yet) not possible to make forensic evidence in Britain disappear, then you can find a big-mouthed former CIA employee admitting that he has planted it. Don't you share my fear that these tools have the power to make anybody immune to justice?
If you ask why I think somebody in the West would be interested in rescuing Megrahi from the grip of justice, I would answer that the urge to deal with Libya can quite create such interests. First, after Bulgaria joined EU in early 2007, this created solidarity links between it and older EU members. Soon, rumours started that the Bulgarian medics could be traded to Megrahi. If Highlander, the target reader of this post, has endured to this point, I would ask her to look at this 2007 Standart News report titled Saif al-Islam: There Is a Link Between Megrahi and the Nurses. Let me quote a little from it: "There is a connection between the cases of Lockerby bomber's - the Libyan Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi - and the Bulgarian nurses, said in his latest interview the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi Saif al-Islam for the French Le Mond. "We made a link between the cases. We also agreed to discuss the issue on a bilateral level - between Libya and Great Britain. Formerly, it was insisted that this discussion should be held on a broadly European level," he added."
I would not risk to guess whether such "agreement" really existed or not. However, the common rule in deals of this sort is that they are automatically invalidated if one of the sides makes them public. So, the fact is that our medics were allowed to return while Megrahi remained in prison. However, these days we heard again from Mr. al-Islam. Let me quote the Telegraph from Aug. 21: "Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif, claimed the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, was linked to trade deals between Britain and Libya." Understandably, these statements are of little help in convincing Westerners that Megrahi and Libya had no role in the Lockerbie bombing. Personally, during the years of the HIV trial I have heard Mr. al-Islam make and then retract so many conflicting statements without a shadow of embarassment that I have stopped taking him seriously a long time ago. The only rational explanation of his behaviour that I can figure out is that he intends to perplex the stupid Western infidels and show them that their brains are absolutely useless in understanding the world.
At the end of her post, Highlander writes, "My biggest disappointment is that now that the documents have been sealed forever we will never know what really happened on the ill fated Pan Am flight..." I envy her optimism that if the appeal hadn't been dropped, we would know what really happened. However, I still hope that some day the truth may come out. There is a broad agreement that the Lockerbie bombing was state-sponsored (be it Libya or another state). So there is still chance that truth will emerge one day from the archives of the state perpetrator. This happened in the case of assassinated Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov (no relation to me). After 1989, although the archives of our Communist security services were rigourously cleared, they still revealed evidence that Markov's murder was Bulgaria's deed.
My general impression from Highlander's post is that she has fallen in the trap of equating her homeland and people with the regime, a trap too often encountered by those living under rulers similar to Qadafi. E.g. she refers to Libyan authorities that had convicted the Bulgarian medics as "those 'evil' Arabs" (from Western point of view). I guess many other Libyans are in a similar mood. Therefore, I wish to end my post with a quote from the above mentioned Anglo's post. I am finding the quoted text so important that I'll mark it in bold:
"At the end of the day, whether he did this crime or not, Al-Megrahi was working for the Libyan intelligence and I do know from people that worked for Libyan Airlines in the 1980s that he was feared and was involved in many nasty acts against Libyans, this does not make him into a hero..."
Posted by Maya M at 2:21 AM
Labels: nonfreedom, terror
Highlander said...
Thanks Maya, excellent post but it still does not address my thoughts which are actually quite simpler.
I never said Megrahi was a hero, the nature of his job is not something new but is on a par with that of other agencies viz FBI or CIA and could involve unpleasant work. That's life.
What bothers me is the double standards metted out against anyone perceived of Arab/Muslim origin- like this person has less rights because of that.
I am upset that people were outraged that he was freed and those same people were happy that the nurses were freed, denying others by extension the right to be upset or happy .
If we strip all the background of politics/deals the comparison is simple: reception vs reception after all both cases were of convicted murderers found guilty in at least one court.
Maya M said...
Thank you for visiting and commenting, Highlander!
I agree with you that it would be better not to celebrate the return of the Bulgarian medics, but as I mentioned on Anglo's blog, politicians couldn't miss such an occasion to advertise themselves.
On all other points, however, I see we agree to disagree :-).
You say, "double standards are metted out against anyone perceived of Arab/Muslim origin - like this person has less rights because of that".
I could hardly agree after European countries accepted large masses of Arab and other Muslim immigrants at the same time when this privilege was denied to my relations and friends. A more recent example - the case of Marwa El-Sherbini, Egyptian Muslim immigrant to Germany about whom I recently blogged. A white non-Muslim man was on trial for insulting her, and she was the sole prosecution witness. As I mentioned in the current post, I have doubts in verdicts based on the testimony of a single person. I'll add, especially if this person cannot be considered unbiased. So the described setting isn't quite my idea of a fair trial. And if the accused hadn't went berserk and killed Marwa, I would not have heard about the story at all.
You say, "both cases (Megrahi and the Bulgarian medics) were of convicted murderers found guilty in at least one court". I don't think, however, that anybody in the West perceives the court in Libya as a court. Practically all Western nations have had similar courts at one or another moment in their history, and they do not wish ever to mess with such things again. And nobody expects to see any other sort of court in a country with such rulers. I seem to have spoken too softly about the impression left by Saif al-Islam and his father. For a Westerner, they are not only people with (to say the least) extremely different set of values. They are also people who aren't quite neurotypical and pretend to be even crazier than they really are in order to intimidate their "partners". The same tactic is used by Iran's Ahmadinejad, who is also holding very similar courts. The average person, when negotiating with somebody possessing both power and an uncertain psychiatric status, feels very insecure and is prone to extra concessions, so I shan't deny that the tactic works. However, it has a price and as long as it is used, you cannot expect other people to accept Libyan courts and government as their counterparts in other countries.
When you wrote on your post, "Sadly, the majority of Libyans are not that interested in Megrahi's fate", I of course thought that you perceive him as a hero, or at least as a decent person. Now you write, "I never said Megrahi was a hero, the nature of his job... is on a par with that of other agencies viz FBI or CIA and could involve unpleasant work". Again, as with courts, I see undue comparison of apples and oranges. While the activity of any intelligence agency is likely to involve unpleasant work, my opinion is that the secret services of non-Western countries are unlikely to do any pleasant work at all. In Bulgaria, 20 years after the official fall of communism, we still cannot free ourselves from their sinister grip. In Russia, they are popularly called "exterminators of the people" (istrebiteli naroda). I know this from a book by repented Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, later poisoned by his former colleagues. So I bet that whatever was Megrahi doing in Malta under false identity, it wasn't for the benefit of Libyan people and all mankind. Of course he, like any (even the nastiest) human being, still has his rights. But why invest so much emotions?
Your recent writing concerning the USA sound a little strange to me. They remind me Stanislaw Lem's novels about the impossibility of mutual understanding, "Solaris" and "The Invincible". At the same time, however, I am glad that you may be moving toward some opinions generally accepted in the Libyan community, and this may increase your own acceptance by this community.
The idea that Arabs are considered as less valuable human beings by Westerners is used as a working hypothesis by the International Solidarity Movement (and in 2003 by those Westerners who went to Iraq as human shields). Rachel Corrie once explicitly wrote that Israel gets away with killing Palestinians but would face a severe reaction in case of killing HER.
I cannot say what impact this idea has on politicians, but it is certainly lost on me. I do not classify human beings in a hierarchy of value dependent on culture or ethnic origin. Moreover, Palestinians may not be my favourite group of people, but I have much more sympathy to them, as people with the poor luck to be born in a hellhole, than to Westerners such as the ISM members who travel thousands of miles to reach this hellhole and try their best to make it even more of a hellhole.


Historical Photos & Documents
Online collections of pictures tell the history of our area and allow the viewer to experience the past. These collections are from many sources, including the Digital Library of South Dakota and the Library of Congress among others.
Black Hills Knowledge Network Digital Archives
The Black Hills Knowledge Network partners with 13 local libraries and communities to aggregate historical documents and photos. They are hosted on a site called BiblioBoard which is a system used worldwide to store local library resources. On this site, we house historical photos, documents, and books about the region's history, including items on the 1972 Rapid City flood, Native Americans, pioneers, the construction of Mount Rushmore, and more.
Included are photos, documents, and books about the area's history, encompassing the communities of Deadwood and Whitewood. Rapid City archives, Rapid City Public Library history, and Flood of 1972 items are also available. To see a comprehesive list of all BHKN digital collections, visit our BHKN Digital Archives page.
We also aggregate local news stories on an indexing site called Diigo, which allows you to search by subject and receive results in a timeline fashion.
Regional & National Collections
Tour downtown Rapid City to learn about the history of several historic buildings,such as the Duhamel building and Alex Johnson Hotel. Tour Deadwood online or take a walking tour and learn the history of the Deadwood buildings and architecture as you go.
Pretty Group at an Indian Tent. Taken near Pine Ridge by John C.H. Grabill, 1891.
South Dakota State Historical Society Archives
Collections of photos, manuscripts and government documents. Search from the home page to find all items by subject.
Digital Library of South Dakota
This is a collaboration of the libraries of six Board of Regents colleges and universities in the state of South Dakota. Access images from the participating colleges' collections here.
Oglala Lakota College Library Archives
This collection contains documents and photographs relating to the Oglala Lakota College, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. The OLC Archives also collects, preserves and makes accessible historical and cultural records of the Oglala Lakota people, the Lakota Nation, and other Native Americans.
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Collections
This collection contains documents, photographs and realia pertaining to collections on local history, mining and mineral resources and local history.
Library of Congress Memory Project
This project is a "gateway to the Library of Congress’s vast resources of digitized American historical materials. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, American Memory is organized into more than 100 thematic collections based on their original format, their subject matter, or who first created, assembled, or donated them to the Library." Type any search term you are interested in such as 'Black Hills' or 'South Dakota' into the search box in the top left area of the screen. The Library of Congress Flickr page also contains thousands of images. Click here to access their Flickr page.
John Grabill Collection at the Library of Congress
Largest surviving collection of western photographer John Grabill, this Library of Congress collection documents the South Dakota gold rush, the Oglalla Lakota people, and the settlement of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Photographs in collection were taken between 1887 and 1892.
Rapid City Community Archives Survey
Many of the best photographs and most important documents that tell the history of our community are in boxes, file drawers and basements in businesses, churches, service clubs and organizations in Rapid City. The Rapid City Community Archives Survey offers you a glimpse into these fascinating collections.
Photo Collections--Cities of the Black Hills Region
From the Library of Congress, view pictures from the past relating to Hot Springs.
Photo Collections - Contructions and Grand Opening of the City-County-Public Library-East at Western Dakota Technical Institute.This library served the community from November 2012-May 2015.
historical photos and documents
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