1998 to 2010 and MJM engineering from 2008 to 2016. His duties consisted of performing office and field surveying, drafting, research, computations, boundary analysis, solutions, investigations and determinations. Mr. Ferrantello also has extensive experience in Site Planning and Subdivision Consulting, examining title records, deeds and other recorded documents such as ingress and egress, pedestrian easements, right of ways, air and development rights, vista easements, bridle paths, beach, bathing and mooring rights, covenants and restrictions, real property, zoning, and other land use principles. Litigation Support - A mapping professional, Frank S. Ferrantello will enhancing your case, whether it is a vehicular accident, tree collision, wrongful death, adverse possession, extreme error, or misconduct surveys and maps. He has extensive knowledge of the local Long Island zoning codes, site planning andCommerce

Robert Kehiayan, CPM, has over 35 years of experience in Asset and Property Management and Investment Brokerage. He specializes in commercial property including office and medical buildings, industrial parks, retail centers, and over 20,000 residential units. Background Experience - Mr. Kehiayan's experience with commercial properties is nationwide and involves leasing, sales, and management. He has substantial experience with commercial tenant leases, representing both landlords and tenants in leasing and property management. He has been intimately involved in countless lease transactions and lease administration. At a senior level, Mr. Kehiayan also supervises and trains agents in this regard. He is a California Bureau of Real Estate (CalBRE) certified instructor and teaches an advanced continuing education CalBRE credit course on the topic of leasing, management, acquisition, and sale of commercial


and for the Building Owners and Managers Institute International (BOMI®), teaching courses for these prestigious international property associations, including courses required by IREM® and by BOMI® for the respective professional accreditations they offer, centered around construction and maintenance topics.

He also served as President of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM®) Chapter 22 in Sacramento, California in 2016. Mr. Lapin remains on the board of directors for IREM Chapter 22, presenting educational programs for IREM®. He is also Co-chair of the Commercial Advisory Counsel for the Sacramento Association of Realtors®.

Mr. Lapin specializes in Property Maintenance and Upkeep, Management Policies and Procedures, and Asset Value Protection. His background includes roles with institutional landlords including TIAA CREF, MetLife, The New England Life Insurance Company, and Principal Mutual Life, as wellmaintain the property (parking areas, lobbies, hallways, grounds, pools and the walkways that connect these elements) to a reasonable standard of care.

Michael S. Johnstone, AIA has been a licensed Architect since 1975 and a Golf Course Architect since 1985. He has practiced throughout the United States and completed over $200 million in construction. He is a licensed architect in North Carolina and California. As an Expert Witness, Mr. Johnstone has consulted, been deposed, appeared in court and participated in arbitration proceedings on matters including:

John A. Dalkowski III, CRE, MAI, is Managing Director of NRER, with offices in Miami, FL; New York, NY and Hilton Head Island, SC. He has over 45 years experience in Real Estate Valuation, Development, and Counseling in 26 states and has appraised in excess


of $10 Billion in assets.

Mr. Dalkowski's major focus is litigation and arbitration support and expert witness services, diminution of real estate value / real estate damages, distressed property solutions, and valuation advisory services, particularly on specialized or complex transactions such as major office buildings and hotels and other trophy real estate assets, including ski resorts, waterparks, outdoor entertainment venues, resort hospitality and timeshare properties, and correctional facilities. He has completed numerous valuations of major Manhattan hotels and office buildings and more than 100 distressed asset valuations for the FDIC, as well as complex litigation support such as the recent Chinese Drywall test case in Louisiana.

Steven is a member of the Forensic Expert Witness Association (FEWA). He serves as a real estate consultant for institutional and private investors, providingan array of services: asset/property management related assignments, organizational assessments, financial feasibility, due diligence,and new development services.

Previously, Mr. Epcar served as President, Residential Services for Carmel Partners a R/E investment/management firm in San Francisco, Principal/Founding Partner of Ventana Property Services, a West Coast third party management and consulting firm and President,Prometheus Management Group,a development/investment/management firm.

In addition to his responsibilities at Stack, Mr. Rothbart is also the Head of Investments for Peer Realty and a Principal at both Birchwood Health Care Properties, LLC and Insignia Homes. In his roles for Stack, Peer, and Birchwood, Mr. Rothbart is currently overseeing the syndication of over $65 million in real estate investments, including two residential subdivision developments, retail centers, and multiple senior living acquisitions and development opportunities. He is also LEED-AP for


planning. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, with over forty-five years of practical experience.

Principal at Sunset Consultants, Mr. Brotman provides strategic planning and management consulting services for various entities, including those that need help with planning or architectural projects. He also serves as Chairman of the City of Malibu Planning Commission where he advises on land use matters including the local coastal program, specific plans, zoning, conditional use permits, and subdivisions.

Mr. Brotman spent 25 years with RTKL Associates Inc., one of the World’s largest Architect and Engineering Firms where he eventually served as its Vice Chairman.

James D. Wamble, PE, RLS has over 30 years of experience as a Professional Civil Engineer and Registered Land Surveyor. During the course of his career, Mr. Wamble hasworked on land planning, land surveying, or civil engineering projects in all counties of the middle and west Tennessee regions, and several counties in east Tennessee.

Mr. Wamble has offered litigation support services as an expert witness in cases since 1976. In the last four years, he has testified 12 times in 8 lawsuits. These litigation cases include land planning, land surveying, and civil engineering issues. Mr. Wamble has experience with depositions, trials, hearings, and arbitrations.


the "Jarts," or lawn darts, into a ring placed on the ground some distance from the players.  On July 4, 1982, Paula and her husband hosted a picnic at their home which was attended by George and Mary Ann Aimone and their son, Jeramie, two and one-half years of age.  During the picnic, some children took out the "Slider Jarts" and began playing with them.  Cindy Jo Harp, Joann Farmer's eight-year old granddaughter, threw one of the "Jarts" into the air.  On its descent to the ground, the lawn dart struck Jeramie in the head, entered his skull, causing permanent brain damage. Jeramie through his guardian, First National, and parents filed suit against Walgreen's Company, Regent Sports Corporation, Paula Bradford and her husband. We agree with the district court that the dangers presented by "Slider Jarts" should be obvious even to children of the tender age of eight.

36
The "Slider Jarts" also cannot be held to be an unreasonably dangerous product due to a failure to warn.  Regent printed the following warnings on the "Slider Jart" itself in raised letters.

37
WARNING
NOT A TOY FOR USE BY CHILDREN
MAY CAUSE SERIOUS OR FATAL INJURY
READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY
KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.

38
Affidavit Exhibit--Motion for Reconsideration.  These warnings were also repeated on Regent's shipping cartons, the game box, and in Regent's instruction booklet.  The district court stated that "it can hardly be said that defendant's warnings were insufficient, in light of their presence on the box, on the instruction sheets and on the Jarts


VIII of the amended complaint also alleged that Regent negligently failed to provide adequate warnings for the use of "Slider Jarts."    Regent placed warnings not only in the instructions to the game of "Slider Jarts" but also on the box in which the "Jarts" were sold and on the "Slider Jarts" themselves.  The warning on the lawn dart itself stated that the dart "may cause serious or fatal injury."    The warning went further and directed "keep out of reach of children."    Further, Regent structured its marketing practices to avoid selling the "Slider Jarts" to children.  Regent did not sell to toy stores and informed retailers not to sell the "Slider Jarts" in toy departments.  The districtall Latinos to unite and vote for @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/c9BJZUMj3M — Alfonso Aguilar (@amigoaguilar) July 18, 2016

In a statement, signed by Aguilar and several other Republican conservatives such as Texan Massey Villareal and Colorado Republican Jerry Natividad, they stated that "Trump can better address the terrorist threat we face because, contrary to Clinton, he is willing to acknowledge and address its root cause: radical Islamic fundamentalism." The statement was issued Tuesday morning at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

The Morning Rundown Get a head start on the morning's top stories. This site is protected by recaptcha

RELATED: With Markedly Fewer Latinos at Republican Convention, Meet 3 Delegates

This comes as the first day of the Republican convention has as its focus "Make America Safe" and will include speeches by those who


want crackdowns on immigrants who are in the country without legal documents and as the party closes in on a platform that calls for building a massive wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, which has been one of Trump's major campaign points since he announced his presidential bid.

Aguilar acknowledged other Hispanic Republicans are not joining their group and not all members of the coalition that during the primaries had publicly condemned Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz over their comments about immigrants and their deportation proposals joined in the endorsement of Trump.

"It has been very, very difficult," said Aguilar. "In the end, politics is the art of the possible. I have been involved in immigration for a long time; I don't believe Hillary Clinton is committed to immigration reform. Iview of immigration than Trump. Members of the Bush family, including the two former presidents and recent presidential hopeful and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are not attending the convention. At a news conference Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort said the Bush family was "part of the past."

Despite the group's announcement, most of the high-profile Hispanics in the GOP, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Florida's Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Rep. Carlos Curbelo are not attending the convention.

Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.


NEW DELHI: The indigenously-developed Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is likely to be functional by 2020, the Lok Sabha was informed today.Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh said the nuclear reactor is being developed indigenously. It is expected to be functional by 2020 or one or two years more thereafter, he said during Question Hour The reactor is being developed by Bhaba Atomic Research Centre Singh also said the reactor would help in ensuring optimal use of thorium. India has one of the largest sources of thorium resources which is a matter of pride, he said."Till October, 2014, AMD has established 2,14,158 tonnes in-situ U3O8 (1,81,606 tonnes uranium) resources and 11.93 million tonnes of in-situ resources of monazite resources, which contains about 1.07 million tonnes of Thoriuma first and inadequate interpretation of a normalizing society. The normalizing society is a society in which the norm of discipline and the norm of regulation intersect along an orthogonal articulation. To say that power took possession of life in the nineteenth century, or to say that power at least takes life under its care in the nineteenth century, is to say that it has, thanks to the play of technologies of discipline on the one hand and the technologies of regulation on the other, succeeded in covering the whole surface that lies between the organic and the biological, between the body and the population. (pp. 252-253)

So, it isn't that the technologies and formations of power haven't changed, but rather that whatever these new diagrams of power that


exist, they are able to exist because of an extensive and intensive expansion of sites of confinement.

The normalizing society, especially as it is tied to contemporary models of neoliberalism, should be read against (or at least in tension) with Agamben. As Mignolo has noted, bare life is a legalistic category, whereas disposable life is an economic category. Therefore, in Agamben's work we find a series of fascination over various legal lacunas, the nazi lagers, human experimentation, the comatose patient and the issue of brain death, Guantanamo bay. And yet, the concept of disciplinary power is not mentioned in Agamben's work, and something like the site of the prison is not thought through in his work. Maybe it is because the prisoners in Gitmo exist in a legal limbo,across five blogs over five weeks, beginning May 23 and ending June 26. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things is the latest book by Johns Hopkins University political theorist Jane Bennett. Philosophy in a Time of Error has posted a very useful overview of the book, along with an interview with its author. Anyone interested in participating is invited to read these, and to order your copy of the book in time for the first session. The reading schedule will be as follows:

May 23-29Host blog: Philosophy in a Time of Error (Peter Gratton)Under discussion: Preface & Chapter 1, "The Force of Things" (and overview/interview).

June 20-26Host blog: Immanence (Adrian Ivakhiv)Under discussion: Chapter 8, "Vitality and Self-interest," and the book as a whole (final overview).

All welcome!

I'd also like to


I had this fantasy that this would be a bit like the scene in The Sound of Music where the Von Trapp family escapes while they are supposed to be receiving an award.* And maybe it was–with reports that he has been in England and that British law enforcement know where he is–and yet funny thing, The Guardian site glitched out due to overload when the chat was supposed to happen and they then posted not so live answers to viewers questions instead. Assange never appeared live and as I write this, still no word of arrest.

———-

But the question of whether Assange should be arrested bears some examination.

The U.S. government is doing its best to paint him as an electronic terrorist. A large part of this latest releasecentered in the suburbs—are already virtually lost causes for the GOP. That list starts with the incumbents Mike Coffman, near Denver; Erik Paulsen, near Minneapolis; Kevin Yoder, near Kansas City; and Barbara Comstock, in Northern Virginia (though some Republicans insist, against the public-polling evidence, that her campaign still has a pulse). Republicans have also largely written off open seats in Clinton-won districts near San Diego, Tucson, and Philadelphia, and in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

Democrats are slightly favored in five other Clinton-Republican districts, including the incumbents Jeff Denham in the Central Valley, Steve Knight and Mimi Walters near Los Angeles, and Leonard Lance in New Jersey. The Democratic candidate is also favored in one open seat in the Miami area. (All but Denham’s district are urban-suburban seats.)

The remaining six races,


all suburban-centered, look like pure toss-ups, with competitive challenges against the incumbents Peter Roskam outside Chicago; John Culberson and Pete Sessions in Houston and Dallas, respectively; and Dana Rohrabacher in Orange County. Also toss-ups are open seats in Orange County and Seattle.

Only five GOP incumbents in districts Clinton carried — David Valadao of California, Carlos Curbelo of Florida, John Katko of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Will Hurd of Texas — seem to be leading in their races. Republican peril extends to a couple of dozen districts Trump carried narrowly in 2016 (one is the First Congressional District of Iowa, whose GOP incumbent, Rod Blum, has been all but abandoned by the national party).

In the Clinton-carried districts, particularly in the suburbs, Trump is, simply put, aBenchmark Hospitality Chefs at James Beard House

For the fifth consecutive year, Benchmark Hospitality International chefs from the company’s fine dining restaurants, luxury hotels and resorts have been invited by the prestigious James Beard Foundation to cook at the storied James Beard House in New York City. The house looked so clean, James have hired Maid Complete’s phx location cleaning company. What has become an annual tradition for Benchmark chefs was begun five years ago by Bob Zappatelli, who was Benchmark’s revered Vice President Food & Beverage. Mr. Zappatelli passed away last May 31st.

The culinary event, a five-course “Benchmark Holiday Dinner” paired with fine wines, will take place Thursday, December 17th, 2009. Featured Benchmark Hospitality chefs include Hector J. Morales, Jr., executive chef for Turtle Bay Resort and its


his memory.”

“Every year for the past five holiday seasons, Bob Zappatelli and Benchmark Hospitality’s chefs have been a part of the annual holiday celebrations here at the James Beard House,” stated Izabela Wojcik, director of house programming for the James Beard Foundation. “We miss Bob and honor his legacy. And we look forward to the return of Benchmark’s chefs for the 2009 Benchmark Holiday Dinner. In some way we feel Bob remains here with us through the chefs he has influenced.”

The historic James Beard House was home to the renowned James Beard, who is celebrated today as the dean of American Cookery. Beard lived in his Greenwich Village, New York, townhouse from 1976 until his passing 1985. A gifted impresario who along with his great friend, Julia Child,led the way for many of today’s celebrity chefs, James Beard established cooking schools and published over 20 important cookbooks, many of which are still in print. As important, he left a legacy of culinary excellence and integrity for generations of America’s home cooks and professional chefs. His name remains synonymous with American cuisine.

Hector J. Morales Jr., whose experience includes serving as the banquet chef for the King of Norway, is executive chef at Turtle Bay Resort, the landmark property located in Oahu’s North Shore. Chef Morales is responsible for the oversight and management of the award-winning resort’s kitchens and the Palm Terrace, Hang Ten Grill and 21 Degrees North restaurants.

Chef Morales immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico at the age of 4. He credits his


interest in cooking to his mother, who was an accomplished chef in her own right. He began cooking at an Italian restaurant in New Jersey at the age of 14. He was later accepted into the prestigious Johnson & Wales University Culinary Arts program and, upon graduation served as the chef saucier at the Americana Snow King Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved to Hawaii, serving as the chef saucier on the S.S. Independence.

In 1985, Chef Morales continued his education in Europe under the direction of master chefs from Switzerland, Germany and Norway. He served as the banquet sous chef at the S.A.S. Hotels Scandinavia in Oslo Norway, banquet chef for the King of Norway, and banquet sous chef at the Sheraton Hotel in Oslo.

Chef Moralesbecame the senior sous chef at the Sydney Regent in 1987, Australia’s premier Five Diamond Resort. He returned to Hawaii to serve as the executive chef on the S.S. Independence and the S.S. Constitution, American Hawaii Cruises and as chef de cuisine at the Stouffer Wailea Beach Resort before joining Turtle Bay Resort as its executive sous chef in 1996.

Peter Csikos, Executive Chef

The Heldrich Hotel & Spa, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Peter Csikos is executive chef for The Heldrich Hotel & Spa, the award-winning property anchoring the renaissance of downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey

Chef Csikos previously served as executive chef at the Hilton in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, and in the same role at the Sheraton Crossroads of Mahwah, New Jersey. His first position within the state was as


executive chef at Pegasus Restaurant in East Rutherford.

While in New York City, Chef Csikos was director of food and beverage for the storied Warwick Hotel. He was promoted to this position following success as executive chef for the property, which has a specialty in French and International Cuisine. Mr. Csikos held the position of executive sous chef for landmark New York Palace, working under renowned chef Andre Rene.

Originally from Hungary where he received his culinary education and training in International and French Classical cuisine, Peter Csikos gained early experience as chef working for fine dining establishments in Cologne, Germany, and with large scale restaurant operations in Budapest, Hungary. While in Europe, his culinary positions included such titles as head chef, chef saucier, and chef de partie.

Peter Csikos isa graduate of the Culinary Institute of Budapest. He has received additional culinary training at Johnson & Wales University located in Providence, Rhode Island.

David Rodriguez, Executive Chef

Costa d’Este Beach Resort, Vero Beach, Florida

David Rodriguez is the executive chef of Costa d’Este Beach Resort and its acclaimed restaurant, Oriente, located in Vero Beach, Florida. The luxury property is owned by the internationally acclaimed recording artist/producer couple Gloria and Emilio Estefan. The menu of Oriente – named for the Oriente region of Cuba, pairs gourmet Cuban specialties with influences from Spanish, Latin, and Creole traditions.

In preparation for his post, Chef Rodriguez, who is Cuban-American, fine-tuned his Cuban culinary repertoire at both Larios and Oriente, popular Cuban restaurants in Miami owned by the Estefans.

Previously, Chef Rodriguez held a number of culinary


posts in New Jersey, including as executive chef for Doubletree Hotel in Somerset, executive sous chef for the Palace at Somerset Park, and as chef at The Old Mill Inn in Basking Ridge. He has also served as chef for the acclaimed Dining Room at The Hilton Short Hills, and was chef at the Parsippany Hilton. Rodriguez launched his culinary career at the Rihga Royal Hotel in Manhattan.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, Chef Rodriguez is a member of the American Culinary Federation and the renowned Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.

John Billings, Executive Chef

Eaglewood Resort & Spa, Chicago, Illinois

John Billings, CEC, is executive chef and assistant director of food & beverage for Eaglewood Resort & Spa, located near Chicago. Chef Billings isan industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in building and leading culinary operations for fine dining, banquet and catering establishments. At Eaglewood Resort & Spa, Chef Billings is responsible for the property’s extensive catering and events operations, as well as overseeing Burnham’s, the resort’s signature restaurant, and Prairie River, the relaxed dining venue.

John Billings appointment as executive chef represented a return to Eaglewood Resort & Spa for Chef Billings, having previously left the property to become an entrepreneur, opening his restaurant, Monte’s Steak House, in Faribault, Minnesota. The successful restaurant featured an open kitchen and was situated in a circa 1854 warehouse. Chef Billing’s subsequently sold his interest in the restaurant to return to his resort roots.

John Billings is a recognized leader in his field,


having been honored for his outstanding work by numerous professional organizations. He is a Certified Executive Chef and was named American Culinary Federation Chapter Chef of the Year for 1997 and 2001 as well as Best of Show, Geneva Executive Club Annual Food Competition. He has also received six Gold Medals, four Silver Medals and two Bronze Medals in honor of his culinary talents from Arklatex Culinary Salon, Lafayette Culinary Salon and Baton Rouge Culinary Salon, respectively.

Francisco “Paco” Aceves is executive chef for Stonewall Resort, located near Weston, West Virginia. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Aceves previously held the title of executive chef for one of West Virginia’s most popular restaurants, The Bridge Road Bistro in Charleston. Prior to this appointment he served asbanquet chef for the Four Diamond-rated La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa in Santa Fe, New Mexico, gaining experience in southwestern cuisine.

Early in his career, Paco Aceves was employed as sous chef for The Houston Country Club in Houston, Texas, where he trained under Certified Master Chef Fritz Gitschner. During his tenure there, Chef Aceves was chosen by Gitschner to participate as part of the United States culinary team at the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon, France, one of the world’s most distinguished culinary competitions.

At the launch of his career, Francisco Aceves apprenticed at Handke’s Cuisine in Columbus, Ohio, where he trained under Certified Master Chef Hartmut Handke.

Mary Watson-DeLauder is chief wine officer for Benchmark Hospitality International, the first professional to serve in this position for the


leading hospitality management company. Ms. Watson was previously the award-winning sommelier for Lansdowne Resort and its popular On the Potomac restaurant in Leesburg, Virginia, Benchmark Hospitality’s east coast flagship property. She held this role for 16 years, garnering several awards along the way.

Throughout her tenure with Benchmark Hospitality, Mary Watson has been instrumental in strengthening the company’s relationships with signature wineries in Virginia, nationally and internationally. She developed an acclaimed curriculum of food & wine and Culinary University classes, which provide an in-depth look at a variety of American and International cuisine and wine.

Ms. Watson has also developed the wine programs for Benchmark Hospitality International’s newest properties, including Costa d’Esta Beach Resort and its signature restaurant, Oriente, in Vero Beach, Florida, and Naples Bay Resort and its restaurant,Olio, in Naples, Florida.

Mary Watson’s expertise has been recognized nationally. She has been the recipient of the Wine Spectator award for the past 18 years, and has been featured nationally on NBC’s Today Show and in countless regional and national consumer and food & wine publications. She is an active member of the Women Chef Restaurateurs, Knights of the Vine, Society of Wine Educators and the Virginia Viniferea Wine Growers Association.

Ms. Watson has received the Gold Cluster of Virginia Award and served as a judge for the Virginia Wine Growers Association Wine Competition, the American Wine Competition and the International Wine Competition. She has served as sommelier for numerous events at the renowned James Beard House in New York City.

The James Beard Foundation www.jamesbeard.org, based in New York


City, is the definitive culinary arts organization in the United States dedicated to showcasing American chefs’ talents. It is named after the great American chef, Dean of American Cooking, and Father of American Gastronomy, James Beard, who authored over 20 cookbooks and hundreds of articles, many of which are still in print. Beard appeared on network television’s first cookery program in the 1940s and established a re
owned cooking school. The Foundation and The James Beard House, where chefs from around the world showcase their talents, are situated in Manhattan in Beard’s original townhouse, located in Greenwich Village.

The mission of The James Beard Foundation is to celebrate, preserve, and nurture America’s culinary heritage and diversity in order to elevate the appreciation of the nation’s culinary excellence. The Foundation isa national not-for-profit  501(c)(3) organization. According to the James Beard Foundation, all performing artists deserve a great stage: Musicians have Carnegie Hall; Opera singers have The Metropolitan Opera House; and Chefs, Winemakers and Cookbook Authors have The James Beard House. More than 20 dinners, lunches and workshops are held each month at The James Beard House to showcase culinary artists from America and around the world.

Located on the North Shore of Oahu, the 880-acre Turtle Bay Resort is operated by Benchmark Hospitality International and is a Preferred Hotels® & Resorts Worldwide property – a collection of the world’s finest independent luxury hotels. Famous for world-class surfing, pristine white sand beaches, and its charming country setting, the North Shore also offers colorful cultural attractions, innovative ecological endeavors, and


environmental adventures. For reservations or more information, visit www.turtlebayresort.com or call (808) 293-6000.

The Heldrich Hotel & Spa is located in the cultural heart of New Jersey in New Brunswick. The property is situated at 10 Livingston Avenue across from the city’s famed Theatre Row, just west of important US Route 1 and four blocks from the New Brunswick Train Station (serving the Northeast Corridor: Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington, DC) and close to Exit 9 of the NJ Turnpike. It is 45 minutes outside New York City and has rail service to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). The Heldrich features a 248-guestroom luxury hotel, Christopher’s Restaurant, serving freshly prepared specialties created in an exhibition kitchen to delight even the most discriminating palate, Christopher’s Bar, and an elegant ballroom, ideal for socialand corporate gatherings. For more information on The Heldrich, call 732-729-4670 or visit www.theheldrich.com.

The Four Diamond-rated Stonewall Resort is a 208-guestroom property with a lakeside lodge and lakeside cottages, a conference center, restaurants, complete fitness center and swimming pool, spa and an 18-hole Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course. The resort is located at Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park near Weston, West Virginia. Stonewall Resort is a joint private/public development between McCabe-Henley LP and the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. Benchmark Hospitality International operates Stonewall Resort.

Benchmark Hospitality International is a leader in the management and marketing of resorts, conference centers, hotels, and Personal Luxury Hotels™. The privately held company, launched in 1980, is a founding member of the International Association of Conference Centers. Benchmark Hospitality is a worldwide


For the fifth consecutive year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named as the world’s most powerful woman by Forbes magazine as revealed by its annual list of World’s 100 Most Powerful Women which was released Tuesday.

This also marked the 10th time that Merkel, who became the first female German chancellor in 2005, made it to the the magazine’s ranking.

ADVERTISEMENT

READ: Merkel tops Forbes’ most powerful women

Merkel is followed by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is seeking a presidential bid in the 2016 US presidential elections under the Democratic Party.

READ: Hillary Clinton says she’s running for president in 2016

Clinton, who has appeared in Forbes’ annual list since 2004, jumped four spots from her 2014 ranking.

American businesswoman Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates and co-founder of theMedia picks Kentucky as 2019 SEC Champion

Photo: Fred Daniels

Birmingham, Ala. - Kentucky was predicted to win the 2019 Southeastern Conference men's basketball championship in voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members.

The Wildcats are the overall preseason favorite for the 14th time since the 1998-99 season.

Tennessee junior forward Grant Williams was the choice of the media for SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year. Auburn's Bryce Brown; Florida's Jalen Hudson; Kentucky's Keldon Johnson, Reid Travis & PJ Washington; LSU's Tremont Waters, Mississippi State's Quinndary Weatherspoon; South Carolina's Chris Silva and Tennessee's Admiral Schofield also received votes in the Player of the Year voting.

Travis, Waters, Silva, Williams and Arkansas' Daniel Gafford were each All-SEC First Team selections. Brown, Hudson, Washington, Weatherspoon and Schofield were second


A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy's wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him with her father. A pale, serious young girl, she only comes out at night and doesn't seem affected by the freezing temperatures. Coinciding with Eli's arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders. One man is found tied to a tree, another frozen in the lake, a woman bitten in the neck. Blood seems to be the common denominator--and for an introverted boy like Oskar, who is fascinated by gruesome stories, it doesn't take long before he figures out that Eli is a vampire. But, byThe primary aim of Gush Shalom is to influence Israeli public opinion and lead it towards peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people, based on the following principles:

Putting an end to the occupation,

Accepting the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent and sovereign State of Palestine in all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967[*],

Reinstating the pre-1967 "Green Line" as the border between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine (with possible minor exchanges of territories agreed between the parties); the border will be open for the free movement of people and goods, subject to mutual agreement.

Establishing Jerusalem as the capital of the two states, with East Jerusalem (including the Haram al-Sharif) serving as the capital of Palestine and West Jerusalem (including the Western


with emotionalism. Voters are emotionally invested in these candidates and have attached their identities to the candidates.

Which brings us back to the emotionalism of Trumpism. Trump backed out of the Utah debate scheduled for Monday, leaving 50,000 attendees in the lurch. For the frontrunner Trump, lobbyists are now more important than voters, because he could only be hurt by a more demanding debate with Cruz and Kasich. The debate moderators and media coverage of the first three debates played into Trump's manipulation of the process, whether by accident or design. The breadth and depth of knowledge of the other candidates were ignored in favor of the sensationalized “reality-t.v.” style of political discourse.

The civility of the last debate was a relief for debate watchers, but it was obviously killingfor the June and September periods. Windows 2000 sales will be the real growth engine, said analysts.

Windows 2000 sales kick in just as the appeals process gets under way. That double dose of good news may have Microsoft rallying into the fall. Microsoft is also seeking to move the appeals process along quickly.

Andrew Roskill, an analyst with Warburg Dillion Read, reckons that Microsoft shares will rebound once the appeals process starts. "They have better prospects in the appellate court," said Roskill. "Microsoft can appeal to the Supreme Court."

It's also worth noting that Microsoft's antitrust woes have provided buying opportunities in the last year (chart). Jackson last ruled against Microsoft in November.

Odds and ends

When asked whether Microsoft's antitrust battle will hurt employee morale -- and stock options -- Ballmer


valore dell'esperienza personale.
Negli anni successivi
alla Seconda guerra mondiale

English:
At the age of 21, Simone de Beauvoir
became the youngest person
to take the philosophy exams
at France’s most esteemed university.
She passed with flying colors.
But as soon as she mastered
the rules of philosophy,
she wanted to break them.
She’d been schooled
on Plato’s Theory of Forms,
which dismissed the physical world
as a flawed reflection
of higher truths and unchanging ideals.
But for de Beauvoir,
earthly life was enthralling, sensual,
and anything but static.
Her desire to explore the physical world
to its fullest would shape her life,
and eventually,
inspire a radical new philosophy.
Endlessly debating with her romantic
and intellectual partner Jean Paul Sartre,
de Beauvoir explored free will, desire,
rights and responsibilities,
and the value of personal experience.
In the years following WWII,

Portuguese:
Tradutor: Margarida Ferreira
Revisora: Isabel Vaz Belchior
Aosparticularly interested in the importance of trust. Partly for that reason I recently read Jane Jacobs's Systems of Survival which sets out to explain a pair of competing moral systems: the guardian syndrome and the commerce syndrome. She derives these syndromes from the behaviors two occupational groups: the one evolved from aristocratic moral structures and the other from the moral structures of businessmen. It's a good read. The guardians are those who govern, who run the bureaucracy, and who dispense justice. They trust only their own kind and strictly by the rules of honor (which give plenty of latitude for deception). In contrast, commercial people treasure honesty, not for its own sake but because trading requires trust.

Jacobs isn't saying these moral codes are observed by everyone all the


action to counter civil unrest. The blogger has first-hand knowledge since he's currently serving in the Army in Kuwait. (He writes for Cliopatria, a group blog, and is a historian in graduate school at UCLA.) If you read the whole article from which he quotes, the unit sound more helpful than threatening (Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1). But, in light of the misplaced trust that has produced so many horrors in recent years, including the current financial crisis, you have to wonder. Why do we need Army specialists to do the job the National Guard is tasked to perform? There used to be fears of large standing armies which might subvert the rights of citizens. As James Madison put it in Anti-Federalist Papers No. 10 of 24global investors still seek refuge in the safety of the U.S. dollar, U.S. Treasuries and the skillful crisis management of U.S. policy makers."

The opinion piece by the hedge fund operator is Calling Out the Culprits Who Caused the Crisis, by Eric D. Hovde. He's an interesting character. A financier who's wealthy enough to own both an investment bank and commercial banks, and also runs a hedge fund, he's not a sleazy character, but rather one who strongly supports charitable activity here and abroad. It's also obvious from this article that he's one who is blunt in his criticisms of his own industry.

Like Pearlstein he says the historically low interest rates put in place by the Greenspan Fed created a toxic environment for the US economy. The New York


into the pockets of our elected officials, Wall Street bought itself protection from any tough government enforcement."

He leaves us with no prognosis but only a wish: "there has not been a time since the 1920s when Wall Street has enjoyed as much influence over Washington as it has for the last 12 years. Let's hope that this influence fades rapidly -- and that this financial crisis doesn't end the same way as the one of nearly 80 years ago."

Here's the old and ever-popular book I mentioned at top. MacKay was one of the first to notice how easily people get carried away and how dreadful the results can be.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

PezCycling News has some good photos of the climax of yesterday's demanding stage in the Vuelta, Spain'sphotos, including these. Note the helicopter in the background of the first one. The second one shows the race leader coming through on his own.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Lately I've been reading -- or at least skimming -- lots of math texts from the 17th-century and occasionally something interesting catches my eye. The books and the culture of technical education in which they nest were both monotonously masculine. There were advocates for teaching math to women but the objective of authors and students alike was mostly the preparation of young men for jobs in merchants' offices and trademen's shops.

This morning I was looking at one of the most popular of all these books, William Mather's Young Man's Companion, a comprehensive work of instruction and reference that went through 24


editions between 1681 and 1775. What caught my eye was a reference to a pamphlet he wrote about the invidious meddling of women in the affairs of men. It's called A Novelty: Or, A Government Of Women Distinct From Men, Erected Amoungst Some Of The People, Call'd Quakers. Published in 1694, it complains about the power held by Quaker women in Bedfordshire at the time.

{The image shows a Quaker woman preaching ca. 1675.}

The worst offense, in Mather's view, was that these women would interview young couples who wished to marry. In the words of one who defended the practice, the women would "enquire and see that things be clear on all parts on so weighty a concern as marriage." Susan Dinan explains the purpose of these interviews inwives,' (saith he) 'you speak too much against women.' to say the truth, this was the best argument he could give us, for his unscriptual female government."

Mather had become a Quaker nearly 35 years before writing this and was to return to the Church of England the next year. George Fox was of course the founder of the Religious Society of Friends. As bold as he was peaceful, his writings make for very interesting reading. Answering Mather and other critics, he strongly defended the right of women to participate in decision-making via Monthly and Quarterly Meetings and to interview couples who wished to marry.

{The image shows Fox in an engraving taken from a contemporary painting.}

Here is the text of a letter -- which Mather quotes -- which summarizes


doth oppose the good Order in publishing Marriage in Men and Women's Meetings, is not of God, and am sorry for the Young Man, and desire he may live to see his Weakness, and amend; so with Love to all Friends of Truth, rest a Friend to the same Truth. -- Tobias Hardmeat.

Here is the title page of the pamphlet:

Here is the catalog entry for it:

Mather, W., fl. 1695.

A novelty: or, a government of vvomen distinct from men, erected amoungst some of the people, call'd Quakers. Detected in an epistle, occasionally written to a man-judge, upon a young man's refusing (for good conscience sake) to submit to their authority in marriage, seeing that relations and friends were already satisfied. To which is added, a lamentation for the fallof so many of that people. Published for no other end, but to deter all honest hearts of the said people, from erecting the like unscriptural government. Tho' this may not so far prevail with such women as has a secret command of their husbands purses; together with those preachers that reap profit by such a female government, as to consent to the disanulling the same. Written by William Mather, a dear lover of the said people, who has for several years been much troubled, that some of them should fall from there primitive institution, as to set up women's and men's meetings, as guides in government, ... . , London : printed for Sarah Howkins, in George-yard, Lumbard-street, [1694?]Date: 1694Bib name / number: Wing (2nd ed.) /


M1284CBib name / number: Smith, J. Catalogue of Friends' Books / II, p. 162No. pages: 23, [1] p.Copy from: Friends' Library, London, England

Today, Sept 12, the Washington Post gives new evidence of perjury used to convict and then execute Ethel Rosenberg some 55 years ago. I was 11 when she was put to death. She was my Mom's age. She and her husband Julius had two sons one of whom later became a college classmate of mine. Her electrocution was ugly, an ugly event at a time when immorally ambitious men put themselves at the head of a mob of frightened citizens not caring what damage they would do to the Constitution and the ideals on which the United States was founded. Our home was only a fewthe piece on pin-stripe immorality I wrote about yesterday, has today a good summary of the F&F takeover. Notice that he makes connection to the New Deal policies of FDR. (There's an indirect connection here with the founding of the Greenbelt community in Maryland, part of the context of yesterday's post.) Notice also that he tells us market regulation is not only necessary to correct problems created by the workings of the market, but also that regulation is needed to prevent future crises of a like nature.

Fannie and then Freddie began promising Wall Street double-digit earnings growth, which required them to grow their balance sheets well beyond what was necessary to assure liquidity in the mortgage market. Instead of just buying mortgages, insuring them and selling them in


packages to investors, they bought more of them for their own portfolios, using ever-increasing amounts of borrowed money. Buying their own securities was profitable, but it left them highly exposed if anything went really wrong with the housing market, which is exactly what has happened.

Not since the early days of the Roosevelt administration, at the depth of the Great Depression, has the government taken such a direct role in the workings of the financial system.

Paulson only implicitly notices something that's the subject of another post that caught my attention this morning: people do not generally respond well when some resource that has been scarce suddenly becomes abundant. In the case of the South Sea Bubble, the industrial expansion of he late 19th-century, the stock market expansion that endedconnoted trust, the assurance that both parties were committed and fully able to do exactly what they promised one another in the paper documents they signed. In time, merchants' courts evolved to enforce these promises making it unnecessary for one party to personally acquainted with the other. However, these courts came to have little influence over the speculative trading of some forms of credit transactions, in particular the buying and selling of securities -- the bonds that the government used to borrow from citizens and the stock issued by the East India Company and other trading ventures. Securities were a different form of credit, one much more subject to abuse than merchants' credit.

My research isn't concerned with the emerging stock exchanges in European cities of the time, but


as it happens I'm reading a book that deals with the subject: David Liss's Conspiracy of Paper. It's an excellent amalgam of mystery story, historical novel, adventure tale, and exploration of chicanery on a huge scale. It is set in London at the time the South Sea Bubble and its hero takes us into the intricacies of that vast web of intrigue. Bit by bit the author unfolds the conspiracies, manipulations, and crimes of some of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the time -- men whose place in society and its institutions was one of public trust. The story thus concerns, in part, the abuse of trust.

If you know the story of the South Sea Bubble at all, you know that this massive abuse of trustled to the ruin of many English men and women from all walks of life.

{One of many images depicting the bubble mania, this comes from Harvard Business School's Baker Library}

{This is a detail from a contemporary print warning of the dangers of the mania.}

As it happens, too, we ate out last night at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt Maryland.

The play is about Mrs. Warren's profession, of course, but also about women's rights, the generational gap between a mother and daughter, the conflicting impulses of career and romance and of business and the arts. But it's also about people with wealth and social position who maintain an aura of probity while earning money in anti-social ways. In this sense, it compliments the Conspiracy of Paper and the betrayal


of public trust. In fact, Shaw makes this connection fairly plain in speeches by two characters: the mother, Mrs. Warren herself, and her partner, Crofts. The latter, a Baronet, speaks of the financial dealings men of his class, including for example his brother the M.P. who "gets his 22 per cent out of a factory with 600 girls in it, and not one of them getting wages enough to live on." He says, "As long as you don't fly openly in the face of society, society doesn't ask any inconvenient questions; and it makes precious short work of the cads who do. There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses." Later Mrs. Warren puts the matter a little more bluntly: "You think that people arebusiness culture like that of modern-day Wall Street, cynicism is rampant, candor and accountability are first casualties, and a man is measured by the size of his bonus rather than the depth of his integrity. It's not so much immoral as amoral.

The tell-tale signs of this endemic corruption now litter the financial landscape.

To find it, look no farther than the televised bleatings of research directors and equity strategists who, until the last few weeks, were still talking about a stock market rebound in the second half of the year and have never once forecast a losing year for the S&P 500.

You can find it in the spectacularly misguided mergers and acquisitions that were conceived, negotiated, blessed and underwritten by investment bankers who are paid enormous fees no matter


Tinks Pottinger

Judith Anne Pottinger (née White; born 26 April 1956), known as Tinks Pottinger, is a New Zealand horsewoman who won a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Pottinger, riding Volunteer, was in the New Zealand three-day event team which finished third, along with Andrew Bennie, Margaret Knighton and Mark Todd. In the individual three-day event at the same Olympics, she finished fifth.

Pottinger continued to compete in eventing until the late 1990s.

Pottinger was born in Waipawa on 26 April 1956, the daughter of Helen "Tiny" White (née Groome), a noted horsewoman and FEI judge, and Eric White. She was educated at Woodford House and Wellington Polytechnic. In 1983, she married Andy Pottinger, and the couple went on to have two children, including Amanda Pottinger, whoand tactics, — all in a highly accessible free to play game.”

“With Wrath of Heroes, BioWare has taken some of the most exciting elements of Warhammer Online and created a wonderfully compelling experience that will delight our existing fans and introduce even more players to the unique and diverse Warhammer world,” said Jon Gillard, Head of Licensing, Games Workshop Group PLC.

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes is advancing online PvP games by delivering instant, fast-paced and competitive three-sided 6v6v6 PvP arena gameplay – for free! As the latest entry in EA’s Play4Free portfolio, the game throws three teams into battle against each other, where players can choose from a wide range of unique heroes from the Warhammer universe on the fly. This cutthroat setup creates highly dynamic matches where


soldiers, novels and model kits through more than 392 of its own Hobby centers, the Internet and independent retail channels in more than 50 countries worldwide. Further details on the company can be obtained at www.games-workshop.com.

About Play4Free

Electronic Arts is committed to driving the industry with its digital transformation. Offering a diverse portfolio of premium games, EA's Play4Free titles are developed by Easy studios in Stockholm, Sweden; Phenomic Studios in Ingelheim, Germany; and the Vancouver-based Play4Free team. With a low barrier to entry and over 25 million players around the globe, EA’s world-class Play4Free titles allow gamers to play in the universe of existing and new franchises. Play4Free games are distributed worldwide in a wide selection of languages. For more information, please visit www.play4free.com.

About BioWare

The BioWare Label is adivision of EA which crafts high quality multiplatform role-playing, MMO and strategy games, focused on emotionally engaging, rich stories with unforgettable characters and vast worlds to discover. Since 1995, BioWare has created some of the world's most critically acclaimed titles and franchises, including Baldur's Gate™, Neverwinter Nights™, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™, Jade Empire™, Mass Effect™ and Dragon Age™. BioWare also operates the award-winning MMOs Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®, Dark Age of Camelot™ and Ultima Online™.

BioWare currently operates in eight locations across the world, including Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), Austin (Texas), Fairfax (Virginia), San Francisco (California), Los Angeles (California). Sacramento (California) and Galway (Ireland). In 2008, BioWare was acquired by Electronic Arts, a leading global interactive entertainment publisher. In 2011 EA created the


information about EA is available at http://info.ea.com.

Bioware, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. The Sims and Need for Speed are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL and FIFA are the property of their respective owners and used with permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes © Games Workshop Limited 2012. Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Wrath of Heroes, Age of Reckoning, the foregoing marks’ respective logos and all associated marks, logos, places, names, creatures, races and race insignia/devices/logos/symbols, vehicles, locations, weapons, units and unit insignia, characters, products and illustrations from the Warhammer World and Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes game setting are either ®, TM and/or © GamesSome Disneyland fans are Mickey Bar obsessives, others are cake pop people — and then, well, there are the rest of us. Churros are easily the best handheld snack at the happiest place on earth, and the three new versions arriving to Disneyland Resort on April 13 for Pixar Fest are shaping up to be some of the greatest.

A multicolored fruity churro with lemon sugar — nicknamed The Snipe, of course — will honor Up's bold bird Kevin, and a Lots-o' Straw-"Bear"-y Churro, sold in Tomorrowland, will feature bright pink sugar and that trademark strawberry scent of the Toy Story 3 character. The most exciting of the three, though, is Frontierland's Coco churro, which comes topped with chocolate powder, vanilla bean, and salted cinnamon sugar, served with a


to a substantially vertical position lying against the vehicle. Unloading of the truck takes place in reverse manner. The loading platform has the important advantage that it renders superfluous lifting means for placing cargo in and removing it from a transport vehicle. A drawback of existing loading platforms however consists of a comparatively voluminous construction of the loading flap, whereby in the lowered, practically horizontal position at least a part of the supporting side of the loading flap is located at a distance from the ground. A chamfered loading flap makes it possible to move the freight on and off the loading flap. However, when freight is placed onto the loading flap a determined resistance has to be overcome. In use this means that for instance heavy rollerthe floor. Though thanks to the open process of the DNC, much like Hillary Clinton, neither did they.

Pundits have speculated that not actually being on the Democratic Party ballot may have hurt Ron Paul's chances. Nevertheless Ron Paul did come in second in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, as he did in the Republican primary, giving him two options if he chooses to run again.

New Hampshire Democrats were as enamored with Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman as New Hampshire Republicans were, perhaps because they were both the same people, and gave them top billing. However Mitt Romney managed to defeat Huntsman to emerge in 3rd place in the New Hampshire Democratic primary with nearly 2,000 votes. Like Ron Paul, Mitt Romney was left without any delegates at the


Olah – 'A tukor elott'

Gyula Elias feat. Fourtissimo – 'Run To You'

Heni Der – 'Ebreszto'

Iv – 'Fire'

Leander Rising – 'Lojetek fel'

New Level Empire – 'Homelight'

Pankastic! – 'Kicsi a vilag, de nagy vilag'

Saci and Bobe Szecsi – 'Our Time'

The expert jury will give their votes to five of the contestants. The 6th qualified act will be chosen by the 'A Dal'-App votes.

'A Dal 2015' - Show Dates

24.01.2015 - Pre-Round 1

31.01.2015 - Pre-Round 2

07.02.2015 - Pre-Round 3

28.02.2015 - National Final

The Jury:

Magdi Rúzsa

Philip Rákay

Jenő Csiszár

Pierrot

A Dal App voters as 5th juror

András Kállay-Saunders represented Hungary this 2014 at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen with his entry 'Running'. The song ended on 5th place with 143 points.

The winner of 'A Dal 2015' will represent Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 inVienna. Hungary will perform in one of the Semi-Finals on 19th and 21st of May 2015. Who do you want to represent Hungary next year in Vienna?

The voting:

The audience can vote in each show via phone call or sms. Their votes are 50 % of the end result. The other 50 % are the votes from the jury.

Jury members:

Ramūnas Zilnys (music reviewer)

Darius Užkuraitis

Rosita Čivilytė

Gintaras Rinkevičius

Vilija Matačiūnaitėwon last year the competition and represented Lithatunia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen with her song 'Attention'. Lithuania will perform in one of the Semi-Finals on 19th or 21st of May 2015 in Vienna. Who should represent Lithuania in May in Austria?

On 7th of December 2014 the 'Expert Check' found 6 hopefuls for the national selection from Switzerland. The national


win :)

Virpi and Katja Kätkä, better known under their stage name CatCat, represented 1994 Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Bye Bye Baby'. Today they released the first song from the upcoming album 'Kukat kauniit'.

CatCat - 'Kukat kauniit aamuin' (Audio)

'Kukat kauniit' - Track List

Kukat kauniit aamuin

Neljän tuulen tiellä

Eilen kun mä tiennyt en

Pieni ihminen

Unten erämaa

Enkeli

Hiljainen tienoo

Eläköön elämä

Jos nyt menet pois

Lainaa vain

Siivet

Näkemiin

The two girls are still very well known for Eurovision fans. Last year they hosted the unforgettable 'Eurovision Cruise' and of course, they performed their Eurovision entry. Do you remember the song?

Thursday, January 29, 2015

On 17th of January the 24 contestants for two Semi-Finals were chosen in a live audition for the Moldovan national selection 'O Melodie Pentru Europa 2015'. TRM, Moldovan broadcaster, announced the startingеще люблю' (engl. 'I Still Love')

Tina Karol - 'Я все еще люблю' (Official Video)

On 8th of December released Tina Karol her latest album called 'Помню...' (engl. 'I Remember...'), which includes 8 tracks.

2006 won Tina the Eurovision casting for Ukraine with the song 'I am Your Queen'. Later her Eurovision entry were changed to the song 'Show Me Your Love'. She reached 7th place in the Eurovision final with 145 points. In the same year she released her debut album with the same title. Do you remember her Eurovision entry?

On 17th of January the 24 contestants for two Semi-Finals were chosen in a live audition for the Moldovan national selection 'O Melodie Pentru Europa 2015'. TRM, Moldovan broadcaster, announced the starting order for the Semi-Finals. Here you can see


for Semi-Final 1, which will take place on 24th of February 2015.

'O Melodie Pentru Europa 2015' - Show dates

The Jury:

Adrian Beldiman

Andrei Sava

Aliona Triboi

Aurel Chirtoacă

Iurie Badicu

Victor Buruiană

Vlad Costandoi

Cristina Scarlat, who represented Moldova in 2015 at the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Wild Soul', didn't made it to the final. The winner of 'O Melodie Pentru Europa 2015' will represent Moldova in one of the Semi-Finals on 19th or 21st of May 2015 in Vienna. Who should represent Moldova in Austria at the 60th Eurovision Song Contest?

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The team of Eurovision in Concert announced yesterday the second host for this years EiC, which will take place on 18th of April 2015 in Amsterdam. Cornald Maas, who already was one of the hosts in 2014, was already confirmed. Yesterday eveningBIG NEWS were confirmed. Female host for the event will be the one and only Edsilia Rombley!

Edsilia already represented twice the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest. Once in 1989 with the song 'Hemel en aarde' and in 2007 with 'On Top Of The World'. Do you remember her Eurovision entries?

Edsilia Rombley - 'Hemel en aarde'

(Eurovision Performance 1998)

Edsilia Rombley - 'On Top Of The World'(Eurovision performance)

On 28th of November 2014 released Edsilia her latest album 'The Piano Ballads - Vol. 1', which includes 10 tracks. Have you already listened the album?

In April 2014 a record of 25 Eurovision acts from 2014 joined the event and of course it was SOLD OUT! After the concert a lot of the acts celebrated with the Eurovision fans on the official aftershow


party till the early morning light...

"I wrote the lyrics for the song and was mainly inspired by Pasha's performing style, which is very passionate and full of emotions, so I knew that he would like the text full of intense emotions. The song is about love, but the type of love which never surrenders and tries to be unchained from deceptions and sadness." said Lidia Scarlat about the song.

The girl in the video is Yuliana Scutaru. Here you can see the Russian version 'ПОКА ЖИВОЙ' from the song.

The National Final Season 2015 is under way and the Team of Radio International would like to invite you to this week's edition of the show with music, interviews and fun. Join in this Wednesday, 28th of January 2015 from 08:00be able to listen live, the show will appear in the Programme’s Show Archive a few hours after it’s airing on the radio.

Follow those links and be always up to date about Eurovision Radio International:

Vienna will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 after the victory from Conchita Wurst with her song 'Rise Like A Phoenix'. The first tickets for the shows in May were sold already in the middle of December 2014.

This Thursday, 29th of January 2015, starts the second round for the 'OFFICIAL TICKET SALE' for the shows in May this year in Vienna. The first tickets were sold out after only 20 minutes!

'Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2015' - Show Date

The winner of 'Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2015' will be honoured to represent Denmark at the 60th


Eurovision Song Contest in May in Vienna. Denmark will perform in one of the Semi-Finals on 19th or 21st of May. Who should represent Denmark in Austria?

Axel Hirsoux won 2014 the national selection from Belgium - 'Eurosong' - with his emotional song 'Mother'. He represented his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen.

We had the chance to talk to Axel in Cologne on 22nd of November 2014 before he made his soundcheck for the EC Germany 'Club Event 2014'. Read our interview with him below to find out what he had to say...

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Yesterday the first Pre-Round for the Hungarian national selection 'A Dal 2015' took place. Here you can see the contestants in their starting order and who has qulified for the nextwith 143 points.

The winner of 'A Dal 2015' will represent Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna. Hungary will perform in one of the Semi-Finals on 19th and 21st of May 2015. Who do you want to represent Hungary this year in Vienna?

10 contestants performed on Friday in the 'Eurochallenge' show 2 from national selection 'Eurovision Song Project' to find the representative for Cyprus. Host of the shows was Antri Keratoni. 6 of them are now qualified for the national final next week.

Eurovision Song Project - Trailer (Eurochallenge 2)

Eurovision Song Project - Result 'Eurochallenge 2' (23.01.2015)(Qulifiers in bold)

The Cypriot national final will be on 1st of February 2015. Cyprus will perform in one of the Semi-Finals on 19th or 21st of May 2015 in Vienna. Who


ended on last place..) and the song 'Moustache' it was chosen internally to send Lisa Angell.

Lisa already released three albums and is now the hopeful for France in Austria.

As member of the 'Big 5' countries France is already qualified to perform in the Eurovision final on 23rd of May in Vienna.

'Söngvakeppnin 2015' - Show dates

31.01.2015 - Semi Final 1

07.02.2015 - Semi Final 2

14.02.2014 - National Final

Pollapönk represented Iceland 2014 at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen with the song 'No Prejudice'. They ended on 15th place in the final. The winner of 'Söngvakeppnin 2015' will perform on one of the two Semi-Finals on 19th or 21st of May in Vienna. Who should represent Iceland in Austria?Earlier this month Professor S. Settar from India's National Institute of Advanced Studies warned that the ring might be hidden from public view if it was sold to a private bidder.

He urged the Indian government to "make use of all available avenues, legal and diplomatic, to recover the ring".

If the ring could not be stopped from going to auction, he said, Indian philanthropists should be encouraged to purchase it on behalf of the nation. It is not known if the new owner of the ring is Indian.

Another group calling itself the Tipu Sultan United Front also urged Indian authorities to do all they could to prevent the ring from being sold.

The ring was previously listed for sale by Christie's in 2012 but was then withdrawn from sale.


The cancellation of The Jeremy Kyle Show has left ITV in the middle of one of the biggest British broadcasting scandals in recent years, with the company facing a parliamentary inquiry into the treatment of reality TV guests and the risk of the issue damaging next month’s return of the highly profitable Love Island franchise.

It also raises questions about the extent to which a broadcaster can be held responsible for the actions of individuals who voluntarily choose to appear on programmes. ITV insiders and those at other production companies are now pondering whether it is possible to create the drama necessary for compelling reality TV without damaging the individuals who provide the raw material.

Reality programmes broadly fall into three categories: heavily produced “scripted reality” episodic series such asafter failing a lie detector test over claims he had been unfaithful to his fiancee. Although production staff believed the couple had calmed down by the time they departed in a taxi, they split up and he was found dead days later.

News took time to filter through to ITV headquarters, with his death only confirmed on Sunday afternoon – at which point executives decided to suspend production of the programme to “protect the show” and the staff who work on it.

Late on Tuesday night, following growing calls for the show to be cancelled and an intervention from Downing Street, leading ITV staff including chief executive Carolyn McCall, head of television Kevin Lygo and daytime boss Julian Bellamy collectively agreed the show could not be saved.

Kyle issued his first


was time for it to go,” said one source.

After running for 15 years and producing more than 3,000 episodes, the show has now been wiped from the internet. Its YouTube archive featuring more than 10,000 clips has been deleted, while its Facebook page with over 1.3m followers has vanished, along with its Twitter account.

Yet Kyle himself is still set to work at ITV, unless anything is unearthed during the ongoing review ITV is conducting into the episode. His current affairs show The Kyle Files is still available on ITV’s catch-up service ITV Hub. Kyle may also stand in again for Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, as he has done so before. Some sources suggest he is considering moving into politics – a transition made by another formerInternational award-winning journalist, author, poet and essayist. Surprisingly bohemian. The future lies in the Third World, a dystopia created by the First World. Profile photo was shot on a windy day in Juarez, Mexico, with FBI agents excavating clandestine graves of drug cartel victims.The most amazing things happen here. Also at Facebook.com/thedigiezone

Friday, April 8, 2016

The Chicago Tribune and other news media outlets recently published stories about a scheme to rig multistate lottery jackpots.The case involved prizes that 'winners' collected in Oklahoma and Colorado, according to the investigators in Iowa that cracked the case.

The Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press reported that last year Eddie Tipton, ex-security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, was convicted of fixing a $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot in 2010. His brother, Tommy Tipton,


Could it, did it, happen in Texas?

Diana writes

International award-winning journalist, author, poet and essayist. Surprisingly bohemian. The future lies in the Third World, a dystopia created by the First World. Profile photo was shot on a windy day in Juarez, Mexico, with FBI agents excavating clandestine graves of drug cartel victims.The most amazing things happen here. Also at Facebook.com/thedigiezoneof approximately 260xc2x0 C., and while demonstrating good mechanical durability, these wire constructions provide only low-to-moderate long-term humidity resistance and laser markability properties. In addition, the PTFE outer layer is easily scrapped off, thereby exposing the inner layer and rendering it susceptible to hydrolysis in humid environments.
As will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, the aircraft wire constructions described above do not employ a radiation crosslinked outer layer, where exposing perfluorinated polymers such as PTFE, FEP, and PFA to radiation would serve to degrade these materials.
Aircraft wire constructions comprising one or more layers of extruded ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) copolymer, are also known. In such constructions, the ETFE copolymer layer(s) is generally crosslinked by irradiation to achieve use-temperature ratings of greater than 150xc2x0 to 200xc2x0 C.


the conductor, thereby forming an effective seal against moisture, wherein the sealable component comprises a perfluoropolymer, a crosslinked fluoropolymer, or a polyimide adhesive,
wherein, when the inner layer is a fluoropolymer inner layer, the layer is formed by either extruding a fluoropolymer material along a portion or length of the electrical conductor, or by wrapping a fluoropolymer film, in an overlapping fashion, along a portion or length of the conductor,
(b) optionally, a polyimide middle layer, wherein the polyimide middle layer is formed by wrapping an optionally coated polyimide film, in an overlapping fashion, along a portion or length of the inner layer formed on the electrical conductor, and
(c) an extruded, crosslinked fluoropolymer outer layer, wherein the fluoropolymer is selected from the group consisting of copolymers and terpolymers of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene,layer, the layer is formed by either: i) extruding a fluoropolymer material along a portion or length of the electrical conductor, or ii) wrapping a fluoropolymer film, in an overlapping fashion, along a portion or length of the electrical conductor,
(b) optionally, forming a polyimide middle layer on the polyimide or fluoropolymer inner layer by wrapping an optionally coated polyimide film, in an overlapping fashion, along a portion or length of the inner layer,
(c) when the inner layer is a polyimide inner layer or when a middle layer is formed using a coated polyimide film, heating the polyimide film or films to a temperature ranging from about 240xc2x0 to about 350xc2x0 C. to cause overlapping regions of the coated film or films to bond, thereby forming an effective seal


Republic, whose fate the Founding Fathers were extremely conscious of when they designed the U.S. Constitution. That tremendously successful republic began, like ours, by throwing off monarchy, and went on to last for the better part of 500 years. It practiced slavery as an integral and fast-growing part of its economy. It became embroiled in bitter and bloody civil wars, even as its territory kept expanding and its population took off. It won its own hot-and-cold war with its original nemesis, Carthage, bringing it into unexpected dominance over the entire Mediterranean as well as the whole Italian peninsula and Spain.

And the unprecedented wealth it acquired by essentially looting or taxing every city and territory it won and occupied soon created not just the first superpower but a superwealthycampaigns abroad. There was no established international order, no advanced technology, and only the barest of welfare safety nets.

But there is a reason the Founding Fathers thought it was worth deep study. They saw the destabilizing consequences of a slaveholding republic expanding its territory and becoming a vast, regional hegemon. And they were acutely aware of how, in its final century and a half, an astonishing republican success story unraveled into a profoundly polarized polity, increasingly beset by violence, shedding one established republican norm after another, its elites fighting among themselves in a zero-sum struggle for power. And they saw how the weakening of those norms and the inability to compromise and mounting inequalities slowly corroded republican institutions. And saw, too, with the benefit of hindsight, where that


claimed. That period lasted a couple of centuries before the last king, a despised figure called Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown. From then on, from 509 BCE to 49 BCE, the rule of one man was anathema and the title rex a political kiss of death. A Senate and other assemblies replaced the monarch, and power was more widely distributed.

The new offices of state, including the most powerful, the consuls, were all held by at least two people, with strict term limits of one year — and with each officeholder given a mutual veto, to guard against any monarchical pretensions. The power awarded to the consuls and the Senate — representing the landed elite and, increasingly, the business class — was balanced against that of the tribunes (there were,in fits and starts. But a political system designed for a relatively small city had to make some serious adjustments as its territory and prosperity and population exploded. The fact that Rome was in a semi-permanent war with its neighbors — a “forever war” if ever there was one — gave military commanders greater and greater clout, and the loot they hauled from Africa to Asia overwhelmingly enriched the elites beyond anything they had previously experienced.

These were decades and centuries of sudden growth in wealth and territory, but also tension. The forever war required small landowners to leave their farms untended for extended periods to fight. Romans saw many of these small estates fall into decay or ruin and begin to be bought up by wealthier landowners and


consolidated into vast estates. Over time, as the population boomed and small agriculture waned, food resources became stretched. Before too long, there were too few small landowners to qualify for military service, and widening inequality began to generate increasing resentment among slaves and the poor. And into this fraught moment came the first real populists, the Gracchus brothers, who rose — from within the elites, as Trump and many others have in the millennia since — in the 130s BCE.

The first, Tiberius, elected as tribune of the plebs, proposed a set of land reforms to redistribute wealth. He knew he couldn’t get it past the Senate and so did not even try to, as had been the norm; instead, as Edward J. Watts details in his Mortal Republic,he went straight to the People’s Assembly. Then he tried to get his fellow tribune thrown out of office to avoid his veto, and ran for an unprecedented second term as tribune, at which point several senators, out of procedural tools, organized a small mob, grabbed whatever came to hand, entered the vote-counting arena, and clubbed Tiberius and 300 of his supporters to death.

This kind of violence seems unthinkable in America today, though it was not so unusual in the decades before the Civil War, when senators were repeatedly at each other’s literal throats on the Senate floor. But look past the violence and the situation seems a bit more familiar: deepening polarization, mutual mistrust, abandonment of norms, and trashing of precedents. Soon, it was possible to speak,


very roughly, of two Romes: the rich Establishment and the rising masses, the optimates and the populares, waging a zero-sum war through Roman political institutions. In Cicero’s words: “The death of Tiberius Gracchus and even before that, the whole rationale behind his tribunate divided a united people into two distinct groups.” The Latin word for groups is partes.

Tiberius’s cause was taken up by his younger brother, Gaius, who ran for the tribunate, won, and proposed even more distribution of land, new colonies for landless citizens, a major investment in roads and infrastructure, the removal of some senators from juries, and a subsidized grain dole for any Roman in need. It was something for everyone but the elites — and hugely resonant among the populares. This time, the Senateresponded more deftly by getting a rival and loyal tribune to outbid and undercut Gaius. In a contentious public assembly on the matter, scuffles broke out, a supporter of the optimates was stabbed with a writing stylus, and a riot was avoided only because of a sudden rainstorm. But the day after, the Senate, deeply rattled, gave authority to the consul to do, as Mike Duncan puts it in The Storm Before the Storm, his gripping account of these years, “whatever he thought necessary to preserve the state.” A bloodbath ensued, in which Gaius was slaughtered along with 3,000 of his followers, their corpses thrown into the Tiber.

In The Storm Before the Storm, Duncan quotes the great Roman historian Sallust, who, looking back, pulled a “both sides” argument


— “The nobles began to abuse their position and the people their liberty.” The Greek historian Velleius Paterculus more astutely noted that “precedents do not stop where they begin, but, however narrow the path upon which they enter, they create for themselves a highway whereon they may wander with the utmost latitude.” A cycle of polarization had begun.

As the turn of the first century BCE approached and wars proliferated, with Roman control expanding west and east and south across the Mediterranean, the elites became ever wealthier and the cycle deepened. Precedents fell: A brilliant military leader, Marius, emerged from outside the elite as consul, and his war victories and populist appeal were potent enough for him to hold an unprecedented seven consulships in a row, earning him thetitle “the third founder of Rome.” Like the Gracchi, his personal brand grew even as republican norms of self-effacement and public service attenuated. In a telling portent of the celebrity politics ahead, for the first time, a Roman coin carried the portrait of a living politician and commander-in-chief: Marius and his son in a chariot.

A dashing military protégé (and rival) of Marius, Sulla, was the next logical step in weakening the system — a popular and highly successful commander whose personal hold on his soldiers appeared unbreakable. Tasked with bringing the lucrative East back under Rome’s control, he did so with gusto, prompting a somewhat nervous Senate to withdraw his command and give it to his aging (and jealous) mentor Marius. But Sulla, appalled by the snub, simply


refused to follow his civilian orders, gathered his men, and called on them to march back to Rome to reverse the decision. His officers, shocked by the insubordination, deserted him. His troops didn’t, soon storming Rome, restoring Sulla’s highly profitable command, and forcing his enemies into exile. Sulla then presided over new elections of friendly consuls and went back into the field. But his absence from Rome — he needed to keep fighting to reward his men to keep them loyal — enabled a comeback of his enemies, including Marius, who retook the city in his absence and revoked Sulla’s revocations of command. Roman politics had suddenly become a deadly game of tit for tat.

When Sulla entered Rome a second time, he rounded up 6,000 of his enemies,slaughtered them en masse within earshot of the Senate itself, launched a reign of terror, and assumed the old emergency office of dictator, but with one critical difference: He removed the six-month expiration date — turning himself into an absolute ruler with no time limit. Stocking and massively expanding the Senate with his allies, he neutered the tribunes and reempowered the consuls. He was trying to use dictatorial power to reestablish the old order. And after three years, he retired, leaving what he thought was a republic restored.

Within a decade, though, the underlying patterns deepened, and nearly all of Sulla’s reforms collapsed. What lasted instead was his model of indefinite dictatorship, with the power to make or repeal any law. He had established a precedent that would soon


swallow Rome whole.

This was no longer a republican culture protected by an austere elite, but an increasingly authoritarian one, with great military leaders and a handful of wealthy men dominating the political scene through money, legions, and military success. The ancient institutions and customs still existed but were slowly losing relevance. Worrywarts in the Senate and intelligentsia became concerned about strongmen emerging within the system — “The political situation alarms me more each day,” wrote Cicero. Two in particular stood out: Pompey, a hugely successful celebrity general who, at the tender age of 35, was made consul; and an up-and-coming Julius Caesar, rampaging through Gaul and then Britain, besting Pompey’s imperial acquisitions, and generating wide popular enthusiasm.

The two rivals appealed to both of the factions that had nowlong since defined the political scene — Caesar was a populist, Pompey a true Establishment figure — and as Caesar prepared to return, the Senate, panicked that another civil war was imminent, overwhelmingly voted that each disarm his forces and deliver them to the state. Pompey, who was in Rome, simply took no notice. Neither did Caesar, in Gaul, who crossed the Rubicon. These two celebrity commanders had so many soldiers, had conquered so much territory and won such widespread support, that the Senate had effectively become irrelevant. It could vote, and it did, but its votes no longer mattered.

The civil war that followed lasted four years, spanned several continents, resulted in Pompey’s murder in Egypt and gave Caesar a monopoly of power. He used it on a


grandiloquent scale; his parades were beyond sumptuous and displayed the humiliation of his domestic as well as his foreign enemies, as the wider public thrilled to the spectacle. He was granted the position of dictator by the Senate to stabilize the war-torn polity, then reappointed as dictator in 48 BCE for a whole year, and by 44 BCE had been formally named dictator-for-life. At one point, his ally Mark Antony even offered him what looked like a crown.

His assassination — the famous murder on the Ides of March — was accomplished not by a mob but by a group of senators, who feared another rex and worried that their own attenuated power — or the republic itself — would disappear entirely. But it was a last-ditch attempt tounrecognizable. Their phobia about monarchy placed the presidency beneath the Congress in the pecking order, stripping him of pomp and majesty. No newspaper bothered even to post a reporter at the White House until the 20th century. The “bully pulpit” was anathema, and public speeches vanishingly rare. As George F. Will points out in his new book on conservatism, the president of the United States did not even have an office until 1902, working from his living room until Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing.

Some presidents rose above this level of modesty. Lincoln temporarily assumed far greater powers in the Civil War, of course, but it was Teddy Roosevelt who added celebrity and imperial aspirations to the office, Woodrow Wilson who began to construct an administrative state through


which the executive branch could govern independently, FDR who, as president for what turned out to be life, revolutionized and metastasized the American government and bequeathed a Cold War presidency atop a military-industrial complex that now deploys troops in some 164 foreign countries.

Kennedy — and the Camelot myth that surrounded him — dazzled the elites and the public; Reagan ushered in a movie-star model for a commander-in-chief — telegenic, charismatic, and, in time, something of a cult figure; and then the 9/11 attacks created an atmosphere similar to that of Rome’s temporary, emergency dictatorships, except vast powers of war-making, surveillance, rendition, and even torture were simply transferred to an office for non-emergency times as well, as theorists of the unitary executive — relatively unbound by Congress or thegovernment with a leader who insists, of any American problem, “I, alone, can fix it.”

No one in the American system at this level has ever behaved like this before, crudely trampling on republican practices, scoffing at the rule of law, targeting individual citizens for calumny, openly demonizing his opponents, calling a free press treasonous, deploying deceit impulsively, skirting the boundaries of mental illness, bragging of sexual assault, delegitimizing his own government when it showed even a flicker of independence — and yet he almost instantly commanded the near-total loyalty of an entire political party, and of 40 percent of the country, and this loyalty has barely wavered.

If republicanism at its core is a suspicion of one-man rule, and that suspicion is the central animating principle of the American


experiment in self-government, Trump has effectively suspended it for the past three years and normalized strongman politics in America. Nothing and no one in his administration matters except him, as he constantly reminds us. His Cabinet appeared to rein him in for a while, until most experienced adults left it as his demands for total subservience became more insistent. Vast tracts of the bureaucracy are simply ignored, the State Department all but shut down, foreign policy made by impulse, whim, nepotism, for financial gain, or from strange personal rapport with thugs like Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, rather than by any kind of collective deliberation or policy process. Pliant nobodies fill administrative roles where real expertise matters and pushback against the president could have been effective in thepower. Checked for the first time this year by a Democratic House, he has responded the way a monarch would — by simply refusing, in an unprecedentedly total fashion, to cooperate with any congressional investigation of anything in his administration. Far from being transparent to prove his lack of corruption, he has actively sued anyone seeking any information on his finances. He has declared a phony emergency to justify seizing and using congressional funds for a purpose specifically opposed by the Congress, building a wall on the southern border, and gotten away with it. He has taken his authority to negotiate tariffs in a national-security emergency and turned it into a routine part of presidential conduct to wage a general trade war. And he has enabled an army


of grifters and opportunists to line their pockets or accumulate perks at public expense — as long as they never utter a word of criticism.

He has also definitively shown that a president can accept support from a foreign power to get elected, attempt to shut down any inquiry into his crimes, obstruct justice, suborn perjury from an aide, get caught … and get away with all of it. Asking for his tax returns or a radical distancing from his business interests strikes him as an act of lèse-majesté. He refers to “my military” and “my generals,” and claims they all support him, as if he were Pompey or Caesar. He muses constantly about extending his term of office indefinitely, just as those Roman populists did.

Does he mean it?first is the president’s rhetoric. What happened to the Roman republic was a slow slide into public illegitimacy, intensified by the way in which elites played by the rules only when it suited them and broke precedents and norms when it came to defending their own interests, complaining loudly when others did the same.

This generated a feeling that the system was rigged, that it made sense to cut corners, or lie, or take care of yourself before you followed the letter of the law. But when the president himself declares the system he works in is rigged, when he opines that electoral fraud is rampant, when he accuses his own FBI and intelligence services of being corrupt, he accelerates this process of delegitimization. And that matters immensely. In


politics, words are not separate from acts; words are acts. Republican norms that are constantly denigrated by their purported leaders tend to disappear. And no single figure has done as much damage to that legitimacy in American history as Trump. He does not even feign respect for democratic norms.

The second case against complacency is that a key branch of government that can and should restrain presidential overreach, the judiciary, is being methodically co-opted for the cause of executive power. The authoritarian strain in conservative thought has, since Watergate appeared to cut a malign presidency down to size, come to define judicial philosophy on the right. The notion that the president controls the executive branch, that his autonomy is essential for expeditious government, and that his decisions are empoweredby being the sole figure nationally elected by the people as a whole is now close to a litmus test for any judge or justice seeking a career on the right. It is what defines countless judicial nominees and appointments and is the common denominator between Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. With a chance for a third such appointment, the powers of an authoritarian president, with enough public backing to override congressional passivity or demand its support, could reach heights not seen before.

And the third is precedent. If republican virtues and liberal democratic values are a forest of traditions and norms, Trump has created a vast and expanding clearing. What Rome’s experience definitively shows is that once this space is cleared, even if it is not immediately filled, some


to overhaul the Supreme Court to prevent Republican judicial sabotage of progressive reform, to abolish the Electoral College to empower majoritarianism behind a future Democratic president, and to give statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico to blunt the Republican advantage in the Senate. All these involve the kind of tit-for-tat political warfare that also broke out in Rome, for equally understandable reasons, but which, in time, brought autocracy closer.

But Rome wasn’t lost in a day. Its republic took the better part of a century and a half to lose its practices and its soul. Neither will the United States suddenly succumb to a new fascist party. There is space for populist reform — and it may be essential to restore the legitimacy of both capitalism and democracy —Q:

Were lawn jockey statues used to indicate stops on the Underground Railroad?

Ran into the following meme on Facebook, accompanied by a picture of one of the lawn jockey statues. They credit it to http://www.ugrrf.org/ (although I can't find that text on their site):

A lot of people don't know the real meaning behind these statues, so they vandalize them, bitch about them being racist, etc. During the US slave era, the image of a black 'footman' with a lantern signified the home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. These are largely a northern thing, and weren't commonly found in the South until after WWII when northerners moved there and brought this custom with them. The clothing of the statue was also coded. A striped jockey's shirt meant that


of the statues.

In a 1984 National Geographic cover story on the underground railroad, Blockson told how the wife of U.S. District Judge Benjamin Piatt had tied a flag to a lawn jockey as a signal to fleeing slaves that it was safe to stop there.
Blockson also came across the Revolutionary War legend of Jocko. The story goes that a 9-year-old New Jersey farm boy named Jocko sneaked out of his house to find his father, a freed slave who had enlisted with George Washington's army.
The boy wound up in an encampment on Christmas Eve, before Washington's crossing of the Delaware. Waiting for his father's return, the boy volunteered to care for the general's horse during a blizzard. The next morning, Washington discovered that the boy had frozen todeath, his hands still clinging to the horse's reins.
Earl Koger Sr., an African American publisher and insurance executive from Baltimore, recorded the tale in a 1976 illustrated children's book, "Jocko: A Legend of the American Revolution."
Koger's book notes that Washington was so moved by the boy's sacrifice that he ordered a likeness of Jocko placed on his lawn.
Whatever its origin, the lawn jockey became a symbol of obedient devotion -- and nowhere more welcome than among slaveholders. After the Civil War, however, the figure acquired surprising new associations, Adams said.
By the end of the 19th century, blacks dominated the "sport of kings," with black jockeys having won 15 of the Kentucky Derby's first 28 runnings, and the lawn jockey had become a totemic figure. Keeping one around might


have been no more unusual than having a Michael Jordan bobblehead today.
Over time, the stooped lawn jockeys, often with cartoonish features, gave way to more erect, realistic figures -- a change that tracked advances by blacks in American society, Adams said.
But as the civil rights era began, lawn jockeys seemed like embarrassing throwbacks, and many people got rid of them. Only in recent years has interest in them increased, including among African American collectors.

Washington Post: In a Simple Lawn Ornament, Echoes of Slavery, Revolution, Fredrick Kunkle, Sunday, September 17, 2006
Looking into the matter in more detail however, research casts doubt on the idea that lawn jockeys even existed before the Civil War.
Kate Clifford Larson is a historian who spoke at the National Parks Service Network to Freedom's thirdNational Underground Railroad Summit in 2009, on the idea that 'lawn jockeys' were related to the underground railroad:

More provocative were presentations by Kate Clifford Larson, a Simmons College professor and author of the Harriet Tubman biography, Bound for the Promised Land, who debunked the myth of the Underground Railroad’s use of the lawn jockey, ...
Larson traced the origin of the use in the Underground Railroad of the lawn jockey, the familiar ornamental lantern-holding figure. The story’s popularity stemmed from a 1963 pamphlet, “The Legend of Jocko,” written by Earl Kroger, a Baltimore insurance agent.
The lawn jockey is alleged to symbolize a 12-year-old black boy named Jocko who held the horses of George Washington’s army near Trenton, N.J., when it crossed the Delaware River on Dec. 24, 1776. According


to legend, Jocko froze to death and Washington had a statue erected outside Mount Vernon in his honor. Historian Charles Blockson added credibility to the story by including it in his 1975 book, Pennsylvania’s Black History.
  However, Larson found no support for its use in the Underground Railroad nor for the story attributed to Washington, which she said is simply oral tradition.
In tracing the story of its use in the Underground Railroad, she went back to the 1951 book, Ohio’s Underground Railroad Mysteries, by historian Wilbur Siebert, who told the story of a lawn jockey used by the Piatt family in West Liberty, Ohio, to signal fugitive slaves that it was a safe house. What astonished Larson was that Siebert’s early research had turned up contradictory informationthat included an 1852 newspaper report and mention in an 1856 book that told of an incident during which the Piatt family actually tried to obstruct the movement of fugitive slaves trying to reach Canada.
A Piatt family descendent told Larson that the story of their lawn jockey, which remains on display at a museum now operated by them and often told by a family ancestor, was probably the source of the story used by Siebert. However, Larson’s research found that lawn jockeys were not manufactured until 1865, after the period of the Underground Railroad. Her conclusion was a cautionary message that sometimes people reinvent history to separate themselves from unpleasant past associations, like slavery.

Antique Trader: Understanding the Underground Railroad: New research changes perceptions, Tom Calarco, October 7, 2009
In


a letter to the Clarkston News, Ms Larson puts forward her argument:

Statue not racist, not Underground Railroad either
Dear Editor,
I read with great interest the recent article regarding the local controversy over the appropriateness of a black lawn jockey sited in front of an historic home ("Statue irks but is historical," Sept. 11).
As an historian who specializes in American slavery, the Underground Railroad (UGRR) and the pursuit of freedom, I can assure you the lawn jockey statue was never used as a signal on the UGRR.
The statue was first designed and manufactured after the Civil War, making its use as a tool to guide people to freedom impossible. The myth of the lawn jockey first appears in 1951, but takes on greater importance during the 1980s with Mr. CharlesBlockson's unsubstantiated claims.
A quick call to the Blockson Collection at Temple University reveals there is no primary source documentation for this story. The Cousens are like many people who own these statues - they are not racist.
They are, however, unaware of the historical and cultural context that makes the statue a painful reminder of the Jim Crow era. Mr. Fetzer is entitled to his complaint. These vestiges of our nation's discriminatory and racist past belong in museums and not on front lawns.
Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D.
Winchester, MA

Letters to the Editor, Clarkston News, September 18, 2013 (emphasis mine)
On the mailing list 'Underground Railroad Research Forum', Larson provides a copy of her letter to the Charles Blockson Collection at Temple University:

I have heard from the Charles Blockson Collection at Temple University.