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The historic City of Adelaide clipper ship has been moved to a new and permanent berth in the city's Outer Harbour. The ship, which is little more than a hull, is thought to be the oldest remaining of its kind in the world. It is also the only surviving sailing ship to have brought migrants from Europe to Australia. On Friday it made a short trip on a barge from its temporary dock to a new home, after those involved in its recovery and restoration successfully lobbied the state government. The City of Adelaide has strong links to South Australia, having brought thousands of settlers and their supplies to the new colony in the 19th century, each time returning cargo to England, including copper from local mines. It made 23 trips between 1864 and 1887. The clipper's sailing days ended in 1893, but it continued to serve as a training ship and a floating hospital at one stage before it sank in Glasgow dock in 1990. It was later raised and moved to the banks of the River Irvine but was long considered unable to be recovered before an Adelaide group stepped in with a plan to bring it to SA. It made the journey to Adelaide in 2014, fixed to a cargo ship by a steel cradle designed to protect the fragile timbers. Since then, a team of volunteers has worked to clean out and repair the hull, relying on donations, sponsorship, paid guided tours and merchandise sales to fund the ongoing restoration. Australian Associated Press
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November 29 2019 - 9:36AM
Historic clipper moves to new home
The City of Adelaide clipper ship has been moved to a new berth in the city's Outer Harbour.
The historic City of Adelaide clipper ship has been moved to a new and permanent berth in the city's Outer Harbour.
The ship, which is little more than a hull, is thought to be the oldest remaining of its kind in the world.
It is also the only surviving sailing ship to have brought migrants from Europe to Australia.
On Friday it made a short trip on a barge from its temporary dock to a new home, after those involved in its recovery and restoration successfully lobbied the state government.
The City of Adelaide has strong links to South Australia, having brought thousands of settlers and their supplies to the new colony in the 19th century, each time returning cargo to England, including copper from local mines.
It made 23 trips between 1864 and 1887.
The clipper's sailing days ended in 1893, but it continued to serve as a training ship and a floating hospital at one stage before it sank in Glasgow dock in 1990.
It was later raised and moved to the banks of the River Irvine but was long considered unable to be recovered before an Adelaide group stepped in with a plan to bring it to SA.
It made the journey to Adelaide in 2014, fixed to a cargo ship by a steel cradle designed to protect the fragile timbers.
Since then, a team of volunteers has worked to clean out and repair the hull, relying on donations, sponsorship, paid guided tours and merchandise sales to fund the ongoing restoration.
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The Flinders News


Victoria's Secret apologizes to customer who says she was racially-profiled
Posted: 1:09 AM, Dec 09, 2016
Dimitrios Kambouris

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 10: Model Kendall Jenner from California walks the runway during the 2015 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at Lexington Avenue Armory on November 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

(CNN) -- Victoria's Secret has apologized to a woman who posted a widely viewed video on Facebook saying she was kicked out of an Alabama store because she is black.
Kimberly Houzah says she and another black woman were told to leave the store by someone she thought was a manager. The lingerie giant said the employee is no longer with the company.
In her video, Houzah says the incident started when a third African-American woman was allegedly accused of shoplifting on Wednesday at the store at the Quintard Mall in Oxford. The manager, Houzah says, then told her and a third black woman they needed to leave the store.
Houzah's video begins after she has been told to leave. In the background you can hear someone saying, "I just need y'all to go."
It appears to be an employee who is arguing with the other black shopper. It's not clear from the video if the employee is white or black.
Most of the 11-minute video is Houzah recording her reaction to the incident.
She says she and the other woman didn't go to the store together. "I don't feel like everybody racist," Houzah said "But I'm just trying to understand why, 'cause we just happened to be three black women in Victoria's Secret ... that we gotta be together."
The company didn't say whether it fired the employee or she quit.
Victoria's Secret: Incident should not have happened
"We take the experience of our customer at the Quintard Mall very seriously and have reached out to her directly to express our sincere apology," Victoria's Secret said on Facebook. "What happened at our store should not have happened and does not represent who we are or what we stand for. The store associate involved in this matter is no longer employed with the company. Victoria's Secret is adamant that all customers regardless of race be treated with dignity and respect at all times."
CNN reached out to Victoria's Secret for clarification on how the employee separated from the company but didn't get a response.
"I never gave her a reason to think that I was stealing," Houzah told CNN affiliate WIAT at the mall on Thursday afternoon. She returned to the store with a group of about 50 protesters. "It's completely unacceptable, because nobody else was asked to leave the store."
A mall security officer appears in the video.
According to WIAT, Quintard Mall said: "The Quintard Mall security team was following instructions from the Victoria's Secret employee. We take any allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring that all of our guests are treated with the utmost respect."
CNN called mall officials and Houzah but didn't get an immediate response from either.
Oxford is about 60 miles east of Birmingham.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


New Testament of the Bible
About the New Testament of the Bible
The Pauline Letters
Letters Written in Captivity
The Synoptic Gospels and Acts
The Gospel of Matthew
The Pastoral Letters
Open Letters to the Churches
The Letter to the Hebrews
The Gospel of John
Summary and Analysis 1 and 2 Corinthians
Paul wrote at least four different letters to the church at Corinth, three of which are included in the New Testament. In what is now called 1 Corinthians, there is a reference to a former letter in which instruction was given concerning the type of conduct that should not be tolerated in a Christian church. 2 Corinthians is made up of two different letters. Chapters 1–9 are written in a conciliatory tone that indicates that they were composed after Chapters 10–13 were received and accepted by the members of the church. Chapters 10–13 belong to what is often referred to as the "painful letter," in which Paul replies to the many false charges made concerning him and his work. The largest part of Paul's correspondence was with the church at Corinth, for the problems that he encountered in this place were more numerous than he had found in other cities, and if his message could be successful in Corinth, there was good reason to believe that it could have results that would be equally as good in any other place.
Corinth was an important city in Paul's day. Generally known as a city devoted to pleasure-seeking, it was a center for Greek culture and a busy commercial city with a cosmopolitan atmosphere that brought together people and customs from different parts of the world. Pagan religions with sexual rites and ceremonies existed, and both materialism and immorality were the accepted order of the day. In view of these conditions, no wonder Paul said he began his Corinthian mission with fear. However, his work was successful from the beginning. He was especially anxious to guide new Christian converts with reference to the many perplexing problems that were bound to arise. In other places, the Jewish element, with its legalistic tendencies, created difficulties, but in Corinth, the moral problem caused the greater anxiety. The Corinthian church's membership was composed of people from many different quarters, including those whose training and environment were foreign to the Hebrew standards of morality. Paul was deeply concerned that the Christian church in Corinth should make no compromise with the morality — or immorality — customary in a pagan society.
The longest of the letters written to the church at Corinth is known in the New Testament as 1 Corinthians. Containing sixteen chapters dealing with a wide variety of topics, the first topic mentioned is that of divisions within the church. Four distinct factions correspond to the four individuals whose teachings were followed by the respective groups: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ. Reportedly, the household of Chloe informed Paul that serious quarrels had taken place among these factions. The spirit of independent thinking emphasized so strongly by the Greeks evidently was influencing the Corinthian Christians. Paul's manner of dealing with the problem is noteworthy. He does not insist that all members of the community should think alike on every subject, nor does he advocate that someone with authority should tell others what to believe. What he does insist on is a unity of spirit and purpose that will allow each group to learn from the others.
On the subject of immorality within the membership of the church, Paul is very explicit. Any type of immoral conduct must not be tolerated among the believers. If any of their number persist in following the low moral standards of the pagans, they should be excluded from membership. Association with evildoers cannot be avoided so long as church members live in a wicked city, but it need not be permitted within the group that is called Christian. The function of the church is to set a high standard for the society in which it exists, which cannot be done by permitting low standards among their own members: "Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are."
Disputes arising among members of the Christian community should be settled peaceably without going to a civil court: "The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged?" Paul refers to a popular Jewish belief that saints are to have a part in the judgment of the world. Certainly the Corinthians are not qualified to have a part in the judgment of the world if they are unable to settle difficulties among themselves.
Sexual morality was a real problem in the church at Corinth. Neither monogamy nor chastity was regarded as obligatory in the pagan society in which many of the church members were reared before becoming Christians. Paul's instruction regarding marriage must be considered in accordance with his belief concerning the imminence of the second coming of Christ, as well as with his desire to have the church at Corinth exemplify a high standard of living. The same can be said about his advice concerning the impropriety of women speaking in church. In the city of Corinth, prostitutes customarily spoke in public, and to protect the reputation of the women in the Christian church, Paul thought it would be wise for them to remain silent. He explains, however, that this is merely his personal opinion; he has received no direct revelation to this effect.
Regarding the eating of meat that has been obtained from animals sacrificed to idols, everyone should follow the dictates of their own consciences, the only condition being that each person should have respect for the conscience of the person who does not agree with him. One should refrain from needlessly offending another person, even though by doing so it is necessary to curb one's own appetite.
The Christian churches customarily commemorated the events associated with Jesus' death and resurrection by partaking of a common meal together. Some of the people at Corinth failed to see the significance of this meal and made it an occasion for feasting. Paul explains that the purpose of this meal is not for the enjoyment of eating and drinking together but rather for a renewed dedication to the spirit made manifest in the life and death of Jesus. In other words, each individual should examine his own heart and life and bring them into harmony with the Spirit of Christ. Any grievances that people have with one another should be set aside in preparation for the eating of the meal together.
Spiritual gifts among the various members of the church is another topic treated at some length in 1 Corinthians. Using the analogy of the human body, in which each organ has its special function to perform and no one of them can be regarded as more vital than another, the same principle applies within the church, which is the body of Christ. Some members have the gift of prophecy, others that of teaching, and still others that of offering help in carrying forward the work of the church. Those who are apostles or prophets are not to think of themselves as superior to those who exercise other gifts, for all gifts are necessary, and the church would not be complete if any of them were missing. To those who boast that they have the gift of tongues and are therefore in a position to exercise lordship over others, Paul writes that this particular gift, like all of the others, should be evaluated in terms of its usefulness in promoting the Christian way of life. He does not condemn this gift for those who might find it useful, but he says that so far as he is concerned, it is better to speak a few words that will be understood by others than to speak at great length in an unknown tongue that is quite unintelligible to those who might hear it.
Following the discussion of spiritual gifts is Paul's immortal hymn to Christian love, which is one of the great classics of Christian literature. The hymn makes love the foundation for all Christian conduct. What wisdom was for the Greeks, love is for Christians: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
After the discourse on love, Paul discusses resurrection. For him, the subject is of primary importance, for he considers resurrection the basis upon which the whole structure of Christianity rests. If Christ is not risen, then our hope is in vain. Christ's resurrection is attested to by a large number of witnesses, of whom Paul counts himself one of the last. The significance of the resurrection, more than a vindication of the Messiahship of Jesus, assures us that what happened in the case of Jesus can and will happen to all those who believe in him. The resurrection of the righteous will be associated with the second coming of Christ: "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'" The letter closes with an appeal for a contribution to help provide for the poor among the Christians in Jerusalem. Paul will stop at Corinth on his way to Jerusalem and take the gift with him.
The so-called "painful letter," which is found in Chapters 10–13 of 2 Corinthians, contains Paul's defense of himself and of his work to the charges made against him by his enemies, including the Jewish legalists who said that Paul was an impostor who had not been authorized by the proper authorities to work among the churches. The legalists supported their charge by pointing out that Paul had a "thorn in [his] flesh," some physical defect that, according to ancient Jewish regulations, would have barred a man from the priesthood. They further maintained that Paul supported himself by doing manual labor rather than by accepting support from the members of the church. This labor, in their judgment, was an admission on his part that he was not qualified to be supported in the way that was customary for duly authorized missionaries. The legalists also accused Paul of cowardice on the grounds that he was bold so long as he was writing letters, but he was very mild when present with the legalists in person. Other charges of a similar nature were made in an all-out attempt to discredit the religious work that Paul was doing.
To all of these charges, Paul makes a vigorous reply. He shows wherein the charges are false, and he recounts for the people at Corinth the many trials and hardships that he suffered for their sake and for the sake of the gospel. Although he apologizes for seeming to boast of his own attainments, he explains the necessity for doing so. He indicates further that his greatest disappointment lies not in the fact that charges of this sort have been made against him but that the members of the Corinthian church have apparently been persuaded by them.
The first nine chapters of what is now called 2 Corinthians are a letter that appears to have been written some time after the "painful letter" was received and accepted by the church. This letter contains an expression of gratitude for the change that has taken place among the Corinthian believers. Paul rejoices that they are now on the right track again, and he summarizes for them the essential meaning of the gospel that he first proclaimed to them. Using the language of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, Paul tells them that the Christian gospel is none other than the New Covenant, written "not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." Toward the close of the letter, he again reminds them of the collection to be taken for the poor in Jerusalem.
Although the Corinthian letters were addressed to a single church and were concerned primarily with local problems existing at that time, they are of special interest to readers of the New Testament. One reason for this interest is that the letters were writ- ten at an early date; therefore, they throw considerable light on the character of the Christian movement prior to the writing of any gospel account of Jesus' life. Paul's statements concerning the resurrection of Jesus constitute the earliest preserved record of that event. The same is true of his account of the institution of the Lord's Supper. His remarks concerning the gift of tongues, along with the other gifts of the spirit, help us to understand the way in which these manifestations were viewed by the early church. Finally, the many problems discussed in 1 Corinthians tell us a great deal about the conditions that prevailed at that time.
Paul's account of the resurrection enables us to see how his view differed from those of the ancient Greeks and also from the view found in certain portions of the Old Testament. The Greeks believed in the doctrine of the soul's immortality. According to this doctrine, souls do not have a beginning or an end. They are eternal realities capable of existing apart from the bodies in which they were incarnated. This view was contrary to the Hebrew conception, which viewed man as a single unit including body, soul, and spirit; the soul was not something that existed apart from the body. After death, all went down to Sheol, a cavern below the earth, but no memory or consciousness of any kind attended this state of existence.
In contrast to these views, Paul believed in a genuine resurrection from physical death in which a person's individuality and moral worth would be preserved. But this preservation was not to be a reanimation of the corpse and a continuation of life as it had been before. Flesh and blood, Paul tells us, will not inherit God's kingdom. The body that is raised will not be the natural body but rather a spiritual body. Paul does not tell us what this spiritual body will be like, but he is sure that it will be a body of some kind, for the personality includes body, soul, and spirit, and salvation is not achieved until all three have been transformed together. The Gnostics of Paul's day, who believed that only spirit is good and that all matter is evil, taught that Jesus did not possess a physical body but only appeared to do so. For Paul, this position was untenable: Unless Jesus possessed a body in common with other human beings, his triumph over evil would have no significance for humans. Jesus' resurrection means a triumph of the entire personality over the forces of evil; what it means for Jesus it also means for all those who put their trust in him.
Previous 1 and 2 Thessalonians
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1 Peter was written primarily for the benefit of Christians who were suffering from
lack of faith
severe persecution


Signs of a recovery?
While industrial output figures are grim, growth across some sectors suggests that the worst may be over.
Anand Adhikari Print Edition: May 3, 2009
Could the economic slowdown in India have finally turned a corner? According to a generally-accepted rule of thumb, an economy supposedly revives six to nine months after the stock market in that country bottoms out. This happened on March 9 this year when the Sensex reached 8,160 points—but has since risen by over 30 per cent to 10,800, fuelling hopes that a rebound is around the corner.
However, this sort of “rule of thumb” analysis wilts in the face of solid numbers. And recently released numbers for industrial production are grim enough to put deep frowns on the faces of even the most die-hard optimists. Industrial output fell at its fastest annualised rate in 14 years, shrinking 1.2 per cent in February compared to a robust 9.5 per cent growth for the same period last year. So did manufacturing, which contracted by 1.4 per cent in February.
Still, despite all the gloom, a few silver linings amid these clouds of economic uncertainty stand out. Yashika Singh, Head of Economic Analysis, Dun & Bradstreet India, believes that the negative growth of 1.2 per cent could, in some part, be attributed to a high base effect, which makes these numbers look worse than they actually are. Also, “there are encouraging growth numbers across sectors such as FMCG, cement, telecom, retail, steel and auto,” says Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group.
Others, like V. Vaidyanathan, Executive Director at ICICI Bank, think that “a good part of the liquidity has now seeped into the system and is resurfacing in the form of purchase of goods and services.”
A glance at growth numbers across core sectors seems to echo these views. The FMCG sector, for instance, has been registering robust growth with most categories growing between 8 and 25 per cent. ICICI Bank has actually seen an upward movement in heavy commercial vehicle sales for the first three months of 2009, from 7,000 units in January, to 15,000 for March. “I consider commercial vehicles as a lightning rod of what’s happening in the economy, and seen in this light, this must be read as good news for the economy,” observes Vaidyanathan.
Similarly, ICICI Bank says that the auto industry is also in the midst of a recovery. March 2009 saw 1,59,000 cars being produced— only a 2 per cent growth over the same period last year. While this is not a large number, the bank says that sequential growth across the months reveals a more accurate picture: While average sales for the quarter ending March ’09 were 1,42,000, those for quarter ending December ’08 were 1,00,000— reflecting a sizable 42 per cent increase. “No doubt, fiscal stimulus has played a role, with excise benefits and accelerated depreciation. But confidence, too, could be lifting, or else people wouldn’t buy cars,” reasons Vaidyanathan.
This rise in consumption is a good sign, say experts, as it helps companies in drawing down their inventory levels. “The higher levels had earlier resulted in production cuts,” says Sonal Verma, Economist at Nomura Securities. Companies can now have the advantage of building fresh inventory while taking advantage of input costs that are substantially lower than before. This is especially welcome for the beleaguered construction sector, which now has to deal with much cheaper steel and cement.
So, if this isn’t a bona fide recovery, is there one lurking in the not-so-distant future? Experts believe that a further easing of monetary policy and rising infrastructure spending will be good catalysts for a rebound. “The pessimism seems to have been overdone in India,” says Srinivasan. Another gauge to judge a recovery by: Capital expenditure spends by corporates which will indicate a buildup of corporate confidence.
Clearly, the Indian economy is far from being out of the woods. However, if these sectoral growth trends are anything to go by, there might just be a glimmer of hope that the worst is behind us.
Numbers of note
Instan tip


World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in movies post-9/11
February 5, 2018 September 11, 2012 by Michael Sheridan
The Twin Towers seen in ‘Chasing Amy’
For more than 30 years, the celebrated Twin Towers were iconic to films set in New York City. The buildings were as visually emblematic as Monument Valley’s spires are to westerns.
The 110-story structures, completed in the early 1970s, appeared in films before they were even finished. The construction site of what would become the World Trade Center is in 1971’s The French Connection. After they were both completed, the two buildings were in dozens upon dozens of movies. King Kong climbed them in the 1976 remake, and the Man of Steel soared past them in 1981’s Superman II. They stood tall in the background of 1995’s Die Hard with a Vengeance, and are seen frequently in Ed Burns’ 2001 film, Streets of New York.
These are merely a few of the movies in which the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center had bit parts.
In the immediate wake of their destruction on Sept. 11, 2001, filmmakers shied away from using them. For example, the ending to Men in Black 2 was reshot to have scenes with the Twin Towers instead center on New York City’s famed Chrysler Building. The structures were removed from the Spider-Man 2 trailer and film posters. The Twin Towers were also digitally erased from several shots of Ben Stiller comedy, Zoolander.
More than a decade after those tragic events, the World Trade Center towers have appeared in only a handful of films. In most cases, those movies are about the attacks or the aftermath. They are filled with footage of the Towers burning or sinking into themselves. Movies such as Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and The Guys and, of course, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center.
For this article, I wanted to focus on films which were not about 9/11, or the events surrounding them. In these cases, the Towers were either digitally recreated or featured using archival footage to paint a picture of “old” New York City. The reasons for using them vary, from symbolism about terrorism to establishing the time period in which the movie took place. But in every case the Towers are honored in their former glory, not their final, tragic moments.
Digitally recreated Twin Towers seen at end of ‘Gangs of New York’
Gangs of New York (2002)
Martin Scorsese’s love for New York City has driven many of his films. Each picture depicts the Big Apple in different ways and during different times. Gangs of New York explored a relatively unknown period of racial strife and gang warfare in downtown Manhattan.
The final scene includes a montage that shows how the lower part of the city grew and developed. The Brooklyn Bridge and skyscrapers slowly fade into existence. It ends with the World Trade Center Towers appearing.
The film came out shortly after the events of 9/11. And while other filmmakers were removing images of the buildings, Scorsese opted instead to keep them in.
“From the first draft of the script, that was the way it ended, with the modern skyline of New York being built. It had to end with that, or the movie shouldn’t have existed,” he is quoted as saying about this decision.
“We did the paintings and edited that skyline sequence before September 11, and afterwards it was suggested that we should take out the towers, but I felt that was not the right way to go. It’s not my job to revise the New York skyline. The people in the film and the people of New York, good, bad, and indifferent, were part of the creation of that skyline, not the destruction of it. And if the skyline collapses, ultimately, they will build another one.”
‘Miracle’ features the Twin Towers in its closing moments
Miracle (2004)
Set in 1980, the Kurt Russell film centers on a coach who led the U.S. hockey team to an historic gold medal win over the Russians at the Olympics.
During one sequence, the U.S. team plays an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden. This part of the film includes a shot of the Twin Towers lit up at night.
The shot, which according to IMDB was the first time digitally recreated Towers were used in a film after 9/11, was reportedly a deliberate decision by the filmmakers to pay respect to friends they lost on the day of the attacks.
Final shot of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Munich’ shows Twin Towers
The Steven Spielberg film follows a group of Israeli agents who carry out a series of assassinations of those believed to be behind an attack that lead to the deaths of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Olympics.
In the movie’s final scene, one agent (Eric Bana) confronts his former boss (Geoffrey Rush) in a park in New York City. The two discuss the killings, and argue over whether or not they actually solved anything.
“There is no peace at the end of this, you know this,” Bana’s character argues.
The two go their separate ways, and the camera pans to reveal the Twin Towers in the background. It is followed by some text:
“Ultimately nine of the eleven Palestinian men originally targeted for assassination were killed.”
Spielberg intentionally draws a connection between the events depicted in Munich to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He makes the argument, through the final scene’s dialogue and the visuals and the epilogue, that the violence in the fight against terrorism only breeds more violence. And with that cycle the death count grows as the acts of destruction become bigger and more devastating.
New York City’s old skyline is lit up again in ‘Rent’
The Tony award-winning musical was translated to the big screen by Chris Columbus. It’s beautiful songs and terrific actors helped turn this Broadway production into a good movie.
It’s use of the Twin Towers, shown in a simple night shot of downtown Manhattan as seen from Brooklyn, helps reinforce the time period. Rent takes place over a period of months from 1989 to 1990. The story deals with an array of social issues, none of which connect with terrorism or 9/11.
This film in a way helps re-establish the Twin Towers as symbols of New York City, and not just of tragedy and horror. Just a short view of them helps, instantly, to transport the viewer to a different time.
Twin Towers seen in the background in scene of ‘We Own The Night’
We Own The Night (2007)
Like Rent, this is a movie set in New York City’s past. The police drama spans 1988 and 1989, and centers on the relationship of two brothers (Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg).
Images of the Twin Towers are used in two key ways. The first was in one of the movie posters used to promote the film. The Towers were featured between Phoenix and Wahlberg in one of several ads. The two buildings also appear in a single scene in the film, once again between the two.
We Own The Night uses the Towers not as symbols of terrorism or violence, but as a visual metaphor for Phoenix and Wahlberg. Two strong-willed brothers constantly at odds who in the end stand together in defense of each other.
After 9/11, the Towers chiefly came to represent the attacks. This 2007 film extended the visual use of them beyond this limited view.
World Trade Center seen through airplane window in ‘Definitely, Maybe’
Definitely, Maybe (2008)
The brief cameo the Twin Towers have in this Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy is fairly straight forward. They are not meant as some deep symbolic moment or statement about terrorism.
Definitely, Maybe makes use of several flashbacks to tell its story. In one flashback Reynolds’ character looks out the window of his plane to see Manhattan, and the Towers are visible. It helps tell the audience these events happen in the past.
‘Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa’ offers up an computer animated view of the Twin Towers
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)
This is the first instance of the Twin Towers being featured in an animated movie post-9/11.
Like Definitely, Maybe and Rent, the Twin Towers are here simply to provide the viewer with a visual indication that what they are seeing happened in the past.
In this case, the shot shows how Alex the Lion ended up at the Central Park Zoo (his crate fell off a boat and he floated to NYC). His wooden box floats past the Statue of Liberty, and in the background is the New York City skyline with the World Trade Center towers in full bloom. This apparently takes place in 1972, based on a newspaper that’s seen in a following scene (the buildings may not exactly be represented accurately, however, since Tower 2 was not completed until 1973).
Downtown Manhattan seen from Brooklyn during the 1990s in 2008’s ‘The Wackness’
The Wackness (2008)
This small, independent film by Jonathan Levine is set in the 1990s. He describes it as a “period piece” and a “love story” to his hometown of New York City.
The film ends with Ben Kingsley, who plays a shrink, seated on a bench and smoking a joint. It’s not clear where he is, but when the angle cuts to show what he’s looking at, we see he’s gazing at the Twin Towers.
According to Levine, “To me, it is the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence. I’m using that image as a note of bittersweet nostalgia. It has to be handled delicately, but at the same time, it’s a very powerful image. I didn’t want to shy away from it.”
It’s a lovely shot, one that – according to the film’s star, Josh Peck (of Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh fame and a native New Yorker) – captures the essence of the film.
The Wackness is “a story of the loss of innocence,” he says in an interview on Cinema Blend. “When you see that scene with the [Twin] Towers — that day was a real loss of innocence for this city.”
Claymation version of the Twin Towers in ‘Mary & Max;
This film out of Austrlia is unique in that the image of the two buildings are seen in stop-motion animation.
“There are several reasons why the Twin Towers are still in the film,” says Mary & Max’s writer/director, Adam Elliot. “The first is because the film is set in the ’70s and ’80s… and they were still there.”
The use of the Twin Towers was also influenced by two of the film’s investors, Paul and Tom Hardart, who live in New York City, Elliot explains. Before production he asked them how they felt about featuring the Towers.
“They said, ‘If they were there at the time, then they should be there,’ so we made a very conscious decision to leave them in,” he says, noting that they didn’t go out of their way to make them prominent. But “they had quite a presence on the New York skyline, so you can’t leave them out.”
‘Notorious’ sets its time period with a shot of the World Trade Center towers
The film tells the story of Notorious B.I.G., a mega-watt rap icon who was gunned down in Los Angeles in 1997.
Brooklyn-born Christopher George Latore Wallace helped define East Coast rap, at the center of which was New York City.
There isn’t any special significance to the image of the World Trade Center seen in the motion picture. It merely serves to show the city as it was during that time.
The Twin Towers are seen several times in ‘Watchmen’
Set in the 1980s, this bloated adaptation of the highly celebrated graphic novel takes place in an alternate universe, one in which costumed vigilantes really exist.
New York City serves as the backdrop to this dark tale. In several scenes, the Twin Towers are visible in the distance.
While it makes sense for the buildings to appear in the film simply because of the time period and the setting, Zach Snyder likely included them in order to represent something more. The Towers effectively foreshadow a key aspect of the film’s plot. (This will tread upon spoiler territory, just a warning for those who haven’t seen the film or read the book.)
At the core of Watchmen is a secret plot to destroy New York City. But it’s a plot with a purpose, one that echoes 9/11.
With the Cold War raging and threatening to quickly become a real war, someone schemes to create a kind of terrorist attack that would help unify global enemies against a common foe. A foe that could be a deadly threat to everyone. And the plot works.
The 9/11 attacks had a very similar effect.
For a period of time, nations all over the world came together in goodwill. Governments who had once been hostile to one another found common ground, forming new bonds of cooperation.
As suggested in Watchmen‘s final moments, however, the goal of the villain’s elaborate plot to ease political tensions would eventually unravel. Not unlike what happened after 9/11.
Twin Towers in ‘Kill the Irishman’
Kill the Irishman (2011)
This excellent true story is about an Irish crook named Danny Greene who rose to power, and gained quite a few enemies, in the late 1970s.
Set in Cleveland, Greene’s problems begin when he pisses off the mafia in New York City over some stolen cash. It is this connection to the Big Apple that allows for the view of the Towers to be used.
The view of the buildings is really just a means of establishing the era and location, similar to Rent or Notorious. In fact, the view of the buildings is pretty much the same shot but during the day.
The season finale of ‘Fringe”s first season features the surprising reveal of the Twin Towers
Fringe (Season 1 finale, 2009)
While this list is dedicated specifically to movies, I didn’t feel it would be complete without mentioning Fox’ Fringe.
This is a science fiction series that deals with mad scientists and crazy medicine. The existence of a parallel universe was one of the central concepts in the show.
In that alternate universe, the attacks of 9/11 did not happen. This twist was revealed with great effect at the end of the show’s first season. There was little reaction to this by critics, which always surprised me. But the series, while not about real-world terrorism, has always addressed terrorism in a sci-fi context. So while it could be easy to accuse the producers of using the Towers for mere shock value, depicting a universe in which the terror attacks of Sept. 11 didn’t happen fits the show’s tone.
For more films that include images or shots or photos of the Twin Towers, both before and after 9/11, visit World Trade Center in Movies (http://wtcinmovies.tripod.com/2000.html).
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Mexican Kingpin Update
Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo) has not done well since his escape from Amaloya Prison. He still has a dozen wives and God only knows how many children, and he "had" a high overhead with all of his properties and business enterprises. But that's not what drove the man. He wanted to be loved and respected.
By the time he was arrested this week, he'd seen his kingdom shrink. The only ally he'd been able to draw into his post-escape empire was the Tijuana Cartel (Arellano-Felix Organization), which has been far more than decimated in recent years and is only a shadow of its former self. Chapo could no longer ride around on American-made helicopters, given to Mexico and the Mexican Army for the purpose of fighting the drug war. Things changed for him.
I thought that he would retreat to his vast holdings in Canada or elsewhere in South America where he owns large estancias (ranches), but it was more important for him to be Chapo than to live out his life in peace. He hung out and was seen in Guadalajara. When pressure was applied, he moved to the mountains east of Los Mochis in Sinaloa where he has several facilities. Then it ended for him.
My sense is that he will be extradited to the US and will live out the remainder of his life at the SuperMax Prison in Aurora, Colorado.
A number of the other older narco kingpins have remained in the business, but you must understand that most of these people/organizations make as much or more money in 'legitimate' commerce than they do in the drug trade. This became even more the case after the 2008 financial melt-down that struck Mexico every bit as hard as it did the USA. Drug lords, flush with cash, bought businesses that were going under for pennies on the dollar.
As I presently understand it, Juan José Esparragoza Moreno (El Azul) plans to move out of the drug business completely and will buy up much of the Mexican national petroleum company, PEMEX, which is transitioning from a publicly owned concern to a private one. There will be fronts and wheels within wheels, but it's a better gig than kingpin from an economic standpoint. El Azul was always smarter than Chapo.
Most of the kingpins moved their families to San Antonio, Texas, which has experienced significant growth in recent years. San Antonio is a straight shot from Guadalajara, Jalisco. They don't caper in San Antonio, they live there.


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Donald Thompson
(Rev. Dr.) Donald Thompson is a retired university professor/administrator who taught theology, ethics and religious studies in higher education in Canada. He holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Mc Gill universities. Throughout his career in higher education he has always maintained active involvement in parish ministry, particularly in education and social responsibility.
He and his wife Susan live in Norwalk, where both have been involved in Norwalk Community College. Don has been teaching ethics courses exploring human good, sustainability, awareness and choices in their Lifetime Learners program. He is active in the St. Luke’s seniors thinking group. He assists in the worship life at St. Luke’s when called upon.
Susan Wyper
The Rev. Susan Wyper joined the Saint Luke’s clergy staff as Associate Rector in September, after nine years at St. Matthew’s in Bedford, NY. While serving “across the border,” Susan and her family continued to consider Saint Luke’s their parish home and she is happy to return to the church that raised her family and supported her call to ministry.
Susan holds degrees from Yale University, Middlebury College and Berkeley Divinity School. She and her husband George have lived in Darien since 1987 and been actively involved in the church and wider community. They have three sons, James, Robby & Silas.
Dawn Stegelmann
Dawn Stegelmann has been an Associate Rector at Saint Luke’s since 2015. Serving in a part-time capacity, Dawn leads small groups throughout the year and supports a variety of outreach initiatives and ministries. She loves pastoral care work in all life stages and participating in the worship cycle of the church year. Dawn also is an adjunct professor at General Theological Seminary in New York City where she teaches creative spiritual practices and supervision courses through the Center for Christian Spirituality. Ordained in 2008, Dawn was the Associate Rector of Trinity, Southport for seven years.
Dawn first moved to Darien and joined Saint Luke’s as a parishioner in 1990 with her young and growing family. She was active in many ministries and served on the Vestry and as a Junior Warden before being called to the priesthood. She received her Master of Divinity from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and a Master in Sacred Theology from General Theological Seminary. Dawn is interested in the crossroads of spirituality, neuroscience and psychology. She has three boys who still consider Saint Luke’s their spiritual home.
Daniel Lennox
The Rev. Daniel Lennox is the Associate Rector for Spiritual Formation. Danny and his wife, Abigail (who sings in the choir), their two children, Grete and Des arrived at Saint Luke’s in June, 2015. Danny oversees the spiritual formation of the parish, including working with children, youth and adults in their faith journey. In addition, Danny assists the rector with pastoral care, worship, preaching, and tasks related to parish-building. He holds degrees from McGill, Yale and Boston University, and he has served Episcopal churches in Alexandria, Bedford and Hoboken.
David Anderson began his ministry at Saint Luke’s, coming here fresh out of seminary in 1989 as Associate Rector. In 1992 he left to lead a church in Pennsylvania and returned to Saint Luke’s eleven years later, in 2003, to become Rector. David’s ministry includes leading the clergy, staff and Vestry in pursuing our vision—Grow personally in faith; Build an accepting community; and Work alongside our neighbors to serve the world. He loves preaching, teaching and writing, helping people to connect with their inner, spiritual lives in a busy, distracting world. He is the author of “Breakfast Epiphanies” (Beacon Press, 2002), writes a regular column for “The Good News,” the newspaper for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and is working on a book on faith after midlife. David is married to Pam, a cookbook author and food blogger who offers a lot of hospitality to the Saint Luke’s family. They have two daughters: Maggy, who lives with her husband Andy in Manhattan; and Sharon, who is a student at Yale Divinity School. And two cats.


Rare Colonial South American Allegorical Emerald & Diamond Pendant
Spanish Colonial or Spain
height: 5.2cm, width: 3.5cm, weight: 28g
UK art market
This very fine silver and gold-plated (gilded) pendant features a cupid-like native figure wearing a feather headdress associated with the Aztec or Tupinamba nobility astride an eagle which in turn clutches a heart in its right claw, all set within a floral, leafy array. The native figure clutches a chalice or goblet in his left hand and an arrow in his right. The native figure’s well-formed body has been gilded, providing a wonderful contrast with the silver surrounds.
The pendent is set with large emeralds in gilded box settings and small rose-cut diamonds. The back is entirely gilded and also engraved.
Overall, the pendant is a remarkable allegory for the Americas: the eagle suggests the colonial power of Spain, the native with Inca feathers is self evident, and the heart is likely to represent the Sacred Heart of Christ.
It was made either in Spain or in South America, perhaps Brazil, for export to Spain. Certainly, in the eighteenth century, the Spanish aristocracy placed jewellery orders to far-flung manufacturers. Orders were sent to China and the Manila for example, and often this was trans-shipped via the Americas. Isabel Farnese awaited jewels ordered from Manila and China that were lost in a shipwreck 1716, despite the efforts of Philip V’s divers attempting to wreck the wreckage of ships sailing to Spain from Havana (Muller, 2012, p. 155).
The use of emeralds represents the huge mineral wealth of Spain’s Latin American colonies. Green gems in jewellery became very fashionable in eighteenth century Spain and its colonies on account of the new availability of emeralds from Columbia.
The Cupid figure has ‘native’-type features and wears a feathered crown akin to the feathered crowns worn by chiefs of the Tupinamba people of Brazil. Tupinamba crowns and capes of feathers from the scarlet ibis bird (guara) were first brought back to Europe in the early seventeenth century where they were collected as curiosities, but also incorporated into dress fro masquerades and the like (Reynolds, 2013, p. 277).
The spiky, leafy array is of a form associated with 18th century bodice ornaments and related jewellery produced in Spain and its colonies. A contemporary drawing of a such a piece set with emeralds and now in the Archivo del Real Monasterio de Santa Maria in Guadalupe is illustrated in Muller (1012, p. 163).
The imagery of a cupid-like native to represent the Americas appeared from the seventeenth century cross Europe. An example set amid the spiky, leafy foliage seen in this pendant appears in the stucco relief completed in 1685 in Bavaria’s Alteglofsheim castle. The figure wears a crown of feathers. (For an illustration, see Pollerob, Sommer-Mathis & Laferl (1992, p. 75). Another such figure can be seen as a cornerpiece of an engraved map produced in Paris in 1694 by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot and illustrated in Stratton-Pruitt (2006, p. 72).
The pendant has been fitted with a later gilded loop (but old) at the top to allow it to be suspended. There is a tiny, indistinct assay or control mark to one of the outer branches. One small leafy branch appears to have been lost to the top of the pendant but this is barely noticeable in the overall profusion of the piece. Overall, the pendant is in fine condition. It has a good weight for its size. It is rare, robust and wearable.
Carr, D., Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2015.
Chadour-Sampson, Beatriz., personal interview in July 2015.
Forsyth, H., The Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels, Museum of London, 2013.
Muller, P.E., Jewels in Spain 1500-1800, The Hispanic Society of America, 2012.
Pollerob, F., A. Sommer-Mathis & C.F. Laferl, Federschmuck und Kaiserkrone: Das Barocke Amerikabild in den Habsburgischen Landern, Eine Ausstellung des Bundesministeriums fur Wissenschaft und Forschung, 1992.
Reynolds, A., In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, Royal Collection Trust, 2013.
Stratton-Pruitt, S., et al., The Virgin Saints and Angels: South American Paintings 1600-1825 from the Thoma Collection, Skira, 2006.
Thornton, D.,A Rothschild Renaissance: Treasures from the Waddesdon Bequest, The British Museum, 2015.
Wearable Jewellery


Broken Blade (Colbana Files #3) by J.C. Daniels
After being tortured, marked and raped by Jude the vampire, Kit is suffering from PTSD and feels that she is broken. Her connection with her blade no longer works and Kit can barely deal with the loss. Kit retires to Wolf Haven and starts working at a bar. All her friends want her to hurry up and rejoin life but Kit isn't ready to face her demons. T.J. however will not be denied and so arranges a small job for Kit, not realising that it will lead to Kit taking on one of the oldest magical creatures and possibly her death.
In Broken Blade, Daniels widened her world by introducing Pandora/Lilith. We learned that Pandora/Lillith is responsible for creating shifters, vampires, witches and the warrior race the Aneria. I loved the origin story and it helped explain why witches are pacifists and some of the ongoing antagonism between the various supernatural groups. With Pandora/Lilith as an antagonist, the story should have been absolutely epic. I thought that this is where it was going when Pandora/Lillith killed Es, the leader of a coven of witches, only to be sorely disappointed when she was easily defeated by Kit. No way should Pandora/ Lilith have been defeated by a gunshot to the head. Clearly, Daniels didn't know what to do with this character once she added her to the story. It made the ending seem so rushed. It would have been better to draw this out over two books, rather than to have Pandora/Lilith so easily defeated.
Far too often, when traumatic things happen to urban fantasy protagonists, it's brushed off so that the author can tell another story. Because of the way that Daniels dealt with Kit's traumatic childhood, I believed that this would be different and I was right. No one just gets over being kidnapped and tortured and that really needed to be dealt with. My biggest issue is that Kit was given just four months before she was forced back out into the world. How is that enough time to heal? Her friends claimed to want to help her but to me, it felt very much like Kit and her new quirks were being portrayed as a burden. How is going back to work and burying the trauma the strong thing to do? To me, it just sets up the victim to have yet another massive breakdown because no one is meant to simply power on after something like that. Since Daniels decided to go there, I couldn't help but wonder why it is that she didn't set Kit up with some counselling? Yeah, I know that urban fantasy is supposed to be all about defeating the bad guy but if you are going to have a protagonist with serious mental health issues then it must be respected and written about appropriately.
Kit isn't the only survivor who is not fully respected. T.J., the owner of the bar where Kit works is now a wheelchair user after being paralyzed by her former Alpha. She has made a life for herself running Wolf Haven, taking in the lost and the scared. It is T.J. who ultimately pushes Kit out into the real world, pleading for Kit not to be like her. T.J.'s way of dealing with being viciously assaulted is painted as weakness and that is a problem. If T.J. wasn't tough, she wouldn't have survived.
"Yeah, sure. I could be like your bitch of a grandmother. I could have been born human and made a leech instead of born a weak werewolf and then tortured by the sadistic wolf who stole my legs. But he’s not the one who stole my life, Kit. I gave it up. I stay in here…and I hide. I let him ruin me. I’m letting him win…and I know it.”
“TJ, that’s not—”
“Don’t,” she warned, and the thread of steel under her voice was enough to silence me. “I stay in there,” she murmured. “I hide. Even though that son of a bitch would never leave his mountain to find me, I stay here. And I hide. You face down everything that scares you, until now. Don’t let him win, Kitty. You didn’t let anything else take you down. Don’t let this ruin you.” (pg 22)
The idea that there's only one acceptable way to be after surviving a violent assault is harmful and further policies victims. T.J. it seems is a beta and so Kit simply assumes that she didn't have the ability for vengeance and justice and so decides at the end of the story to go after the twisted Alpha. This was not Kit's decision to make. What I took away from all of this is that survivors cannot be trusted to run their own lives in the wake of an assault or to heal in a way that best suits them. This plot line very much makes self care a sign of weakness.
I wasn't really impressed when all of the cats refused to make eye contact with Kit after the attack. They made what happened to her all about them and their failure to protect her. It did however make me happy when Kit remained consistent in her demand that people make eye contact rather than look at her feet whenever they are in her presence. Kit however seemed to hold it against Damon for not protecting her which was a problem for me. Yes, Damon did promise that no one would ever hurt her but Kit is an assassin and a warrior and the very idea of needing a man for protection just doesn't make any sense to me.
As for Kit's relationship with Damon, I continue to find it a problem. From the very beginning, Damon has been physically abuse, controlling and manipulative. This is what passes for love and it's nothing more than a masquerade for intimate partner violence. Kit hides in Wolf Haven to recover from being kidnapped and assaulted and instead of giving her the space she asks for, Damon actually forces his way into the bar where she works. Just about every time Kit tries to put some distance between them, Damon steps into her personal space. Even though Damon promises Kit that he will wait for her, invading on her time to heal is far from being a good friend let alone partner. If that were not enough, Damon clearly used Kit to find out more about Doyle - the child he adopted who is half Aneria like Kit. We are told repeatedly that Damon loves Kit but all I have seen him do to date is to abuse and manipulate her for his own convenience.
Despite the fact that Daniels has widened her world in terms of real world marginalised people, there's a lot of erasure going on. Chang, Damon's second has a scant appearance in this book and there are no other people of colour to speak of. We've not had an LGBT character in this series since the first book. If Daniels can write tales about vampires, Pandora/Lilith, witches and shifters, there's absolutely no reason that she couldn't include more diversity.
I have to admit that I am waffling on Broken Blade. On one hand, I really appreciate the fact that Kit's PTSD was explored but on the other, the very idea that there's some time frame for healing is beyond problematic. When this is coupled with the idea that self care is a reflection of weakness, it makes Broken Blade absolutely toxic.
I continue to dislike Damon and Kit as a couple. The very idea that his controlling, abusive ways are fine because he is a cat is a problem. I am further troubled by the calm and contentedness Kit experiences in his presence. Sure, abuse is all Kit has every really known but to then have those around her support this relationship makes it appear innocuous instead of dangerous.
Broken Blade could have been so much more than it was. With Pandora/Lilith as an antagonist, I should have been racing through the pages. In the end, I simply was bitterly disappointed with how easily Pandora/Lilith was dispatched. Yes, Kit has to be the hero because she is the protagonist but her victory needs to feel plausible and thought out, and not simply a race to wrap up a story line. I'm not sure yet where Kit's character is going and I'm not entirely sold on this series because of how trope laden and erased it is.
Posted by Renee at 3:00 PM
Labels: 2 fangs, book review, Colbana Files, J.C.Daniels, Lilith, magic, Pandora, shifters, vampires, Werewolves, Witches
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SwearingInNewAmericans-7-720×445
Troy R. Bennett | BDN Gov. Janet Mills (in blue) laughs while posing for pictures at at citizenship ceremony at Portland's King Middle School in January.
Janet Mills will host a meal for Muslim leaders at the Blaine House
Michael Shepherd, BDN Staff • May 17, 2019
Gov. Janet Mills will hold a traditional Muslim meal at the Blaine House for the first time in Maine history, according to an organizer.
Mills spokesman Scott Ogden confirmed this week that the governor would be hosting an iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims, for community leaders on Sunday. It follows a Seder at the governor’s mansion for the Jewish holiday of Passover and an Easter egg hunt.
While many of Maine’s Muslims have come here recently, the state has a longer history of Muslim immigration. Maine is the whitest state in the nation, but it is home to a Muslim population of thousands largely centered around Portland and Lewiston. They have primarily come here as refugees or as secondary migrants from other parts of the United States since around the turn of the 21st century.
The first group of immigrants came mostly from Albania to work in a Biddeford mill around 1900, according to a 2015 article in the Maine Policy Review by Reza Jalali, a University of Southern Maine administrator. They may have established America’s first mosque, but most were killed in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.
A Muslim leader said the dinner came together at the urging of community members. Jalali said the first-of-its kind dinner was suggested by Muslim leaders including Portland City Councilor Pious Ali and Fatuma Hussein, who runs the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine in Lewiston. Jalali cited the Mills administration’s desire to “make Maine’s immigrants feel visible and welcome” and said there are other plans to “help immigrants gain a sense of belonging.”
Today in A-town
A public hearing on Mills’ planned climate change council will dominate a slow Friday in Augusta. Only three committees are in on Friday, but the planned hearings include one on a bill that would enshrine the governor’s planned Maine Climate Change Council, a group of more than three dozen people that would be tasked with filling in a vague plan to have 80 percent of Maine’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. Mills has called it “ambitious” but “achievable.”
The bill is sponsored by Sen. David Woodsome, R-North Waterboro, and backed by the top-ranking Democrats in the Legislature. It would rely on $250,000 in annual funding proposed in Mills’ recent change package to her two-year budget proposal. Former Gov. Paul LePage’s political group criticized it on Thursday, calling it a gift to “environmental special interests.”
Other panels will meet to discuss an array of gun bills and a proposal from House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, to pass automatic voter registration. See the full schedule here.
— Maine’s senior senator was the only Republican to oppose a nominee to the federal bench. Citing concerns about anti-abortion statements the nominee has made, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins joined all Senate Democrats and independents in voting against the nomination of Wendy Vitter to a U.S. District Court seat in New Orleans. But Vitter won support from all other Senate Republicans and was confirmed Thursday by a 52-45 vote. It was only the second time that Collins has broken with President Donald Trump on a judicial nominee.
— A law takes effect later this year ensures that Native American school mascots will be a thing of the past in Maine. On Thursday, Mills signed the billbarring any public school or university from using Native American mascots, names and imagery. When the bill takes effect later this year, Maine will become the first U.S. state with such a ban.
— A government review of ‘stealth’ destroyers built in Maine found hundreds of problems. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found more than 320 “serious deficiencies” when Bath Iron Works delivered the first-in class USS Zumwalt’s hull, mechanical and electrical systems to the Navy in May 2016. The report flags more than 240 “serious deficiencies in the second “stealth” destroyer after sea trials in 2018. The report places the bulk of the blame on the Navy for changing the mission of the destroyer line after the design and construction processes had begun and for its inability to settle on weaponry and other systems.
— Maine’s junior senator is wary of overreaction to intelligence reports about heightened Iranian military activity. U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and who serves on the Intelligence Committee, said he is fearful that a “miscalculation” could draw the U.S. into a conflict. “I don’t think there’s faulty intel here necessarily. I think the intel may be accurate,” King told CNN on Thursday. “But the unanswered question again is, are they reacting to our assertions of action in the Middle East or are we reacting to them? That’s an unanswered question for me.”
Happy birthday, pal
Saturday would have been Chris Cousins’ 43rd birthday. It’s the latest in a series of difficult and emotional milestones since his death last August.
As his wife wrote on Facebook earlier this week, “It seems like just yesterday. It seems like an eternity.”
Those of us who loved him will mark the occasion in different ways. Saturday is also World Whisky Day, so there’s a harmonic convergence for folks who want to raise a glass in his honor. A better way might be to surprise someone you care about with a gift bottle of whisky. That’s what Chris would do.
Whisky doesn’t agree with me and I have to umpire five baseball games within 48 hours, so an honorary dram would be a really bad idea. I’ll find another way to honor his memory. I’ll look for an opportunity to summon the courage to show kindness at a moment when it would be easier to walk away. Not being afraid to show kindness was the way he lived his life.
Then when I’m done with all my games, I’ll have a “shower beer” in his honor. Here is your soundtrack. — Robert Long
Today’s Daily Brief was written by Michael Shepherd and Robert Long. If you’re reading this on the BDN’s website or were forwarded it, click here to receive Maine’s leading newsletter on state politics via email on weekday mornings. Click here to subscribe to the BDN.
To reach us, do not reply directly to this newsletter, but email us directly at mshepherd@bangordailynews.com or rlong@bangordailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on www.bangordailynews.com.


Reno Jazz Festival Records
University of Nevada, Reno. University Archives
The Reno Jazz Festival Records consist of marketing flyers, newspaper articles, programs, sound recordings, tee shirts, timeline histories, and a videotape of the 1994 festival. There are sound recordings for 1968-1976, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2012. Miscellaneous items include a 2003 Accentuate the Positive Silver Star Award, with certificates from U. S. Senators John Ensign and Jim Gibbons. The 50th anniversary CD material includes a tribute to long-time festival photographer Pat Glancy. Album notes include information about festival founder Dr. John Carrico, Sr., of the University's Department of Music. Some of the vinyl LP recordings have been digitized and made available for streaming via the Area 33 1/3 Digital Collection.
University of Nevada, Reno. School of the Arts (Organization)
2 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
The University of Nevada Reno Jazz Festival is the oldest educational festival in the western United States. It was founded in 1962 by Dr. John Carrico, Sr., director of bands at the University. The annual festival offers instructional clinics, performances by international musicians, and competitions for middle school, high school and college performers.
The first University of Nevada Alumni Association trophy was awarded in 1966. The festival moved to the Pioneer Center in Reno for the 1968 festival. In 1971, the name was changed to the University of Nevada Jazz Ensemble Festival, and a vocal competition division was added. In 1972, the name was changed to the Reno Jazz Band Festival. The competition became international in 1973, with Canadian participation. From 1976 until 1990, its name was the Reno International Jazz Festival.
In 1990, the University's Department of Music resumed co-administration of the festival, along with the Division of Continuing Education (now called Extended Studies). In 1991, the name was changed to the University of Nevada, Reno Jazz Festival. The festival expanded to a 3-night format in 2000 and had over 10,000 attendees for the first time in 2004. It is part of the Jazz Studies Program in the School of the Arts’ Department of Music, which is within the College of Liberal Arts. Over 300,000 students, parents, jazz lovers, and festival staff participated in the festival's first 50 years, 1962-2012.
Arranged in the following series: 1) Marketing and Media Coverage; 2) Programs; 3) Awards; 4) Audiovisual Recordings; 5) 50th Anniversary Files.
Specialized viewing and listening equipment is required to access parts of this collection: Record player, VCR.
Transfer from the School of the Arts on various dates: 2014, 2016
Carrico, John L.
Jazz -- Nevada
Jazz -- Study and teaching
Music -- Instruction and study
Music -- Nevada
Musicians -- Nevada
Reno Jazz Festival
University of Nevada, Reno. Department of Music (Organization)
Guide to the Records of the Reno Jazz Festival
Betty Glass
Part of the University of Nevada, Reno. University Archives Repository
Reno NV 89557-0322 USA
Reno Jazz Festival Records, AC 0644. University Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Reno. https://archive.library.unr.edu/public/repositories/3/resources/1005 Accessed January 17, 2020.


You are here: Home Other Nautical Genres AOS Naval Non-Fiction General A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815
A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815
AOS Naval Non-Fiction - General
This finely researched book is a portrait of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars; but it is particularly a portrait of the Navy's people, of the officers and men who formed that formidable fighting force made popular by the novels of C S Forester and Patrick O'Brian. These men were assembled from all classes in society and came from all parts of the British Isles and so the social history of the Navy demonstrates a complete cross-section of contemporary life, and the divisions aboard ship, between quarter deck and lower deck for instance, reflected divisions on land.
But parentage and social background form only a small fragment of the story. The author follows their lives from the cardle to the grave and paints a detailed picture of both the expectations and the reality of life at sea. He describes how men came to go to sea and explains the volunteer, the press and the quota; the story of officer-entry is dealt with, along with the whole complex business of shipboard and naval hierarchy. Pay, prize money and other inducements are explained along with insight into the unhappier predicament of half-pay.
In the twenty-two years of war the cost in lives was heavy and every sailor was confronted by the persistent and daily dangers of the sea itself, the enemy and disease. If he was lucky enough to survive then an officer retired ashore on half-pay, not rich but proud of his service; a sailor from the lower deck might find a snug berth in one of the naval hospitals. He would have little but then he never expected much. First published in 1960, Lewis' book is a masterful account of how the men of the Nelsonic navy, at sea in 'those far-distant storm-beaten ships', organised their insular social world.
Author: Michael Lewis
Title: A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815
First Published by: Allen & Unwin


What A Wonderful World (by Ricky Riccardi)
Book Reviews	by Thomas Cunniffe
In the second half of his life, Louis Armstrong created a large collection of privately-recorded open reel tapes. He recorded his own concerts, conversations with friends, autobiographical monologues (including readings of his own letters), and commercially-issued records of himself and others. Armstrong had a pair of tape decks installed in a steamer trunk, and he would bring them and a collection of tapes with him for listening while on the road. When at home, he cataloged the tapes and hand-decorated the boxes with original collages. Although historians and fans knew about Armstrong’s tape collection while the trumpeter was still alive, the contents of the tapes were undisclosed until several years after Armstrong’s death. In his new biography, “What a Wonderful World”, Ricky Riccardi draws on these tapes to present a portrait of Armstrong far removed from his public persona. Starting his narrative in 1947 with the birth of the All-Stars, and closing with the renewed, posthumous interest in Armstrong, Riccardi attempts to offer a revised, detailed look at Armstrong’s twilight years.
To the general public, Louis Armstrong was a genial, old-fashioned entertainer who loved to sing and play trumpet for large enthusiastic audiences. Only a modest percentage of those fans realized that years earlier, Armstrong was the primary artistic force in transforming jazz from an ensemble music to a soloist’s art. Armstrong knew the measure of his contributions and was respectful to those who recognized his genius. But the nature of Armstrong’s music led him to be a popular entertainer, and Armstrong was bitter and angry towards those who treated him like a second-class citizen because of his skin color or their own ignorance of his artistic importance. He bristled when a call boy on a movie set referred to his white co-stars with courtesy titles and last names (Mr. Gilbert, Ms. Caron, etc.) but who called Armstrong by a nickname and joked that if “Satchmo” didn’t come out right away, the studio would hire Harry James in his place. Armstrong took his complaint to the film’s producer and refused to appear until the situation was rectified. The producer made things right, but Armstrong’s recorded account (included in Riccardi’s book, complete with graphic language and racial epithets) was kept secret until after Armstrong’s death.
Because of his stage persona, Armstrong was labeled an Uncle Tom by the younger generation. Riccardi’s book shows that the accusations were unjust, and that Armstrong was deeply affected by racial issues. He did not march in civil rights protests for fear that a punch to his lips might end his career, and while Armstrong reportedly gave generous financial support to the civil rights cause, his actions were sometimes behind the times. He hired white musicians on a regular basis, and refused to play in his hometown of New Orleans for several years because of a city ordinance that forbad stage performances by mixed-race bands. Yet Armstrong played for segregated audiences into the early sixties, long after mandatory integration clauses were a regular part of black musician’s contracts. Armstrong’s theme song “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” was written by two black composers, and the trumpeter was outraged at the backlash from his 1951 recording, which included the original lyrics about mammies and darkies. Unfortunately, that scandal may have led Armstrong’s detractors to dismiss the trumpeter’s later actions including his furious tirade on President Eisenhower’s inaction during the Little Rock integration crisis, and his statements in the aftermath of the march on Selma, Alabama.
Armstrong’s manager, Joe Glaser, was a rough, crude white man with numerous criminal connections. Riccardi’s portrait of him is as fair as possible, since much of the relationship between Glaser and Armstrong was purposefully undocumented. For example, in 1954, Armstrong’s wife Lucille was arrested in Hawaii for possession of marijuana. Louis was a well-known pot smoker, and Riccardi quotes a vehement letter from Armstrong to Glaser where the trumpeter demands that Glaser shield Armstrong and his wife from further marijuana persecutions, or else Armstrong would retire immediately. Riccardi notes that there is no record of Glaser’s response, but recognizes that Armstrong was never busted for marijuana use again. Riccardi reinforces the notion that Glaser knew that Armstrong was his best client and fought rigorously on Armstrong’s behalf. He also places equal blame for Armstrong’s back-breaking schedule of one-nighters between Armstrong and Glaser. Riccardi shows Armstrong as a tough and stubborn bandleader, working long tours and making few changes to the nightly repertoire. Despite the complaints of his musicians and critics, Armstrong entertained in the best (and perhaps only) way he knew how, and he failed to make changes to his act unless he was personally affected. Three of his most talented musicians (Velma Middleton, Billy Kyle and Buster Bailey) died during tours, but it took a pair of heart attacks of his own before Armstrong would reduce his touring schedule.
For all of Riccardi’s strengths in documenting Armstrong’s later life, he is significantly weaker when discussing Armstrong’s music. His musical discussions are littered with superlatives, and while some of Armstrong’s recordings have been unduly neglected, it becomes difficult for the reader to discern just which recordings are truly definitive. In discussing Armstrong’s 1947 Boston Symphony Hall concert, Riccardi claims that the version of “Muskrat Ramble” is “arguably the greatest version…ever recorded” without offering any further reasoning or justification. While I agree that Armstrong’s version is very good, I cannot claim to have heard the majority of the 794 other versions listed in Tom Lord’s online discography, and unless Riccardi can claim otherwise, he has no right to include such an extravagant assertion. I’m more troubled by his citation of Armstrong’s “hilarious” added lyrics to “St. Louis Blues” from the W.C. Handy album. The lyrics, where Armstrong says he’ll beat Velma Middleton’s head with part of a picket fence, may have inspired laughter in 1954, but it is very disturbing to modern ears. Regardless of its original intentions, Riccardi should note the cultural disconnect in his discussion.
Except for isolated spots of sloppy editing, Riccardi’s text reads very well. Not surprisingly, Dan Morgenstern, who shares Riccardi’s advocacy of all things Armstrong, is quoted frequently in the book, as are several former Armstrong sidemen. While the unrelenting jingoism gets a little tiring, the strength of Riccardi’s research makes “What a Wonderful World” an essential addition to the Armstrong canon.
Why Jazz Happened (by Marc Myers)
100% Proof: The Complete Tubby Hayes Discography (by Simon Spillett & C. Tom Davis)


James C. VanHorne
Faculty & Research › Faculty › James C. VanHorne
Professor Emeritus, Finance
JamesC.VanHorne
The A.P. Giannini Professor of Banking and Finance, Emeritus
Research Statement
Professor VanHorne has focused his research on issues in corporate finance, valuation, and on the term structure of interest rates. His some 60 articles in finance, economic, and management journals often involve empirical inquiry. He is the author of five books, three of which — "Financial Management and Policy," 12th edition; "Financial Market Rates and Flows," 6th edition; and "Fundamentals of Financial Management," 12th edition, (coauthor) — have been widely used as texts in the U.S.A. and abroad. In addition, he has written 24 cases used in MBA courses in the school..
James VanHorne is the A.P. Giannini Professor of Finance, Emeritus, having come to Stanford in 1965. He has taught MBA courses in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, money & capital markets, fixed-income securities, and government and nonprofit debt financing. He was the first recipient of the distinguished teaching award by MBA students, and recipient again in 1997. He is the past president of the American Finance Association and of the Western Finance Association, and has been an active member of the Financial Economists Roundtable. He also has served as Associate Editor of several leading finance journals.
He received his BA from DePauw University and MBA and PhD degrees from Northwestern University. In the mid-1970s he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and has served on several Federal and State of California commissions and advisory groups. VanHorne has served on seven corporate boards and four nonprofit boards. His research involves such things as capital budgeting, the effect of inflation, interest rate theory and behavior, corporate finance, and financial innovation.
DSci (Hon.), DePauw University, 1986
PhD, Northwestern University, 1964
MBA, Northwestern University, 1961
AB, DePauw University, 1957
At Stanford University since 1965
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Stanford GSB, 1976-1980
Director, Stanford MBA Program, Stanford GSB, 1970-1973
Assistant Professor, Michigan State University, 1964-1965
Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Treasury, 1975-1976
Commercial Lending Representative, Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, 1958-1962
Sloan Teaching Excellence Award, Stanford GSB, 1997
MBA Distinguished Teaching Award, Stanford GSB, 1997
MBA Distinguished Teaching Award, (first recipient), Stanford GSB, 1982
Davis Faculty Award for Lifetime Achievement, Stanford GSB, 1998.
Fellow of the American Finance Asociation, 2000
Fundamentals of Financial Management (13th edition)
James C. VanHorne, John M. Wachowicz Harlow: FT Prentice Hall, 2009.
Financial Management and Policy (12th edition)
James C. VanHorne Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, January 2001.
Financial Market Rates and Flows (6th edition)
James C. VanHorne Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Other Teaching
Financial Management Program
Stanford Case Studies
Dougall & Gilligan Global Agency | F247
James Van Horne1996
Marriott Corporation: Bondholders vs. Equityholders | F249
Pender, Wilson & Company | F248
J. Van Horne1996
Fazio Pump Corporation | F214
Morley Industries, Inc. | F250
Numerous cases and other teaching materials.
Conferences, Talks, and Speaking Engagements
Over 100 conference presentations and other speeches involving macroeconomics and finance.
Stanford University Affiliations
Stanford GSB
Academic Dean, Director of the MBA Program, and numerous standing and ad hoc committees at the GSB.
Greater Stanford University
Academic Senate of Stanford University and several ad hoc committees.
Past Associate Editor
Journal of Finance
Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis
Journal of Fixed Income
Past Trustee or Director
Geo Hazards International Foundation
California/Nevada United Methodist Foundation
Bailard Fund Group
Impell Corporation
Knudsen corporation
Montgomery Street Income Securities
Sanwa Bank California
Suntron Corporation
American Finance Association. 1984.
Western Finance Association, 1981
Past Commissioner, Member
Worker Compensation Reform Commission, State of California
International Advisory Group, Securities & Exchange Commission
Investors Advised to Stay Out of Hedge Fund
The Times, December 21, 2005
Steep Drop in Triple-A Ratings
San Francisco Chronicle, April 2, 2002
Inflation Signals Are Mixed: Retail Sales Climb Higher than Expected
San Francisco Chronicle, August 15, 2000
These Are Your Father's Muni Guys: Industry Shows Its Age
The Bond Buyer, July 1, 1999
writtenHeeding the Siren Song of Service
Chad Cooper left a fast-track banking career when the struggling Brooklyn Conservatory of Music called his name.
writtenJames Van Horne: Shedding Light on Dubious Accounting
The Stanford GSB professor says earnings statements have declined in relevance since companies tweak them to make themselves look more profitable.
writtenJim VanHorne Teaching the Core Once Again
Legendary professor emeritus returns to teach core finance course.
writtenHonoring a Legend: The James C. Van Horne Professorship
James C. Van Horne, the A.P. Giannini Professor of Banking and Finance, Emeritus, is the inspiration for colleagues, friends, and former students to establish an endowed chair in his honor.


The Photographer Who X-Rayed Chernobyl
How to make the invisible visible.
by Winnie Lee December 4, 2019
Alice Miceli, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, PTT-8 Sign, Highly Contaminated Ground, Belarus, 2008 Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Abandoned City of Pripyat
The ghost town left by the worst nuclear disaster of all time is being taken over by nature and urban explorers.
While living in Berlin in 2007, Brazilian artist Alice Miceli took long train rides—18 hours or more—to Belarus, then another leg, by car or train, to Chernobyl. She made this journey more than 20 times. With permission to be in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone before tours were available, she photographed the site using a regular camera, but also documented the area—and the legacy of the 1986 nuclear disaster there—in a different, more extraordinary way. Miceli placed radiographic film plates used for chest X-rays—specifically sensitive to radiation—wrapped in layers of industrial plastic on the ground, on windows, on trees. She wanted to make visual records of something invisible to the naked eye, namely the area’s radioactive contamination, particularly the isotope cesium 137. “It is interesting that radiation has shape,” she says. “It has physicality. It operates at a specific frequency that can be recorded, if only we could place ourselves in a position to see it. It became clear to me that, in this case, it would be necessary to create my own tools to make this happen.”
Miceli created a special pinhole camera and did meticulous tests at the Institute of Radiological Sciences in Rio de Janeiro, but she still didn’t entirely know what to expect when she got into the field. “In terms of the radiographic techniques that I had been developing, I didn’t have any idea about what kind of images I might be able to record once actually outside the lab and in Chernobyl, encountering not a controlled model but the full-scale radiation,” she says.
Miceli (left) examines a film plate placed on the ground. She also attached them directly to objects (right). Courtesy the artist
The resulting images, which are currently on exhibit at Americas Society/Council of the Americas in New York, are unexpected and don’t follow any predictable patterns. Some glow with ghostly lines and swirls, but many of them are mottled darkness (with the dark areas indicating radiation). The visual effect is striking, but its emotional impact is greater. “Chernobyl as it is exists in our planet today concerns all of us,” she says.
The artist has continued to be fascinated with natural and social landscapes that, like Chernobyl’s, have been impacted by trauma. Her other work has explored Security Prison 21 in Cambodia and minefields in post-conflict countries.
Miceli discussed with Atlas Obscura her inspiration and the experiments she conducted for the Chernobyl Project. The exhibition is on view through January 25, 2020.
An experiment in a highly contaminated field, held in place by rocks. Courtesy the artist
What inspired you to go to Chernobyl and attempt to document its radioactivity?
I read a story in a magazine in which a scientist mentions how quiet it is in the Exclusion Zone in Chernobyl, and I realized that the zone could be a powerful place to explore the idea of silence. I looked at hundreds of photojournalistic images of the site and I realized they were all incomplete somehow; they were just photographs of ruins. They are deceitful in the way they leave out the central narrative of the story. They just show a place in decay, but it could be any place in decay. The photographs say nothing about the fact that the landscape has been changed forever at the atomic level. This interested me as a challenge and a question—the conceptual challenge of using the medium of photography to capture what cannot be seen.
What was your first impression of Chernobyl?
When I first went to Belarus, I was already working on the technology for almost a year, but I had never actually been in Chernobyl [in Ukraine]. Being there made me witness the humanitarian crisis that the situation has caused in Belarus over the years. Right after having returned to Rio, where I was then based, I asked myself: How has this first trip altered the project? The central issue is the (in)visibility of radiation. Physical visibility, considering that my images capture the invisible, but also sociopolitical visibility, considering that even though the reactor is across the border, in Ukraine, contamination is at higher levels in Belarus, a country that is even less socially visible than its neighbor.
How did you decide where to place the radiographic plates?
Once I got there, I began looking for the most contaminated spots, because the emission was strongest and the image was most likely to be exposed more quickly, more clearly. I always carry a light meter when I take photographs, so it felt normal this time around to carry a dosimeter, which measures the level of radiation embedded in organic matter. I spent a lot of time walking around the zone and mapping out areas with signals strong enough to make an exposure, but not so strong that it would be dangerous for me to be there.
Miceli’s radiation dosimeter. Courtesy the artist
Can you describe how your radiographs were made?
Two technologies were developed. First, there is a pinhole camera, adjusted to capture images only from invisible gamma rays, on to radiographic film. We built a steel box with a lead cover, to attenuate radiation and protect the film. The actual camera went inside the box, and was a much thicker lead cube with a conical, minuscule pinhole. This technique worked well in the extremely controlled and miniature setting of a lab, but not so much in full-scale contaminated nature, as in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
The second technique, the one we experimented with in Chernobyl, was the development of autoradiographs that use all sorts of different contaminated matter within the Exclusion Zone as their source. An autoradiograph, or autoradiogram, is an image imprinted on to radiographic film produced by the gamma rays from radioactive matter. The film is placed next to or in direct contact with contaminated matter, thus producing life-size images of the invisible contamination. That’s what we see in the show.
What was the most challenging aspect of your project?
It turned out that each good image needed to be exposed to radiation for quite an extended period of time—at least two months. Some were there for eight months. We marked the landscape and made detailed notes to make sure we’d have a shot at finding the experiments again, but many were lost.
What was the most surprising thing about your experience there?
That being in Chernobyl was for me a very peaceful, calming, and focused activity.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Alice Miceli, fragment of a field III - 9.120 µSv (07.05.09 - 21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Alice Miceli, fragment of the trunk of a tree II - 7.356 µSv (07.05.09 - 21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Alice Miceli, fragment of a window I - 2.494 µSv (21.01.09 - 07.04.09), backlight, radiographic negative. Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Alice Miceli, fragment of a field II - 9.120 µSv (07.05.09 - 21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Alice Miceli, fragment of a field V - 9.120 µSv (07.05.09 - 21.07.09), backlight, radiographic negative. Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Alice Miceli, fragment of a wooden wall IV - 2.956 µSv (21.01.09 - 07.04.09), backlight, radiographic negative. Courtesy the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler
Chernobyl by Day, Kyiv by Night
Darmon Richter
energynucleardisastersphotographyvisual
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