Keeping an Eye on Inflation
By Christopher Taylor at 6/22/2009 10:14:00 am
Neofelis diardi, the "new" clouded leopard species (actually first described in 1823, but later sunk into synonymy until recently resurrected) that has become something of a poster child for arguments on the worth of recent vertebrate species splits. Photo from Tet Zoo.
Normally, there'd be a Taxon of the Week post here on a Monday, but due to various circumstances that won't be happening today. Instead, here's something I've been sitting on for a few days now:
Sangster, G. (in press) Increasing numbers of bird species result from taxonomic progress, not taxonomic inflation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B.
Despite the widespread (and, I should note, entirely valid) complaints about the decline of taxonomy as a field of research, a person unfamiliar with the dynamics of the field might possibly be forgiven if, on a cursory glance, they saw it as stronger than ever. The number of new taxa, particularly species, being described every day has not appreciably slowed down - indeed, new species are probably debuting faster than ever. In many cases, study of a "species" once believed widespread has lead to the recognition of multiple species, each occupying a different part of the originally-recognised taxon's "range". This latter pattern is particularly noticeable in studies on vertebrates. Often, the new "species" were previously recognised as "subspecies" before their promotion. This has led to the accusation that such cases are examples of taxonomic inflation.
Lesser bird of paradise, Paradisaea minor. Birds of paradise have become one of the prime examples of conflict between the Biological and Phylogenetic Species Concepts. Most authors claiming to follow the BSC have recognised about forty species of bird of paradise (and that total is possibly oversplit, considering the high interfertility of the recognised species), but applications of the PSC to the family have suggested more than ninety species. Photo by stboed.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the term "taxonomic inflation" refers to situations where names, but not the content, of taxa change as a result of their elevation in rank. When the term is used, it usually carries the disparaging implication that this is change simply for the sake of change without any underlying gain in information, and hence unnecessary at best and a misleading waste of everyone's time at worst*. Taxonomic inflation has also been cited as a problem with the use of the Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC) rather than the Biological Species Concept (BSC) (see here for an earlier post of mine on the subject). Many authors have complained that the rise in recognised species is bad news for conservation, as it increases the number of required conservation targets.
*Personally, I (and others before me) would argue that taxonomic inflation is an inevitable side-effect of our current use of a rank-based classification. As I complained last week, an unfortunate side-effect of the pinning of our ranking system on certain primary ranks leads to the belief (whether concious or subconcious) that those ranks should be used for the most "significant" taxa. Now, imagine that I'm a researcher spending five years working on a particular family of organisms. As a result of my research, I find that my "family" of interest renders another "family" paraphyletic. Assuming that I prefer a classification recognising all-monophyletic taxa, I have two options - either I can subsume my "family" of interest into the other family, or I can divide up the other "family" in order to maintain the distinctiveness of my research family. It all depends on my perception of the relative significance of the taxa - and what do you think that might be, considering into what I've been investing the last five years of my life?
Variation in appearance between different populations of giraffe, Giraffa spp. Usually recognised as a single species, G. camelopardalis, recent authors have suggested giraffes should be divided between a number of species. Image from The Barcode Blog.
The new paper by Sangster responds to the claim that the increase in recognised vertebrate species is due solely to the increased popularity of the PSC, and does not reflect any net increase in our taxonomic understanding (invertebrate taxonomy has been less affected by this debate, because invertebrate systematists have, for the most part, been less inclined to recognise "subspecies" [with the notable exception of lepidopterists]). According to Sangster, if this claim is true, it leads to four predictions: (1) the increase in recognised species would have not begun until the introduction of the PSC in the early 1980s*; (2) most taxonomic changes would be based on reinterpretations of old data rather than on collection of new data; (3) most taxonomic splits would be based on specifically PSC-related criteria such as diagnosability and reciprocal monophyly to each other and other taxa, as opposed to less specifically PSC-related criteria such as degree of difference ("too different" to be the same species, or "too similar" to be different species), differences in adaptive zone (e.g. lowland vs montane taxa) or reproductive isolation; and (4) new taxonomic splits would be biased towards members of charismatic groups (in which there may be more of a vested interest in raising their conservation profile). To test these predictions, Sangster surveyed taxonomic proposals affecting taxon rank published in seven major ornithological journals (such as The Auk and Ibis) between 1950 and 2007 - whether proposals recommended a split (subspecies becoming species) or lump (species becoming subspecies), and what were the criteria cited as support for the proposal.
*The date is inexact because a number of variants on the PSC were proposed by different authors.
The results of Sangster's survey showed that the increase in the percentage of taxonomic proposals recommending splits rather than lumps (shown in the graph above from the paper) had been continuous over the time period surveyed, and the rate of increase had not significantly changed in the 1980s (indeed, there had been a slight downturn in the 2000s, though probably not a significant one). 76.4% of taxonomic proposals over the period covered had been supported by new data rather than based on reinterpretation of old data, and proposals for splits were significantly more likely to be based on new data than proposals for lumps (84.6% vs 64.2%). Prior to the introduction of the PSC, 71.7% of proposed splits were based on new data - post-PSC, 93.9% of them were. Only 10.3% of proposed splits overall were based solely on reinterpretation of old data using PSC-related criteria.
The most common criterion for a proposal was diagnosability, followed by reproductive isolation. The least commonly used criteria related to reciprocal monophyly. All criteria were more likely to lead to splits than lumps, though "degree of difference" had the smallest difference in propensity. Proposals based only on PSC-related criteria were more likely to lead to a split than those based only on non-PSC criteria, with the latter more likely to propose a lump than a split. There was no correlation between the increase of species in a family and the charisma of that family, but there was a correlation between the number of splits and the number of polytypic species (i.e. species divided into subspecies) in that family.
The two storm petrel species breeding on the Azores, of which Oceanodroma monteiroi was only described last year in Bolton et al. (2008), from which comes this figure. Though very similar, the two species breed at different times of the year.
Sangster concludes that the accusation that recent increases in species number are based solely on reinterpretation of old data is grossly unfounded. Proposed changes aren't taxonomic "inflation", they're taxonomic "progress". However, as much as I personally like his conclusion, it must be admitted that Sangster is potentially setting up a strawman here. Taxonomic research does not exist in a vacuum, and an author is not very likely to go about revising the taxonomy of a group unless they are working on that group already. The increase in the proportion of taxonomic changes supported by new data might indeed reflect changes in researcher practice - or it may reflect the journals becoming more discerning about what manuscripts they will accept for publication (still, for the reader it may not really matter whether the increased rigour is being driven by the researcher or the publisher).
On the other hand, Sangster brings up the very important point that many of these "new" species aren't really new at all. During the early 1900s, vertebrate taxonomy went through a period of significant lumping. Sangster cites the point that while Sharpe recognised 18,939 species of bird in 1909, Mayr & Amadon recognised only 8590 in 1951 - less than half Sharpe's total. The justification for this lumping was often unclear (they were in a time period when a researcher's authority was generally taken for granted, rather than their being required to show their working), and many current taxonomists feel that in many cases the lumping went too far (for a concrete example, see Darren Naish's post from a few years back on babirusas). Many proposed splits are arguably correcting the excesses of the past.
Finally, on a personal level, I wouldn't particularly care even if the species increase was based on a change in species concept, because as I've explained before (see the first post linked to at the top of this one), I'm a much greater fan of the PSC than of the impractical-to-test, everyone-says-they-follow-it-but-pretty-much-no-one-actually-does mess that is the Biological Species Concept. The conservation and PR argument cited above - that the PSC somehow leads to there being "too many" species - completely fails to impress me, because I don't think that scientific investigation should be directly influenced by political concerns. Once you have the information, then you can work out what to do about it, but changing your working information to what you want it to be first is just not on.
Labels: principles of biodiversity, species recognition
Ah, lumpers and splitters, species concepts, the failure of the Linnaean hierarchy, and taxonomic inflation. All some of my favorite topics. I only really know these in the context of entomology, so I wasn't really aware there was such a problem in vertebrate taxa as well. I figured the smaller overall number of species would make it that much easier.
~Kai
Larry Moran 22 June 2009 at 21:59
Is anyone proposing to split Homo sapiens? Why not?
Steve D 23 June 2009 at 04:40
I've always wondered why conservation wasn't at the Genus level. Speciation is so chaotic and mobile that it seems like a futile target.
Christopher Taylor 23 June 2009 at 07:18
Kai, this sort of argument is actually more of a problem with vertebrate taxonomy, because (a) charismatic vertebrates have been revised to death more than inverts, and (b) as I mentioned in the post, most invert taxonomists haven't bothered with recognising "subspecies" in the first place - if it's distinct, it's a species.
Larry, the last researcher I'm aware of who divided living humans into separate species was Louis Agassiz. The level of gene flow between human populations is probably much greater than between isolated vertebrate populations (at least these days). That said, the major issue at play here is probably a matter of politics as much as science. I think it would be unwise to divide humans into separate "species" because people would insist on reading more into that statement than is really there. This is an underlying handicap in any study of human variation, whatever the terminology you might choose to use.
Steve: certainly as the number of recognised species increases, it becomes increasingly difficult (if not impossible) to conserve them all. There is a great need for a method to prioritise conservation targets (such as the EDGE system).
Allen Hazen 24 June 2009 at 12:21
I think the period of "lumping," at least with large mammals, lasted a bit beyond the 1950s. The nature guides of my childhood (1950s) had the American red fox and wapiti as different species (Vulpes fulva and Cervus canadensis) from their Palearctic cousins, but I have noticed that more recent sources lump them with Vulpes vulpes and ... is it C. elaphus?
On species concepts and Homo sap: I have seen at least one paper (on some bunch of South-East Asian mammals, I forget which) which explicitly adopted a numerical measure of specieshood: above a certain percentage of nucleotide differences and two populations count as separate species. (Bizarre, it seems to me, if you like either the "biological" or the "phylogenetic" species concept: it seemed to me to be numerical pheneticism run wild, but it has obvious practical attractions....) And my understanding is that the various human "races" are actually LESS different from each other, on this sort of measure, than typically recognized SUBspecies of other mammalian species.
Dartian 24 June 2009 at 19:08
Interestingly, Sangster actually attempts to define 'charisma'. From the paper:
To determine whether the increase in species is biased towards 'charismatic' groups […] avian family taxa were scored for three characteristics: (i) body size, (ii) morphological distinctiveness and (iii) familiarity among non-biologists
I wish he'd explained his methodology in a bit more detail, though, particularly regarding the scoring of characteristic (iii). E.g., how many non-biologists did he survey and where? (I suppose that 'a familiar bird' means something rather different to a non-biologist in Australia than it does to a non-biologist in the UK, for example.)
The 'charisma' survey was by far the weakest part of Sangster's paper, I have to admit. I suspect that the scores for 'familiarity', etc. were probably Sangster's own estimates rather than being based on any actual survey. I would have also liked to see a list of the actual families scored for charisma - for practical reasons, Sangster limited the comparison to speciose families, but more speciose families, of course, also tend to be less charismatic in general.
In response to Allen's comment as well, I'd be very interested to know if Sangster's results hold for mammals as well as birds, or whether mammalogists have different biases (or lacks thereof) from ornithologists.
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Arts Global
Jerusalem Quartet Receives Prized Cello
Alexander Pavlovsky - 1st violin
Sergei Bresler - 2nd violin
Amichai Grosz - viola
Kyril Zlotnikov - cello
The Jerusalem Quartet, recognised as one of the most dynamic and exciting quartets currently performing, continue to be both regular and popular visitors to major venues throughout the world. This season, they will perform a total of five concerts in London's Wigmore Hall, and will also appear in Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Hamburg, Brussels, Paris, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Grenoble and Munich. With a growing reputation in North America they have appeared in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Washington. Last summer saw them appearing at the Edinburgh, Rheingau and Passau Festivals and next season they return to the Bath Mozart Festival. The quartet is in residence for Musica Viva Australia between 2006 and 2009; in October 2008 their 12-concert tour will include Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. They also continue as quartet in residence at the new auditorium in Valladolid, Spain.
The quartet have an exclusive recording contract with Harmonia Mundi and in spring 2008 their latest recording, Schubert's Death and the Maiden and Quartettsatz in C minor, was released and was quickly featured as Editor's Choice in the July 2008 edition of Gramophone Magazine. Their recording of Dvorak's American Quartet and the Piano Quintet with pianist Stefan Vladar was released in May 2006 and they made a substantial European tour together with Stefan in November 2007 including a nine concert tour of Holland. They have released two Shostakovich recordings (Quartets 1, 4 and 9 released in May 2005 and 6, 8 and 11 released in spring 2007), and a Haydn quartet CD released in spring 2004.
Their 2007 Shostakovich release won the chamber category of the BBC Music Magazine Awards for the best recordings of the year in spring 2008. The illustrious jury said of the disc that it was 'challenging, unpredictable Shostakovich which always convinces even when the approach is new. The Jerusalem Quartet's tonal range is daunting too'. Further awards include first prize in the 'most impressive performance by a (small) ensemble' category of the Vereniging van Schouwburgen en Concertgebouwdirecties Dutch Music Prize in November 2007. In 2003 the quartet was a recipient of the first Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and part of the first ever BBC New Generation Artists scheme between 1999 and 2001.
The Quartet is very grateful to Daniel Barenboim who generously loans Jacqueline Du Pre's 'Sergio Perresson' cello to Kyril Zlotnikov.


Determine The Gorgeousness Of Egypt
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Discover The Beauty Of Egypt
Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Thereby, Egypt is a transcontinental country, and is considered to be a major power in North Africa, Mediterranean Region, African continent, Nile Basin, Islamic World and the Red Sea. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
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Hot Miranda Kerr Bikini Photos by Ralph Magazine
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Victoriaâ€™s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr covers the December issue of Ralph magazine.
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The Ten most modern Women to wrist watch in 2010
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The Ten Hottest Women
1. Ashley Greene is an American film and television actress, best known for playing Alice Cullen in the Twilight film series.
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4. Amanda Seyfried is an American actress and former child model.
5. Katy Perry is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
6. Leighton Meester is an American actress and singer-songwriter, best known for her role as Blair Waldorf in the TV show Gossip Girl.
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Belmont launches new Social Media Management major
Belmont is preparing to make history once again as it becomes one of the first colleges to offer a bachelor’s degree in Social Media Management.
Dr. Kevin Trowbridge created the program with the future of media in mind, and as a result, it will include courses such as Social Media Content Development, Public Relations Research, Social Media Measurements and Analytics as well as a Social Media internship.
After coming to Belmont in 2011 to teach a public relations and social media class, Trowbridge became passionate about how social media opens doors to career opportunities.
The new major was created after “seeing how social media has changed radically, but also how our students’ interest in social media has evolved,” said Trowbridge.
With some students having already “signed the form to change their major,” Trowbridge said, the announcement of the new program has students talking — one of those is sophomore Jamie Bochicchio.
The former music business major considered the switch a “no-brainer” after speaking with her adviser about wanting to focus on the digital marketing aspect of her band, Rising Reign.
“I hope that I can learn more in-depth how to market and really analyze the data that comes from social media,” said Bochicchio. “I just want to be able to know algorithms and get deeper into that.”
The major will be part of Belmont’s public relations department and will be in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
“A student who is a sophomore now would be able to graduate having taken all of these courses,” said Trowbridge, explaining how the program will begin to be implemented in the fall of 2020.
Although this has been a long time coming for Trowbridge, he’s looking forward to student engagement with the program, he said.
“It’s been so refreshing, because we spent about a year going through the development process. But now that the students are hearing about it, they are almost, like, reigniting my excitement for it.”
This article written by Lydia Fletcher. Photo courtesy of Office of Communications.
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PAUL'S AFFAIRS
by W.B. Screws
The Pilgrim's Messenger
"Have a pattern of sound words which you hear from me, in faith and love
which are in Christ Jesus."--11 Timothy 1:13
Published Monthly By W. B. SCREWS, Glennville, Georgia
Twenty-five Cents a Year
Volume XVI
Number 11.
Entered at the postoffice at Glennville, Ga., as second-class matter.
"Now I am intending you to know, brethren, that my affairs have rather come to be for the progress of the evangel,"
(Phil. 1:12).
Paul was a prisoner when he wrote these words. But instead of being in prison, he was permitted to live in a rented house under guard. And this was favorable to the evangel. When he was first apprehended he was accused by the Jews of profaning their temple, but they later employed an attorney who accused him before the Roman authorities of plotting the overthrow the government of Caesar, (Acts 21:28; 24:1-8). The very fact that Rome did not immediately execute him, was notice to the world that Paul's evangel and his stewardship were not against the Roman government. Caesar had examined him and found this to be true. The fact that Paul's life was spared was proof of it. This, becoming known abroad, was favorable to the progress of the evangel.
His location in Rome was suitable for the defense of the evangel. If anyone said Paul was a dangerous man, it could be pointed out that Rome's verdict was, that he was not dangerous. All he was doing was teaching the evangel which pointed believers to the celestial kingdom, and pointed all mankind to salvation, justification and conciliation after the eons. This could not, by the most unreasonable stretch of the imagination be construed as any rebellion against, or any effort to meddle with, the governments of earth.
He was kept as a prisoner, to partly satisfy the Jews, for every government that contains a foreign element is under necessity to cater to this element. But the fact that even Jewish pressure could not induce Caesar to put the prisoner to death as a rebel, was proof beyond dispute, that the charge grew out of Jewish hatred, and had no basis in fact.
Rome had no disposition to interfere with the free exercise of the privilege of teaching the evangel, even as no government of earth today has any such disposition, except where religious leaders have intimidated the government. Such leaders are guilty of the very thing of which Paul was accused, but Paul was not. Religion is constantly trying to get control of government, local, state and national. The "church" has tried it for centuries, and has succeeded in some instances. It has tried it in the United States, and has partly succeeded at times. This is especially true in the case of local government.
Those who are really Paul's children in the Lord, (that is, in service), and in faith, (I Cor. 4:17; II Tim. 1:2), are not supposed to interfere with civil governments, even as Paul did not. If they follow this course Paul's affairs are carried out by them. And such affairs come to be for the progress of the evangel. Ministers often meet, with some of their leading laymen, and issue orders to the town council, as to what must be done. In these activities they ignore me, with the intention of snubbing me. But their action really amounts to a "boost." They are serving notice to the community that this strange fellow, Screws, does not interfere with the civil authorities. Thus they acknowledge that my affairs and Paul's are identical.
It is worthy of note, that in Philippians Paul does not warn the saints against the civil government. He saw no danger from that quarter. But he does warn them against curs, evil workers and the maimcision, (3:2, 3). Figuratively speaking, curs are those "religionists" who live on refuse. And the refuse, as Paul explains in the same chapter, consists of fleshly advantages, religion and self-righteousness, (Verses 4-8). In Philippians Paul is not dealing with immorality; he is dealing with service. Therefore when he mentions evil workers he has reference to religious workers - those whose feverish haste to "take the world for Christ," finds no support among those who are engaged in Paul's affairs. The maimcision were the Jews. They are not a menace today, but the others are. Those living on self-righteousness and whose religion consists of works, are the ones from whom we may expect our persecution. So long as we follow Paul's affairs and preach and promote the evangel, letting the civil government alone, the latter will not interfere with us, unless religionists should succeed in getting control of civil affairs. I trust that all believers in Universal Reconciliation will steer clear of any concerted effort to regulate or intimate the civil authorities. Let it be known that we are peacefully promoting the evangel.
On what authority does the church teach that Paul was put to death by Rome? On the authority of tradition. Scripture is against such a supposition. When he wrote the Philippian epistle he expected to be released, (2:24). In his second letter to Timothy he said that at his examination no one came along with him, but the Lord stood beside him and he was rescued out of the mouth of the lion. Then he says confidently and happily, "The Lord will be rescuing me from every evil work, and will be saving me for his celestial kingdom," (II Tin. 4:16-18). In the same chapter he speaks of the period of his dissolution as being imminent. "Period" doesn't mean a certain foreknown day. "Imminent" does not indicate that he knew, as do all who are to be executed, the very day of his death. It all points to a peaceful, natural death. I take no stock in Paul's supposed "second imprisonment," nor in his being "beheaded," or even thrown to the lions, which latter form of execution would have been his fate, if Rome had imposed capital punishment on him.
Under the mercy of God, the government of the United States does not persecute. But if certain religious societies could get control, it would become a persecutor. Let us thank God that our civil affairs are such that Paul's affairs can be carried out without governmental hindrance. And while this is the case let us be faithful - not in trying to force the evangel on anyone, but in proclaiming and promoting it, that it may grasp those whom God has chosen for this rare blessing. That those who want to live devoutly in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted, is as true as when Paul wrote it. But the persecution comes from those who live on self-righteousness, and do evil religious works - not from our beloved government. Let saints remember that the Philippian epistle is devoted to service, and that all service has to do with contributing in various ways to the evangel, (Phil. 1:5). Let others attend to the highly important service of promoting the evangel, while Paul's affairs may still be carried on.
Being engaged in Paul's affairs, we are supposed to give heed to Phil. 1:10, 11: " - for you to be testing what things are final, in order that you many be sincere, and not stumbling for the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ, for the glory and laud of God." The word which I have rendered "final," has the elements, through-carry, and evidently refers to things in service which remain in the maturity of the ecclesia, as opposed to those things which belong to minority, and which had passed away before Philippians was written. It means humble, dignified service, instead of outward sings and miracles and tongues.
No one can be sincere in holding membership in any religious organization where one is required to subscribe to certain beliefs which one does not hold. Sincerity is found in unity of the spirit, where not all pretend to see everything alike in a man-made creed. While there was evidently some kind of an organization at first, after the fashion of the Jewish ecclesia, such a thing was repudiated when the apostle warned saints to "come out," (II Cor. 6: 14-19). When Philippians was written there was every opportunity for fellowship in sincerity. This sincerity insures that in the day of Christ we will not stumble. We will not have built a great house of inflammable material to be destroyed, (I Cor. 3:10-15.
But we do not have to wait the day of Christ, to receive blessings. While we serve in Paul's affairs, testing final things - performing service in accord with the last word in service, namely, the Philippian epistle - we may be filled with the fruit of righteousness. It is like working in an orange grove and eating all we want while we work. There are joys to be had now - delights of spirit. That these come in the midst of suffering, and while rendering humble service, makes them the more delightful. We may not have them while we try to be exalted. They are found only in the most abject humility. This fruit is through Jesus Christ, and is for the glory and laud of God. They are not intended to exalt us. They glorify us not. Seeing that we are not worthy of them, our enjoinment leads us to glorify and laud God.
HIS GRACIOUS DEALING
In his Colossian epistle Paul speaks of God dealing graciously with our offenses. In his Roman epistle he says that, being justified, we shall be saved from indignation through Him. There is no doubt that everyone who is justified shall be saved from indignation. But their safety lies in the fact that they are justified, and not in the supposed fact that they never commit an offense against God. Paul classes many sins together, and the fact that he warns us against them shows that it is possible for us to commit them. We have no warrant for singling out one and saying it is worse than others, just because we don't commit that one. The chances are, one saint is about like another in conduct. We all need God's gracious dealing.
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By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDReviewed by Afsaneh Khetrapal, BSc
Neonatal jaundice is a condition in which there is an abnormal elevation in serum bilirubin levels in a newborn infant.
Bilirubin is a yellow pigment, created during the breakdown of senescent red cells in the blood, which is cycled and eventually eliminated through the feces.
In some conditions its production is hiked or its elimination is significantly slowed, leading to its accumulation in the blood. This leads to yellow discoloration of the sclera and the skin, especially prominent in the palms and soles, though it also progresses downwards from the face.
Lethargy and failure to thrive may be prominent manifestations.
4 days old newborn baby laying on parents hands. Baby has neonatal jaundice. Image Credit: Alina R / Shutterstock
The immature liver system in neonates makes a slight degree of jaundice an expected phenomenon at this age.
The efficient elimination of this pigment which happened via the placenta no longer occurs following birth, leading to a temporary accumulation while the hepatic cells adjust to completely taking over the job.
Another cause is the increased breakdown of red cells for a short time following birth, which is termed physiological jaundice. This peaks between 2-4 days and subsides within a couple of weeks.
Breastfeeding is associated with jaundice, mostly during the first week while lactation is inadequate or not well established.
Another form is called breast milk jaundice and is due to significant interaction between certain substances present in breast milk and the liver metabolism of bilirubin. It appears after a week of life and peaks at around the second or third week. It may last for a month or so but bilirubin levels are rarely very high.
Pathological jaundice in the newborn always sets in within 24 hours. It may be caused by prematurity, conditions which predispose to hemolysis, rhesus incompatibility, cephalohematoma as occurs during ventouse extraction in some cases, or other difficult deliveries, neonatal infections and certain inborn enzyme defects.
Hepatic disease, medication, or hypoxia may also contribute or be responsible for this condition.
Jaundice in a newborn should be given due attention. The bilirubin levels in the blood should be measured. If abnormal, various other tests may be required such as Coomb’s test, reticulocyte count, complete blood count, infection markers, and others suggested by the infant’s symptoms. The trend is assessed to detect a rapidly rising bilirubin level early enough to prevent abnormally high levels from damaging the developing infant brain, a disease termed kernicterus.
In most cases the condition resolves itself, but in some cases urgent treatment is warranted:
Rapid rise in bilirubin
The baby’s age
Such babies require to be fed plenty and often, with plenty of fluids, to lower the blood bilirubin and to ensure regular bowel movements which will help eliminate bilirubin.
If needed, the baby is placed under phototherapy lights on a regular basis for a couple of days. The most urgent treatment is an exchange transfusion to replace the baby’s blood. Intravenous immunoglobulin is also useful in severe jaundice. These measures help to prevent kernicterus with its associated complications such as cerebral palsy, deafness, and brain damage.
Frequent and adequate feeding will help reduce the risk of this condition. Rhesus incompatibility should also be ruled out. A review visit is always necessary to rule out this type of jaundice.
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001559.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/jaundice/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK65113/
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/423837/g_jaundice5-1.pdf
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/hospitals-and-health-services/patient-care/perinatal-reproductive/neonatal-ehandbook/conditions/jaundice
Dr. Liji Thomas
Dr. Liji Thomas is an OB-GYN, who graduated from the Government Medical College, University of Calicut, Kerala, in 2001. Liji practiced as a full-time consultant in obstetrics/gynecology in a private hospital for a few years following her graduation. She has counseled hundreds of patients facing issues from pregnancy-related problems and infertility, and has been in charge of over 2,000 deliveries, striving always to achieve a normal delivery rather than operative.
Thomas, Liji. (2019, February 26). Jaundice in Newborns. News-Medical. Retrieved on January 17, 2020 from https://www.news-medical.net/health/Jaundice-in-Newborns.aspx.
Thomas, Liji. "Jaundice in Newborns". News-Medical. 17 January 2020. <https://www.news-medical.net/health/Jaundice-in-Newborns.aspx>.
Thomas, Liji. "Jaundice in Newborns". News-Medical. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Jaundice-in-Newborns.aspx. (accessed January 17, 2020).
Thomas, Liji. 2019. Jaundice in Newborns. News-Medical, viewed 17 January 2020, https://www.news-medical.net/health/Jaundice-in-Newborns.aspx.


Chapter 6. Merit Personnel System.
Subchapter XXIV-A. Transition Benefits for Displaced Employees.
§ 1-624.21. Outplacement services for displaced employees in Fiscal Year 1996.
The outplacement services provided by the Mayor to employees displaced during Fiscal Year 1996 shall include provisions for the following:
(1) Counseling services for stress and finance management;
(2) Access to automated job information services;
(3) Job fairs;
(4) Coordination of training and job banks with the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, Business Coalition, and labor organizations;
(5) Consulting with regional governments concerning job vacancies and job banks;
(6) Workshops on writing resumes; and
(7) Access to facsimile and copying machines, computers, typewriters, and telephones where local calls can be made to prospective employers.
(Mar. 3, 1979, D.C. Law 2-139, § 2421, as added Mar. 5, 1996, D.C. Law 11-98, § 601, 43 DCR 5.)
1981 Ed., § 1-625A.1.
Law 11-78, the "Budget Support Temporary Act of 1995," was introduced in Council and assigned Bill No. 11-421. The Bill was adopted on first and second readings on July 29, 1995, and October 10, 1995, respectively. Signed by the Mayor on October 31, 1995, it was assigned Act No. 11-150 and transmitted to both Houses of Congress for its review. D.C. Law 11-78 became effective on January 26, 1996.
Law 11-98, the "Budget Support Temporary Act of 1995," was introduced in Council and assigned Bill No. 11-440, which was referred to the Committee of the Whole. The Bill was adopted on first and second readings on November 7, 1995, and December 5, 1995, respectively. Signed by the Mayor on December 26, 1995, it was assigned Act No. 11-181 and transmitted to both Houses of Congress for its review. D.C. Law 11-98 became effective on March 5, 1996.


Blog Perth’s Best Live Music Venues
Perth’s Best Live Music Venues
Perth’s live music scene is thriving. Some big name acts hail from here, from AC/DC to Tame Impala, John Butler and The Waifs, so that’s not surprising. Perth’s music venues span casual hangouts to nightclubs and dedicated jazz venues. Hear anything from promising local acts to international visitors.
The Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley
In nearly 100 years since it opened as The Lyceum, The Astor Theatre has seen action as a place to see theatre, dancing, orchestra, karate, silent movies and more. These days it’s one of the best live music venues in Perth. Its vintage red velvet chairs and art deco aesthetic make a great backdrop for local, national and international acts.
Jack Rabbit Slims, Northbridge
From fries to alcoholic milkshakes, Jack Rabbit Slim’s takes its cues from 1950’s pulp fiction. Walk through the refrigerator doors into a night club hosting a variety of local and international acts. It’s an eclectic line-up, from rock to hip hop, indie, electronic, R&B and more, and the crowd is varied.
The Ellington, Mount Lawley
One of Perth’s favourite jazz music venues, The Ellington Jazz Club is a cabaret style venue with a dedicated jazz bent. Musicians from Australia and the world play on a weekly basis. It keeps jazz hours (open until around 3am) on Friday and Saturdays. The setting is opulent and you can enjoy share plates from the bar.
The Bird, Northbridge
Right in the heart of Northbridge, The Bird is that place you can take a chance on. Walk in off the street, pay a small entry fee, and enjoy the pot luck of local and international acts. You might even get a story telling evening, or some performance art. There’s a courtyard at the rear where you can take a breather and enjoy some conversation.
The Rosemount Hotel, North Perth
Having won several awards as a live music venue, The Rosemount Hotel is a stalwart of the local music scene. A longstanding pub in the heart of North Perth, it’s the go-to for great international touring acts and homegrown talent. There’s often DJ’s or acoustic acts playing the the beer garden, where you can also get a feed.
Mojos Bar, Fremantle
Still going strong after 30-plus years, Mojos is Fremantle’s longest standing original music venue. It’s a small room with a lot of vibe. See everything from acoustic, reggae, rock and contemporary, from both local and touring acts. Most nights there’s something on: Mondays sees Open Mic Night, if you’re into the raw talent. A pool table and courtyard offers some reprieve from the main stage.
The Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
A large heritage building surrounded by old trees and lawns, the Fremantle Arts Centre is a creative hub with galleries, studios, a cafe and gift shop. In summer months, there’s free music in the courtyard on Sunday afternoons. Throughout the year, big name acts perform on the South Lawn, one of Perth’s most agreeable outdoor amphitheatres.
Freo Social, Fremantle
Fremantle’s newest music venue rose out of the ashes of old favourite, The Fly By Night Club, and never looked back. Everything from international touring acts to original local bands make appearances at Freo Social, along with the odd quiz night. There’s something on most evenings in the mid-sized music hall. Food trucks and a hip bar complete the scene.


LBI Media Announces Successful Completion of Reorganization Plan
– Financial Restructuring Strengthens Balance Sheet and Positions LBI Media for Growth –
BURBANK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#HispanicMedia–LBI Media, Inc. (with its affiliates, “LBI” or the “Company”) today announced it has successfully completed its court-approved reorganization plan and emerged from the Chapter 11 process today, positioned for long-term growth and success.
With support from its creditors, including HPS Investment Partners, LLC on behalf of the investment funds and accounts it manages or advises, who sponsored the plan of reorganization, the Company has eliminated more than $350 million of debt from its balance sheet and made significant recoveries available to its trade and general unsecured creditors.
“LBI Media has a terrific group of assets with exceptional potential. Completion of LBI’s financial restructuring provides a strong financial foundation and significant flexibility to grow the business,” said Peter Markham, the Company’s newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer. “The ownership team is committed to the long-term success of LBI Media and the continued expansion of its platform targeted to the growing U.S. Hispanic market.”
“I would like to thank José and Lenard Liberman, pioneers in Hispanic broadcasting, for their vision and leadership during the past 30 years and our talented and committed employees who ensured our operations continued as usual during the restructuring process. We move forward well positioned for the future and with the resources to pursue new opportunities.”
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal counsel, Guggenheim Securities served as investment banker, and Alvarez & Marsal served as financial advisor in connection with LBI’s financial restructuring, and Wiley Rein LLP served as regulatory counsel to LBI Media.
Court documents and additional information are available on the website administered by the Company’s claims and noticing agent, Epiq Corporate Restructuring, at https://dm.epiq11.com/case/LBM or may be obtained by calling the LBI Media Restructuring Hotline at (818) 729-5300. The e-mail address is LBIMedia@epiqglobal.com.
About LBI Media, Inc.
LBI Media, Inc., is a leading vertically integrated, multi-platform, Spanish-language media company operating across all of the top U.S. Hispanic markets. Producing over 2,500 hours annually of original TV programming at the Empire Burbank Television Studios, the company is one of the largest U.S. producers of Spanish-language TV content. The company’s Estrella TV Network is distributed through owned and operated TV stations, TV network affiliates and related digital media properties. The Estrella TV programming catalog, consisting of over 7,500 hours of original Spanish-language television programming, is one of the largest libraries of content produced in the U.S. for the U.S. Hispanic marketplace. Additionally, LBI Media is one of the most prolific developers and producers of Spanish-language radio talent and programming. The company’s Don Cheto Radio Network features one of the nation’s most popular radio talents and its highly-rated radio programming formats are distributed through owned and operated radio stations, affiliated stations and related digital media properties. To learn more about LBI Media and see company updates, please visit www.lbimedia.com.
This release may contain forward-looking statements relating to future financial results, business expectations and business transactions. Statements that are not historical fact are forward-looking statements. Certain of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “estimates,” “assumes,” “may,” “should,” “could,” “shall,” “will,” “seeks,” “targets,” “future,” or other similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors, and our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from future results, performance or achievements expressed in these forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the potential transactions contemplated by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and the Plan, descriptions of management’s strategy, plans, objectives, expectations, or intentions and descriptions of assumptions underlying any of the above matters and other statements that are not historical fact.
These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current beliefs, intentions and expectations and are not guarantees or indicative of future performance, nor should any conclusions be drawn or assumptions be made as to any potential outcome of any proposed transactions the Company considers. Risks and uncertainties relating to the proposed restructuring include: the success of the Plan and motions filed by the Company, the ability of the Company to successfully execute the transactions contemplated by the Plan without substantial disruption to its business; and the effects of disruption from the proposed restructuring making it more difficult to maintain business, financing and operational relationships, to retain key executives and to maintain various licenses and approvals necessary for the Company to conduct its business.
The above factors, risks and uncertainties are difficult to predict, contain uncertainties that may materially affect actual results and may be beyond the Company’s control. New factors, risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date such statements were made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in underlying assumptions or otherwise.
Marco Gonzalez
LBI Media, Inc.
magonzalez@lbimedia.com
Mike Smargiassi
The Plunkett Group
mike@theplunkettgroup.com
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Paris Hilton Men Men Fragrance
Paris Hilton men; a Paris Hilton cologne for men launched in 2005 promotes power, strength and passion with beautiful fragrance notes of; fig leaf, cucumber, green mango, amber, white sage, cedar-wood, and juniper.
A fig leaf is a leaf of the fig tree. The term is widely used figuratively associated with the covering up of an act or an object that is embarrassing or distasteful with something of innocuous appearance. The term is a metaphorical reference to the Biblical Book of Genesis, in which Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nudity after eating the fruit from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Sometimes paintings and statues had the genitals of their subjects covered by a representation of an actual fig leaf or similar object, either as part of the work or added afterwards for perceived modesty.
In Ancient Greek art, male nakedness, including the genitals, was common, although the female vulval area was generally covered in art for public display. This tradition continued in Ancient Roman art until the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, when heroic nudity vanished. During the Middle Ages, only the unfortunate (most often the damned) were usually shown naked, although the depictions were then often rather explicit. Adam and Eve were often shown wearing fig or other leaves, following the Biblical description. This was especially a feature of Northern Renaissance art.
From about 1530, the developing reaction to Renaissance freedoms and excesses that led to the Council of Trent also led to a number of artworks, especially in churches or public places, being altered to reduce the amount of nudity on display. Often, as in the famous case of Michelangelo's The Last Judgement, drapery or extra branches from any nearby bush was used. For free-standing statues this did not work well, and carved or cast fig leaves were sometimes added, such as with the plaster copy of Michelangelo's David displayed in Victorian era London. The Adam and Eve panels on the Ghent Altarpiece, already equipped with fig leaves by Jan van Eyck, were simply replaced with 19th-century panels copying the figures but clothed.
Many of these alterations have since been reversed, damaging some of the statues.
Paris Hilton Men
Cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae. It is a creeping vine that bears cylindrical fruits that are used as culinary vegetables. There are three main varieties of cucumber: slicing, pickling, and burpless. Within these varieties, several different cultivars have emerged. The cucumber is originally from Southern Asia, but now grows on most continents.
Many different varieties are traded on the global market. The cucumber is a creeping vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils. The plant has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruit. The fruit of the cucumber is roughly cylindrical, elongated with tapered ends, and may be as large as 60 centimeters (24 in) long and 10 centimeters (3.9 in) in diameter.
Having an enclosed seed and developing from a flower, botanically speaking, cucumbers are classified as accessory fruits. Much like tomatoes and squash they are often also perceived, prepared and eaten as vegetables. Cucumbers are usually more than 90% water.
Green Mango Tree
Mangifera odorata also called Kuwini Mango, Saipan Mango, or Fragrant Mango. It is found in Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Kuini or Mangifera odorata is a mango variety that is native to tropical Asia, specifically to West Malaysia. The fruit is light orange in color and juicy sweet when ripe.
The tree has a distinct feature, i.e. emits a fragrant resinous smell. The tree flowers throughout the year and the flowers too are strongly scented with its fragrance. The sap on unripe kuini fruits is poisonous Kuini commonly found in East Malaysia's Jungle (Borneo) has spherical, almost round shape, dark green and green when ripe. It has strong odor which can be detected from afar. Ethyl butyrate, also known as ethyl butanoate, or butyric ether, is an ester used in perfumery.
It is soluble in propylene glycol, paraffin oil, and kerosene. It has a fruity odor, similar to pineapple. It is commonly used as artificial flavoring resembling orange juice or pineapple in alcoholic beverages, as a solvent in Paris Hilton men cologne/perfumery products, and as a plasticizer for cellulose. Ethyl butyrate is one of the most common chemicals used in fragrances.
It can be used in a variety of fragrances: orange (most common), cherry, pineapple, mango, guava, bubblegum, peach, apricot, fig, and plum. In industrial use, it is also one of the cheapest chemicals.
Man Fragrance
Amber Stones
Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used as an ingredient in Paris Hilton men perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. "Amber" perfumes may be created using combinations of labdanum, benzoin resin, copal (itself a type of tree resin used in incense manufacture), vanilla, Dammara resin and/or synthetic materials.
Labdanum is produced today mainly for the men's perfume industry. The raw resin is usually extracted by boiling the leaves and twigs. An absolute is also obtained by solvent extraction. An essential oil is produced by steam distillation. The raw gum is a black (sometimes dark brown), fragrant mass containing up to 20% or more of water.
It is plastic but not pourable, and becomes brittle with age. The absolute is dark amber-green and very thick at room temperature. The fragrance is more refined than the raw resin. The odor is very rich, complex and tenacious.
Labdanum is much valued in Paris Hilton men cologne/perfumery because of its resemblance to ambergris, which has been banned from use in many countries because its precursor originates from the sperm whale, which is an endangered species: although the best-quality ambergris is found free-floating or washed up onshore (long exposure to sunlight, air and water removes offensive-smelling components of the fresh substance), and thus raises no ethical objections, a lower-quality version can also be recovered from some fraction of freshly slaughtered whales, and so may encourage poaching of sperm whales. Labdanum is the main ingredient used when making the scent of amber in perfumery. Labdanum's odor is variously described as amber, animalic, sweet, woody, ambergris, dry musk, or leathery.
White Sage Plant
White sage, is an evergreen shrub that is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, found mainly in the coastal sage scrub habitat of Southern California and Baja California, on the western edges of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Several tribes used the seed for removing foreign objects from the eye, similar to the way that clary sage seeds were used in Europe. A tea from the roots was used by the Cahuilla women for healing and strength after childbirth. The leaves are also burnt by many native American tribes, with the smoke used in different purification rituals.
Clary sage, is a biennial or short-lived herbaceous perennial. It is native to the northern Mediterranean, along with some areas in north Africa and Central Asia. The plant has a lengthy history as a medicinal herb, and is grown for its essential oil. Clary seeds have a mucilaginous coat, which is why some old herbals recommended placing a seed into the eye of someone with a foreign object in it so that it could adhere to the object and make it easy to remove.
This practice is noted by Nicholas Culpeper in his Complete Herbal (1653), who referred to the plant as "clear-eye". The distilled essential oil is used in Paris Hilton men perfumes and as a muscatel flavoring for vermouths, wines, and liqueurs. It is also used in aromatherapy for relieving anxiety and fear, menstrual-related problems such as PMS and cramping, and helping with insomnia.
Cedar Wood Tree
Cedar-wood oil, is an essential oil derived from the foliage, and sometimes the wood and roots. It has many uses in medicine, art, industry and Paris Hilton men cologne/ perfumery and while the characteristics of oils derived from various species may themselves vary, all have some degree of bactericidal and pesticidal effects. Cedar-wood oils each have characteristic woody odors which may change somewhat in the course of drying out. The crude oils are often yellowish or even darker in color and some, such as Texas cedar-wood oil are quite viscous and deposit crystals on standing.
They find use (sometimes after rectification) in a range of fragrance applications such as soap, cologne for men, household sprays, floor polishes and insecticides.
Juniper Berries And Paris Hilton Men
Juniper, is a species in the genus Juniperus, in the family Cupressaceae. It has the largest range of any woody plant, throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30°N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia. A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales, which give it a berry-like appearance.
The cones from a handful of species, especially Juniperus communis, are used as a spice, particularly in European cuisine, and also give gin its distinctive flavor. According to one FAO document, juniper berries are the only spice derived from conifers, although tar and inner bark (used as a sweetener in Apache cuisines) from pine trees is sometimes considered a spice as well. An essential oil extracted from juniper berries is used in aromatherapy and Paris Hilton men cologne/perfumery. Juniper berries have long been used as medicine by many cultures. Juniper berries act as a strong urinary tract disinfectant if consumed, and were used by Navajo Indians as an herbal remedy for diabetes.
Western American tribes combined the berries of Juniperus communis with Berberis root bark in a herbal tea. Native Americans also used juniper berries as a female contraceptive.
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Lafayette to host international gathering of songwriters capped by festival
Heather Salsman Leisure & Events, Localism
Lafayette to host international gathering of songwriters for week-long creative session capped by festival featuring local, national and international talent
(LAFAYETTE, LA, March 13, 2018) Get ready to get the inside scoop on the stories behind the stories at the first annual South Louisiana Songwriters Festival and Workshop (SOLO) happening May 22nd to 27th, 2018 in Lafayette, LA. The new event combines a workshop portion that will bring together established and aspiring songwriters in a retreat-style atmosphere for four days of mentoring, creating and collaborating as well as a performance portion in the form of a weekend festival.
The new event stems from a collaboration between Lafayette’s CREATE initiative and the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation. The Foundation presents similar annual workshops in the UK but this is the first one to be held in the US. Lafayette was chosen for its rich culture, relaxed nature and abundance of musical talent. This combination produces an atmosphere that inspires creativity.
Acclaimed songwriter Mary Gauthier (photo) will co-curate the workshop. Her most recent and tenth album entitled Rifles & Rosary Beads features eleven of the songs co-written with and for wounded veterans. Eleven of the nearly four hundred songs that highly accomplished songwriters have co-written as part of the five-year-old SongwritingWith:Soldiers program. A project that has proven to be a calling. “My job as a songwriter is to find that thing a soul needs to say,” Gauthier says. She along with Beth Nielsen Chapman, writer of seven #1 hits including Faith Hill’s mega-hit This Kiss, will guide a group of songwriters through four days of the intimate, intense and immersive creative process that is songwriting. The results of these collaborations will subsequently be presented for audiences during the week in unique shows that will blend interesting artists, new songs and the stories of how they came to be. Aspiring local writers will soon be asked to submit applications for one of two scholarships to the workshop. “We’re thrilled that some of our local young talent will benefit from the wealth of knowledge this collaborative workshop offers.” says Mayor-President Joel Robideaux. A call for applications from aspiring Lafayette songwriters will be announced soon through the festival’s website (solosongwriters.com) and Facebook page.
The educational workshop component will be followed by a two-day, 6 stage festival focused on great music and featuring workshop attendees such as honorary ambassador for The Buddy Holly Educational Foundation Kimmie Rhodes, local and visiting songwriters including Jim Lauderdale, Mark Broussard, Dylan LeBlanc, Zachary Richard, Mark Meaux and many more. SOLO will be an event unlike any other in Lafayette. Its Festival-goers will undoubtedly be the first to hear new and unedited material, to witness the dawn of transformative collaborations between creators, be the first audience in the world to give feedback on the songs born from this creative journey happening right here in South Louisiana. Interested songwriters and song-lovers are encouraged to check the website (solosongwriters.com) often to get the latest information on SOLO performers, ticketing information for exclusive workshop shows and the two-day SOLO Festival hosted by the Blue Moon Saloon and Warehouse 535 on Saturday, May 26th and Sunday, May 27th.
SOLO’s goal is to bring writers together to find inspiration not only from each other, but also from the rich, soulful, and authentic vibe that is South Louisiana. Its purpose is to bring artists, music lovers, and industry professionals together to ignite Lafayette’s creative scene – to make Lafayette known not only for its heritage, but also for its deep pool of musical talent, engineers and studios, all capable of inspiring and creating music that is relevant now and into the future. The event is presented in part by the generous support of the CREATE initiative, the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation, Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission, BMG and many public and private sponsors.
About The Buddy Holly Educational Foundation
The Buddy Holly Educational Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation founded by Peter Bradley, Senior and Maria Elena Holly to honor the music, life, legacy and dreams of Maria Elena’s late husband Buddy Holly. The mission of the Foundation is to honor Buddy Holly’s tremendous legacy and to fulfill Buddy’s and Maria Elena’s dream of extending musical education, including songwriting, production, arranging, orchestration, and performance education to new generations regardless of creed, ethnicity or income level. In this way, the Foundation wants to empower a new generation to follow in Buddy’s footsteps and remind them of his heritage. For further detailed information on the Foundation please visit: www.tbhef.org.
CREATE is an initiative of the Mayor-President’s office to build and support our local and authentic culture to further diversify and strengthen the economy in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. Representing Culture, Recreation, Entertainment, Arts, Tourism, Economy, CREATE is a parish-wide, multi-year effort that reinvests in the residents of Lafayette recognizing that a place that people love to live in, is a place tourists love to visit and businesses love to do business in. A partial rededication of the Public Health millage was passed by Lafayette Parish voters to provide $500,000 annually to support the cultural economy through the CREATE initiative. More information is available at www.createlafayette.la.
SOLO Contact: Mark Falgout
For more information, visit: http://www.tbhef.org/
BHEF Contact: Stephen Easley
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Jul 2, 2019Localism
Day in Downtown – Washington


THE UPSTAGE PODCAST
Ann Marley
Parliament is split into two different houses- The House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is publically elected and is made up of 650 constituencies from the United Kingdom. Each area has one representative and the citizens of that area choose their representative. Elections take place every five years.
The members of Commons (MPs) are split into the “government” and the “opposition.” The government is made up of the majority party and the opposition is made up of those who are not in the majority party.
The House of Lords is made of appointed people based on their knowledge and experience. The Lords are referred to for their knowledge. Though they vote, they cannot block financial bills created by the Commons and once a bill has been passed two years in a row in Commons, the Lords cannot stop it from becoming law.
The aims of Parliament are to scrutinize and challenge laws, debate legislature, and enable the increase or decrease of tax.
The Queen chooses the Prime Minister. He oversees the operation of Civil Service and government agencies, appoints members of the government, and is the principal government figure in the House of Commons.
One day each week is for general debate. The Lords do not vote on debate topics. An MP, Lord, or a member of the public can introduce new legislature. This legislature must be passed in both Houses. Controversial bills generally begin in the Commons. The Prime Minister is questioned every Wednesday. The MPs may question the Lords at the beginning of each day.
Committees are groups of MPs and Lords that look at a specific policy or legislature.
By-elections follow a vacancy in the House of Commons after the death, resignation, bankruptcy, mental illness or criminal offense of a member of parliament
Private Member’s Bills are a public bills introduced by MP or Lord. A minister cannot introduce it and typically little time is spent on these bills and they are rarely passed.
Home Secretary- responsible for internal affairs of England and Wales and immigration and citizenship for the whole of the United Kingdom.
Voting Regulations
As of 1900, 21 year-old males only:
Occupiers- Householders or occupants of shops, offices, land, farms, etc. so long as it is valued at £10 a year.
Owners of freehold estate that is valued at £5 a year.
Lodgers of apartments no less than 3 shillings and 10 pennies per week (roughly 1/5 of a pound.)
University graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, St, Andrew’s, Glasgow, or Aberdeen.
Along with women’s suffrage, they were fighting for adult suffrage, meaning that anyone over a certain age would be able to vote. Some were only advocates for adult male suffrage.


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Take an Interactive, Immersive Trip to a Familiar ‘Beachtown’ at San Diego Rep
Posted by Editor on March 30, 2018 in Arts | 213 Views
By Pat Launer
Fact: Some people just do not like interactive theater
Fact: Whether you do or not, you aren’t obligated (or called upon) to participate
Fact: There is no such place as Beachtown, though it’s loosely based on Imperial Beach, a highly diverse waterfront community
The world premiere interactive, immersive play, “Beachtown” is based on the play “Beertown,” a prototype created by dog + pony dc, a theater company that specializes in this sort of theatrical immersion. Dog + pony artistic director, Rachel Grossman, made her piece generic, a kind of Anytown, USA, which has facilitated its use around the country. This is the tenth incarnation of the concept; ours is a good deal more tailored and specifically personalized to represent San Diego.
“Beachtown” is the baby of writer/actor/director Herbert Siguenza, a co-founder of the 30-year-old Chicano comedy trio, Culture Clash. On opening night, he had just been notified that his Andrew W. Mellon Foundation‘s National Playwright Residency, which allows him to be playwright-in-residence at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, will be renewed for another three years — which gives us four more years of his prolific talent and creativity.
The setup for his current enterprise, created with Rachel Grossman, is the 100th anniversary of the Beachtown Time Capsule. In the lobby, before the play begins, we read about the history of the town (with some wonderful details, many of them factually representing San Diego), partake of some excellent desserts, and meet the townsfolk (AKA Beachtonians), played by a talented group of local actors, under the direction of Sam Woodhouse.
There’s Steve Novak, the surfer-dude mayor (hang-ten, puppyish Jason Heil); Benny Ramos-Leibowitz, the Mexican-Jewish councilperson, a moderate conservative politically (serious and funny Salomon Maya, unequivocally in his character and his element); Susan Suhiro, the intense, no-nonsense, newly single (though that’s really irrelevant to the storyline), bespectacled town archivist (wonderfully inhabited by the beautiful Lee Ann Kim, whom it must’ve taken a lot to look mousey); right-wing reporter Damon Haynes (aggressively amusing Antonio T.J. Johnson, who also gets to do an impressive little Shakespearean turn); the hippieish Donna French (a riff on former local liberal politician Donna Fry, former member of the San Diego City Council), played with apt flower-power finesse by Marci Wuebben; and Rob Ruby, the town musician (William BJ Robinson, effective with his keyboard and vocals).
Every ten years, there’s a Beachtonian town council meeting, to open up the time capsule and remove one artifact, replacing it with something that better represents the present moment; or, as the mayor likes to say, “who we are today.”
There are seven ephemeral (changeable) artifacts in the wooden chest (functional, though it doesn’t look like a capsule of any kind); the group decides which one will be replaced this year. The audience has to weigh in on that decision, and then, weigh in again to determine — and justify — which of three proffered items should go in instead, and why.
For each performance, the three items and their attendant issues will vary, though what this adds to any given performance is unclear. Every performance will be different by definition, because every audience is different.
All this discussion engenders some very interesting interaction. The audience on opening night was more than willing to participate — actively, passionately and sometimes humorously.
But there are just too many items to discuss and it all takes too long. The town hymn and singalongs (re-worked, with rather lame lyrics, to familiar melodies) should be the first to go, along with the Guest Community Artist. Although it’s a noble idea to add entertainment to the proceedings, it’s unnecessary and unrealistic, and it increases the already-long running time. The night I was there, the performance was by PGK Dance. Attractive and appealing, but not related to the task at hand.
In aiming for verisimilitude, Siguenza has overloaded the basic script, which is augmented with a good deal of improvisatory dialogue. It’s also stuffed with all manner of superfluous activities, including the Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance, Oath of Civic Responsibility and Ephemeral Artifact Farewell, none of which adds much to the main objective.
Now that the piece is on its feet, it’s time to trim the fat. The intent should be to get it down to a fleet, 90-minute one-act. Nearly 2 1/2 hours is just too long to sustain the conceit.
That said, despite some silliness in the script, the interactions were lively and inventive. Some participants played along with the history, claiming to have been at the last meeting 10 years ago, or having visited some of the fictitious places named.
There has to be a better way to count the votes (hand-raising and one-by-one counts took a really long time). It’s fun to elect an Ombudsperson from the audience, to verify the counts and selections.
Most important, though, the artifacts represented many real issues of deep concern to San Diegans: immigration, gender equality, gay rights, treatment of veterans and the homeless crisis. This format truly gave people a platform to express their opinions, and to challenge the intentionally partisan viewpoints of the townspeople.
The actors were delightful, quick on their feet, and able to provide historical information and supportive evidence for their artifact selection or personal perspective. (By report, they were each given 85 pages of preparatory dramaturgical notes). A lot of the item and issue selection was based on Siguenza’s many interviews with San Diegans, and the historical realities of the region.
Does it all work? Yes and no. The simulation of the democratic process is highly effective, and elicited some interesting discussion. As a city, a county and a country, we need civil discourse now more than ever.
We all know that real town council meetings can go on for hours, but accuracy and veracity should only go so far. The objective here is certainly commendable. The community is anxious to play their part. But to make the effort really work, brevity should be respected as much as authenticity.
“Beachtown,” runs through April 15 in the Lyceum Space at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza downtown
Performances are Wednesday and Sunday at 7 p.m., Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees are on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. There will be a Tuesday performance on April 10 at 7 p.m.
Note: There is no Sunday evening performance on the closing day
Tickets ($20-$65) are available at 619-544-1000 or sdrep.org
Running time: 2 hrs. 20 min.
Pat Launer is a long-time San Diego arts writer and an Emmy Award-winning theater critic. An archive of her previews and reviews can be found at patlauner.com.
Take an Interactive, Immersive Trip to a Familiar ‘Beachtown’ at San Diego Rep was last modified: March 31st, 2018 by Editor
Posted in Arts | Tagged Beachtown, Herbert Siguenza, Imperial Beach, interactive, Pat Launer, play, Rachel Grossman, review, San Diego Rep


Nettle Press 2007, £3.00
I’ll come clean straight away—I was a little perturbed by the plethora of capital letters in the first half of this collection. OK, I know it worked for Emily Dickinson, but I tend to think of her as the exception that proves the rule. As it is, all those appearances of Light, Life, Death, suggest that the poet doesn’t entirely trust the reader to cotton on to exactly what’s going on here.
And that’s a shame, because Snelling shows that he’s well capable of building an atmosphere of foreboding and fear without flagging things up so obviously.
‘Judgement’, for example, uses simple but effective rhymes to sound like the sort of cautionary verse that’s found in the endpapers of some ancient tome, or carved into the stone of a ruin. ‘A Conspiracy Of Silence’, too, works well for the most part, using one or two telling details early on (“The beautifully pressed uniforms/ The manner, so restrained and polite”) to create a tense picture of political repression and the complicit silences that go with it.
You’re left wondering why Snelling opts to use strangely inverted word order in some of these pieces (“I who uttermostly sad am/ Last line of far descended Adam”—‘Time Of Ending’), just when he’s got you hooked—I much prefer his tauter, more stripped-down, natural approach.
The second half of the booklet consists mainly of humorous verses, and again, Snelling’s at his best when he doesn’t strain for effect. The four laconic lines of ‘The Paranoid’ work well enough, for example, but some of the longer pieces are just a bit too self-consciously wacky, although to be fair, many would also benefit from being heard aloud.
Snelling’s at his best when he forgets about telling the reader what to think, and lets his humanity and humour do the work instead.
Matt Merritt
Note: Nettle Press is a small poetry press set up in 1998. It has published 9 pamphlets including John Snelling, Siren Songs and one book Richard Leigh, Accidents of Birth (and is the distributor for another book). Details of Nettle Press titles can be found on the Amazon website by typing in Nettle Press into the publisher box using the 'Advance Search'.
Orders can be made by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


Boards & Commissions,
Inslee appoints Toshiko Grace Hasegawa executive director of Washington State Commission on Asian and Pacific American Affairs
Gov. Jay Inslee today appointed Toshiko Grace Hasegawa as executive director of the Washington State Commission on Asian and Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA). She replaces Michael Itti, who departed the position earlier this year.
CAPAA is a state agency with an advisory board of 12 commissioners appointed by the governor. It works in partnership with communities and state leaders to respond to public concerns and bring about positive, long-term solutions to issues that impact Asian Pacific Americans. The Commission focuses on safeguarding civil rights, achieving equity in public education, promoting economic development, and improving health and human services.
Hasegawa currently serves as communications manager for King County’s Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO), where she manages community engagement and serves as the staff liaison to its community advisory committee. In that role, she engages diverse stakeholders in conversation around social justice issues related to policing. In 2016, she was appointed by Inslee to represent CAPAA upon the Statewide Task Force on Deadly Force in Community Policing.
“Toshiko’s work in community and stakeholder engagement, as well as her commitment to immigration and refugee communities, make her a great fit to lead the work of the Commission,” Inslee said. “She has demonstrated her commitment to bringing diverse voices forward and has centered her efforts on equity and social justice.”
Prior to joining OLEO, Hasegawa worked as legislative aide to King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles, where she worked in constituent services and on policy issues relating to immigration, human trafficking and the justice system. She also served as fund development manager for the Japanese American Citizens League, where she was responsible for the financial sustainability of 19 nationally-run programs.
“Toshiko has the passion and motivation to help lead CAPAA into its next successful phase,” Ty Tufono-Chaussee, commission chair said. “Her deeply rooted community connections will enable CAPAA to grow stronger and remain an important resource to the API community in Washington state.”
Hasegawa holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Seattle University, where she is currently pursuing her master’s degree.
Her appointment is effective later this month.
Photo of Toshiko Grace Hasegawa.


Home / Explore / Politics & Law
Gentlemen Spies
The two young British dandies seemed wildly out of place in the Columbia District of 1845. Seemingly on holiday, they were in fact preparing for war.
Written by Stephen R. Bown
— Posted March 14, 2017
Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of Fort Vancouver from 1824 to 1846.
Oregon Historical Society BB004249
U.S. President James Knox Polk was elected on a campaign to claim all the territory on the West Coast from Alaska to Mexico.
Fort Vancouver, 1845, lithograph by H.J. Warre, from Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory (1848).
Library and Archives Canada / C-040845
A large area of the Pacific Northwest was jointly held by Britain and the United States from 1818 to 1846. The Americans called the region Old Oregon, while the British referred to it as the Columbia District. The Oregon Boundary Treaty of 1846 fixed the international boundary at the forty-ninth parallel.
Michel Rouleau
Chief factor Dr. John McLoughlin looked on in astonishment as two travelling gentlemen from England and their accompanying host of voyageurs arrived in Fort Vancouver on the morning of August 26, 1845. Even in their dusty and worn travelling clothes, it was clear they were men of standing, a cut above the usual desperate settler who came to this far-flung Hudson’s Bay Company outpost. Certainly their arrival was unexpected. Sportsmen of leisure landing at the fort from east of the Continental Divide were highly unusual, given that there was no road and little incentive to make such an arduous overland trek.
The two young travellers introduced themselves as Henry James Warre and Mervin Vavasour, British gentleman out from Montreal to enjoy the scenery and customs of the Columbia District—HBC fur-trading territory jointly controlled by the United States and Britain that included much of present-day British Columbia, as well today’s American states of Washington, Oregon, and part of Idaho.
After replacing their tattered clothing with new and expensive tweeds and beaver hats, the pair settled down for nearly a year of touring the region. An astute observer might have found their interests and choice of activities a trifle unusual.
Warre was frequently in front of his easel painting, while Vavasour had a peculiar fascination with the view from commanding hills, the location and dimensions of structures and buildings, the exact elevation of promontories, and the location of freshwater sources. Fort Vancouver, the largest settlement and the nucleus of British presence for the entire region, was of particular interest to the amiable yet eccentric pair.
“The Fort,” wrote Warre in his journal, “is badly situated as regards defence—being commanded by a ridge of Ground running the whole length of the Plain & extending along the bank of the River.… It is surrounded by strong pickets 15ft in height 220 yds long by 100 deep at the N. West Angle is a square block house, supporting an octagonal upper story containing several small Guns.” Odd commentary for an aimless civilian pleasure seeker.
Anyone who troubled to inspect Warre’s full repertoire of sketches and paintings would have observed a pattern of peculiar themes and content. There were no portraits, few scenes of the colourful voyageurs or native peoples, no drawings of strange and exotic plants. But there was an abundance of scenery of a specific sort—outcroppings, river junctions, forts, with elevation plans and assessments of their defensibility in case of conflict—but what conflict?
Back in 1818, Britain and the United States had agreed to jointly occupy what became known as Old Oregon—all territory north of Spanish California, south of Russian Alaska, and west of the Rocky Mountains. But in reality, Old Oregon, which the British referred to as the Columbia District, remained the sole preserve of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The vast territory, populated mainly by about 80,000 native peoples from various nations, was managed by a series of rude palisade forts loosely strung together along established canoe routes and seasonal mule paths.
For the next twenty years or so, little happened to disturb the HBC’s authority in the region. It was in effect ruled by McLoughlin, the HBC’s chief factor at Fort Vancouver, who ran the Columbia District like an old-time robber baron. He was shrewd, cunning, paternalistic, and sometimes ruthless. He held court in the shadowy depths of a great timber hall behind a primitive palisade, and dispensed justice according to the dictates of his own conscience—alternately with vengeful wrath or surprising leniency as the mood was upon him.
McLoughlin opened the gates of his fort to all manner of travellers and wanderers—both aboriginal and white, British or American—so long as they didn’t undermine his authority or overtly threaten the fur trade.
The character of the region began to change in the 1840s, when an endless stream of baggy, cloth-covered wagons slowly plodded their difficult way west. The people in these wagon trains were American colonists; they were coming to settle on land that until then had been primarily hunting and trapping territory. They travelled along 6,400 kilometres of rutted tracks, trekking across barren, windblown plains, ascending alpine passes, following the shores of raging rivers through red-rock canyons, and bypassing foaming cataracts, before ending, more or less, at Fort Vancouver.
McLoughlin had a soft heart when it came to these American colonists, who were arriving at a rate of more than a thousand a year. Destitute, on the verge of starvation, and ill-prepared for the coming winter, the settlers were given credit at the company store. McLoughlin politely directed them south of the Columbia River to the Willamette Valley.
While transforming the wilderness into ranch land was not in the best interests of the fur trade, McLoughlin was not about to drive the Americans off the land or watch them starve. He also realized that a private company could not long remain the only official authority in the region; without help from the British government, holding Old Oregon would be impossible.
As settlers continued pouring in, American political interest in the region grew. In 1844, the ardently expansionist President James Knox Polk was elected on the Democratic campaign slogans “Fifty-Forty or Fight”—referring to the latitude of the northern boundary with Alaska, then held by Russia—and the “re-annexation of Texas and reoccupation of Oregon.” These threatening slogans did not bode well for British sovereignty in the territory.
Enter Warre and Vavasour.
In early 1845, General Sir Richard Downes Jackson, commander of all the British forces in North America, selected two young lieutenants for a clandestine military reconnaissance in the Oregon Territory. The first was twenty-six-year-old Warre. A well-travelled officer marked for distinction, Warre was a graduate of the prestigious Sandhurst military academy and aide-de-camp to Jackson, as well as being a talented artist. Warre’s companion, twenty-four-year-old Mervin Vavasour, was a new lieutenant with the Royal Engineers. Their orders called on them to “obtain as accurate a knowledge of (the Oregon Territory) as may be requisite for the future and efficient prosecution of Military operations in it, should such operations become necessary.”
Their mission was to scout the region, then take possession of Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River (in present-day Washington State) and any other sites deemed useful in the event of a war. War seemed more possible as the months passed.
On May 5, 1845, the two undercover gentlemen joined a Hudson’s Bay Company fur brigade led by veteran trader Peter Skene Ogden as it forged west from Montreal. In early June they reached Fort Garry (in present-day Winnipeg) after a Herculean trek. After a short rest, they acquired horses and set off across the trackless domain of the prairies.
In their journals, the two grumbled about the quality of the food, the difficulty of the travel, the unruly behaviour of the voyageurs, and the “savage and dirty Indians.”
Of their guide Ogden, Warre wrote that he was “a fat jolly good fellow, reminding me of Falstaff, both in appearance and wit.… strongly in favour of all the Indian Customs.” Although he described him as an amusing and entertaining travelling companion, Warre also declared with distate that Ogden had “a very Republican Spirit.”
The discriminating gentlemen trotted west, arriving at the snowcapped ridge of the Rocky Mountains. What most would consider awe-inspiring failed, at first, to move Warre, the condescending world traveller: “Had I not seen Switzerland, I should have been much more struck, but I had allowed my imagination too much scope [and] I was on the whole disappointed.”
Ogden led the pair through the mountains and over the Continental Divide through what Warre called “really beautiful” scenery as they occasionally hunted and fished. Eventually they reached the Columbia River near Revelstoke and floated in boats downriver to Fort Vancouver, where they were welcomed by McLoughlin, who, with his stern countenance, shock of long white hair, and six-foot-four height, presented an imposing figure.
Relieved to be in a spot of modest civilization, Warre and Vavasour bolstered their cover by making extravagant purchases at the company store, including fine beaver hats, tweed pants and coats, hairbrushes, and rose-water perfume. Now looking more like the dandies they were supposed to be, they got to work.
During the next year they huddled around smouldering fires, took shelter inside leaky log huts at HBC forts, stalked along muddy roads in the dreary mist and rain, and sweltered over mountain passes in the dust and heat of high summer.
Every place they visited they described as incapable of defence, poorly situated, or with inadequate water supplies. At Cowlitz Farms, a small settlement near Fort Nisqually (on Puget Sound in present-day Washington State), even the Catholic Church, the only defensible structure in the region, “was in want of loopholes” for guns. Warre described Oregon City as tainted by the lawlessness of the citizens, but he noted in his journal that “a small force could overawe the present American population and obtain any quality of cattle to supply the troops in other parts of the country.”
Warre and Vavasour eventually purchased land surrounding Cape Disappointment from an American settler and drew up detailed plans for its defence.
Throughout it all, the two lieutenants were impressed with the exotic world around them. They observed Mount Hood “in all its majesty & snowy Grandeur.” Warre was amazed when, from the conical top of Mount St. Helens, “suddenly a long black Column of Smoke & Ashes shot up into the Air, and hung as a Canopy over the dazzling Sky behind it… the first Volcano I have ever seen in action.”
Their reports, sent to London via Montreal, were not encouraging.
They noted that American citizens were the primary inhabitants of the region (other than the tens of thousands of First Nations peoples who were conveniently overlooked by the eastern imperial powers). The number of Canadian settlers in the territory never amounted to more than a few hundred, mostly employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Warre recognized the future in these demographics and blamed the situation on chief factor McLoughlin, saying he gave too much help to American newcomers.
“We are convinced,” Warre wrote in his report, “that without their assistance not 30 American families would now have been in the settlement.”
Angered by the report, McLoughlin wrote a lengthy reply to his superiors, stating that he had no choice but to help the desperate settlers. Otherwise they would have attacked the fort to get what they needed, which would have ruined the company’s interests in the region and possibly precipitated a war.
“As a Good and faithful Subject it was my Duty to do my Utmost to maintain peace and order Between the British Subjects and American Citizens,” McLoughlin wrote. The company did not buy his arguments and planned to transfer him to another post and cut his salary. McLoughlin resigned in disgust in 1846. He lived out his days in Oregon, where he is known to this day as the “Father of Oregon.”
Warre’s report was also critical of Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who believed that regular British army troops could be brought to defend the territory via the tortuous fur trade route through the mountains.
With their work done in the spring of 1846, Warre and Vavasour departed Fort Vancouver with the eastbound fur brigade. Meanwhile, the political situation in Old Oregon, unbeknownst to the inhabitants, was gathering tension. President Polk had persuaded the U.S. Congress to end the joint-occupancy accord in December of 1845. Declaring the entire region America’s, he made rumblings of war. Meanwhile, Britain sent a warship, HMS America to patrol the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
War seemed imminent. But in the end, cooler heads prevailed.
British officials knew that a war over Oregon would not be limited to the distant Pacific, but would likely be fought as an invasion of Canada. They figured it was not worth fighting for a depleted fur preserve that was already occupied by unruly American citizens.
Polk was not especially eager to antagonize Britain, either. He was already faced with an impending war with Mexico over Texas. The two sides eventually agreed that all of Vancouver Island would remain British and that everywhere else, the forty-ninth parallel would serve as the boundary. The agreement was formalized under the Oregon Boundary Treaty of June 1846.
Historians are unsure of the exact influence Warre and Vavasour’s reports and dispatches had on the border settlement—their final report was received in London too late to directly influence the border negotiations. But undoubtedly they contributed to the growing body of information that led negotiators to settle on the border as we now know it.
What their reports did was provide a graphic window, however brief and selective, into a region on the cusp of dramatic political and social change.
U.S. President James Monroe
The belief that the United States was divinely destined to control all of North America arose out of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. President James Monroe told Congress that any foreign intervention in the affairs of the Americas (including South America) would be viewed as an assault on the United States.
Journalist John L. O’Sullivan expanded the concept in 1845, saying it was the nation’s “manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly Multiplying millions.” Manifest destiny became the rallying cry of American expansionists and was used to justify the expropriation of Indian lands, the war with Mexico between 1846 and 1848, and President James Knox Polk’s claim to what is now British Columbia.
Overland to Oregon in 1845: Impressions of a journey across North America by H.J. Warre. Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa, 1976.
Fortune’s a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America by Barry Gough. Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, B.C., 2007.
Stephen Bown’s latest book is Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600–1900 published by Douglas and McIntyre in 2009. Visit his website at Stephenrbown.net.
This article originally appeared in the February-March 2010 issue of The Beaver.
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