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Moscow Mitch McConnell The Trumpian And Putin Bitch Posted on August 3, 2019 by oldpoet56 This letter to you today is not the type of letter that I ever thought I would need to write but it has become very clear that these thoughts and opinions need to be vocalized. First, Mitch McConnell is one of my home states two Senators, the other being Rand Paul so I have been reading up on Moscow Mitch for a long time now and the more I learn about this douche bag the sicker I get of him. I am going to pop some realities at you about this man then simply think what you will. I know that many folks won’t care if everything I say was to be proven to be the total truth beyond a doubt and some of you will probably get even more pissed off at him than you are now. Mr. McConnell has already stated that he is running for re-election in the November 3rd, 2020 election cycle. He was born on February 20th of 1942 so if he wins re-election as our state Senator he would be just barely shy of his 79th birthday when the new cycle begins letting him be in Office until just shy of his 85th birthday. This would also be his 8th term in the Senate and the reality is that he is the second most powerful person in our Nation so for a person as power hungry and money hungry as he is I believe that he will try to stay in Office until the day he dies. Now, lets talk about our Nations elections that is and has been fixed by Russian interference since at least 2016. Our security agencies have proven that the Russian government at the direction of Mr. Trumps good friend President Putin have been trying to ‘fix’ all of our elections even at the State level. Even though Mr. Trump supposedly won the most electoral votes in 2016 he did lose to crooked Hilary by more than 3 million actual votes. But think about what I am getting ready to discuss with you about 2016, even during the primaries. The CIA, FBI and NSA all know that Russia was infiltrating the elections in all 50 States. Do you remember how most folks thought that Trump was nothing but a joke running for the Office of President, then he started winning primaries? What if he actually didn’t win most or any of those primaries, Putin did? Think about it, why would Putin wait until the main election to start fixing things for his puppet Trump? Really, if Russia hadn’t fixed the State and Federal elections Mr. John Kasich would probably be our President now. But, then again if the DNC hadn’t fixed the Democratic primaries for crooked Hilary Senator Bernie Sanders would probably be our President, but certainly not this idiotic Clown we have now. Now, back to Moscow Mitch and why he won’t allow any bill to be brought to the Senate floor that would help stop the Russian interference in our next set of elections. First, he using his position as the Head of the Senate to totally nullified the existence of the Federal Congress. Anything and everything that the Congress has passed and sent onto the Senate he has not allowed it to hit the Senate floor for a vote. This is why he is the second most powerful person in our Nation. He is controlling not only the Senate but the House also. There is good reason why he doesn’t want to stop the Russians form messing up our elections, as the votes get fixed for Trump to win, the Republican Senators win riding Trump’s coat tails. As long as this is allowed to continue the Republicans will control the Senate thus keeping McConnell in this high perch of power. In other words it behooves him personally ego wise and financially to not stop the election interference. Just like Mr. Trump has sold out America and all of our people to Mr. Putin, so has Moscow Mitch. Posted in CIA, Collusion, Congress, crime, Democrats, elections, FBI, fraud, govermnent, Investigations, KGB, NSA, Personal Experiences, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, Politics, President Putin, Republicans, Russia, Senate, treason, Trump, Truthful articles for your thoughts, U.S.Tagged CIA, Collusion, Donald Trump, elections, FBI, fixed elections, Moscow Mitch, NSA, President Putin, Russia, Senator Mitch McConnell, US Congress, US SenateLeave a comment Trusting The Government: U.S., Russia, China, North Korea, All The Same? Posted on June 21, 2019 by oldpoet56 I was born in the mid 1950’s and grew up watching Walter Cronkite deliver the evening news. Mr. Cronkite was by most considered to be the “most trusted man in America.” Whom is it that you totally trust the most in American news media or within the political realm today? With all the news outlets of today all trying to get you to watch or listen to them I find it difficult to put much trust in any of them. There are two main reasons for that, one is that each of these outlets are companies, they are ‘for profit’. Two is the consideration of where are they getting their information? I am in my early 60’s now so during the past 50 years or so we here in the U.S. have been constantly told that we are the good guys and governments who are Communist are the bad guys. From all of the reading and studying that I have done over the years I really don’t doubt that these Communists governments are far less than friendly toward their own population nor to others. Communists seem to think military first and usually military only and it is a proven fact that very few people who are military oriented are very good public leaders. Military frame of mind and civilian frame of mind seldom seem to end up within the same person. Then again within the non-communists countries the people have to put up with politicians who seem to change their mind like farts in a breeze. Here in the U.S. we the people have learned a lot since the NSA murdered John and Bobby Kennedy back in the 60’s. When Nixon was President he illegally expanded the war in Vietnam into Laos and Cambodia. We had military personal who died there or were captured there that our government turned their back on as well as their families basically saying they must have deserted. When the U.S. officially left Vietnam Nixon got on TV and said there were no more POWs in southeast Asia, knowing very well that he was lying to the people. Reality comes down to the fact of truth or not the truth, trust or not being able to trust. Now I am going to talk about current events here in the U.S. and this reality of trust or no trust. On a personal level can you trust a person on really serious matters when you absolutely know as a fact that they have lied to you many many occasions? In the last 24-36 hours we have been hearing on the news that Iran shot down an unmanned U.S. spy drone. The early news strongly hinted that the drone was over Iranian land which by all forms of international law would have been a violation committed by the Americans and Iran would have had every right to shoot it down. By international law every country which borders a body of water has 12 miles sovereignty except for China’s Communists government who seems to want to claim at least a few thousand miles sovereignty but that is another story for other articles. Now the U.S. government is saying that the drone was 21 miles off of Iran’s coast and if this is true then basically Iran committed and act of war against the U.S. and the U.S. government would have the right to retaliate against Iran. The issue is, how can we trust our own government when they and especially our President is a habitual liar? President George W. Bush’s lies paved the way for us to start a war with Iraq. Personally I believe that he was just trying to show his Daddy that he could ‘one-up’ him and take out Saddam. Think of the cost of those lies in terms of thousands of people dead and about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money thrown into that bloodbath. Today’s news headline said that some of the Republicans in the Senate were upset that President Trump called off a bombing raid in Iran that would have started an all out war with them and their allies. Going to war with anyone should not be a partisan matter and going to war should not be in the hands of one person. If we are going to enter a war this war should be voted on and passed by at least 2/3 of the Congress and the Senate. This is not a computer game, many thousands of people will die. So, what is the truth on this matter, can you or I honestly trust anything that Mr. Trump says? Personally I don’t. Credibility is something that our leaders no longer have, their word is not good enough any more. If we go to war with Iran they have many allies including many sleeper cells within our own borders, many Americans on American land will die, life as we have always know it here in the States will be over. But, how the hell can we the people ever know if what we are being told is the truth, or just another lie. Posted in bombs, borders, China, CIA, Communists, corruption, Credibility, ethics, govermnent, Iran, Iraq, liars, media, Middle East, military, NSA, Peace, Persian Gulf, Personal Experiences, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, Politics, President Putin, President XI Jinping, presidents, Republicans, Russia, Senate, spying, Trump, Truthful articles for your thoughts, U.S., US Senate, weaponsTagged Cambodia, China, CIA, George W Bush, habitual liars, Iran, Iraq, John and Bobby Kennedy, Laos, lies, NSA, Persian Gulf, Richard Nixon, Trump, US Government, VietnamLeave a comment When The Poor Serve No Need We Will Be Exterminated Posted on October 2, 2018 by oldpoet56 Earlier I posted an article that came from the Government of China, the article was in several of their news outlets, the article stated that by the year 2027 in China’s Financial district alone that AI will cause the loss of 2.3 million jobs. Remember that their current President for life Mr. Xi Jinping is a devout follower of Chairman Mao. When Chairman Mao was in charge in China their country’s population was about one billion people and his policies were to let about half of the Nation starve to death. One of the main reason he gave was the Central Government’s inability to not only be able to control them but also their inability to feed them. The population of the United States and of Russia combined today is about 470 million people, Mao was speaking of letting 500 million of his own people starve to death. There are many reasons that China went to their ‘one child’ policies for several decades, these were two of their top reasons. There are those in China and elsewhere in the world who will argue that these things could not happen today because we are now much more civilized and to this I have to say, O really. The United States is without a doubt a ‘surveillance State’ today, if you think otherwise you are being quite naive. There are good things about living in constant surveillance though, I have no doubt that the FBI, CIA, and the NSA have stopped quite a few attacks upon the American people because of their secretive work. Yet how much freedom do the people give up for the sake of being safer? The more a government knows, the more easily they can then totally control the lives of the people. When it comes to governing a Nation the main building block of their power is their ability to control the people. Lose control on the streets, they lose their grip on their power. Now let’s get back to financials within a government. Unless you are oblivious to reality you should know that the tail that wags the dog, is money. Back in the mid 1970’s I worked in a Chrysler Assembly Plant in norther Illinois for just a couple of weeks (I couldn’t stand the thought of working on an assembly line putting cushions in-car seats for at least 37 years) so I quit. What I did notice was how many people worked on the different ‘lines’. As the cars went down the assembly line you had many people doing manual labor like spot welding and putting windshields into the car frames. Go there now, see how many jobs are still there and how many are being done by automation, the job loss is staggering. Even think of stores like Wal-Mart who are getting rid of their cashiers in favor of automation and self-checkouts. Now think about self driving cars, trucks and even trains. Even companies like Uber are killing the Taxi industry. What do all of these things have in common folks? Companies are trying to get rid of human employees and the reason is simple, more profits for the top end persons in these companies. If you are old enough (I am 62) do you remember when we used to hear how technologies were going to allow worker to only have to work 4 days a week because with technologies we could get 5 days work done in 4 days? Some people were foolish enough to think that their employer was going to pay you for 5 days work even though you only worked 4 days. Reality was that the employees still worked 5 days a week but the companies demanded 6 or 7 days of finished product in the 5 days, for no more pay. Then of course the companies could ‘let go’ some of their workforce because they didn’t need them anymore. The employment issue has just grown from there as more and more computers and machines have taken over jobs that humans used to do. I have spoken of the world Stock Markets before, how I believe that they are nothing but a Ponzi scheme and a curse to the working class, the working poor who labor in these corporations who are on these ‘Markets.’ Some will argue that throughout the years that they have been buying and selling stocks and bonds that they have been able to amass a ‘nice little retirement fund’, yet in reality all of a persons profits that they have amassed over the past thirty years can easily be wiped out in one or two hours on this same ‘Market scheme.’ Little people like us working class folks at best get the crumbs that fall off of the ‘Boss Mans’ plate. We are no more than dogs licking their floor and their shoes. What takes you or I 30 years to amass the ‘connected’ make in one 5 minute transaction. When there are lets say 4 billion working age poor people (ages 10-75) but there are only 2 billion actual jobs that need a humans hands to do, what will happen to the other 2 billion people, and all of their families, all of the children? The Republicans in the U.S Congress often refer to things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Aid For Dependent Children, unemployment checks, VA Disability checks and even the VA itself as “entitlements” as “Welfare”, things that must be “defunded”, “stopped.” Why is this? The answer is simple, it takes away from the money that flows to the top end of the financial class. The Republicans say that they are the “Christian right” yet their actions are as anti-Christian as you can get in American politics. Do not get me wrong, I am no fan of the Democratic Party either with their platform of murdering babies (pro-abortion). Both ‘Parties’ are pure evil, they will both do everything that they can to make sure that the American people never get to have a viable 3rd or 4th political party and the reason is simple, that would take away from their power and they aren’t about to let that happen. When there is not enough jobs for the poor people to do, not even slave labor jobs, who is going to house and feed these people if they can’t get an income? Is the top 1% going to just ‘give’ these people money from their bank accounts? When there is 7 billion people on the planet but only enough food or clean drinking water for 6 billion, who is going to get that food and clean water, the poorest of the poor people? Really? If you really think so, how naive you are my friend! In this new world that is on our doorstep, indeed kicking down our doors right now, you are either the lead dog, or you are daily looking up the lead dogs ass, drinking their piss for water and licking up their shit for food. In this regard, for the poor, this new world that we are all hurtling into, thousands, then millions, then billions of people will be fighting for a position behind these lead dogs just so they can stay alive. Those who refuse will not be fed and housed, we will be exterminated! Posted in Bible, Christianity, corruption, culture, Economics, govermnent, hunger, Medicare/Medicade, Medicine, NSA, Personal Experiences, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, Philosophy, police, Politics, poverty, Republicans, Security, slavery, stock market, Truthful articles for your thoughts, U.S., wisdomTagged AI, Chrysler Corporation, extermination of the poor, lead dogs, poor people, slavery, Uber, US Stock MarketLeave a comment What I Believe The Truth Is About What Happened In The 2016 Presidential Election I am a registered independent who does vote in all of the Presidential election cycles and in all of the mid-term elections. I have voted for several Republicans and several Democrats throughout the years. I am not a fan of either of these two main parties and I darn sure can not stomach Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump, I do believe that these two caricatures belong chained in the basement of a Federal Pen until the day they rot away and die. In case you are wondering, I voted for Gary Johnson back in 2016 for President, not because I thought that he would win anything, I just couldn’t get myself to vote for either of those other two donkeys behinds. Now, I am going to tell you what I believe is the honest truth about what happened on election night of 2016. What I believe as of tonight is exactly what I believed happened back on November 8th of 2016, no changes. As pretty much almost all sane folks know (if you are a person who believes all the security agencies) Russia at the direction of their President Mr. Putin had their security agencies interfere in 21 States computer election systems. It is a fact that all these Russian hackers had to do was to move about 1/2 of 1% of the votes in just 3 or 4 of the States that were projected to be close that Hillary was projected to win. This would be enough to flip the winner of the Presidential election away from Hillary whom Mr. Putin hates to Mr. Trump whom I believe Mr. Putin has major ‘dirt’ on. Hillary won the popular vote by a little over 2.8 million total votes. This is more than 5 times the amount that Al Gore beat George W. Bush by back in 2000 yet some how the ‘Arkansas Witch’ lost the election. If you are wondering, Mr. Gore beat Mr. Bush by a little more than 500,000 total votes. Mr. Trump likes to say that he won the election by a ‘historic’ amount even though history shows him to be a liar even on this matter, but then, what doesn’t this fraud not lie about, daily? Mr. Trump is said to have won 304 Electoral College votes to Hillary’s 227. For a person to win the election the had to garner at least 270 of these votes. So, Mr. Trump received 34 more than required to be the winner. Next I am going to show you a few final numbers from the 2016 election. There are more States with more examples of these issues, I have just picked 4 of them to show you. All of these States the poles right up to the election and the exit polls after people had voted all said that Hillary would win these States, but the computers say she didn’t. Florida: 29 Electoral votes: Trump 49.20%, 4,615,910 popular votes Hillary 47.81%, 4,501,455 popular votes Trump wins by 1.39% and by 114,455 Pennsylvania: 20 Electoral Votes: Trump 48.58%, 2,970,753 popular votes Trump wins by .73% and by 44,312 Michigan: 16 Electoral Votes: Trump 47.50%, 2,279,543 popular votes Wisconsin: 10 Electoral Votes: Trump 47.26%, 1,407,028 popular votes Folks remember, on these percentages all you have to do is to cut the wining margins in half to change the outcome of the election. For example lets use Wisconsin. Mr. Trump is said to have won by .81%, now, cut that in half, take away .41% and give it to Hillary. This would equal a Hillary win 47.86% to Trump at 47.85%. Example of Michigan, .12% changes the winner. It is a well know fact that Russian intelligence agencies hacked these States systems trying to help Mr. Trump win. All that historically huge win that Mr. Trump has bragged about would have changed if Hillary had won even the three smallest of these States, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Folks, this is just 3 of the 21 the Russian Agencies hacked. These three States alone totaled 46 Electoral Votes. Flipping just those three States, those 46 votes would have made the final Electoral Vote tally of Hillary 273, Trump 258. I honestly believe that we have a ‘fake’ President who is going to end up being impeached. I would say imprisoned also except that I am quite sure that President Pence as his first piece of business will pardon Mr. Trump of all of his felonies, including the treason charges I believe Mr. Mueller will prove Trump guilty of. I believe that Mr. Trump will pardon all of his mafia clan before he is himself impeached. The clan of which I speak does include the two crooks convicted today, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Manafort. I also believe that Mr. Mueller will get convictions on Eric and Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jarred Kushner. Okay friends, that is my rant for the night. As a very dear old friend of mine used to like to say, now “we shall see what we shall see.” You can say I’m totally correct on everything that I have written this evening, most of it, some of it or even none of it. I just wanted to get my thoughts down in print. Now, time will tell us “what we shall see.” Posted in Clinton's, corruption, courts, crime, Democrats, elections, FBI, impeachment, Investigations, KGB, liars, NSA, Personal Experiences, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, Politics, President Putin, Republicans, Russia, treason, Trump, Truthful articles for your thoughts, U.S.Tagged 2016 Election, Cohen, Donald Trump Jr, Electoral College, Eric Trump, Hillary, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Manafort, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Robert Mueller, Russia, treason, Trump, vote fraud, Wisconsin2 Comments Trump Trying To ‘Stifle Free Speech,’ 12 Former Intelligence Officials Say Posted on August 17, 2018 August 17, 2018 by oldpoet56 (THIS ARTICLE IS COURTESY OF THE HUFFINGTON POST) The rare rebuke comes after the president revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. By Nick Visser In a joint statement Thursday, a dozen of the nation’s leading former intelligence officials slammed President Donald Trump’s recent decision to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. The officials, who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, include former CIA Directors Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, William Webster, Porter Goss, David Petraeus and George Tenet, several of the agency’s former deputy directors and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. “We all agree that the president’s action regarding John Brennan and the threats of similar action against other former officials has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances ― and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech,” they wrote. “You don’t have to agree with what John Brennan says (and, again, not all of us do) to agree with his right to say it, subject to his obligation to protect classified information.” Elana Schor ✔@eschor New: Statement from a dozen former top intelligence officials representing R and D admins (including ex-CIA chiefs) says yanking Brennan’s clearance has “everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech.” 10:07 PM – Aug 16, 2018 1,392 people are talking about this Trump announced Wednesday that he had revoked Brennan’s clearance, part of an ongoing effort to retaliate against those who have criticized the administration. Former top intelligence and law enforcement officials have traditionally been allowed to retain their clearances as a professional courtesy, which also allows future administrations to call upon them for their expertise. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday also read a list of several other former officials whose credentials are currently being reviewed, including two people who signed Thursday’s statement. “We have never before seen the approval or removal of security clearances used as a political tool, as was done in this case,” the 12 intelligence leaders wrote. The officials, who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, stressed that Brennan was an “enormously talented, capable, and patriotic individual who devoted his adult life to the service of this nation.” Brennan himself fired back at the White House after the announcement, saying it was “an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge” Trump. Despite the outcry, The Washington Post reported Thursday that Trump felt bolstered by his decision and was eager to revoke the clearances of others in the near future, an effort sure to provoke the signers of Thursday’s statement. “As individuals who have cherished and helped preserve the right of Americans to free speech ― even when that right has been used to criticize us ― that signal is inappropriate and deeply regrettable,” the former intelligence officials wrote. Posted in CIA, Collusion, Communication, constitution, corruption, democracy, DOJ, FBI, NSA, Trump, U.S.Tagged Collusion, David Petraeus, former intelligence officers, free speech, James Clapper, Leon Panetta, Michael Hayden, security agencies, Trump lyingLeave a comment Architect of bin Laden raid issues stunning rebuke of Trump (THIS ARTICLE IS COURTESY OF CNN) By Zachary Cohen, CNN Updated 5:36 PM ET, Thu August 16, 2018 Washington (CNN) Retired Adm. William McRaven, the man who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, issued a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan on Thursday, defending the former spy chief as “one of the finest public servants I have ever known.” In an op-ed published by the Washington Post, McRaven, a former Navy SEAL who led US Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, not only called Brennan “a man of unparalleled integrity,” but volunteered to have his own security clearance revoked in an act of solidarity. “Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him,” McRaven wrote. In op-ed, Brennan says Trump revoked his security clearance to ‘scare into silence’ critics “Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency,” he added. His comments come just one day after Trump announced his decision to revoke Brennan’s security clearance, marking an unprecedented use of a president’s authority over the classification system to strike back at one of his prominent critics. “This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent,” Brennan tweeted after the announcement. McRaven, who resigned as chancellor of the University of Texas in Austin earlier this year, is widely respected among the tens of thousands of active and retired special operators and his message will likely resonate within that community. “Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,” McRaven said of Trump. “If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be,” he added. Posted in CIA, DOJ, FBI, govermnent, impeachment, military, NSA, Russia, terrorism, treason, Trump, U.S.Tagged Admiral William McRaven, CIA, CNN, Donald Trumps Presidency, John Brennan, Navy Seal Comander, Navy Seals, US Joint Special Operations1 Comment Is President Guilty Of Treason? Posted on July 16, 2018 July 16, 2018 by oldpoet56 (THIS ARTICLE IS COURTESY OF THE LOS ANGLES TIMES) Putin weaves KGB trade craft and attention to detail in a remarkable meeting with Trump By LAURA KING and SABRA AYRES | HELSINKI, FINLAND Russian President Vladimir Putin shown at a news conference in the presidential palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018. (Anatoly Maltsev/EPA/Shutterstock) At a rally before cheering supporters this month in Montana, President Trump declared nonchalantly of his then-upcoming summit with Russia’s leader: “I have been preparing for this stuff my whole life.” But on Monday, with a world audience looking on, the summit looked far more like a culminating moment in the political life of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The 65-year-old Russian president was by turns commanding and confident as he stood side-by-side with Trump at a news conference, artfully mixing in occasional expressions of boredom or bemusement as he spoke. Virtually unchallenged by Trump, he asserted that Moscow has “never interfered” in an American political contest, and would not do so in the future. That, of course, flies in the face of U.S. intelligence assessments that Moscow mounted a comprehensive campaign against the U.S. electoral system in 2016, and is pressing ahead with that effort, with midterm elections just four months away. For Putin, a former spymaster who once lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century and has long sought at least symbolically equal footing with the world’s only other nuclear superpower, Helsinki was a moment of triumph. The Aurus Senat presidential state car of Russian President Vladimir Putin idles during a welcome ceremony at Helsinki Airport in Finland on Monday. (Mikhail Metzel / Kremlin/Sputnik) But while the joint news conference was perhaps the apex of Putin’s nearly two decades on the global stage, it was also in some ways a return to his roots. The Russian leader made explicit reference to his long career as a KGB operative, alluding almost teasingly to his intimate knowledge of tradecraft even as he listened to the U.S. president cast doubt on the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies. “I was an intelligence officer myself,” he said dryly at one point. Asked directly by a U.S. reporter whether he had compromising material on Trump, Putin dodged the query by pointing out that hundreds of American business figures had visited Moscow, as the U.S. president did years before his candidacy. “Do you think we try to collect compromising material on each and every single one of them?” the Russian leader asked scornfully. Later, in an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, Putin categorically denied that Russia had anything compromising on Trump. “Unlike you, unlike the United States, we don’t do this. We don’t have enough resources,” he said. It was in 1999, in a chaotic and floundering post-Soviet Russia, that Putin was plucked from relative obscurity as a KGB functionary to assume first the post of prime minister and then the presidency. He has never since been out of power. To survive in the cutthroat world of Russian politics, Putin drew upon the ruthless persona he cultivated during his intelligence career. Few serious challenges to his power have emerged, but when they have, critics and human rights groups say he has repeatedly shown himself willing to sideline foes by deadly means if necessary. Over the years, Putin learned ways large and small to keep adversaries off balance, once bringing a dog to a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was known to fear them. In Helsinki, he employed a longtime strategem, keeping Trump waiting for nearly an hour as he arrived late for the summit’s start. And he carried over a long-held habit from his intelligence days: strict attention to detail, with the ability to regurgitate arcane information at will. Putin crisply demonstrated his comprehensive grasp of policy questions, including provisions contained in decades-old arms treaties; Trump, by contrast, seemed confused during a pre-summit meeting with Finland’s president as to whether the host country is a member of NATO. (It is not.) At the news conference, Putin was studiedly bland in characterizing the closed-door talks with the U.S. side, discussions that included more than two hours spent one-on-one with Trump. “Businesslike” was his description of the summit talks. President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint news conference after their summit on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland. (Chris McGrath / Getty Images) But his veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was freer to telegraph the Kremlin’s sentiments, wearing a broad smile as he entered the room where the news conference was held. Russian media afterward quoted him as summing up the summit as “fabulous … better than super.” In Helsinki, Putin reverted to a classic Kremlin playbook when U.S. reporters asked him about election interference, protesting that he had not been provided with the details of accusations against his government, and offering Russian investigative assistance to get to the bottom of the affair. That echoed Moscow’s response to the poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent this year of Russian turncoat spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil. A British woman died and her companion was seriously sickened after apparently coming in accidental contact with a remnant. Like any good KGB case officer, Putin managed Monday to weave subtle and not-so-subtle threats into seemingly conciliatory statements.One was directed at the American-born British financier Bill Browder, who made billions in Russia before running afoul of the Kremlin. Browder has lobbied governments around the world to adopt a sanctions-imposing mechanism named for his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died under suspicious circumstances in Russian custody. In offering to “assist” in the U.S. probe of Russians accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential election, Putin suggested that Russian authorities should be allowed to question U.S. intelligence officers who, he suggested, were complicit in supposed tax violations by Browder. At the news conference, Putin did not even have to offer up defenses for Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula or the downing that year of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine that killed some 300 people. Trump in essence did that for him, saying he held “both countries responsible” for the fraught state of U.S.-Russia relations. In Putin’s early years in power, his heavy hand with the country’s oligarchs and mafia impressed the West, and domestically, Russians embraced his policies even as he stifled independent media and muzzled critics. There was no indication that Trump brought up Putin’s pitiless style in confronting perceived enemies, but in the Fox interview, aired hours after the summit, Wallace pressed the Russian leader on opponents who “wound up dead.” Putin retorted: “Haven’t presidents been killed in the United States?” Putin’s course toward a more authoritarian government became most apparent four years into his presidency, when two former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, sought to turn toward the West. The Kremlin perceived this as a threat, and Putin tightened his grip on dissent at home. Then came massive street protests in Ukraine over the decision by Ukraine’s then-president, a Putin ally, to not sign an association agreement with the European Union. Putin sent in troops to Ukrainian Crimea, organized what was derided as a sham referendum and annexed the peninsula. The United States and the European Union placed harsh economic sanctions on Russia for the Crimean annexation, and Putin’s position on the world stage deteriorated. Meanwhile, he was praised at home for defying the West, but economic malaise and dissatisfaction over corruption have dragged down his approval ratings. Heading into the summit, Trump insisted that personal chemistry with Putin would be key to resolving U.S.-Russia tensions. At the news conference, the U.S. leader suggested that the initial one-on-one meeting, with only interpreters present, had eased prior antagonisms. “That changed as of about four hours ago,” Trump said, referring to the time frame of the start of the private session. “I really believe that.” Putin, though, swiftly pivoted to a far more realpolitik-style description of the relationship between the two, declaring that both leaders pursued the interests of their own countries. “Where did you get the idea that the president trusts me?” he asked. “Or I trust him?” Special correspondent Ayres reported from Helsinki and Times staff writer King from Washington. 5:05 p.m.: This article has been updated with reaction, background, Fox interview. Posted in Communists, constitution, democracy, elections, freedom, govermnent, Investigations, KGB, NSA, Politics, President Putin, Russia, spying, terrorism, treason, Trump, U.S.Tagged Helsinki, President Putin, Russia, the Los Angles Times, treason, Trump, USLeave a comment U.S. Government Separating Children From Parents At Border: And One Big Lie/Lyers Today most of the news on the Google News site that I use is loaded with different articles about the child separation from parents at the U.S. Southern Border. One of the things I wonder about is why is this policy not being followed that same way at our Northern Border with Canada? Is this because most Canadians are white folks and most folks at our Southern Border are not white folks? Even though this is an issue that seems to be a non issue at this time maybe one of the major News Agencies will decide to look at the ‘why’ of this issue at some point. Even though this is an important issue it is not the issue that my article today is about. My article today is about what is going on at our Nations Southern Border with Mexico right now. Like most all things in life, there are at least two sides to every issue, this disaster at our Southern Border is no exception. Technically any person crossing into our country at a non designated entry point is breaking the law and should be arrested. People wanting to live in a country should enter that country legally so that they do not have to always be worried about being deported. The last I heard the U.S. only allows about 55,000 people to legally migrate through the legal system so that they can become legal citizens. That policy, that kind of a number, in my opinion should be raised to about 250,000 for all Americans, North Americans and South Americans. If the legal number was a more realistic number hopefully most people coming to the U.S Borders would choose to try to come in legally so that they could truly feel free once they started working and living here without having worry about ICE arresting them everyday. I have spoken with many people from Mexico who are here illegally during my decades as a long haul truck driver (1981-2013). Constantly I heard the same thing from them, that they would rather be at home but there was no way to survive there, meaning that the Mexican economy was/is lousy. They were here trying to find a way to send money back home so that their families could afford to pay rent and to buy groceries. Some U.S. people make fun of the reality of having 10-15 Mexican people living in a two bedroom apartment, it is cruel and ignorant to make such comments even though in many cases it is true. Yet the reason you may have 10 working men living in a two bedroom living quarters is because they are pooling their money together so that they can send more money home to their wife and children. I have just been speaking of Mexican folks so far but the reality reaches to the southern end of the South American Continent. People in Central America and South America face the same issues as the poor people from Mexico face. Example, you don’t see Mexican billionaires trying to sneak across the borders do you? This issue in countries south of the U.S. is not going to change until these southern nations are able to get a good strong working economy so that their people can have livable wage jobs. If you are living in (for example) Guatemala and you have a good paying job to where you have a nice home, good food, vehicles, clothes and the such are you really going to give it all up to try to sneak into the U.S. so that you can be a criminal under constant threat of arrest and deportation? Now let us get to the point of the children being separated from their parents at the U.S. Southern Border. If you break the laws of a Nation that Nations law enforcement agencies are going to consider you to be a criminal whom they will arrest if they possibly can. Lets get away from the Border for a moment and let us look at another angle. If I am a person who lives in Chicago or New York and I commit a crime to where I am arrested and sent to a prison the law does not allow my minor children to be put into prison with me. If I don’t have someone else here in the States the government will give my children to the (DCS) Department of Children’s Services who are going to take my children and house them until they can find someone to give custody to while I am in prison. Would you want your minor children to be thrown into an adult prison with you? This policy that Donald Trump has put into place is cruel, but, what should our government, any government do in these cases? Do not fall for the Trump Administration lies, this is a Presidential Policy, it is not a Law, and it is not a Law that was instituted during the Obama Administration, this one is all on the habitual liar, Donald Trump. This morning the Chief of the Department of Homeland Security Kristen Nielsen angerally told reporters that the Trump Administration has no policy in place to separate the children form their parents at the Border. Yet many documents from the DOJ and Jeff Sessions state very clearly for the security personal at the Mexican Border to do exactly that. That I know of there is no good answer for the Trump Administration to follow on this issue. They can either do what they are doing which is angering many people and is a death dart for Republicans this November in the Mid Term Elections or they can just say the heck with it and just open up the Borders to anyone who wishes to cross it. Folks, I don’t know how to be the most humane here on this issue unless North and South American Countries all totally open up their borders sort of like what the EU has done. Here is my single biggest issue with Donald Trump and his flunkies who work for him, just be honest, quit lying all the time, quit trying to blame everyone else for what you yourself are doing. Posted in borders, Central America, DOJ, Economics, EU, family, food, govermnent, ICE, liars, media, Mexico, NSA, Personal Experiences, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, police, Politics, poverty, refugee's, Republicans, Security, South America, Trump, Truthful articles for your thoughts, U.S.Tagged Canadian border, DCS, DHS, Donald Trump, ICE, Kristen Nielsen, Mexican border, Mexico, NSALeave a comment Is There Ever A ‘Right Time’ To Assassinate A Head Of State? Posted on April 21, 2018 by oldpoet56 Those of you who know me know that I am a person who wishes only peace and kindness in a world of absolutely no violence at all, for any reason. Now is the problem, in that violence is a very excepted form of our reality today. That first sentence was more like ‘fantasy land’ I know, I know that as long as there are humans in our current form, there will be hate and violence. Today I am asking you to consider the assassination of a Head of State (hopefully not your own), if you think there is ever such a thing as a case where you would give the order or even pull the trigger yourself? The on purpose taking of any life, even the life of a rabbit a cat or a dog should never be done carelessly, or thoughtlessly. The taking of a human life is sometimes a necessity, at least in my mind. Have you heard the question (I didn’t create this question, nor do I know who did), “if you could go back in time and kill Adolf Hitler while he was still a baby, would you do it, could you yourself do it”? For purpose of argument I want to take us back to pre-Iraq invasion in March of 2003. The people of Iraq hated their leader “Saddam” yet they themselves never struck him down, why? Were Saddam’s security forces that good? There is no doubt that Saddam was a very bad person and that his own people were scared of him, for good reasons. My question with this example is if the American Government (George W. Bush) wanted to bring Saddam to justice (end of a rope) why not have spread out a few of our well-trained snipers and find an opportunity to give Saddam a little gray pill between his ears? Wouldn’t one well placed bullet have been better than an open-ended war where hundreds of thousands have died? Now let us go to the modern-day situation’s we find ourselves in. Today I am only going to concentrate (for an example) on the ‘living god’ President of North Korea. If you have paid any attention to the world going on around your/our little space, the very evil and obviously insane President of North Korea has been threatening to attack other nations (U.S., Japan, South Korea) with nukes. A Head of State who makes such statements is equivalent to declaring war on you! So, when, if ever, is it okay to give the ‘god king’ a splitting headache? At what point will the government of China get tired of backing this man and get rid of him themselves? Is there such a point? If China’s President, Xi Jinping were to summon Kim Jung Un to China and once there give Kim personal guarantees of China keeping him in power in North Korea as long as Kim ‘plays ball’ with the U.S. and doesn’t start a war on the Korean Peninsula. There could easily have been offered the two edge sword, Xi could promise Kim that if Kim did not ‘play ball’ that either China would totally shut down all commerce in and out of North Korea and that China would back North Korean assassins to put in a Regime change. For a moment let us consider Terrorist groups like Hamas who control the Gaza Strip in Israel, should their very top leaders be considered as untouchable Heads of State, or mass murdering wild dogs? Do you doubt that some of/all of, these terrorist groups would kill your country’s leader if they could get the chance to? How about ‘The Supreme Ruler’ in Iran, does he count as a Head of State? The taking of another life should never be done lightly, but my question is whom decides who the order is given to pull the trigger on someone by? Your President, CIA Director, NSA Director, a General at the Pentagon? How about the E-1 Army private who has one of these evil people in their cross-hairs? I did not say that I was giving any answers on this subject matter today, like always, I am just trying to get people to think for themselves. Folks, life is a conversation piece, live it. Posted in China, death, democracy, guns, Hamas, Iran, Korea, murder, Nazi, NSA, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, Philosophy, terrorism, Truthful articles for your thoughtsTagged Adolf Hitler, america, assassination, China, Gaza, George W Bush, government, Hamas, heads of state, Hitler, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, nukes, pentagon, presidents, Saddam, sniper, South Korea, terrorist, terrorist groups, the supreme rulerLeave a comment Trump Finally Gets Something Right: Syria Posted on April 4, 2018 April 4, 2018 by oldpoet56 The folks that read my articles know, I am not a fan of President Trump. Personally I believe that he is the biggest scumbag to set in Our Oval Office since Andrew Jackson, Our Nations 7th President back in the first half of the 1800’s. To me this is saying a lot since in my own lifetime we have had some very despicable men for Presidents, the likes of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and the two Bush’s. Yet this clueless ego maniac we have now is such an idiot and habitual liar that he is a total disgrace to Our Country. Yet, even the most ignorant person in the world can upon a rare occasion get something right and I believe that he is correct concerning the U.S. getting our military out of Syria. By what all the Generals had been saying up until this past week, ISIS has been at least 90% destroyed in Syria and ISIS is supposed to be the only reason that we went into Syria in the first place. Technically when a Nation sends their military into another country without the permission of the government of that country you have committed an act of war against that country. Yet even though the government of Syria has not declared an act of war against the United States for our actions in their country they have told us very plainly that we are not welcome there and that they want us out. Syria is and has been quite the ‘dance floor’ ever since the U.S. sent in troops and started bombings there. Syria’s government with the help of their allies Russia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Hezbollah from Lebanon have won this Civil War there. Even though we may not like it President Assad is going to stay in power there and we have no right to be there. The only real allies that the United States has had there has been the Kurdish people whom we have used and betrayed over and over again. We have spent a lot of effort to not get into a direct fighting war with Syria or any of her allies and it is now past time to get our military out of Syria before we do get into a shooting war with Russia or Iran, or even with our supposed NATO ally Turkey. Honestly one has to wonder if a lot of the top military brass at the Pentagon as well as our Security Agencies like the CIA and the NSA are wanting a shooting war with these countries. Besides, you know that the Military Contractors that build the War Machines would love it, more billions of dollars for their bank accounts. Quite honestly, wars help a nation’s economy, it keeps people employed and off of the unemployment lines. So, I believe that in this case President Trump is correct about getting our military out of Syria. We, our government, has committed an act of war against the nation of Syria simply by being there unasked and unwanted. We, the people of the United States are very fortunate that the government of Syria and all of her allies have not declared war on us yet. Though, if we continue to stay there this is going to happen, there is no way that it can be avoided. One of the issues that has irked me since George W was our President is the fact that Our Nations National Guard and even members of Our Coast Guard are off fighting in these foreign wars, this should never ever have happened. Right now on our southern border with the Nation of Mexico President Trump is talking about sending Our Military to the Border to ‘defend’ it from civilians crossing into Our Country. I have a couple of thoughts on this for you to consider. One, if the President is going to do this, it should be National Guard Units going there, not our regular military. Two, tell me, once we put thousands of Military Personnel on the Border, what are they going to do? Are they going to start shooting all of these unarmed men, women and children? I can’t tell you that I know the answer to every thing, I wish I could, but I can’t. This article is like most that I write, I am just trying to get you to think about the issue that I have brought up for your consideration. Thank you for your time folks, I appreciate you stopping in. Posted in Clinton's, govermnent, Hezbollah, immigration, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Lebanon, liars, Mexico, Middle East, military, NATO, NSA, Personal Experiences, Personal Thoughts/Beliefs, Russia, Syria, terrorism, Trump, Truthful articles for your thoughts, U.S., warTagged acts of war, CIA, civil war, Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Lebanon, NATO, NSA, Russia, Syria, Trump, TurkeyLeave a comment

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3 Facts About the 3 Biggest Islands in the Caribbean (THIS ARTICLE IS COURTESY OF TRIP TRIVIA) Did you know that there are more than 7,000 islands in the Caribbean? While many of these islands are quite small, plenty of them are large enough to be home to millions of residents. Take, for instance, three of the biggest islands in the Caribbean: Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica. While they all call the Caribbean home, each of these islands has a unique character and culture. Ready to be amazed? Read on to learn three fascinating facts about the Caribbean’s biggest islands. Where can you find this golden shrine? Cuba Isn’t Just A Single Island Credit: Victor Maschek/ Shutterstock Cuba, or as it is properly called, the Republic of Cuba, is the largest island in the Caribbean, with a landmass of over 42,000 square miles. It has the largest population of a single country in the Caribbean, too. Cuba is home to over 11 million people. But what you may not know is that Cuba isn’t just one island. While most people recognize the alligator-like shape of Cuba’s mainland, the country actually includes more than 4,000 small islands and cays. Many of these islands are quite tiny. Some are home to all-inclusive resorts and others are uninhabited, but some of them are quite respectable in size. For instance, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba’s second-largest island, measures a little over 900 square miles, and has a population of about 100,000. Hispaniola: Two Countries, One Island Credit: Peter Hermes Furian/ Shutterstock Hispaniola is the second-largest island in the Caribbean. It has a landmass of over 29,000 square miles and a population of more than 20 million. But if it’s so big, why is it that so many people have never heard of it? That’s because the island of Hispaniola actually includes two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. While most people are familiar with these names, it’s not as well known that the island spanning both of them is called Hispaniola. While these two countries are locked together by land, they are very different. The Dominican Republic is far wealthier, with a robust tourism economy and several world-renowned resorts. Haiti, on the other hand, has significant poverty issues and is not as popular for tourists. Sugarcane Is Not Indigenous to Jamaica Credit: Mailson Pignata/ iStock Jamaica is the third-largest island in the Caribbean by landmass, spanning over 4,200 square miles. This makes it slightly larger than the next-biggest island, Puerto Rico, which measures in at about 3,500 square miles. However, in terms of population density, Puerto Rico is slightly larger, with a population of about 3.25 million as opposed to Jamaica’s at about 2.9 million. When you think of Jamaica’s most significant crops, you probably think of sugarcane, which is key to making the country’s famous rum. But did you know that sugarcane is not indigenous to Jamaica? The original residents of Jamaica, the Arawak Indians, grew things like cassava, corn and yams. But when Spanish settlers came through in 1510, they brought sugarcane with them. Along with the sugarcane, they also brought the custom of slavery. Thousands of Africans were imported to the island to work on sugarcane and tobacco plantations. When the British took over Jamaica, agriculture became the island’s main economy. While slavery was later abolished, the tradition of agriculture has remained strong in Jamaica. Agriculture is one of the main economies on the island, with the sugar industry being the oldest continuously-run operation on the island. How’s That For Some Tropical Trivia? Credit: thekopmylife / iStock The Caribbean may be one large tropical region, but the area’s biggest islands are all quite different from one another. While they may share similar climates and geography, there’s still plenty of economic and cultural diversity among these tropical destinations. Posted in tourism, TriviaTagged Caribbean, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Hispaniola, Jamaica, sugar cane, tourism, Trivia, tropicsLeave a comment

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Personality Traits and Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Reading Proficiency among Iranian EFL learners nabiollah sadeghi 1 Ali Asghar Rostami Abu Saeedi 2 Manoochehr Jafarigohar 3 1 PhD Candidate of TEFL, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran 2 Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran 3 Associate Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran The present study investigated the relationship between personality traits and multiple intelligences, and learners’ reading proficiency. To this end, 384 graduate EFL students participated in the present study. Two questionnaires, namely the NEO personality inventory-revised, and McKenzie’s (1999) MI inventory as well as a sample TOFEL reading comprehension test were used to collect the data. Three regression models, backward, forward, and stepwise were used to determine prediction equations for the reading performance of EFL graduate students. Path analysis technique was employed to assess the magnitude of direct and indirect relationship of the variables. The result of the statistical analysis showed that there were only positive as well as direct relationships between interpersonal intelligence and reading proficiency, while the other intelligences such as intrapersonal, existential, naturalist, etc. would account for negative relationship with the criterion variable, reading proficiency. Agreeableness was found to be the only personality trait which had direct and negative relationship with the criterion variable. Additionally, the relationship among conscientiousness and extroversion traits as well as spatial, verbal, and mathematical intelligences with the criterion variable proved to be indirect. 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Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 6, 211-223. Tezer, M., Ozturk, R., & Ozturk, C. (2015). A Case Study on the Effect of Geometry Course in High Schools by Multiple Intelligence Theory. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 31-37. Wechsler, D. (1950). Intellectual Development and Psychological Maturity. Child Development, 21(1), 45-50. Wiener, H. S., & Bazerman, C. (2006). Reading skills handbook (9thPearson Education, Inc ed.). NY: Pearson Education, Inc. Zhou, M. (2015). Moderating effect of self-determination in the relationship between Big Five personality and academic performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 385-389. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886915004468. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.005 PDF Download: 39 sadeghi, N., Rostami Abu Saeedi, A., Jafarigohar, M. (2019). Personality Traits and Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Reading Proficiency among Iranian EFL learners. Journal of Language and Translation, 9(3), 101-120. nabiollah sadeghi; Ali Asghar Rostami Abu Saeedi; Manoochehr Jafarigohar. "Personality Traits and Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Reading Proficiency among Iranian EFL learners". Journal of Language and Translation, 9, 3, 2019, 101-120. sadeghi, N., Rostami Abu Saeedi, A., Jafarigohar, M. (2019). 'Personality Traits and Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Reading Proficiency among Iranian EFL learners', Journal of Language and Translation, 9(3), pp. 101-120. sadeghi, N., Rostami Abu Saeedi, A., Jafarigohar, M. Personality Traits and Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Reading Proficiency among Iranian EFL learners. Journal of Language and Translation, 2019; 9(3): 101-120.

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HOME / News / Book Review: “The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table” Book Review: “The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table” “The Ugly Truth" is that few organizations teach women of color how to deal with mostly-white workplaces, writes author Minda Harts. Terri Schlichenmeyer “The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table” by Minda Harts c.2019, Seal $27.00 / $35.50 Canada Your seat is down there, right at the end. You know, though, it’s not close enough to where you want to be. You need to be where decisions are made and careers are launched. No, your place at the table is close to the head and with “The Memo” by Minda Harts you’ll see how to get there. Several years ago, a book circulated among businesswomen that advised them to “lean in,” speak up, and coalesce. Harts says she eagerly read the book but, once finished, she was confused. Like most women of color in business, she’d always “leaned in” because she had to. That book spurred her to come up with The Memo. “The Ugly Truth,” she says, is that few organizations teach women of color how to deal with mostly-white workplaces. It’s not just a matter of showing up and doing the work; you need to survive and build “your squad.” In business-speak, that’s networking, and it’s top of the list in importance. You may not feel like going to Happy Hour with coworkers who’ve irritated you all day but go anyhow. By joining in, even for a minute, you give people a chance to get to know you. You might find an office friend. For women of color, office politics are two-pronged: you must learn “respectability politics” in addition to the other kind. Having a mentor will help; in the meantime, don’t burn bridges, don’t gossip, and watch your emotions at work. It sounds like just another platitude, but know your worth. Invest in yourself and stand out, then get the self-confidence you need to ask for what you want. Just remember, salary isn’t the only thing to request: more vacation, a company car, and flex-time are all nice bargaining chips. Finally, if you’re white and reading this book, pay attention. Says Harts, “… women of color will be the majority of the workforce by… 2060; if I were a white woman, I would do better.” There is no denying the usefulness of this book, nor its truth. “The Memo” offers helpful words for those who are the lone women of color at their workplaces. It teaches strength in the face of racism, on hair issues, self-confidence, and for anyone who needs to school coworkers while keeping her job. It gives young women of color a sisterhood, albeit one made of paper. And yet, there’s discord in this book that a deeper look exposes. At two particular points here, author Minda Harts chastises white women for making assumptions and “sweeping generalizations about ‘women’” without addressing any of the unique challenges that women of color face at work. This creates a paradox, since readers may notice overgeneralizations about white women that don’t allow room for those who are not clueless. That sets up further conundrums, to be sure. Overall, go into “The Memo” looking for help and you’ll absolutely find it, just as you’ll find that you’re not alone. Go in eyes-wide-open when you take on this book. And then, take a seat… Book Review: "Kill Reply All: A Modern Guide to Online Etiquette, from Social Media to Work to Love" Book Review: “24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week” Book Review: “The Queering of Corporate America”

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Manners and Morals S.T. Karnick September 15, 2014 9:30 pm Tags: country music, Glen Campbell, I'll Be Me Category: Music, People Campbell Documentary Celebrates Country Artist As a country musician, Glen Campbell wasn’t widely known, among the general audience, for musical virtuosity, but he was in fact an impressive guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was talented enough to substitute for Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys on the band’s tours in the mid-’60s. Campbell had several hit songs on the pop charts, in addition to the country charts, in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Among those, “Gentle on My Mind,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Southern Nights,” and “Rhinestone Cowboy” are particularly memorable, with the latter aptly lamenting a trend away from authenticity in country music. In recent years, popular musicians such as Jakob Dylan, Rick Nielson (Cheap Trick), and Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) worked with Campbell on his final recordings, and musicians all across the spectrum praised his achievements. Campbell, now 78 years old, has been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease since at least 2011 and went on a 151-city “Goodbye Tour” of concerts in 2012, which critics and audiences praised. Those of us who didn’t see him on tour will have an opportunity to watch the life story of this excellent musician and songwriter and view footage from his final concert tour, in the film I’ll Be Me, which will be released to theaters on October 24. According to footage from the trailer, Campbell’s mind came alive when he appeared on stage during the final tour, and his performances were surprisingly good: It sounds like an interesting film. Those Who Write and Tell The Stories, Control the Culture | Keeping Your Kids Christian on The Hot Fall TV Trend Mike D'Virgilio on Science is Becoming God’s Best Friend rayster on Science is Becoming God’s Best Friend Chris Cass on Science is Becoming God’s Best Friend Culture and Economics Economics & Policy Omniculture The American Culture Website by Weptile

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Handling of industrial disputes in the public sector industries in Bangladesh Khan, Md. Abbas Ali (1986) Handling of industrial disputes in the public sector industries in Bangladesh. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. Public sector industries play a very significant role in the economy of Bangladesh. A cordial labour-management relationship as a pre-condition to uninterrupted production in such industries is therefore highly desirable. In the privatisation policy in early industrialisation, pursued during the pre-liberation days, a contradiction between private owners and workers was inherent. Under the policy of massive nationalisation pursued after the independence, improved industrial relations in the public sector industries could reasonably be expected. But the published sources suggest an opposite picture. With this background, the present study has been undertaken to examine the general trend, causes and methods of handling of industrial disputes in the public sector industries and to make some policy recommendations for improving future public sector industrial relations based on a review of the Government policies and the objective and subjective perspectives of the various institutional machineries of dispute resolution. Management, Labor relations, South Asian studies, Alternative dispute resolution

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November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining. Template:NovemberCalendar 1851 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published on October 18, 1851 by Richard Bentley, London. 1862 - American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg. 1889 - Pioneer woman journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. 1918 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic. 1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom. 1940 - World War II: In England, the city of Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. 1941 - World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from U 81 sustained on November 13. 1952 - First UK chart published by the New Musical Express 1965 - Vietnam War: Battle of the Ia Drang begins - the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces. 1969 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon. 1970 - Southern Airways DC-9 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75. 1971 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 reaches Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. 1971 - His Holiness Shenouda III was concescrated as the 117th Patriarch of Alexandria and the See of St. Mark, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. 1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time. 1973 - In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. 1975 - Spain abandons Western Sahara. 1979 - Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis. 1982 - Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border. 1985 - Tragedy in Colombia: eruption of volcano Nevado del Ruiz provoked 23 000 deaths in city of Armero (was buried). 1990 - Germany modifies its Basic Law to recognise the Oder-Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland. 1991 - American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103. 1991 - Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile. 1991 - A fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five, before committing suicide. 1993 - Michael Jackson enters a drug rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to painkillers. 1995 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums, and run most government offices with skeleton staffs. 1998 - Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra are married in Las Vegas, Nevada. 2000 - Netscape Navigator version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development. 2001 - Attack on Afghanistan: Northern Alliance fighters takeover the capital Kabul. 2002 - Argentina defaults on a US$805 million World Bank payment. 2002 - The US House of Representatives votes to not create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks. 2003 - Planetoid 90377 Sedna is discovered. 1668 - Johann von Hildebrandt, Austrian architect (d. 1745) 1719 - Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1787) 1765 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (d. 1815) 1771 - Marie François Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and physiologist (d. 1802) 1776 - Henri Dutrochet, French physiologist (d. 1847) 1779 - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (d. 1850) 1797 - Charles Lyell, British geologist (d. 1875) 1803 - Jacob Abbott, American writer (d. 1879) 1805 - Fanny Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (d. 1847) 1812 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (d. 1878) 1828 - James B. McPherson, American Civil War general (d. 1864) 1838 - August Senoa, Croatian writer (d. 1881) 1840 - Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926) 1878 - Leopold Staff, Polish poet] (d. 1957) 1883 - Fred Quimby, American film producer (d. 1965) 1889 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (d. 1964) 1891 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize in medicine (d. 1941) 1896 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (d. 1979) 1900 - Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990) 1904 - Dick Powell, actor (d. 1963) 1906 - Louise Brooks, actress (d. 1985) 1907 - Howard W. Hunter, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1995) 1907 - Astrid Lindgren, Swedish writer (d. 2002) 1907 - William Steig, cartoonist and children's book author (d. [[2003]) 1915 - Martha Tilton, American singer 1916 - Sherwood Schwartz, American television writer and producer 1919 - Veronica Lake, actress (d. 1973) 1919 - Lisa Otto, German soprano 1921 - Brian Keith, actor (d. 1997) 1922 - Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN Secretary-General 1929 - Jimmy Piersall, baseball player 1929 - McLean Stevenson, actor (d. 1996) 1930 - Edward White, astronaut (d. 1967) 1935 - King Hussein of Jordan (d. 1999) 1939 - Wendy Carlos, American composer 1947 - P. J. O'Rourke, writer 1948 - Charles, Prince of Wales 1951 - Stephen Bishop, musician 1954 - Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State 1954 - Yanni, musician 1959 - Paul McGann, British actor 1964 - Bill Hemmer, news anchor (American Morning) 1966 - Curt Schilling, baseball player 1967 - Letitia Dean, British actress 1967 - Nina Gordon, American singer and songwriter 1971 - Adam Gilchrist, Australian cricketer 1972 - Martin Pike, Australian Rules footballer 1973 - Lawyer Milloy, American football player 1978 - Xavier Nady, baseball player 1263 - Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir 1359 - Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica (b. 1296) 1716 - Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician (b. 1646) 1746 - Georg Steller, German naturalist (b. 1709) 1825 - Jean Paul, German writer (b. 1763) 1831 - Georg Hegel, German philosopher (b. 1770) 1832 - Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the American Declaration of Independence and U.S. Senator (b. 1732) 1844 - John Abercrombie, British physician (b. 1780) 1907 - Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian politician (b. 1848) 1915 - Booker T. Washington, American inventor, educator, and author (b. 1856) 1916 - Saki, British writer (b. 1870) 1946 - Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer (b. 1876) 1972 - Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (b. 1900) 1997 - Eddie Arcaro, jockey (b. 1916) 2000 - Robert Trout, journalist (b. 1909) 2003 - Mr. Blues, American musician (b. 1962) 2003 - Dorothy Loudon, American actress (b. 1933) 2004 - Harry Lampert, illustrator (b. 1916) India - Birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru: Children's day BBC: On This Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/14) November 13 - November 15 - October 14 - December 14 -- listing of all days af:14 November ast:14 de payares bg:14 ноември be:14 лістапада ca:14 de novembre cs:14. listopad cy:14 Tachwedd da:14. november de:14. November el:14 Νοεμβρίου et:14. november es:14 de noviembre eo:14-a de novembro fr:14 novembre fy:14 novimber gl:14 de novembro hr:14. studenog is:14. nóvember it:14 novembre he:14 בנובמבר ku:14'ê sermawezê lt:Lapkričio 14 lb:14. November hu:November 14 nl:14 november nds:14 November ja:11月14日 no:14. november oc:14 de novembre pl:14 listopada pt:14 de Novembro ro:14 noiembrie ru:14 ноября sl:14. november sr:14. новембар fi:14. marraskuuta sv:14 november tr:14 Kasım uk:14 листопада wa:14 di nôvimbe zh:11月14日 Retrieved from "http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/November_14" This page was last modified 19:23, 22 Jun 2005. This page has been accessed 21634 times.

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Adelaide Sustainability Centre > About Us > Our People Diane Salvi – Coordinator, Adelaide Sustainability Centre Di is our centre coordinator and networker extraordinaire. She brings years of experience from a range of roles that have perfectly cultivated her skillset towards making the centre an engaging and welcoming experience. She has a background in tourism; both in the marketing sector and as a tour guide, as well as having worked in volunteer management and project management. Having lived in Los Angeles, Japan and Chile She has seen a great deal of the world and has viewed how many cultures connect with the environment. Most recently having graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental Science, she not only has an in-depth understanding of sustainability but also the skills to communicate this with others. When not working, she is a mum of two kids and a backyard veggie grower. Never slowing down she spends her time running a monthly hiking group for friends, looking after a Bush for Life site and is a committee member of the Adelaide Hills Outdoor Playgroup which is part of the Old School Community Garden in Stirling. Christy Spier – Advisory Group Member, Natural Resources Adelaide & Mt Lofty Ranges Christy’s story began in the Aboriginal community of Ernabella so she is comfortable in creek beds, where she went on to organise camps as a young person and then after studying communications at the University of SA developed as a project manager of the Schoolies Festival SA and non-profit organisation Encounter Youth. Having three children sparked her interest in homemaking and sustainable neighbourhoods which led her to study permaculture at the Food Forest, dig in her local community garden and network with Edible Churches. In short she loves conversations and action that come out of creek beds, camps, parties, homes and neighbourhoods. She is currently an Urban Sustainability Officer with Natural Resources Adelaide & Mt Lofty Ranges. Nuturing her family, talking to her neighbours, taking notice of the local and small, signficant things, sharing, reading and writing hopeful stories and poetry Kerry Reed – Advisory Group Member Kerry is a landscape designer and student of Sustainable Design, she is also a member of Adelaide Sustainable Building Network steering committee. She holds a particular interest in community co-creation including building skills, networks and resilience. The final design project for her Sustainable Design Masters has centred on facilitating the process of creating a sustainability hub at The Joinery. Kerry has an interest in sustainability advocacy and education, expressly regarding the integration of the natural environment within the built environment. In her spare time Kerry loves cycling, yoga and her veggie garden. Mark Kruszynski – Advisory Group Member, Common Ground Adelaide Common Ground Adelaide (CGA) is an affordable housing organisation which provides safe, stable and secure housing in conjunction with support and opportunities for tenants to thrive. CGA coordinate a Community Garden at the Joinery and have been involved in a number of Joinery programs and events. Often the constraints of social housing result in environmental sustainability being most challenging for our community’s most vulnerable members. Mark believes in the power of community to develop solutions to social issues and create societal change. He also holds an interest in biodiversity and sustainable food production, his careful lifestyle makes him an advocate for frugal living. Allys Todd – Advisory Group Member, Greening Australia Allys’s career has been focussed in the non-profit sector including Greening Australia, Greenpeace, Earth Sanctuaries, The Wilderness Society and Trees for Life. Her skills have been utilized by the Department for Environment, Cleland Wildlife Park and the Adelaide Zoo in various positions and appointments; including providing judging for NRM and Landcare awards. Her skills have previously been recognised by the Australian Business Arts Foundation recieving the Arts & Environment Award 2011 for the Womadelaide Foundation Carbon Offset; also having received a Prime Ministers Award in Community & Business Partnerships 2009 for the Gemtree Wetlands Project. She holds a Science Degree from Flinders University and in her spare time delivers consultancy with skills in marketing, communications, social media, media release, graphic design, website development and grant writing. She is an Ambassador to the Neurosurgical Research Foundation and provides pro-bono support under the direction of Board President, Prof. Robert Vink, Pro-Vice Chancellor Health Sciences, University of Adelaide. Allys juggles her interests as a communications consultant, traveler, wine lover and wildlife photographer, as well as being a mother and working with Greening Australia. You might occasionally find her camping under the stars, kayaking St Vincent’s Gulf or up-cycling wooden pallets! Anne Wilson – Advisory Group Member Anne has a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Environment (2008), a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Environmental Policy and Management (2012) as well as an Advanced Certificate in Horticulture. She is employed as an Academic researcher undertaking manuscript preparation for Prof. Emerita Carol Bacchi at the University of Adelaide and Assoc Prof Susan Goodwin at the University of Sydney. Her current areas of interest include Academic research specialising in; Cycling as transport, Cycling education and children, Post-structural policy analysis, Urban environments and Urban food growing (particularly for beginners) in both gardens and containers. She is governor of one of the two Sustainable Communities—SA Unley groups. Each group has wide environmental interests and goals, but a common and current interest of both is in working with local government and communities to enhance food growing in the City of Unley. She is a devotee to organic gardening practices—design for eco-gardening, soil improvement, water saving, organic pest control—all designed to enhance urban biodiversity in the residential environment. This is an extension of urban biodiversity enhancement through retention and addition to urban corridors and public spaces. In all, she seeks a design to enhance both human and non-human environments. Steven Hoepfner – Advisory Group Member, EarthRight & Wagtail Urban Farm Steven was born and raised in Adelaide. He developed a passion for the environment from an early age. His interest in food systems and their environmental impacts led him to research and implement regenerative agricultural practices throughout the Adelaide metropolitan area. His expertise lies within his backyard food growing prowess having specialised in this area for 10 years. Steven has also had 6 years commercial food growing experience within farms such as, Meadows Farm and Wagtail Urban Farm; as well as 3 years food growing education experience at Fern Ave Community Garden. He enjoys giving various presentations and workshops, from soil prep, to composting and fruit tree care. He believes that he offers a practical, on the ground aspect for the group. His passions include local food production, wild foods, the exploration of human body movement, and he is also an avid tree climber. Sue Gilbey – Advisory Group Member Sue lives in an urban eco-village located on the land of the Kaurna people in Adelaide city. After accidents put an end to her career objectives she has become very involved as a volunteer community activist, social justice entrepreneur, writer, editor, researcher, broadcaster, interviewer, environmentalist and local and international human rights public speaker most recently in Costa Rica and Bangladesh. She convened Urban Ecology Australia for 6 years founded a new group, Just Sustainability Australia which focuses on equity for environmental refugees. She is an Australian Ambassador for the Global Eco-village network (GEN) and a founding member of GEN Australia and is on the advisory committee of the Sustainability Centre operated through the Natural Resources Management Board. In 2009 she was deeply honoured to receive the Bremen Peace Award, a very prestigious International peace prize, administered by the European Threshold Foundation. Kathryn Warhurst – Advisory Group Member, Conservation Council of SA & The Joinery Kathryn is an Environmental Scientist who has worked for Non Government Organisations (NGOs) all her professional career. She has been involved with many organisations such as The Wilderness Society and The Conservation Council of South Australia as well as working on marine conservation issues, revolving around; fishery management, marine parks, Australian sea lions and giant cuttlefish. She is Chair of Transition Gawler with an interest in local sustainability, resilience and community building. Sustainability, social justice, gardening, reading, and spending time with her family.

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HOw can we make the work of famous artist relevant for MHS today? Inspired Artists Mural! - Group (max 3 people) or individual - inspiration artist - theme and message of your work - size and location - detailed sketch approval Research an artist to find a mural style that you would like to replicate: 1. Vincent Van Gogh 2. Fernand Leger 3. Roy Lichtenstein 4. George Seurat 5. Edward Hopper 6. Joan Miro 7. Geogia O'Keefe 8. Georges Brague ​9. Pablo Picasso 10 Robert Indiana ​11. Jasper Johns 12. Frank Stella 13. Salvador Dali 14. Frida Kahlo 15. Franz Marc 16. Marsden Hartley 17. Max Ernst 18. Charles Demuth 19. Stuart Davis Already taken: - Shepard Fairey - Andy Warhol - Keith Haring ​- Stan Lee write up..... With your work will be a mounted plaque explaining your mural. Please answer the following questions and use these answers to form a well written paragraph explaining your work. Here are the guiding questions to use for your paragraph: In the Style of ________________________________________ 1. What "mark" or key message did this artist leave? 2. How was this new to art? ( This artist did ______________ when everyone else was doing _________) ​3. How did you interpret this artist work? (style? subject matter? etc) 4. What is the meaning behind your mural? What message are you trying to deliver? Example: Andy Warhol Andy Warhol, who is a leading artist of the "Pop Art" movement, made his mark in art history by reflecting popular culture in art. His work broke boundaries of traditional subject matter and techniques and instead concentrated on celebrities and consumer products while utilizing more commercial techniques such as screen printing and repetition. This gave a fresh. bold look to his work and opened up art to self examination of our capitalistic society. In our interpretation, we borrowed the color scheme and graphic layout of Andy Warhol and applied it to a contemporary consumer product. In doing this, we are expressing that Andy Warhol's Pop Art style is still contemporary and that current cultural symbols are still celebrated. mural_final_assesssment.docx Create sketch that can be photoshop-ed into wall location....

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Celebrate the 2014 Inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame For the last 28 years, the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” has been inducting the best-known artists, producers, engineers and others into the musical history books. Located in Cleveland, the organization runs the world’s only rock ‘n’ roll museum, which exists to collect, preserve and interpret the impact of the genre, and educate fans and scholars about its history. It was announced today that seven performers and two managers are being honored by the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” with an awards ceremony and concert in April that focuses on their contributions. Meet this year’s honorees below, and enjoy the classic tunes that best represents their legacy. Cat Stevens is known for being the introspective cornerstone of the 1970s singer-songwriter movement who walked away from the music that sold millions to practice Islam. It was nearly 30 years before he recorded another pop record, and although it was released under his new name, Yusef, it is an embrace of his full musical legacy. [youtubeif DHXpnZi9Hzs] Daryl Hall & John Oates‘s original mix of soul and rock has made them the most successful pop duo in history – with six Number One hits and 34 songs in the Billboard Top 100. Since 1972, they’ve embraced the pop mainstream and brought passion and creativity back to the 3-minute single. [youtubeif ccenFp_3kq8] Nirvana ignited a rock revolution when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blasted onto radio and TV screens across America in 1991. The grungy, moshpit party video and the bands kinetic live shows propelled “Nevermind” to Number One and turned singer-guitarist-songwriter Kurt Cobain into the voice of a generation, whether he liked it or not. [youtubeif ywsBvp4PyXY] Few bands have inspired more kids to pick up an electric guitar than KISS. With their signature makeup, explosive stage show and anthems like “Rock And Roll All Nite” and “Detroit Rock City,” they have been the personification of rock stars since 1975. [youtubeif EFMD7Usflbg] Linda Ronstadt is the rare artist to dominate both the pop and country music worlds. Harnessing a tremendous range and power, her voice was one of the most important in the creation of country rock. [youtubeif haZPPBJC8Ic] Peter Gabriel’s influence is so widespread we may take it for granted. The former Genesis frontman lead the new wave by blending synthesizers and drum sounds while maintaining the emotional honesty of soul music. Over 4 decades in the business, Gabriel has transitioned from cult artist to multimedia pop star to global rock icon. [youtubeif OJWJE0x7T4Q] Bruce Springsteen played with the musicians who became the E Street Band in various Asbury Park–based groups as a teen, and formed the band in 1972 after he landed a recording contract. With Steve Van Zandt on guitar, Max Weinberg on drums, Clarence Clemons on saxophone, Garry Tallent on bass, Danny Federici on organ, and Roy Bittan on piano, they helped establish Springsteen’s reputation as one of the greatest live performers in rock and roll. [youtubeif rhN_ASbqZO0] Paul McCartney has said, “If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian Epstein.” As their manager from 1962-67, Epstein helped The Beatles take the world by storm as the driving force behind both the band’s first recording contract and their charismatic, mop-topped style. [youtubeif tNEBmdsB-MY] Andrew Loog Oldham is best known as The Rolling Stones manager who propelled the band to worldwide stardom by crafting the band’s bad boy image and pushing Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to write original songs. [youtubeif KzYWTIHqutA] Music is back on TV. Only on AXS TV. Exclusive videos, news & views. Follow AXS TV Concerts on Facebook and Twitter. Find AXS TV on your TV Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Cat Stevens, E Street Band, Hall & Oates, KISS, Linda Ronstadt, Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones How Marshall Tucker Band Handled a Completely Nude Audience | The Big Interview Yes Frontman Jon Anderson’s Biggest Fear | The Big Interview How Bryan Cranston Turned Tragedy Into Opportunity | The Big Interview What Defined America in the 1960s? | The Big Interview Why David Byrne Fell In Love With Music | The Big Interview

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Showdown with Peter van Onselen - Transcript Posted by Andrew Leigh MP 5sc on May 09, 2013 TRANSCRIPT – SHOWDOWN WITH PETER VAN ONSELEN Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Member for Fraser TOPICS: Carbon pricing, revenue write downs, cut in interest rates, Liberal Party conscience vote for equal marriage, the federal Budget Peter van Onselen: Welcome back you’re watching Showdown. I’ve been speaking to Peter Reith, joining us out of Melbourne as well as Senator Cory Bernardi, joining us out of South Australia, we’re now also joined by Dr Andrew Leigh the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, who joins us out of Canberra. Mr Leigh thanks for your company, or Dr Leigh I should say, don’t want to down grade you before we get the interview started. Andrew Leigh: Now worries at all, good to see you Peter. Peter van Onselen: Can I, I just want to start by going back to you, Senator Cory Bernardi if I can. On your blog today you’ve had a bit of a crack at the style of the government that is being run by David Cameron over there in the in the UK. You’ve called it a soft-left policy agenda led by a man who’s most notable commitment has been to make the once proud Conservative Party more green than Labour, but what intrigued me was the next line; you said a few years ago there were a number in the Liberal Party here who actually thought this was the best path for us to adopt. Who was that? Cory Bernardi: Well Peter you know we had an extensive debate about the emissions trading scheme and supporting Labor’s policy. I was not one of those who subscribed to that I warned about the dangers for the Liberal Party about going down that path, and I think the proof is in the pudding. If you look in the United Kingdom’s experience, David Cameron I think won an election, but he was forced into coalition when he should never have been because the Labour party was so bad over there, and here, because we actually took a principled stand about was in the national interest, Tony Abbott came within a whisker of becoming Prime Minister at the last election, and I think, you know, the rest is history. The caravan that… Peter van Onselen: But Senator how does this work? You were at the vanguard of having a problem with Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party more broadly pushing to support the ETS ahead of Copenhagen. You were at the vanguard of opposing that. Yet the people that were all around Malcolm Turnbull are now the same people that are the senior people around Tony Abbott. Now I know the Liberal Party’s a broad church, but is that at least a little bit surprising? Cory Bernardi: Oh I don’t think so. I think you know, Tony Abbott will always choose the team that he wants around him. He’s got an experienced team. You know quite frankly, I think we’ve got a good policy agenda to take into the next election, but one of the points I want to make is that you know, aping the Labor Party is a recipe for disaster. We are, you know, a centre-right party. We should be espousing the principles that have built the Liberal party over many , many decades and that’s about supporting families, about supporting small business, about lower taxation and you know, the maximum level of freedom that we can have in an orderly society. And I think we need to limit the growth and size of government and we certainly need to stop the government from borrowing you know, tens of billions of dollars every single year because they can’t control their spending. Peter van Onselen: Andrew Leigh, can I just bring you in and ask you about the levy that was announced by the Prime Minister in relation to paying for the NDIS. Now as an economist, you are someone who as I understand it, when the levy was originally rejected by the Prime Minister, had some strong economic reasoning why that kind of specific allocation of levies to pay for specific government spending was not a good idea. Yet now that is the path that now the Government is going down. Andrew Leigh: Well Peter the big change in the revenues is just the striking difference between this year and last. So compared to the last budget, revenues for this budget are projected to be coming in seventeen billion dollars smaller. Now for those who don’t carry billions of dollars in your bank account, the way of thinking about that is that’s one full one full per cent of GDP. It’s a massive write down and I’m sure there hasn’t been a bigger write down in the history of the Commonwealth and that’s led the Government to be making a set of announcements, including the levy that you pointed to, in order to make those books balance. Now, it’s got to be clear, this is not a decision of the Government that has caused this revenue write down; with the same set of taxes, we are bringing seventeen billion dollars less revenue, and that’s a challenge for us and of course- Peter van Onselen: can I ask you this though, because isn’t one of the issues here that during the Costello years they underestimated revenue, during the Swan years, you have, or the Government has overestimated revenue. Now my understanding is that there is a range that is put by Treasury to the Government for the various estimates and Costello had a penchant for always taking the bottom of that range and hence he was always discovering that there was extra revenue left in the kitty when the good times rolled on. Wayne Swan when he’s presented with that range goes for the higher end on the estimates for the Budget and therefore, unsurprisingly, when we’re not in such good times there’s a massive underestimation there. Isn’t that why it’s bad policy to turn around and spend the money before it’s come into the kitty when you know that firstly, you’re on the higher side of the range that you select, and secondly you know from historical evidence that there has been a constant inaccuracy in these numbers anyway? Andrew Leigh: Peter I’ve spent time as a secondi in Treasury, spent six months there, I’ve certainly never heard of what you’re talking about either for Peter Costello or for Wayne Swan. I’ve never heard of people suggesting that the forecast on revenue were anything but the best guess from the ‘boffins’. The problem is that when you’re forecasting revenue, you’re taking a growth forecast and then you’re also trying to extrapolate from that what company profits will look like. We’ve got something of the moment of the perfect storm at the moment in the combination of drop off in commodity prices, but the dollar staying high because of the strong appetite for Australian bonds, and then of course this unique situation of real growth outpacing nominal growth. All of that is pretty unusual and that’s led to this big revenue write down. We’re still an economy which is doing extraordinarily well by international standards, strong growth, half the unemployment rate of Europe… Peter van Onselen: There’s obviously worries though, with the Reserve Bank dropping interest rates today though, I mean that might be a good thing for home owners, but at the end of the day, it is a sign of softness isn’t it? Andrew Leigh: Well it is a far cry from those days where you would hear people say that interest rates would always be lower under a Coalition Government, isn’t it, Peter? Certainly this is welcome news for homeowners and as the Reserve Bank has said in its statement, it’s weighed up a set of factors, it’s looked at some of the domestic strengths but also the international challenges, the pressure that the high Australian dollar’s put on the economy and overall decided that a quarter point cut would be appropriate. Peter van Onselen: Peter Reith can I bring you in and ask you, you were a Shadow Treasurer once upon a time yourself. You were also a senior minister, Minister for Workplace Relations, and if I understand correctly a member of the Expenditure Review Committee for the Howard Government for some time as well, how do you see this debate about the idea that well, revenue is just, you know, underperforming expectations so therefore there’s nothing untoward in what’s happened. Peter Reith: I think quite frankly Andrew, I think what you have to say is laughable. Uh, I mean, look sure there are ups and downs in numbers, but I mean there’s just been one blunder after another under Labor, I mean the mining tax, the carbon tax, you’ve fixed it to Europe. You know, the figure there is three dollars, it’s twenty three… Andrew Leigh: What has that got to do with any of this? Peter Reith: Well it’s all coming mate, it’s all adding to the problems, fiscal policies that you’ve got. Look the wasting… Andrew Leigh: It’s all part of the vibe. It’s all part of the thing. Peter Reith: It’s not, it’s the wastage. Uh the fact is you haven’t been, you know, you were running the line a minute ago “oh the dollar’s high”, well mate I’ve got news for you; the dollar was high a year ago when the last Budget was done. I mean if that’s such a big factor why wasn’t that put in? Why are you still using you know, last year’s arguments? Now the fact is that a government that had been a lot more prudent than you have, instead of, you know, giving people this nonsense about how great the economy is, you know, the RBA has cut it back again today, record lows and you can’t even acknowledge the fact that there are big slices of the Australian economy that got real problems and we’ve got a turning down on the mining industry. Now, you know, a bit of realism, you know, inserted into the decision making on the Budget would’ve avoided a fair chunk of the problems that you’ve got. And on top of that, you know, you’re still in a mode where you think you can just go on spending and, of course, those days are gone. Peter van Onselen: Andrew Leigh your response? Andrew Leigh: Well certainly what we’re doing is taking the best advice of Treasury, I reject what Peter has said there entirely… (Peter Reith: You’ve got to stop blaming everybody else Andrew) Andrew Leigh: …in terms of decisions the Government has made. The decision on pricing carbon for example is in accord with what every sensible economist would advocate. I mean, you’ll have the shonks and shysters telling you that direct action and soil magic can somehow deal with climate change, but this is the economically responsible thing to do, to put a price on carbon pollution. And what you’ve got to realise is that internationally, Australia’s position is strong: ten per cent government debt is extremely low by international standards, but we have… Peter van Onselen: Can I, can I ask you about that, sorry to interrupt you. It is low and I don’t disagree with that, but it is also true isn’t it that it has risen at a sharp rate comparable to a lot of countries that started with a lot higher debt and have now obviously ended up with even higher debt. In this country it remains low but it’s only low because we started with no debt. The scale of the increase has been pretty significant. Andrew Leigh: Well I mean when you put in place stimulus spending you backed quickly. The alternative is to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs. Everyone that tells you we should not have taken on debt in the global financial crisis is saying that they wish unemployment had been driven up to double-digits, as it has been in Europe, because that’s the alternative… Peter van Onselen: But couldn’t we have just dumped interest rates? Couldn’t we have used monetary instead of fiscal policy? Andrew Leigh: Well we did both as you recall Peter, I mean we put in place monetary policy which has an impact on sectors of the economy that are borrowing. But then of course, that’s only a portion of the economy, and as OECD, IMF, were advising at the time, as most countries did, you then want to inject some fiscal policy at the same time, both through house hold payments which have a quick effect and through infrastructure spending which has a larger multiplier. All of what we did in the down turn was text book. The result was to save hundreds of thousands of jobs and to put Australia in a debt position which is low by international standards. Peter Reith: Yeah but you’re just running over the facts here because, look I don’t disagree with half of what you say, but you know, the other half you don’t get it right. I mean, Malcolm Turnbull, when he was Leader of the Opposition got up in the Parliament and said, “well, we understand why you’ve done what you’ve done so far, but cranking up even more stimulus we think is going too far”. Now, you don’t have an answer to that because there isn’t an answer to it, and Malcolm Turnbull was proved to be absolutely right and this was just another poor judgement call by your Treasurer, you know, thinking that just spending more money, you know, was somehow the answer and unfortunately it’s not. It’s the same with Gonski as well I might say, you know, just spending is the way to fix problems when, a lot of problems aren’t just fixed by spending more money. Peter van Onselen: Alright gentlemen, time out, we’re going to take a commercial break. When we comeback we’ll continue the debate including, I’d like to see the thoughts of Senator Cory Bernardi in relation to the issue of whether or not the Liberal Party should have a conscience vote on gay marriage after the next election. Back in a moment. Welcome back. You’re watching Showdown where I’m joined out of Melbourne by former Howard Government minister Peter Reith, out of South Australia by Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi and out of Canberra by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr Andrew Leigh. We’re going to move on to other subjects, but first if I can Andrew Leigh, can I just ask you Andrew Leigh, we’ve just had the Victorian Budget today; how is it that with revenue write downs they can forecast surpluses going forward over the next three years as well as deliver one in the current financial year, yet with write downs also at a federal level, we’re not in a position where we’ve got that kind of forecasting. Andrew Leigh: Well we’re relying on more volatile tax bases at the federal level is one straightforward answer, Peter. Company tax revenues are much more volatile than GST revenues, so it makes it easier to project at a state level. But I do think that this is a good reason why Victoria should be signing on to the Gonski Reviews. I think it certainly signals that it’s about time that kids in low income schools in Victoria got a fair deal. Peter van Onselen: But isn’t just the case though that there might be volatile tax mixes at the federal level compared to the state level, but isn’t it just a case of fiscal conservatism at the end of the day if they are as volatile as you say. Don’t imprint spending into them before you actually know the return is. Be much more moderate and then be surprised on the upside? Andrew Leigh: Peter, you sound like what you’re saying is that we should have made savings of $160 billion dollars over our last five Budgets, which is precisely what we’ve done. You sound like you might be saying we ought to put in place a levy to cover most of the cost of the DisabilityCare Australia and putting in place some targeted saves around family tax benefit. All these are things we’ve done and you’ll see more savings measures being announced in the coming days. As you say, that’s the prudent response when you get a revenue write down. But it’s not to sell off the family silver, it is not to trash DisabilityCare Australia, a system depended on by 410,000 people with disabilities and their carers. That I think isn’t the Australian way… Peter van Onselen: … but the thing is Andrew, I’ve got to take you to task a little bit on this because yes there are volatile taxes at a federal level but the states are reliant on GST revenue and in the case of Victoria there’s been a $7 billion write down on GST revenue into Victoria. Yet despite that, they’re still projecting surpluses. Andrew Leigh: Well, Victoria has made some pretty savage cuts, Peter, and I think if you speak to nurses, police officers, fire fighters in Victoria, they might have a different complexion on the … Peter van Onselen: …so are you saying that if Labor was delivering the Budget you wouldn’t have made the savage cuts and therefore you’d be in deficit? Andrew Leigh: Labor is always going to make targeted savings measures. We are going to make sure that we impose whatever cost there is on those who can best bear it. Tony Abbott by contrast is committed to giving tax cuts first to big miners and big polluters and then to handing out $75,000 cheques to some of the most affluent households in Australia through his gold-plated paid parental leave scheme which seems neither of your other two guests can defend… Peter van Onselen: …alright we’re not going there. Peter Reith’s had plenty of time on that one. Let me just go to you Senator Cory Bernadi, entirely different subject now… Cory Bernadi: Well, can I just answer some of those things that Andrew raised, I mean, he’s boasting about $160 billion worth of savings. He’s not talking about the massive tax increases that he’s already foisted upon the economy. He’s not talking about the $300 billion worth of debt that they’ve racked up over the last six years. This is an outrageous sleight of hand and a nonsense. They have completely mismanaged their spending. Revenues are up and they just have no idea how to control their spend thrift ways and there’s nothing to show for it. This is the great problem we’ve got: nothing to show for it. Peter van Onselen: Alright we’ll take that as a comment as a certain other person in television often says. Let me ask you Cory Bernadi, as I said, on an entirely different subject, the issue of a conscience vote for gay marriage is something that an increasing number of Liberals are coming out and saying they’re in favour of after the next election. Tony Abbott has said that he’ll take that to the Party Room. The Liberal Party does have a proud tradition of providing conscience votes on certain issues. I know where you stand on the issue of gay marriage, but where do you stand on the issue of whether or not it should be a conscience vote for individual Liberal MPs? Cory Bernadi: Well I’ll make the point that we have a tradition of conscience votes where we have no official Party position. Our Party position is that we support the existing definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman. We’ve supported that, you know, since the foundation of the Liberal Party quite frankly. Now, we also, I make the point, have the freedom for every single member of the front bench, or the back bench to vote according to their conscience if they don’t like the Party position. Now, I don’t detect any appetite quite frankly, amongst the general public or amongst the Party room to change our position right now. There might be one or two murmurings, but you know, quite frankly it’s not a mainstream issue. People are more concerned about the cost of living, about, you know, how this government is borrowing money and mortgaging the future of their kids. Peter van Onselen: so you don’t think it should be a conscience vote as simple as that? You’re of the view it should stay a Party vote? Cory Bernadi: I absolutely support the existing Party policy. Peter van Onselen: And can I ask you on that, because when you were just talking about it, you made the point that, you know, that marriage should be between a man and a woman as something that’s been Liberal Party policy since, you know, the founding of the Liberal Party basically. Does that mean for you personally, if the Party room goes the other way and decides to make it a conscience vote issue, is that something you have a major problem with? Or would you just accept that that’s the Party Room position and it’s a change of policy for the Liberal Party, albeit one which is a complete change from the historical direction of the Party until now? Cory Bernadi: Well the Party Room decision would be the binding decision. Ultimately I would still vote according to my own conscience on that particular matter. But I think there would be widespread electoral issues attached to the Liberal Party taking that position. Now, I have no evidence for that, I’m just supposing it. But look, let me say this Peter, it is not a mainstream issue. No one out there is talking about this in any significant sense. They’re worried about the cost of living and the mortgaging of their children’s future by this spend thrift government. That is what people are worried about. They want to see a change in government. They want to see a radical change in approach and some more responsibility attached to what their government does. Peter van Onselen: Peter Reith I think they will see a change of government and I know you agree with me on that. What’s your view on whether the Liberal Party should make the gay marriage issue a conscience vote irrespective of what your view is on the actual matter of gay marriage itself? Peter Reith: I think Tony’s on the right track on this one. What he said is that after the election he’ll raise the issue in the shadow cabinet and then take the shadow cabinet view to the Party room and I think that’s the right process. And if he sticks to that and if he consults with the organisation as well I don’t think he’ll get into too much trouble. Peter van Onselen: But what’s your personal view? Do you think that, do you agree with Senator Cory Bernadi that it’s a Party position and it’s not something that is necessarily of the style of issue that should be a conscience vote or do you disagree with that? Peter Reith: I must say I’m pretty relaxed about this issue and if they have a conscience vote I’d be quite happy with that myself. But I think, the main thing from the politics is that, you know, it’s got to handled sensitively by Tony and you know, give everybody a fair shake of what they’ve got to say about it so I think that’s the key thing. I think it probably will go through in the next term, but you know, time will tell. Peter van Onselen: Alright, we’re almost out of time, but Andrew Leigh before we go, I haven’t asked you about the cuts, or the cuts to increases if you want to put it that way, in terms of family payments that have been talked about by the Labor Party today. It strikes me that for a Party that is unashamedly a party of you know, people in lower socio-economic circumstances that they are the people impacted heavily by these removed increases. Why go down that path rather than finding other cuts, for example even to the SchoolKids Bonus which isn’t so targeted to low income earners only. Andrew Leigh: Well Peter, the SchoolKids Bonus goes to people receiving Family Tax Benefit Part A so you’re talking about the same group of people. Look, I would ideally like to have seen these increases to the Family Tax Benefit Part A go ahead but in the current budgetary circumstances that’s simply not feasible. But we are putting in place a range of measures to assist that group, for example, the increase in superannuation contributions which Tony Abbott will rip away. Two thirds of those three million low income earners are women. Tony Abbott by contrast has said today that he thinks his gold-plated paid parental leave is good because it pays women of calibre more to have babies. Presumably what he means by that is that nurses, that child care workers, that cleaners are not women of calibre. I think that’s pretty troubling. Peter van Onselen: And I’ll have to interrupt you because we are way out of time but I know that Paul Murray live will be discussing exactly that issue after the commercial break. Peter Reith, Senator Cory Bernadi and Dr Andrew Leigh, thank you one and all for your company on this edition of Showdown. Thank you for your company in watching and I will see you again for Contrarians on Friday.

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Tarot - The History of an Art By Ron Cox The Tarot retains a specific charm for all, and is among the most well-known practices used in determining events pertaining to a people past, future and present. Initially, popular concept credited the Romany people together with the production of Tarot cards and their debut into society, previous regular playing cards. But, further research have shown that Tarot cards have been present in Italy and early Egypt centuries before being used from the Romany to tell fortunes. The precise source of the Tarot is unknown, though many theories persist to this day. A French theologian by the name of Antoine Court de Gebelin considers that the Tarot were initially part of the Book of Thoth, an ancient Egyptian book of celestial wisdom. Another theorist, Eliphas Levi, considers that the Tarot is closely regarding the paths to phases of understanding described in the Qabalah. Further studies also have discovered the Tarot correlates with the Hebrew Alphabet. The Tarot itself is split into two specific segments: The significant Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana is composed of four matches. These suits can fluctuate, because there are lots of versions of Tarot decks, however, they are swords, pentacles, cups, and wands (or staves). Again, a number of those names may differ from deck to deck. The significant Arcana consists of 21 additional cards, each card depicting a figure, characters, or a logo. The very popular and well known of many varieties of Tarot decks would be that the"Rider" deck, made by A. E. Waite, a part of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This purchase was included of magicians who thought the cards of the significant Arcana symbolized pathways to the brain, associated with the tree of existence. Together with the Tarot cards as a way of divination has become a bit of a normal practice among prospective"psychics", somewhat diminishing the seriousness of this clinic. Actually, Tarot readings have come to be an opportunistic business across the country. But only a practiced person with years of knowledge and an inborn talent for command of the Tarot can actually understand and correctly translate the cards drawn for any specific reading. Since each card drawn is relative to another, and each of the cards are relative to this person who has attracted themeach reading is exceptional. Divining the significance of these cards is a historical tradition, and also an expert Tarot reading shouldn't be viewed lightly. Ron Cox Working as mid-level manager and started my blog as a hobby along with other side businesses.

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Patricia J. Johnson, Ovid Before Exile. Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses. Wisconsin Studies in Classics. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. Pp. x, 184. ISBN 978-0-299-22400-4. $50.00. Reviewed by Steven J. Green, University of Leeds In recent times, several scholars have drawn attention to the ways in which stories about mythical artists, especially those contained within Ovid's Metamorphoses, hold a wider significance beyond their immediate narrative context. Typically, these stories are explored for their timeless points about the nature of artistic creation, gender and literary genre.1 Patricia Johnson (hereafter J.) develops this line of enquiry by attempting to use three stories of artistic creation in Metamorphoses to shed light on a specific time, namely the sparsely-documented period of the poem's production. Taking on board the socio-political information to be gleaned from Horace (Epistles 2) and Ovid (Tristia 2), the major premise of Johnson's study is that working conditions for a Roman poet changed dramatically between the times of Horace and Ovid. In the early years A.D. especially, a diffident Augustus was beset by domestic tragedy and dynastic setback, all of which resulted in a more nervous environment in which irreverent free speech was no longer tolerated (pp. 13-20). This change in poetic climate, Johnson contends, is detectable in the Metamorphoses, a work whose traditional dating positions it in the early years A.D. In so arguing, Johnson challenges the standard view that tends to divide Ovid between the states of a joyous and carefree writer (before his exile in A.D. 8) and a remorseful pleader (after his exile in A.D. 8): on Johnson's reading, Ovid is already starting to adapt to changing poetic circumstances after his production of the Ars Amatoria in c. A.D. 2. Johnson centres on three stories -- the poetic contest between the Emathides and the Muses (Met. 5), the weaving contest between Arachne and Minerva (Met. 6), and the songs of Orpheus (Met. 10-11). These stories are specifically chosen because they are felt to articulate most effectively and most fully the issues of: the motivation behind artistic composition; the social context for art, its audiences both intended and unintended; and the effects of art on the artist and audience. In essence, Johnson argues that these stories of artistic performance take on a contemporary didactic feel, in that they offer formulae for success for the contemporary Roman poet operating in the presence of a powerful audience. This is, in general, a very good book, with stimulating readings of Ovid's stories set out in a clearly expressed and readable fashion. I will take each of the stories in turn, highlighting the strengths of Johnson's readings, before concluding with one reservation. The contest between the mortal Emathides and the divine Muses takes place in a distinctly bucolic setting. But this bucolic setting only underscores the fact that this is not the sort of collegiate contest that one typically associates with the pastoral world. On the contrary, both the contest itself and its later recollection to Minerva (the actual story in the Met.) are noticeably stacked in favour of the Muses. In the contest itself, there is a significant power imbalance between divine and mortal contestants: the jury are nymphs, much more closely associated to the Muses by virtue of their semi-divine status. In terms of its recollection to Minerva, the story is narrated from the subjective viewpoint of the Muses: it is the victors who control the telling, and it is noticeable that they present their own song at length and verbatim whilst relegating their opponents' song to a few reported statements. Johnson draws particular attention to the figure of Minerva, as this marks her first known occurrence in a story of the Muses. Minerva is characterised as a military figure and patron of arts, obviously superior to the Muses, who address her in hymnic language. As such, Johnson suggests that Minerva might be seen as an Augustus figure, himself a military man and literary patron. The Muses' retelling of the contest to Minerva reads as an object lesson in the benefits of tailoring a narration to the needs of a powerful (imperial) audience. The Emathides had chosen to sing a Gigantomachy, though they had apparently (according to the Muses) emphasised the gods' flight and cowardly transformation during the war and had omitted any mention of the eventual Olympian victory. This would undoubtedly have offended the semi-divine nymphs and especially Minerva, as she played an active part in the war with the Giants. Aware of the need to play to rather than offend powerful listeners, the Muses proceed to make amends by offering (verbatim) their own song about Ceres and Proserpina. The Muses nominate Venus and Cupid as responsible for the abduction of Proserpina -- a novelty within the mythical tradition. Venus is further portrayed in their story as a tyrannical figure, an empire-builder who wishes to enforce sexuality. This negative presentation of Venus, originally designed to appeal to the jury of chaste nymphs, works equally well for the retelling to Minerva, the goddess of chastity. It is no surprise, therefore, that the Muses are judged the winners, the Emathides are punished, and Minerva approves. Straight after this story, and causally linked to it, is the weaving contest between Arachne and Minerva. Though Ovid suggests that the webs were constructed simultaneously, and though he narrates Minerva's tapestry first, Johnson offers a reading on the basis that Minerva's tapestry is constructed (swiftly) as a direct response to Arachne's web. This may be a little awkward, but it is worth the indulgence: besides, we might be inclined to permit such licence/skill to an Olympian deity! Like the Emathides, the mortal contestant Arachne (unwisely) produces a piece of artwork which belittles the majesty of the gods, by only highlighting their capacity for transformation for the undignified purpose of rape. Her tapestry is described as realistic in its display of divine sexual antics, and this impression is maintained by the primary narrator of the story ('Ovid') in his use of sexual euphemisms to describe the tapestry. This tapestry is a potential affront to Minerva not only because of its overt sexual material, but also because it is an uncomfortable reminder of the hypocrisy in her own existence: she is patron of virgins, and yet she is loyal to her father Jupiter, the classic rapist. Minerva quickly addresses the need to reassert her own majesty by composing a web that presents the gods in all their moral and regal dignity. Though Minerva can find no artistic flaw in Arachne's web, she inflicts punishment nevertheless by turning her into a spider, thus condemning her to a life of artless web construction (and, in the process, refusing her the option of suicide, a distinctly Roman way to deny one's enemy a noble death and provide further degradation). Finally, two songs of Orpheus, presented verbatim, are read by Johnson as providing the clearest didactic exempla of best and worst practice in artistic performance in the late Augustan period, as the renowned mythical poet finds himself working with two different audiences under different social conditions and pressures. His success or failure hinges on his ability to meet the tastes of different audiences. Ultimately, Orpheus is successful when he can clearly identify his audience, but he fails when he cannot. In the first scenario, Orpheus is addressing the king and queen of the Underworld in an attempt to rescue Eurydice. Of the twenty-two verses of his song, twelve are taken up with elaborate tokens of deference to his regal audience. The song itself is very 'rhetorical', with very little 'thematic content' relating to Eurydice or Orpheus' love for her. The appeal is a success -- the only real example of a successful artist in the Metamorphoses -- as the infernal rulers are unanimously moved to release Eurydice. Johnson detects a wider message here: when in the presence of a powerful audience, one should give more weight to their needs than to the aesthetics of the song, if one is looking to remain safe and achieve success. Later, back in the upper world, Orpheus offers a second song for an audience of trees. As these are metamorphosed humans who have lost the capacity to speak (and hence to divulge what they have heard), Orpheus feels more secure in his environment, and this results in his choosing a less guarded topic for the song: a didactic piece on illicit forms of love, pederasty, incest and adultery. Though this topic is most suitable for his arboreal audience, many of whom were transformed because of such affairs, there is, unbeknownst to Orpheus, another group of listeners lurking in the background, the daughters-in-law of the Cicones, whose wifely status is offended by such stories. They tear Orpheus to pieces and, as his ultimate punishment, reduce him to a ranting, incomprehensible floating head. Johnson contends, then, that the three stories together articulate a series of valuable lessons for the poet of Ovid's own day: meet the needs of a powerful listener and do not confront him or her directly; prioritise their needs over artistic concerns; and beware the hidden audience. Stimulating though these readings undoubtedly are, there is one major and surprising omission in the book: nowhere does Johnson discuss and justify her view on the dating of the Metamorphoses, situating it within the scholarly debate. Johnson appears to follow the 'traditional' theory that the poem was started well before the poet's exile (c. A.D. 2); she certainly assumes that Books 5, 6 and 10-11, which contain the stories under discussion, were completed before exile. This is a particularly noticeable omission because, without it, the compelling nature of Johnson's readings might well lead the reader (among which I include myself!) to discern post-exilic composition. This is particularly tempting in the case of Orpheus. I find myself very convinced by Johnson's perceptive reading of the two songs, so much so that I cannot help but feel that Ovid is here commenting on his own predicament from exile. After all, the fate of Orpheus -- teacher of illicit love affairs, undone by the presence of an unintended audience of married women, destined to continue speaking in artless form to no audience -- strongly suggests to me a self-reflective commentary on the censorship of the Ars Amatoria and the subsequent fate of its author. A more general case for exilic resonance could be advanced for all three of Johnson's episodes: all three condemned (sets of) artists misjudge their audience and, though allowed to live on, are cut off from practicing art in any meaningful sense. The possibility of exilic readings of these episodes is acknowledged briefly by Johnson, but the discussion is insufficient. Johnson stresses that it is not necessary to assert exilic reworking. This seems to me the wrong way of approaching the issue. More to the point, I feel, is that readings informed by his real exile seem much better and cannot be disproved, especially in the absence of any argument for a dating of Books 5, 6, and 10-11 before A.D. 8, and in the absence of any theory from Johnson positing early condemnation of Ars and punishment for its poet in the period between A.D. 2-8 (which would certainly seem possible, given the curious time gap between the traditional date for production of Ars and Ovid's exile). Why is it not justified to argue for exilic readings in these episodes, just as Johnson argues for exilic reading of the sphragis at the end of the poem (p.122)? However, even if her readings may lead the reader to different conclusions on dating to that of the author, Johnson should be congratulated on a very good book with clearly-expressed, convincing analyses of the wider significance of three important stories of artistic performance in Ovid's epic. 1. I am thinking in particular here of the work of Alison Sharrock: for exploration of gender, cf. e.g. the story of Pygmalion (Met. 10) with A. Sharrock (1991), 'Womanufacture', JRS 81, 36-49; for exploration of artistic creation and literary genre, especially the difference between epic and elegy, cf. the stories of Daedalus in Ars and Met. with A. Sharrock (1994), Seduction and Repetition in Ovid's Ars Amatoria 2, Oxford, 87-195.

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Social Sciences / Tabish Khair Editor(s): Cristina M. Gámez-Fernández, Om Prakash Dwivedi This volume approaches Tabish Khair’s writings (both his theoretical proposals and his novels) from numerous different perspectives. Contributors engage from varied critical stances with Khair’s academic writings in a fruitful dialogue, analyze his social, political and religious concerns, and elucidate his characteristics as a novelist and his literary powers. Furthermore, this volume is highly enriched by the presence of a hitherto unpublished play by Khair, entitled The One Percent Agency, which focuses on a tourism agency specializing in bringing “Bollywood”-style Indian weddings to foreign tourists. In the process, it becomes a satirical commentary on the packaging of international tourism as well as the ability of common Indians to adapt and thrive. It depicts the “metropolitan” India of the new millennium and inter-community relations in subtle and powerful ways. Cristina M. Gámez-Fernández teaches at the University of Córdoba, Spain, and has spent research periods at Stanford University and Wheaton College in the US and Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. She is one of the Founders of AEEII (Spanish Association for India Studies), also serving as Secretary-Treasurer from 2007–2009. She is the editor of India in the World (2011), the Guest Editor of an issue of the Journal of Post-Colonial Cultures and Societies devoted to “Contemporary English Writing in India” (2012) and an issue of the Journal of Contemporary Literature (2013), devoted to “Muslim Identities in Literature and Film”. Om Prakash Dwivedi is Assistant Professor in English at the University of Taiz, Yemen. He is the editor of Literature of the Indian Diaspora (2011); The Other India: Narratives of Terror, Communalism and Violence (2012); Changing Worlds/Changing Nations: The Concept of Nation in the Transnational Era (2012); and Postcolonial Theory in the Global Age (2013). Another publication, a collection of essays titled Tracing the Indian Diaspora, is forthcoming.

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Julian Castro Is The Most Radical Democrat After watching last night’s Democratic B-Team presidential debate, it’s hard to put a finger on who was the most radical figure on the stage. There was intense competition from Bill de Blasio, Elizabeth Warren, and Tulsi Gabbard, but, for my money, Julian Castro won the prize for being the most far-out candidate. Castro, who presented himself well in the debate, nevertheless surpassed the other liberals on the stage not once but twice last night. It’s difficult to stand out on abortion in a party in which advocacy of taxpayer-funded abortion on demand up to the moment of birth is becoming the norm, but Castro succeeded. How did he do it? you may wonder. I’ll tell you: He did it by advocating abortions for men. No, I’m not making this up. When asked if his healthcare plan would cover abortion, Mr. Castro, who served as mayor of San Antonio and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Obama, answered, “Yes, it would. I don't believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice.” “And, you know,” he continued, “What that means is that just because a woman -- or let's also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female, is poor, doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right to exercise that right to choose. And so I absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion.” For those of you confused about what a “trans female” is (and I confess that I’m in that number), a trans woman is “a person who was born male but whose gender identity is female.” In other words, a trans woman is a man who thinks he is a woman. By logical extension, a Castro Administration would extend the “right to choose” to men who claim to be women. Castro doesn’t specify what the choices would be but I think we can infer that he means they could choose to kill their unborn baby. The biological conundrum here is that, since they are men, trans women, cannot get pregnant. Considering this scientific truth, Castro may have stumbled upon an expansion of abortion rights that even pro-life conservatives can get behind since it will neither kill any babies nor cost the taxpayers a dime. The rub is in the details. Castro may be so woke that he would support taxpayer funds to help men get pregnant so that they can then exercise their newfound right to an abortion. Exactly what “reproductive justice” means is unclear. It probably does not involve due process for unborn babies, however. Castro may have misspoken or been confused about “trans women,” but can we really be sure that he didn’t say exactly what he meant? This writer would not be surprised either way. Fresh from his expression of support for gender-neutral of abortion rights, Castro moved on to advocate decriminalizing illegal immigration. After attacking President Trump’s metering policy for asylum-seekers, which he blamed for the drowning death of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his two-year-old daughter, Valeria, this week, Castro launched into his policy proposal. “On day one, I would do that executive order that would address metering,” he said. “And then I would follow that up in my first 100 days with immigration reform that would honor asylum claims, that would put undocumented immigrants, as long as they haven't committed a serious crime, on a pathway to citizenship.” “And then we'd get to the root cause of the issue, which is we need a Marshall Plan for Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador so that people can find safety and opportunity at home instead of coming to the United States to seek it,” he continued. A few seconds later, Castro interrupted Corey Booker’s answer to add to his own, saying, “My plan also includes getting rid of Section 1325 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to go back to the way we used to treat this when somebody comes across the border, not to criminalize desperation, to treat that as a civil violation.” “And here's why it's important,” he said. “We see all of this horrendous family separation. They use that law, Section 1325, to justify under the law separating little children from their families.” “I want to challenge every single candidate on this stage to support the repeal of Section 1325,” Castro added, noting that Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, and Washington Governor Jay Inslee have already endorsed the plan. While Castro’s idea of a Marshall Plan for Latin America has some merit as a way to reduce illegal immigration, repeal of criminal statutes for illegal immigration is a nonstarter. Without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, repeal would be about as successful as Republican attempts to appeal Obamacare and would only harden partisan divisions by providing evidence that Democrats are an open-borders party. Decriminalization of illegal entry into the United States would send the wrong message and encourage more illegal immigration. Other Democrats were not so quick to sign on to Castro’s plan. In a subsequent exchange, Beto O’Rourke pushed back at Castro’s demand that he endorse repeal of Section 1325 (you can watch the exchange here). “As a member of a Congress, I helped to introduce legislation that would ensure that we don't criminalize those who are seeking asylum and refuge in this country,” Beto answered. “I'm not talking about the ones that are seeking asylum,” Castro retorted, leaving no doubt that he meant migrants who cross the border illegally since it is legal to seek asylum. “I'm talking about everybody else.” “If you're fleeing desperation, then I want to make sure you are treated with respect,” O’Rourke answered, “But you're looking at just one small part of this. I'm talking about a comprehensive rewrite of our immigration laws and if you do that, I don't think it's asking too much for people to follow our laws when they come to this country.” Castro then retorted that O’Rourke had cited human trafficking and drug smuggling in his opposition to Section 1325 repeal, which he claimed were covered by other parts of the US criminal code, but the exchange exposed a fault line between the open-border Democrats and those who favor a more liberal version of immigration reform. In a collection of radicals, it is difficult to stand out, but Julian Castro accomplished that last night. Abortions for men and making Beto O’Rourke defend immigration law put the Texas liberal on the far left of the far left. His extreme positions make it unlikely that he can win the Democratic nomination and less likely that he could win the general election, but if Democrats choose to nominate him, the name “Castro” would at least be reflective of the current ideological direction of the Democratic Party. It would be almost like placing a warning label on the ballot. Originally published on The Resurgent Posted by CaptainKudzu at 12:11 PM Labels: 2020 Elections, abortion, debate, Democratic Party, Illegal Immigration, Julian Castro, transgender Kamala Harris' Health Insurance Gaffe Did Biden Blow It? Supreme Court Rules On Census And Gerrymandering Tim Ryan's Warning To Democrats Mueller To Testify Before Congress A Week After Attacking Biden, Democrats Are Poised... Cruz And AOC Are Coming Together On Contraception Trump’s Re-election Chances Are Slim But Not None Justin Amash Splits From Freedom Caucus Trump's New Tariff Threats Focus Group Shows Pennsylvania Swing Voters Standi... The Tariff Wars Are Killing Tax Reform’s Boost Trump Should Accept Mexican Concessions To Avert T... Joe Biden Flops Back On Abortion Tucker Carlson: Elizabeth Warren ‘Sounds Like Trum... Joe Biden's Abortion Flipflop A Republican Revolt May Be Brewing On Mexico Tarif... A Pastor’s Perfect Prayer For President Trump

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In Memoriam of John R. Bush A 75 year old Tampa lawyer died on August 30, 2008. He was a very special man. He had suffered from kidney disease and had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Rather than subject himself and his family to further dialysis, tests, biopsies, operations, procedures and medications, none of which would reasonably have improved the quality of his remaining life, he opted for none of the above, but instead a home setting for his final days and the care gracefully and lovingly provided by his daughter. He directed that his cell phone, a contraption as to the benefits of which he was highly conflicted, be relegated to the trash and that friends who otherwise would have presented themselves for the “final visit” be barred from such ordeal so that neither they nor he would have to suffer from the likelihood of emotional blather or excess. He decreed that any public notification of his death be limited to that which might be required by law. He was a very private man and would be appalled at the thought of an article such as this being published. Happily, he is presently without control over such matter. He arrived in Tampa in 1962 with a wife, a Syracuse University law degree, a Marine Corps Officer pedigree and a job with the Internal Revenue Service. He entered private practice in 1964 with Macfarlane Ferguson Allison & Kelly, and in 1981 founded with others the firm which ever since has borne his name. Few outside of the legal community would have known of his presence. No media device was ever used to publicly pronounce his expertise or abilities, he joined no organization for the purpose of aggrandizing his presumed talents and disdained those lawyers who attempted to publicly market themselves or advance a “brand.” He simply tried to perform a professional service for those who sought his assistance and over the years, as a consequence of doing so with great skill and effort, he achieved an enviable reputation as a trial attorney. He had a wonderful sense of humor but told jokes that left others wondering what they had missed, was a man who did not “suffer fools lightly,” was fascinated by world events, viewed most politicians as preening roosters and was enormously opinionated. Consequently, it was great fun to utter an outrageous thought on virtually any larger subject and then silently observe the resulting and inevitable lecture or fulmination. He missed being a part of the “Greatest Generation” by a few years, but would have been a strong member of that dying breed of able, silent, private men who proceed through life quietly and competently without seeking public recognition or private fortune and accept and deal with circumstances as they find them. Would that there were more like him. His name was John R. Bush and those of us who were privileged to have known him well mourn his passing.

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Sold People Traffickers and Family Life in North China Johanna S. Ransmeier Johanna S. Ransmeier is Assistant Professor of History and the College at the University of Chicago. Book Links: Harvard University Press: A robust trade in human lives thrived throughout North China during the late Qing and Republican periods. Whether to acquire servants, slaves, concubines, or children―or dispose of unwanted household members―families at all levels of society addressed various domestic needs by participating in this market. Sold People brings into focus the complicit dynamic of human trafficking, including the social and legal networks that sustained it. Johanna Ransmeier reveals the extent to which the structure of the Chinese family not only influenced but encouraged the buying and selling of men, women, and children. For centuries, human trafficking had an ambiguous status in Chinese society. Prohibited in principle during the Qing period, it was nevertheless widely accepted as part of family life, despite the frequent involvement of criminals. In 1910, Qing reformers, hoping to usher China into the community of modern nations, officially abolished the trade. But police and other judicial officials found the new law extremely difficult to enforce. Industrialization, urbanization, and the development of modern transportation systems created a breeding ground for continued commerce in people. The Republican government that came to power after the 1911 revolution similarly struggled to root out the entrenched practice. Ransmeier draws from untapped archival sources to recreate the lived experience of human trafficking in turn-of-the-century North China. Not always a measure of last resort reserved for times of extreme hardship, the sale of people was a commonplace transaction that built and restructured families as often as it broke them apart. Rubie S. Watson, The China Journal (January 2018) Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs (November 2017) Jonathan Mirsky, Times Higher Education (May 4, 2017) “The Untold Story of Women in China Who Took a Husband—And Then, Another,” Brittany Wong, Huffington Post, July 26, 2017 “Domestic Ties, Household Bondage, and Trading of People in North China,” Christopher Weber, Division of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, August 12, 2014 Author Recommendations: Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, Marisa Fuentes (University of Pennsylvania, 2016) Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin’s Family, Kristen Stapleton (Stanford, 2016) The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China’s Collective Past, Gail Hershatter (University of California, 2011) “Li’s Gamble: A Chinese Coal Miner Battles Cancer,” Muyi Xiao, ChinaFile, July 5, 2016 “The Slave of MS. H.6,” Subaltern Studies, Amitav Ghosh (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993) History, Law, Society Human Trafficking, History, North China, Family

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BOKO HARAM: World Health Organisation doctor, 499 other suspects for trial Posted on December 5, 2013 Author Codewit Editor Comment(0) ABUJA—The Defence Headquarters, yesterday, presented a list of over 500 terror suspects, including a medical doctor working for the World Health Organisation to the Presidency for trial. The action followed last Monday’s attack of an Air Force Base and MaiduguriAirport by Boko Haram insurgents which claimed several lives, destroyed two helicopters and three decommissioned Air force fighter jets. Five of seven suspected terrorists arrested by JTF in connection with attack on Eyn Church in Biu, paraded in Maiduguri, Borno on Thursday (21/6/12). NAN Photo The Boko Haram suspects have been in military detention facilities since the commencement of the state of emergency in the North-Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Codewit gathered that in some instances, attempts have been made by the sect to infiltrate the detention facilities and free the terror suspects which led to some of the failed attempts to attack military bases by Boko Haram. Among those recommended for trial are some paramilitary or service personnel who were fighting on the side of the terrorists and other individuals who offered direct logistics support to the terrorists. A statement signed by the Director of Defence Information, Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade in this regard said: “The Joint Investigation Team set up by the Defence Headquarters has recommended immediate trial of over 500 persons apprehended in the course of security operations against terrorists in Yobe, Borno and AdamawaStates. “The suspects are among the almost 1,400 detainees screened by the team at the detention facilities in Maiduguri, Yola and Damaturu between July and September. “Those recommended for immediate trial include high profile suspects, some of whom were training other terrorists in weapons handling as well as those who confessed to having been trained in Mali and other countries for the purpose of perpetrating terror in Nigeria. “Also among those recommended for trial are a medical doctor, paramilitary or service personnel who were fighting on the side of the terrorists and other individuals who offered direct logistics support to the terrorists”. “The team, however, recommended the release of 167 of the detainees from detention in Maiduguri, Yola and Damaturu. About 614 others whose cases were inconclusive have been recommended for review. “The report also proposed that some of the detainees be tried for other offences ranging from armed robbery and murder to drugs-related issues. If the recommendations of the team sail through, the trial of some of the suspects will either take place in some states or Abuja”. The statement said the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim commended the team for being thorough in conducting the assignment when he received the report. He assured them that the recommendations will be treated with dispatch after due consultations with appropriate authorities. The CDS said that the military authorities would continue to ensure that due process and highest professional standards were followed in managing the security operations in the states covered by the State of Emergency, adding that DHQ was committed to necessary steps that would ensure justice and fair play. The report has since been forwarded to the Presidency through the office of National Security Adviser (NSA). “It will be recalled that the Defence Headquarters in July set up a 19-member Joint Investigation Team of senior officers to screen and categorize detainees apprehended in the course of operations in the North East,” the statement said. The measure which was meant to decongest the detention facilities in the areas of operations was also to ensure that necessary processes were set in motion for expeditious prosecution of culpable suspects in the fight against terror. The team which comprised military, police, officials of federal and state ministries of justice as well as Immigration, Prisons and Customs officers, was tasked to examine, classify and recommend appropriate actions against detainees in the various detention centres in Borno, Yobe and AdamawaStates. The NSA, it was gathered, is already in consultation with the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) on subsequent litigation procedures following consideration of recommendations in the report. FG tasks US on Boko Haram, Ansaru Meanwhile, the Federal Government has called on the United States Government to ensure that the recent designation of Boko Haram and Ansaru as Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) does not affect Nigerians travelling to that country for legitimate engagements. The Vice President, Mohammed Namadi Sambo made the call yesterday when he received in his office, a senior United States delegation led by the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. He, however, said such designation would provide more opportunities for co-operation between Nigeria and the US in the quest for government to end the insurgency and assured the delegation that the Federal Government was doing everything possible to end the security challenges in the North-Eastern part of the country. He stressed that apart from the military action, other measures were being taken to address the socio-economic situation in that area. He noted that Nigerians are in full support of the actions government was taking to end the insurgency. Vice-President Sambo informed the delegation that President Goodluck Jonathan had directed strict compliance with the rules of engagement and human rights in the efforts to curb the activities of the insurgents, noting that the rule of law still remains the cardinal principle of the administration’s Transformation Agenda. The leader of the delegation, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that they were in the country to follow up on discussions between President Goodluck Jonathan and President Barack Obama in New York in September, and also on the talks between Vice President Sambo and his counterpart, Joe Biden of the United States. She noted that the United States and Nigeria have had very fruitful partnerships, adding that the US was very much in support of the efforts of the Nigerian Government in surmounting the security challenges in the country. The Assistant Secretary stated that the designation of Boko Haram and Ansaru as Foreign Terrorist Organisations gives the US the opportunity to support Nigeria in tackling the insecurity posed by insurgents. She said that part of their visit was also aimed at working out a counter-insurgency programme with the relevant stakeholders and to share information on various aspects of security, including maritime security so as to help in solving the security challenges. She also stated that the meeting was one step in the long term dialogue that the US will have with Nigeria. She appreciated the opportunity to have the dialogue and looked forward to continuation of such. Present at the meeting were the US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle; Commander, US Africa Command, General David Rodriguez; Mr. Grant Harris, Ms. Amanda Dory, Mr. Earl Gast and Mr. Gregory Lawless. Also present at the meeting were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Viola Onwuliri; the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar; the Supervising Minister of National Planning, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda and the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Professor Adebowale Adefuye, among other top government functionaries. Air Force hints at possible locations of abductees Posted on February 14, 2016 Author Agency Reporter Despite ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo’s claims that the abducted Chibok school girls may never be found again, the Nigerian Air Force has hinted at possible locations of the abductees. The revelation was made on Friday night, February 12, 2016 by the Director of Public Relations of the Air Force, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, who spoke on […] Third world war looms as global terrorism spreads Posted on November 21, 2015 Author Agaju Madugba The French translation of Chinua Achebe’s epic novel, “Things Fall Apart,” may well be the most appropriate depiction of the current state of world affairs. The world does not only seem to be falling apart, the world has begun to melt, under the fire power of terrorist shells and bombs. The overall implications may be […] Early morning inferno razes Yola main market Posted on January 4, 2016 Author Agency Reporter An early morning inferno, on Monday, razed Yola South Main Market, in Adamawa State, eye witnesses say. The fire outbreak was said to have started at about 3am. At the time of this report, fire service officials, particularly from the American University of Nigeria (AUN), were said to have contained the raging inferno. Vanguard is […] Pope Tells Church He Worked As Bouncer At Buenos Aires Nightclub Nigeria Cleric warns over ASUU, FG face-off

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Recent Grads Columbia College Young Alumni (CCYA) Columbia College Women (CCW) Odyssey Mentoring Program Programs & Events Overview Mini-Core Classes Café Columbia Core | Reexplore Virtual Book Club Alumni Travel Study Audit a Class Speaker Series with Scholars Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner John Jay Awards Dinner All-Class Reunion Volunteer & Mentor Alumni Interviewing All Volunteering Opportunities Columbia College Student Ambassadors Class Day Student Prizes Seniors for the Columbia College Fund Give Overview Columbia College Fund The CCAA Lion CCT Magazine Columbia College Alumni on Facebook Columbia College Alumni on Twitter Columbia Alumni LinkedIn Group Columbia College Alumni on Instagram Columbia College Alumni on YouTube CCW Signature Event Join Columbia College Women at Offsite NYC 6:30–8:30 p.m. on Friday, May 10, for an inspiring conversation with three alumnae who are powering tangible change in communities by advocating for reproductive, social and economic justice. Our Panelists Melissa Mark-Viverito CC’91, former speaker of the New York City Council, interim president of the Latino Victory Project Melissa Mark-Viverito CC’91 currently serves as interim president of the Latino Victory Project. She previously served as VP of strategic engagement. Prior to LVF, Mark-Viverito served as speaker of the New York City Council, was the first Puerto Rican and Latina to hold citywide office, and represented the 8th District, which includes El Barrio/East Harlem and the South Bronx. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she worked for over a decade in local activism, nonprofit organizations and grassroots labor organizing before being elected to the City Council in 2005. Mark-Viverito was unanimously elected to serve as New York City Council speaker in January 2014. As speaker, she focused on transparency in government and policies that generate socioeconomic opportunity and combat systemic inequality. In 2014, Mark-Viverito implemented sweeping rules reforms that increased transparency in city government and streamlined the legislative process to better serve New Yorkers. She also established budget reforms to ensure City Council resources are more equitably distributed across districts based on poverty levels. Thanks to the speaker’s leadership, New York City emerged as a national leader in the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. In 2014, Mark-Viverito announced a groundbreaking public -private partnership to fund legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children facing deportation in New York City. Mark-Viverito and the Council passed legislation in 2014 limiting the city’s compliance with detention requests issued by United States immigration authorities without a warrant from a federal judge. In 2015, New York City launched the IDNYC municipal identification card open to any resident of the City regardless of immigration status. Mark-Viverito proudly supported the New York Family Unity Project, the nation’s first government-funded legal representation program for detained immigrants which provides high-quality, holistic representation to New Yorkers detained and facing deportation who cannot afford an attorney. Mark-Viverito is also an outspoken advocate for local and national criminal justice reform. Under her leadership, the New York City Council initiated a citywide bail fund that assists low-income individuals in qualifying cases to post bail rather than spend needless time in jail while awaiting trial. Mark-Viverito sponsored and passed the Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA) which provided the framework for the use of summonses instead of arrests for certain low-level, non-violent offenses, a policy shift that has decreased the volume of individuals detained and jailed unnecessarily. As the first person (and woman) of color to serve as speaker of the City Council, Mark-Viverito focused on increasing opportunity and equality for young women across New York City. In 2015, she launched the Young Women’s Initiative to address disparities faced by women in such areas as education, workforce development, healthcare, and the criminal justice system. In 2011, she was one of four Council Members to pioneer the first-ever Participatory Budgeting process in New York City. Andrea Miller CC’89, president, National Institute for Reproductive Health Andrea Miller CC’89 is the president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) and its Action Fund, which build power at the state and local level to change public policy, galvanize public support, and normalize women’s decisions about abortion and contraception. A nationally recognized expert in reproductive rights and women’s health, Miller has served for more than two decades in the leadership of and as a consultant to a host of non-profit, advocacy, and philanthropic organizations. Since becoming president of NIRH in 2011, Miller has spearheaded the growth of the organization’s state and local strategies portfolio, which annually provides advocates in at least 20 states and more than a dozen localities with strategic guidance, hands-on support, and funding to create national change from the ground up. By forming strategic partnerships with a wide range of organizations to directly impact the reproductive health and lives of women across the country, in the last decade NIRH has had the opportunity to engage with more than 150 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in 39 states and 56 localities nationwide. NIRH’s communications and messaging initiatives have also expanded under Miller’s leadership. NIRH conducts ground-breaking public opinion research that has provided a new framework for talking affirmatively about abortion and mobilizing voters to take action in support of a proactive agenda. Finally, Miller has also overseen the growth of the organization’s political and advocacy work, building from its historic focus on New York State to establish the NIRH Action Fund, which does non-partisan issue advocacy and electoral engagement to advance reproductive health, rights and justice in states and cities across the country. Just as NIRH invests in localities and states, the NIRH Action Fund is interested in building political power at the local and state level to advance reproductive freedom. Miller previously served for nearly four years as executive director at NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, where she was instrumental in securing no copay for contraception under state health reform (a critical proof point for adoption of this policy nationwide through the Affordable Care Act) and helped reduce barriers to affordable abortion care for low-income women. Prior to that, she was a principal and co-owner for nearly a decade at Public Interest Media Group (PIMG), a national communications and public affairs firm whose portfolio included the Back Up Your Birth Control campaign and served as the communications hub for securing over-the-counter Plan B. Miller’s leadership in reproductive health and rights stretches back to helping to found the Center for Reproductive Rights. She started her professional career at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. Miller has a master of public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a bachelor of arts in political science. She is a native of Minnesota. Sheena Wright, CC’90, LAW’94, president of the United Way of New York City Sheena Wright CC’90, LAW’94 is the first woman to lead United Way of New York City (UWNYC) in its nearly 80-year history. Part of the United Way worldwide network, UWNYC is a trusted partner to more than 300 community-based organizations, foundations, corporations, and city and state government agencies and aligns and activates them around a shared agenda to tackle the complex challenges of low-income New Yorkers. Wright took the reins at UWNYC the day that Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. She met that challenge, raising $11 million in disaster relief. In her tenure as president and CEO, Wright has lead a transformation of the organization—actualizing a Collective Impact strategy, and refocusing UWNYC’s support of low-income New Yorkers towards self-sufficiency. In 2013, Wright spearheaded ReadNYC, the flagship initiative of UWNYC to strengthen families and improve grade-level reading by third grade in our city’s most-challenged communities. Prior to joining UWNYC, she served as president and CEO of the Abyssinian Development Corp. She was born and raised in the South Bronx and now lives in Harlem, New York with her three sons and daughter. Moderated By Mila Atmos CC’96, SIPA’05, founder and executive producer, "Future Hindsight" Mila Atmos CC’96, SIPA’05 is the founder and executive producer of "Future Hindsight," a new podcast that uses a modern interview format to promote empowered citizenship by introducing a broad range of policy, public affairs, and political change makers who are engaged in improving civil society and strengthening the social contract. Future Hindsight’s aim is to both uncover key learnings from each compelling interviewee and also to share Atmos’s personal insights on how each of us can become better and more engaged citizens. She believes that the very act of listening to “Future Hindsight” is a compelling act of citizenship, and that the quintessential American democracy is a living, breathing mechanism whose wellbeing needs to be cultivated and protected. Future Hindsight is a unique initiative that proves that every citizen has a voice, a voice that can carry ideas and effect change, locally, nationally and beyond. Atmos serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors of The Kitchen, and is also on the boards of the Columbia College Alumni Association (CCAA), and Lincoln Center Theater. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Alumnae Legacy Circle, an alumnae leadership giving society that supports the Columbia College Fund. Originally from Indonesia, Atmos now lives in New York with her husband and their two sons. Columbia College Office of Alumni Affairs & Development Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530 Columbia College Today Columbia Alumni Association Winter 2019-20 Issue Get the latest features on alumni achievements and news about the College community. © 2020 Columbia University | Terms of Use | Accessibility |Notice of Non-Discrimination | University Home Page

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Naked Truth About Strip Searches at Traffic Stops Northern Virginia Democrat advocates for strip searches to combat opioid crisis. A spokesman for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office says there are no numbers that show smuggled opioids are a problem at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. By Michael Lee Pope "Google the words ‘jail’ and ‘overdose,’ and you’ll come up with a number of hits of people who are sneaking in drugs like fentanyl and heroin and other opioid type drugs and people are overdosing on it.” — Del. Patrick Hope (D-44) Police officers across Virginia will be able to strip search drivers at traffic stops under a bill proposed from Del. Patrick Hope (D-47). Hope says he introduced the bill as a reaction to the opioid crisis after being approached by sheriffs across the commonwealth who are concerned inmates might smuggle drugs into jails. Hope says sheriffs did not ask for strip searches at traffic stops, although he adds the two issues are linked in the code. “The existing statute allows for strip searches for weapons at traffic stops and going into jail, and that’s there for a reason — because you don’t want to put someone in your squad car who might have a weapon,” said Hope. "And so the question is whether opioids today are lethal enough where you need that same protection at a traffic stop where you are going to put somebody in your car.” Advocates for civil liberties are concerned that strip searches would be based on nothing more than an arresting officer’s “reasonable cause to believe” that a suspect has drugs. They worry that suspicion may often be based on nothing more than a hunch. And although courts have upheld the ability of sheriff’s deputies to conduct strip searches at jails, they say allowing strip searches at minor traffic infractions would violate the dignity of the accused — a burden that would disproportionately fall on minorities. "This proposal will fall more heavily on people of color because of disparate policing,” said Claire Gastanaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. "Keep in mind that people who are black are eight times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana in Arlington than white people, even though usage rates for both populations are the same, about 13 percent.” RECENT YEARS have seen the opioid crisis spiral out of control in Virginia. The number of fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased by more than 30 percent last year, according to a recent report from the Virginia Department of Health. Fentanyl is an opioid pain medication that’s 100 times more potent than heroin. It’s often used to treat pain after major surgeries, and it’s frequently traded on the black market. A dose the size of a grain of sand can be lethal, creating a potential problem at jails. "Google the words ‘jail’ and ‘overdose,’ and you’ll come up with a number of hits of people who are sneaking in drugs like fentanyl and heroin and other opioid type drugs and people are overdosing on it,” said Hope. “It’s a very serious concern of the jails and the sheriffs asked me to carry the bill." A Google search of “jail overdose” comes up with 8.7 million hits with horror stories from across the country. Four inmates overdosed in two days last year in Ohio. Two inmates were found dead last year after overdosing in a D.C. jail. In Miami, prosecutors are considering murder charges after two inmates were found dead after opioid overdoses. None of the stories seem to be from Virginia, though, which worries critics of the bill. “My concern is that I’m not sure how common that is — how frequently that happens — that drugs are being smuggled in,” said Cindy Cunningham, founder of a progressive group known as VA Plan. “A lot of people are concerned about police in general and I think at this point this is sort of encouraging civil rights violations.” Requests for data on opioid smuggling into the Arlington jail and the Alexandria jail received no response at press time. And spokesman for the Fairfax County Sheriff said no data existed to prove opioid smuggling was a problem. "There are no numbers that show that smuggled opioids are a problem at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center,” wrote Jamel Perkins, public information officer for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office in a response to written questions. Hope acknowledges that his bill may end up changing significantly as it makes its way through the legislative sausage-making factory in Richmond, a process that starts this week with a subcommittee hearing followed by a hearing in the full committee. And then, if he’s lucky, a vote on the House floor. Considering the heart of his bill allows for strip searches at jails rather than traffic stops, he says, that part may end up being stripped out before it’s considered by member of the House of Delegates. “If law enforcement feels like that’s not necessary, we’ll take it out,” said Hope. Increasing Access to Naloxone in Virginia Opinion: Letter to the Editor: Appalled by Vetoes Heroin Ring Busted Facing – and Fighting – the Opioid Crisis Cable Show Revisits Opioid Epidemic

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CricketGeek More cricket, statistics and geekery than you can shake a stick at. Jesse Ryder's comeback In his comeback innings to first class cricket Jesse Ryder hit 117* off 113. That's pretty impressive. But it's how he scored them that was impressive. He hit 13 boundaries. Which means that he hit 65 runs off the 100 balls that he didn't hit to the fence. This is a particularly easy to calculate activity rate of 0.65. Which is more like a t20 activity rate. In fact it's more than his actual t20 activity rate, which is closer to 0.55. I believe that a high activity rate is one of the best signs of a batsman being in form. It shows that they are scoring off a lot of the deliveries they are facing, and therefore they are seeing the ball well. 117* off 113 with 10 sixes and 5 fours would possibly be more dramatic, but would be a lot less of a sign of a batsman who is really ready to return to international cricket. While the opposition wasn't a full international line up, Doug Bracewell and Taran Nethula are international players and Kieran Noema-Barnett and Ben Wheeler are both capable bowlers. It was a fantastic innings, and one that if he continues to play like that, should see him return to international cricket soon. The live scorecard for the match is here. Posted by Mykuhl at 23:53 2 comments: Labels: Activity rate, Domestic cricket, First Class Cricket, Jesse Ryder, New Zealand, Plunket Shield, Wellington Net Run Rate calculator Group A Today there are 2 potentially interesting matches in the Champions League. There are 3 basic outcomes possible from these matches (as well as a couple of unusual ones) Option 1 - Auckland lose Regardless of what happens in the second match if Auckland lose, both the Titans and the Daredevils are through to the semi-finals. Option 2 - Auckland and Delhi win If this happens then Auckland and Delhi are both through to the semi-finals. Option 3 - Auckland and Titans win It this happens then the Titans are through, and the team with the best net run rate out of Auckland and Delhi go through. Additional options - rain stops play If the first game is rained out, then Delhi are automatically through to the semi-final. Then if Delhi beat the Titans by a significant enough margin to cause the Titans' NRR to drop below Auckland's, Auckland would go through, otherwise the Titans would. Given that the Titans would know the formula, they would be likely to go for the lower target to ensure qualification. If Auckland win the first game and the second is rained out, then again it would come down to NRR between the Aces and the Titans. For any of those situations you can use this Net Run Rate calculator here: Posted by Mykuhl at 21:51 No comments: Labels: Auckland Aces, Calculator, Champions League T20, Delhi Daredevils, Geekery, Net Run Rate, T20, Titans 6 reasons I'm not surprised by the Auckland Aces success The Auckland Aces seem to have taken many people by surprise by being so competitive this far into the Champions League T20. I predicted that they would make the semi-finals at the start of the tournament. Here's why: 1. Completeness. The Aces have not lost any players to any other teams or injury. Every player was available for them. This is something that most teams can not say. 2. Composure. The Aces have 12 players in their squad with international experience. This makes a big difference as they are more used to playing in different conditions, and in front of bigger crowds. 3. Conditions. South Africa at this time of the year is similar to New Zealand in late November. The pitches are a bit unpredictable, the weather is changeable and the outfields are a similar pace. Not many other teams are comfortable in these conditions. 4. Competition. The HRV Cup has only 6 teams in it. This means that the player pool is not diluted much. Most teams in the New Zealand competition have at least 6 international players in them, if not more. There are no easy games, and not many players that you can target. The proof of this is that most NZ players have significantly better averages when playing domestic cricket overseas than when playing at home (batting and bowling). 5. Collecting. The Aces have a raft of players who are outstanding at fielding and running between the wickets. This is often the difference between teams in close matches. With Kitchen, Hira, Guptill and Vincent they have 4 of the best fielders in world cricket. There are less easy runs against Auckland, and they are so quick between the wickets that they find runs that many other teams can't score, by hitting the ball straight to a fielder and running. 6. Closeness. For the last couple of years the Aces played a short walk from a good friend's place, and so I saw a lot of them play. This naturally results in me having a certain bias towards them. But at least I can admit it. Labels: Anaru Kitchen, Auckland Aces, Champions League T20, Chris Martin, Colin de Grandhomme, Craig Cachopa, Guptill, HRV Cup, Kyle Mills, Lou Vincent, New Zealand, non-geeky, Roneel Hira, South Africa, T20 Why and How the Champions League format needs to change I'll start out by saying that I love the concept of the Champions League T20. There needs to be more focus on domestic cricket, because that is a much more reliable way of growing the game than trying to grow it at the international level. Strong clubs/provinces will pick up players from lesser nations, and give them a chance to develop and succeed. A couple of examples of this from football are George Weah, who is from Liberia, but managed to win a Serie A title with AC Milano and obtained significant recognition for his skills that would not have been possible if he had only been playing for Liberia (who only twice even managed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations during Weah's 19 year career. Likewise the New Zealand football team managed to go unbeaten in the 2010 Football World Cup, mostly thanks to a solid defense of Winston Reid, who had learned his football playing for a Midtjylland in Denmark, Ryan Nelsen, who had played for DC United and Blackburn Rovers Tommy Smith from Ipswich Town and Ivan Vicelich who had played for Roda JC and RKC Waalwijk in the Netherlands. It is hard to imagine those three players being as compotent if they had just played domestically in New Zealand, for the likes of North Shore, Christchurch United and Auckland City. New Zealand had such a solid defense largely due to the strong club nature of football. The problem I have with the current Champions League is that it is not a fair competition. Firstly every first class team is not able to compete, secondly the rankings are arbitrary, and not result based, thirdly the competition is set up in a way that has to much of an element of luck involved. The Mountaineers from Zimbabwe won the Stanbic Bank Cup quite comfortably. But that is as far as they can go, despite having at least 7 current or former international players in their squad. Likewise the Dhaka Gladiators won the Bangladesh Premier League, contain 9 international players, but were not invited to the tournament. The rankings are completely wrong. Every time Trinidad and Tobago have been in the tournament they have finished ahead of the South African teams and at least one of the Australia teams. Every time there has been an English team there, their top team has finished ahead of the second South African and Australian team. And yet South Africa and Australia get two teams in the main draw, while the English and West Indian teams need to qualify. This ranking system is ranking teams on how much money they can pull in, rather than how good they are. That is inherently wrong. The third problem is with the tournament structure. The nature of T20 cricket is that the best team does not always win. However they will win more games over the course of a series. This makes it difficult to have a fair system that is concise enough to not drag on for months. However the current system is far from fair. The big problem is the qualifying stage. A three team single round-robin is possibly the worst way to decide qualification imaginable. To demonstrate this I ran a simulation using the Pakistani domestic results from the last 3 years. I chose Pakistan because they were the competition that had one team being the most dominant. The Sialkot Stallions have a formidable record. In the last 3 years they have lost only one match in the Pakistani competition. They have averaged 8.35 runs per over in that time, while their opponents have only averaged 7.23 runs per over. In a fair competition they should almost always make it through the group stages. The only time they didn't win was the time where Pakistan also used the 3 team single round-robin method of qualification. I took the Sialkot Stallions' results and then made 3 other teams who were all significantly less strong, but roughly equal to each other. They were all roughly average for other Pakistani teams. I then ran a simulation 1000 times. First with a 3 team single round robin, then with a standard 4 teams pool, where two go through. (if anyone would like a copy of the simulation that I used, just email me) In the first option (3 team single round-robin) Sialkot went through 62.4% of the time. This means that they missed out in more than one in 3 of the tournaments, despite being a vastly superior team. In the second option, (4 team standard group) Sialkot went through 786 times. This meant that they missed out only 21.4% of the time. With these numbers the 3 team single round-robin was 76% more likely to eliminate the best team. I believe that the 3 team single round-robin should be avoided at all costs. Here is the format that I would like to see: Teams: 3 from India. 2 from Australia, South Africa and England. 1 from West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. This makes 15 teams. The extra team then is either the team that won the previous competition, or if they already qualified the next best team from their country. For example, the last champions league winners were the Mumbai Indians. Mumbai lost the elimination final in the IPL, so they were effectively 4th overall. Hence they qualify for themselves. If instead RCB had won the final of the Champions League last year, then they would have gone through instead. This then results in 16 teams. If we were to then have 4 groups of 4, going into 2 groups of 4 then to semis and finals we would need to play 39 matches. The matches could be played 3 per day for the initial round. (One morning, one afternoon and one night, with one double header and one played at another stadium). The second group round could be played 2 matches per day, and then (following a rest day (which would probably be used for travel for some teams) semi-finals and finals. The whole tournament would easily fit within the 20 day window that the tournament has been using so far, and could even be squeezed to 16 days. (This would require the use of 2 stadiums that are quite close together - like Lords and the Oval, Chandigarh and Mohali, Centurion and the Wanderers, Eden Park and Seddon Park. etc) It would also be a much fairer system. Each team would have exactly the same mountain in front of them. If anyone can win 8 in a row, they win the cup. In the current system Yorkshire could win 6 in a row, and only be in the semi-finals, where if (for example) KKR win 2 and lose 2 they could also potentially make the semi-finals. Something doesn't seem right about that. So that's my take on the Champions League. Eventually I'd like it to get to a system where the champion from each country go through, then the next 6 are based on performance at the previous Champions League. So a team coming in the top 6 qualifies an extra spot from their country. (Similar to how the Basketball World Championships work.) Labels: Australia, Bangladesh, Big Bash, Champions League T20, Geekery, HRV Cup, ICC, India, IPL, Sialkot Stallions, SLPL, South Africa, T20, TV, Zimbabwe CricketGeek Player Profiles: Anaru Kitchen Anaru Kitchen with a young Aces fan courtesy @sillymidoff One of the main reasons that the Auckland Aces have been the dominant team in New Zealand limited overs domestic cricket over the last two years is their extraordinary fielding. Guptill, Hira, Vincent and Cachopa have all prowled the infield, cutting off singles and saving boundaries. But there's another element to their fielding that is often ignored. The exceptional boundary fielding and outfield catching of Anaru Kitchen. He is extremely quick, and at times seems to sense where the ball is going before it even leaves the bat. The result is that he has saved a number of runs, and made a significant number of catches for Auckland. He took more catches last season than any of the wicket-keepers. In fact, he took double the number of catches of the most prolific (Kruger van Wyk). Sometimes outfield catching is merely a case of being in the right place at the right time. In Kitchen's case it is more that he covered so much ground, so quickly, that he caught batsmen who thought they had safely hit the ball into a gap. In one game he took a catch at deep backward square leg, while fielding at a wide mid on. His ability to take catches has seen him placed high on the list of the most consistent catchers in T20 history: To go with his remarkable catching he is also a competent batsman. His career started with a hiss and a roar, scoring 33*, 31, 0, 31, 61* in his first 5 matches, followed by a slump as bowlers figured out where to bowl to him. This often happens to players who have immediate success when they make the step up to the next level. The difference between good players and the rest is how they respond. Kitchen has found a way to score runs, faster and more consistently after his lean patch. His career strike rate has risen above 125 and his average is now over 25 (as shown in the graph below. He still has some work to go before his batting alone would be a reason to select him, but when combined his fielding prowess, it resulted in his being named in the 30 man New Zealand training squad for World T20. Anaru Kitchen is someone to keep an eye on in the Champions League T20, both with the bat and in the outfield. Labels: Anaru Kitchen, Auckland Aces, Champions League T20, New Zealand, Player profile, South Africa, T20 CricketGeek Player Profiles: Colin de Grandhomme Colin de Grandhomme with 2 young fans. Courtesy @sillymidoff When I was a child my father had season tickets to watch the Auckland rugby team play. I went along and watched them play almost every weekend of winter. That team was amazing. They won 75 consecutive regular season home matches. They would often be so far ahead at half time that they could try crazy, high-risk plays in the second half. And they were so good that they would often come off. Throughout the time that I watched them, there were two players who, more than any others, got the crowd excited. The first was a butcher from Mangere called John Kirwan. When he got the ball the whole crowd would rise as one, because he was unbelievably good. He was so fast and elusive. Whenever he touched the ball there was electricity. The other player was on the opposite wing, Va'aiga "Inga the Winger" Tuigamala. Inga was a very good player, but was not quite as good as Kirwan. Despite that he was the true crowd favourite because what he did was often more spectacular. He had the power and balance to get through the smallest of gaps. Kirwan scored 35 tries in tests for the All Blacks, Tuigamala scored only 5, and yet was clearly the crowd's favourite. Likewise, Colin de Grandhomme has not scored nearly as many runs for Auckland as Martin Guptill, but when CdG walks out to the middle, there is a hush of expectation come over the crowd at Colin Maiden Park. Everyone knows that there is a chance that they will see something special from the big man. He is capable of making the largest grounds look ponderously small. When he hits a ball, they certainly stay hit. I have been fortunate to have been able to see some of the biggest hitters in world cricket. I have seen the likes of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Chris Cairns, Adam Gilchrist, Viv Richards and Mark Greatbatch; but I'm not sure I've seen anyone hit the ball as cleanly or as regularly as de Grandhomme. I once saw him hit the ball out of Colin Maiden park, over the embankment and trees, across the road, over the fence on the other side and into the university car park. I'm not good at estimating distances, but I would be very surprised if it was less than 120 metres. His career strike rate for the Auckland in T20 matches is a fairly impressive 170.83. He has hit 42 sixes and 47 fours off only 360 deliveries. That's basically a boundary every 4 balls. He's done all this while averaging a respectable 20. But he's not just a lucky slogger. It has been in the longer formats where he has really excelled. Last season he averaged over 70 in first class cricket, and 43.8 at a strike rate just over 125 for Auckland in the list A matches. In a lot of ways his List A and First Class numbers show how good a player he actually is. These numbers led me to write a post about his selection for the New Zealand team pointing out that they had picked him for the wrong format. However, when those two games got to the super over, I was wishing we had CdG in the side. The fact that he is playing for New Zealand at all is a story in itself. He was born in Harare into a Zimbabwian cricketing dynasty. Both his father and grandfather represented their nation (Bunny for Rhodesia and Laurence for Zimbabwe). He looked set to follow in their footsteps, having played for Zimbabwe under 19's (alongside Brendan Taylor, Elton Chigumbura, Tino Mawoyo, Prosper Utsya, Sean Williams, Graeme Cremer and Ed Rainsford) before going on to play first class cricket for the Zimbabwe A and Zimbabwe under 23. However he had different ideas. Realising that Zimbabwe was not quite the land of opportunity that it had been, de Grandhomme moved to Auckland in 2006. It took a while for the move to pay off, but now "dutchie" makes the Auckland crowd move to the edge of their seats whenever he saunters to the middle. If he gets going in the Champions League T20, I would definitely recommend moving to the edge of your seat also. If you want a brief introduction to his (rather understated) personality, watch this video. Labels: Auckland Aces, Champions League T20, Colin de Grandhomme, New Zealand, Player profile, Sixes, South Africa, T20 CricketGeek Player Profiles: Samuel Badree © WICB Media - Pal Pillai I had intended to write a profile on Badree before the tournament started, but school work got in the road. Samuel Badree is possibly the most under-rated player on the planet right now. While his Trinidad and Tobago team mate, Sunil Narine has attracted all the headlines with his funky hair style and mystery deliveries, Badree has avoided the attention, despite also taking wickets and not conceding many runs. Narine looks special. He holds the ball in a strange way. He flicks his wrist when bowling off spin. He turns it both ways. When he is bowling drama is in the air. It's totally absorbing. Badree is almost the opposite. He does get some turn, both ways, but it's not particularly exaggerated. Badree is instead the master of line and length. He has enough variation that the batsman can't settle down, but enough consistency that if they wait for the bad ball his whole spell might have gone by and they've only had one ball to hit. For a leg-spinner that is exceptional. Narine is someone who you can't take your eyes off. At the end of a Badree over it is hard to remember anything happening. He bores the batsmen into submission. And he does it well. His boringness is part of why it has taken so long for him to reach international cricket. He played his first match for Trinidad and Tobago in January 2002. It took until June 2012 before he made his international debut. 10 years is a long time to wait for a call up, particularly in the West Indies who seem to go through spinners faster than Hollywood celebrities go through spouses. In that time there have been 25 other players bowl at least 10 overs of spin for the West Indies. He's only played 5 T20 internationals, so it is hard to draw much from his statistics in the international game, but he has played a lot of matches for Trinidad and Tobago, and his record for them is remarkable. Career Economy Rate - minimum 100 overs The most important question is really how many runs does a bowler concede. We can see that he is unmatched in this arena. He is so miserly that if Daniel Vettori bowled 3 overs per match, and Badree bowled 4 overs per match, Badree would still average less runs per match than Vettori. Or Steyn, Ajmal, Swann, Malinga, or anyone else with an economy rate over 6.2. Career Bowling Index - minimum 100 overs The bowling index is found by multiplying the runs per ball and the runs per wicket. It is one of the best guides to the effectiveness of a bowler. This time Badree is second. He's got the second best bowling index of anyone who has ever played, and the only one ahead of him, Narine, is yet to suffer second year syndrome, when he has to adapt to players figuring him out. There are a lot of very good bowlers behind him in this list. Career bowling Contribution: - minimum 100 overs Every wicket is worth about 5 runs to a teams total. So I subtract 5 runs per wicket, and then work out the economy rate. For more info see this post: Again Badree's numbers are better than anyone else. An argument can be made, of course, that it's one thing to succeed at the lower level, against players who are not very good against spin. How does he go against higher class opposition. To answer this I looked at just his statistics in matches against teams with a heritage of spin, or from an area known for spin bowling. Generally a player who has grown up in one of these areas is likely to have developed a better technique against spin bowling. The teams that I have counted as good against spin are Guyana, Deccan Chargers, Ruhuna, Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Bangladesh A, India A. Against these teams he has bowled 36.5 overs and taken 8 wickets for 202 runs. That's an economy rate of 5.48. Worse than his career average, but still remarkably good. Of the bowlers who have bowled more than 100 overs, only Sunil Narine has a lower economy rate. Likewise if we only look at his numbers against international teams he has bowled 35 overs, (some for West Indies, some for T&T in tour matches) and taken 7/182. That's a economy rate of 5.2. This would put him ahead of Narine, despite only counting matches against international teams. Before the match Australia said that they were going to try and target Badree. That resulted in both of their openers ending up back in the shed. Bowling to Sri Lanka is a different prospect to bowling to Australia, but going by current form it seems unlikely that even the might of Sri Lanka will have an answer to scoring quickly off Samuel Badree. He might be boring, uninspiring and easy not to notice, but his numbers are remarkable. At the end of the day a bowler's job is to take wickets and not concede many runs, and this is exactly what Badree excels at. Labels: Bowling, legspin, Misers, Player profile, Samuel Badree, Spin Bowling, Sri Lanka, Sunil Narine, T20, West Indies, World T20 Group 2 Net Run Rate calculator Here is a net run-rate calculator for group 2 of the World Twenty 20. There are two possible scenarios where net run rates (nrr) will come into play. Firstly if India and Pakistan both win then there will be a 3 way tie between India, Pakistan and Australia. Nrr will decide 1st, 2nd and who goes home in this situation. The other situation is if Australia and South Africa both win. Here Australia will go through as the top qualifier, and it will come down to nrr to decide which of South Africa, Pakistan and India go through. There are some instructions inside the frame, but you may need to scroll around. Once you type in some number the net run rate will automatically change on the right. Again you might need to scroll to see it. Posted by Mykuhl at 03:04 1 comment: Labels: Australia, Cricket, Geekery, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Statistics, T20, World T20 Statistics vs Trivia ODI score predictor Podcasts and posts on other blogs Blogs I read often Idle Summers The Wicket Post World Cricket Watch The Declaration Game Clear Cricket vCricket.com 6 reasons I'm not surprised by the Auckland Aces s... Why and How the Champions League format needs to c... All material Copyright Michael Wagener 2011-2012. Powered by Blogger.

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Altered expression: Epigenetics and its influence on human development By Dyani Lewis Geneticist Dr Marnie Blewitt explains how epigenetics makes us more than just our genes and how gene inactivation can be crucial to our development. DYANI LEWIS Hi, I'm Dyani Lewis, thanks for joining us. Our genetic make-up determines a lot about who we are. It determines whether we have blue eyes or brown, what blood group we are or whether we're a carrier of a condition like cystic fibrosis. But we're beginning to learn that we're far more than the sum of our genetic parts. Our genes only tell part of the story of who we are. Just as important as what genes we've inherited from our parents is how those genes are switched on and off throughout our lifetime. This complex system of genetic regulation has been the focus of the burgeoning field of epigenetics. To tell us all about epigenetics and its implications for our growth and development, I'm joined on Up Close today by geneticist, Dr Marnie Blewitt. Marnie heads a lab that studies epigenetics at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Welcome to Up Close Marnie. MARNIE BLEWITT Thanks Dyani, it's nice to be here. Marnie, epigenetics seems to be quite a new field of study in the broader field of genetics. When did people start to become aware that genes weren't the whole story? Well it was back in the 1940s actually when they first coined the term epigenetics. The prefix epi was because they started to first realise that it was the same genetic information which was contained in all of our cells. And yet we know that we have so many different cell types so they really just used this term to say, there must be something, a layer of information on top of the genetic information. So like the prefix epi you use in epidermis, and it's just a layer of skin on top of everything else, this layer of information in addition to the genes. So it was actually a long time ago that they knew that this was true but it still is actually a recent field that's been growing and expanding, when we've been able to start to put together what's happening really down at the molecular level inside the nucleus. So what we actually mean by epigenetics rather than just talking about, I guess, phenomenon. Many people have commented that the discovery of epigenetics is like a modern day revival of the ideas of the French biologist, Jean-Baptise Lamarck, who was a predecessor of Darwin in thinking about the process of evolution. Is epigenetic the same as Lamarckism? It's a very common comment. I think the key difference is that Lamarck proposed that a giraffe might grow a neck that was longer and longer, would grow in its own lifetime a neck that was longer to be able to reach leaves that were high on a plant. But the difference with epigenetics is that it's still about Darwinian aspects I guess. So Darwin would say, actually there was selection. So you had a range of different animals, different giraffes and some had long necks and they're the ones that could survive. So epigenetics is the same, these epigenetic marks get laid down, they get set very early in life. Usually while you're still in utero, depending on which organ we're talking about, certainly for neck length while you're still in utero. And then there's selection similarly for the fact that there might be genes that are being expressed to promote additional vertebrae in the neck, for example in the case of a giraffe. So it really works the same way as genetics in that sense and quite different to what Lamarck proposed which was that you would, throughout your lifetime, obtain some additional characteristics. There's a very common confusion but there's still actually quite a clear distinction between the two. The similarity that is drawn is that throughout our lifetime various things in our environment can actually change our genetics, that would be the… …similarity. But even that doesn't really hold up as a good comparison? I think, while there's some evidence that these epigenetic marks, this epigenetic information, the information in addition to your genes, might be able to be passed through to the offspring, this is the difference, is that genetic traits are inherited to the next generation. That's why a giraffe with a long neck will give rise to another giraffe with a long neck. But epigenetic changes that happen, and are applied during your lifetime because of the influence of the environment, are basically never inherited or very, very, very rarely. We know about a small handful of cases just in some model organisms, so we don't think yet that we can inherit whatever our parents acquired in their lifetime, that that can be passed on to the offspring. At least we don't know very much about it yet if it does occur. In the introduction I described epigenetic as switches that switch genes on and off. What does this actually mean at the DNA level? How do epigenetic factors actually switch genes on or off? Essentially we don't have all of the answers yet but the epigenetic switches are really about how accessible that DNA is to the proteins that need to be able to get in there and make that DNA all the way through into the protein product. So the DNA needs to be accessible and you need to have proteins. RNA preliminaries come along and make an RNA, so a messenger molecule, and then a protein can be made, say for example an enzyme that's required by the cell. So some epigenetic marks correlate with when that chromatin or the DNA is very densely packed and therefore it's less likely to be accessed by this machinery that makes the proteins in the end. Or it's very open and sparse, there's a lot of space around the DNA for these proteins to actually get in there and do the job of making that messenger that I said, the messenger RNA. So there's a correlation, how one leads to the other, how these marks actually lead to the chromatin being open or closed, is still an open question. We don't really know whether these epigenetic marks lead to the chromatin being open or closed or whether the closed nature or the open nature of the chromatin leads to the epigenetic marks. It's a bit of chicken and egg question that still exists in the field. But in any case we can't really think of the genome as just being a long string of letters that's equally accessible to be read at any given time. No definitely not. There are definitely regions that are there to be used and are really active all the time and openly accessible. Other regions which are densely packaged down and are not being used, if you like, are not being made in to their protein products. How are these different tags or marks actually put onto the DNA or the chromatin? So they're added by a set of proteins that we call epigenetic modifiers. That really is just to describe the way that some proteins which lay down these particular epigenetic marks, they're enzymes. There can be others that remove them and there can be others again that read those marks, if you like, and interpret the information for the genome. So they might read the information and then lead to some other secondary set of epigenetic marks or move the chromatin around, move the chromosomes around even. And so those epigenetic modifiers are the ones doing this work of laying down those marks or removing the marks. Is there just one type of mark? No so there are probably more than we even know about, hundreds of marks. There are probably only a handful that we've studied very much. So we know that there's methylation to the DNA itself, so that's the addition of a carbon and three hydrogens. But there's also methylation of the proteins that the DNA wraps around, the histone proteins. We can think of many, many different chemical moieties and these all happen. The reason I say there are hundreds, I could just list maybe a dozen of different chemical moieties, is because within the actual proteins, the histone proteins that package the DNA, they have an inordinate number of residues that can actually be modified. So they're not just that it can be one form that exists there, but rather maybe about 20 or 30 different places on each of those molecules that could be methylated or phosphorylated or ubiquitinated or some other small chemical moiety which is added on to the protein. In terms of these different enzymes that are doing this modification work of the DNA or of the packaging material… Mm hm. …for the DNA, do these enzymes target specific sites in the genome, like specific genes, to switch off target genes? Or are there other factors that control which bits of the genome are silenced or activated? So again I think this is a bit of a chicken and egg answer unfortunately Sue. So it depends, you're not going to have one enzyme which is acting throughout the whole genome. There will be ones that are more specialised for particular regions. But what makes them specialised for that particular region? How is that they know to get to just a particular set of genes for example? That's where we don't really know yet the answer. We think sometimes it's through the action of a different class of molecules called transcription factors. These seem to bind to particular regions, particular base sequences within the DNA. Other times we think that might be the role of RNA molecules, so a non-traditional functional molecule in the cell. It seems that in that case they seem to guide these epigenetic modifiers to particular sites. But there certainly isn't one methyltransferase for the genome for example. There are many different - so there might be 20 different methyltransferases just for one particular residue on one of those packaging proteins. So they've got many different roles. They'll have different roles at different regions of the genome but probably different roles in different stages of development, different cells within the body. So some of them might be important in blood cells and others important in the brain for example. If we weren't able to regulate our genes in this complex regulatory way, what sort of process would be disrupted? Essentially everything. As far as we know at this point, every single process that we biologically know about has an epigenetic component to it. Because as a multicellular organism we need to be able to switch genes on and switch genes off. If you can't do that, if you have expression of genes that shouldn't be around at that time, actually that's synonymous with cancer. We know that if you have the expression of a gene that promotes cell growth, that's one of the hallmarks of cancer, just as one example. So every aspect that you can think about of normal biology is disrupted, from fertility to placentation in the embryo, to development of the embryo, to development of every single cell type that they've come across. Of course when it goes wrong it results in tumours as well. This is Up Close, I'm Dyani Lewis and in this episode we're talking about epigenetics with geneticist, Dr Marnie Blewitt. Marnie, one of the most stunning illustrations I think of epigenetics is a process called X-inactivation which occurs in baby girls. What is X-inactivation and why does it happen? X-inactivation is - yes it's definitely probably the best characterised epigenetic process that we know about in mammals. It happens because female mammals have two X chromosomes and males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. So if this was left unchecked, if you like, then all those genes that are encoded on the X chromosome, females would have twice the dose of them. So they'd have two chromosomes making all of those copies of proteins. But this isn't what happens actually and, if it does, it results in embryonic lethality. So we know that can't occur. Instead what happens is that females, just after implantation when there are maybe a couple of hundred cells, a choice is made about one X chromosome in each cell that shall be silenced, either the one that was inherited from the dad or the one that was inherited from the mum. That X chromosome is epigenetically silenced. So it's actually packaged up very tightly in the nucleus and literally put to the edge of the nucleus. So it's pushed out to the edge and essentially forgotten about, in terms of gene expression anyway. That X that's inactivated now leaves just one X chromosome that's active and that's just like a male cell. So now we have just a single X chromosome that is being used in a female mammal and so we don't have an overdose of those X-linked genes. Is it always the same X chromosome from the mother or the father that's inactivated? No, so when the choice happens, when you've got maybe 100 or 200 cells, it does happen at random. So you'll end up with say 50 cells that inactivated the X from the dad and 50 cells that inactivated the X from the mum. One of these really important features of epigenetic control is that choice and that epigenetic silencing is then heritable for every cell division afterwards. Women can live up to 100 years or so, so for 100 years, for all of the cell divisions that happen in that time, that's faithfully maintained. That means that then if you could actually look at women, we're mosaics, we have patches where we are only expressing the X chromosome we inherited from our mum and other patches where we're only expressing the X chromosome we inherited from our dad. So if we could see that in terms of, I don't know, the colour of our skin, you'd have black and white patches, around a hundred of them, spread across your body. So what scale do these mosaic patterns happen? I mean would we have, for example, an entire organ that just has our paternal X chromosome active and other patches, other entire organs, that have only the maternal? Or would it be within an organ you have patchy bits? So it can be both of those things. It really depends because, while it's a random choice that's originally made, because it is random it depends on how gastrulation occurs, which is when the embryo folds in on itself and starts to form organs and then later organogenesis. So it really just depends on which cells ended up forming which organ. Certainly there are instances where you can see a whole organ is completely derived from a case where you've silenced the paternal X or the other way round. But you also have organs, more commonly, when there's actually a mixture of the two and it really depends on how those organs are first defined from their cellular source I guess. There are lots of so called X-linked conditions, such as colour blindness where you've got a gene involved that's located on the X chromosome. These conditions are usually vastly more common in males who have only one X chromosome, but females are usually okay because the idea is that you inherit one faulty gene but then you've always got the back up from the other parent. So how does this work if one of those X chromosomes is being shut down? Yes so it's really interesting. It depends, I think, on the different scenarios, how that phenotype type or how that disease might be formed. If it were a disease where it was about a blood clotting factor for example - haemophilia would be the best example - so then because those clotting factors are made by cells, in the bone marrow actually, and then they're released and they need to be going out and actually transitioned around the body in the blood, if only half of the cells are able to make the normal wild type or normal functional copy of the clotting factor, it's okay because the cells that can do it, they distribute it throughout the body. In which case therefore, perhaps half as much good clotting factor is enough. So you don't really see females with haemophilia. But in other cases, that cell may not be able to benefit from the fact that the neighbouring cell can make normal whatever it might be. That's why you end up with some X-linked disorders where females are completely unaffected and some where actually the females are affected but they're just less so than the males because one of the reasons is half of the cells will be fine. So it just depends on the disorder and how that particular organ that's affected is made up and, I guess, the physiology of that organ. Your interest in X-inactivation came from work on a particular gene that you found in mice called smchd1. Or “smoochdee1” is that how you call it? Exactly, we get a bit lazy so we like to call it “smoochdee1” for short, yep. So could you tell us a bit about smchd1 and what happens to female mice that don't have a functional smchd1 gene? Yes I first found it, we were doing a genetic screen where we made mutations randomly throughout the genome. Then we happened to find this one through a particular phenotype we were looking for. Then what we found is that when we had mutations in this gene, smchd1, and when we made embryos that carried two copies of this mutation, while the male embryos were fine, we didn't have any female embryos surviving. So we went back to look about when they were dying and they were dying around mid-gestation. They failed to make a proper placenta and the embryo itself was also malformed, although it's very difficult to tease out why they're malformed. Is it because they don't have a functional placenta or is it because the embryo also has issues? But yes around mid-gestation a female embryo with no smchd1 will have a defective placenta and it will also, if you check at the expression of all of those X-linked genes, which should be only being expressed from one of the two X chromosomes as we just talked about, then they'll have double the dose of all of those X-linked genes. So an overdose of a lot of X-linked genes and we think this is what's really responsible for the death of those embryos. So there's no X-inactivation taking place? No. We think what happens with smchd1 is that it's not involved in initiating or not involved in setting up the choice of which X chromosome is silenced or indeed making that silencing choice, the epigenetic silencing in the first place. But we think what it's more involved in is the maintenance of that silenced state. So, as I said, X-inactivation, that choice is made at about the 100 cell stage and then it's faithfully inherited all the way for decades and decades to come. But within about two days of this choice and the silencing, this epigenetic silencing being set up, if you don't have smchd1 you can't maintain it. So they have normal X-inactivation for a very, very short period in time and then it goes terribly wrong because they can't maintain it through every cell division. They can't keep remembering to keep that X chromosome off. Marnie, smchd1 is involved in this X-inactivation, does that mean that it's only working on the X chromosome? So for a long time we didn't know what else it might do actually. But we've recently been able to work out other things it's involved in. And so it's not just involved on the X chromosome in females but actually it also has a role in males. So we know this partly because if you have males that lack smchd1, some of them can survive, but others of them also die around birth. So clearly it's doing something. What we've been able to find now is that it's also involved in silencing at other loci, not on the X chromosome but on autosomes, so just the regular chromosomes that everybody has, has two copies of. These are involved at the imprinted genes and these are genes that are also highly unusual. There are about 100 of them in our genome and we express them only from one copy, a bit like the X chromosome in girls, but only from one copy. The one that we express from is determined by whether or not we inherited it from the mum or the dad. For example, you always express it from your maternal copy and never from the paternal copy. So in that way it's unlike X-inactivation because it's always one way round, these imprinted genes. So smchd1 is involved in silencing at some of those cases as well. You said we've got about 100 genes so it's only a small proportion of the genome that's imprinted like this. Yes that's true. They keep on defining more of them but it's by no means the whole genome. We think more areas of the genome actually undergo a similar sort of mechanism but at these other regions it doesn't seem to be an all or none sort of a thing, like the imprinted genes. But rather a preference for expression from one allele or one [parental] allele or the other. By alleles you're referring to just different gene variants that people might have. Yeah but in this case just 100 or up to 130 or so genes that are expressed in this strictly imprinted manner. It still does very much change the traditional thinking of how genes work in that you've got two copies, one from your mother, one from your father and they contribute equally. It seems quite a different paradigm to that. It is completely different. It's very difficult actually to get your head around when you first start to think about the basis behind this. And there are some very unusual diseases in people where they're imprinting disorders. That is where they have one copy of these genes messed up but it happens to be the copy that they were supposed to be expressing. So they might have got a normal copy from the other parent but that's irrelevant because that's the copy that's always silent or always turned off epigenetically. smchd1 you've discovered is also involved in a genetic condition. What's this condition that you've found a link to? Yeah so our collaborators actually, they were able to find it. So it's a type of muscular dystrophy, it's a very special type of muscular dystrophy, it's not the ones that we normally know about, like Duchenne muscular dystrophy and others. It's called facioscapulohumeral dystrophy type 2. It's just because it has particular muscle groups that are involved and obviously, based on its name, you can tell that it's the ones that are involved in the upper body and in the face. In this case the patients have no smchd1, they don't have a deletion in both copies like you would in a recessive disease but rather they have a mutation just in one copy of smchd1. We think this is probably why they're, in general, alive and able to make it to adulthood. But this is a progressive sort of muscular dystrophy that gets worse with age and tends to have an onset on the teenage years and then you progressively get worse and worse, unfortunately for the patients. I'm Dyani Lewis and my guest today is molecular biologist, Dr Marnie Blewitt. We're talking about epigenetics and X-inactivation, here on Up Close. Marnie, when you're looking at mice, how much can the work that you do in mice around epigenetics be translated to what's happening in humans? That's a very good question. So it's something that we need to constantly ask ourselves. A mouse is clearly not a human, how much of it is relevant? And interestingly for epigenetics we find actually the vast majority is. So while we can't go and test what we find in a whole animal study in mice, straight away in humans, because it's not ethical and not possible, what we can often do is test whether the same sort of paradigms are true from what we are finding in mouse studies, in human cell lines for example. Or tissues that we can obtain and test whether or not the same sorts of things happen. And so while there are certainly species differences, these species differences are more pronounced in particular fields. So you can imagine if you're studying behaviour there will be large differences there. But when we're talking about really basic biology, like epigenetics, and we're thinking about these primary processes, like X-inactivation, much of it can be almost directly transferred into the human work. So we know smchd1 is also important in human X-inactivation as an example. Now there's one gene that you've been looking at it particular. It has effects on regulating so many different genes. There's all of the genes on the X chromosome for example but then all of these other genes on the non sex chromosomes, the autosomes. Given how broad its effects are, will we ever be able to design a drug, for example, that corrects this mis-regulation if it goes wrong? We hope that we will be able to design a drug that, for example, can boost the expression or boost the function of smchd1, the good copy of smchd1, in those patients that have one copy that's been abrogated. That's certainly what we're trying to work towards, it's actually an international collaboration between lots of labs trying to do this. In the case of smchd1 the reason we're most hopeful about being able to do that is because in those patients we find evidence that all of smchd1's functions are disrupted. So if we had just disrupted smchd1's function at one particular locker, so only one genomic location, but everything else was left unchecked and everything else was fine, then it would be slightly more difficult. Although, having said that, there are many people who are working to do just that, just modify one particular region. But because in these patients we think that smchd1's function is abrogated and it affects all of its genomic loci where it plays a role, then actually we're in a better position to be able to try and activate smchd1's function. Are there many genetic conditions like this where epigenetics plays such a crucial role? I think almost every condition, epigenetics plays some role. But certainly there aren't many where epigenetics is so critical as this one. In fact, not just this one, but there are other disorders called repeat disorders, people might know about Huntington's disease as an example. So what I mean by a repeat disorder is a disease that's caused by having a small tract of DNA, a small number of base pairs, that's repeated maybe 30 or 40 times or a few hundred times in one region. That disrupts the neighbouring gene or the gene within which that is found. What seems to be coming to light now is that those repeats, when they are either expanded or contracted, can either be activated or silenced accordingly. So the repeat disorders seem to be more about the epigenetic changes that those repeats cause, when they're either expanded or contracted, than they necessarily do about other types of controls. So our understanding of repeat disorders in general, of which this one that I mentioned, facioscapulohumeral dystrophy type 2 and type 2, are part of, we think epigenetics is really critical to understanding the disease pathology in these cases. These conditions are quite rare. Aren't there more common examples of when epigenetics goes awry, that they can affect our own health? Absolutely. Cancer is probably the best studied example. So because there are hundreds of different forms of cancer, what's very interesting is every single cancer tissue or cancer sample that's ever been studied, has global changes, so really widespread changes in epigenetic marks. While we have traditionally thought of cancer as a genetic disease - in other words like an accumulation of mistakes that are made throughout your lifetime and then if you happen to have enough mistakes in the one cell then this cell can then grow in an uncontrolled manner and you can't kill it easily, so it's a cancer cell or it becomes a cancer - we actually now know that there's much more to it than that. In those cells that have lots and lots of genetic mistakes, they also have many, many epigenetic mistakes. This is really interesting because, as I mentioned earlier, epigenetic marks are mitotically heritable, so through cell division they keep on being maintained. So just like a mutation of course keeps being maintained, epigenetic changes can be as well and so they perpetuate through the tumour. So if there's selection for some particular epigenetic mistake because it happens to give that cell a growth advantage, that will be perpetuated. So people are looking at drugs that correct these again are they? Yes absolutely. So there are four that are already approved by the FDA in America and are in use in clinics around the world. But there are hundreds more, literally hundreds more, that are currently in clinical trials with pharmaceutical companies worldwide. So these are trying to target particular classes of those epigenetic modifiers we spoke about earlier. So some of them target the methyltransferases, others of them target different types of these epigenetic modifiers. They're hopefully going to be very powerful because they might be able to help undo those epigenetic mistakes that are in cancer. So if they're used, either by themselves or in combination with standard chemotherapy, the evidence to date suggests that we have a much better chance at fighting cancer and being able to remove the cancer cells as best we can. So there are some drugs that can alter epigenetic markers. What about things like lifestyle factors? Yeah so basically I guess you can consider that almost anything that you can put into your body might have the capacity to change your epigenetic makeup. This is really just a growing field of people who are starting to study it at the moment. The sorts of things they're looking at are diet, so your dietary make-up, but also there's been some recent interesting work done on alcohol. So what happens when you consume alcohol – to your epigenetic make-up? The particular focus has been on consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. So we know too much alcohol during pregnancy can cause foetal alcohol syndrome which is really a horrible disorder which affects a lot of organs but particularly the brain. But what they've also been able to show is that alcohol consumption during pregnancy can alter the epigenetic make-up of the offspring. This is quite interesting because something that we've always avoided, or for a long time the advice has been to avoid alcohol during pregnancy, we now know a little bit more at the molecular level of how it might be influencing those babies. Is that period in utero during early embryo development, foetal development, is that the most important part of our life in terms of getting these epigenetic markers right? Or are there are other things after we're born that are equally as important? I think it's definitely the most critical period, is in utero development. That's because essentially every location throughout the genome, we are laying down new epigenetic marks. So it's when the tissues are being patterned and so you're setting up particular epigenetic states that are required for those different cellular systems. The reason you have different cell types is because of the different epigenetic marks and these are laid down originally when those cell types are first being developed. This laying down period, or when epigenetic marks are being removed, they're the most sensitive to the environment. So that's the most critical period but that doesn't mean that it's not important again later. There are other periods but they'll be different for each tissue. A nice example is for the brain. So the brain of course does a lot of developing in utero but again it does a lot of developing in infancy and childhood when there's a lot of learning that's happening and that promotes particular brain development. There's been a study, at least in rats, that shows that the development of the brain early after the birth really depends on mothering style and this is epigenetic. So if you have a good mother you end up having a rat that is not very stressed and that's because of epigenetic changes in their brain. If you have a bad mother - and a bad rat mother means they don't lick their pups very often - so if you have a bad rat mother that doesn't lick their pups very often, they end up not having these same epigenetic changes in their brain, so not the appropriate ones. Then they end up having too much stress hormone for the rest of their lives. Is there anything that the pups can do to overcome that? They've tried these epigenetic drugs to see if they can modulate that in any way. The answer is not really, not to the same extent as those early changes. The reason for that is because again those epigenetic marks are being established during that period. So this time when those epigenetic marks are first being laid down is when it's most critical to get it right. It's a really intriguing area of research. Marnie, thanks for being our guest today on Up Close. Thanks Dyani. Dr Marnie Blewitt is from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research where she runs an epigenetics lab.

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El Salvador Perspectives News, history, culture and analysis of El Salvador and the Salvadoran people. The Blog List Some war records of Salvadoran military found in archives After a judge hearing the El Mozote massacre case ordered the president of El Salvador and the country's military to provide records concerning military operations, some records may have been located in the General Archive of El Salvador. While the military continues to claim it does not have a single document throughout all of its branches, some records of "historical significance" may have been saved in other archives. On October 24, Judge Jorge Alberto Guzmán, who is presiding over the El Mozote trial issued his order to the president and defense minister to turn over records. Now, according to a report in El Faro, the 42 divisions of the Salvadoran military have all responded that they have no records from the time of the El Mozote massacre. However, the president's office stated that it has located records which could be "of interest" in the General Archive of the Nation. The General Archive falls under the Ministry of Culture. According to the E… El Salvador's economic challenges The economic challenges El Salvador faces today are significant. According to El Salvador's most recent national household survey (EHPM), only 43.2% of the working age population has full time employment and another 13.4% have part time employment. The rest of the working age Salvadorans work in the informal economy as street vendors, day laborers, food sellers, etc. Only 35% of the working age population has coverage in the social security system of medical insurance and pensions. Wages are low. The average earnings in El Salvador according to the EHPM are $327 per month. The average worker in El Salvador has finished only 8.5 years of school, a figure which has only improved one grade level in the past 10 years. Thousands of Salvadorans continue to attempt to migrate to the US every month. 26.3% of Salvadoran households are in a condition of poverty and 5.7% live in extreme poverty. Economic growth which might improve the situation has been steadily slowing since the firs… Take care on El Salvador's ocean beaches I know that many people who read this blog do so because they travel to El Salvador on church mission trips -- perhaps to build houses with Habitat for Humanity, to run a medical clinic, or to drill a well. I am often asked about how to stay safe in El Salvador. One thing I uniformly answer is that more people die on mission trips to El Salvador drowning in the ocean than for any other cause. Mission trips often conclude with a relaxing day enjoying El Salvador's wonderful beaches. But too often, those trips have ended with tragedy: A 54 year old man from Bloomington, Illinois on a trip to build houses in June 2008.A Baptist worker from Missouri in April 2007A mother from Huntington, West Virginia in July 2005A Seventh Day Adventist pastor from New Jersey in February 2002.A Canadian working with SalvAide in 1988.A Peace Corps Volunteer, January 1969. I am aware of others as well. Each year dozens of Salvadorans die by drowning in the ocean, including a 22 year old young man who dr… Earthquakes and tsunamis in the twitter era El Salvador is a country exposed to a myriad of possible natural disasters, from volcanoes to hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, and tsunamis. During November, numerous small earthquakes have been shaking the Central American nation. There were at least 160 earthquakes between November 12 and November 21 centered in the greater San Salvador area, of which 32 were strong enough to be felt by those of us living here. Quakes ranged in size between 2.0 and 3.9 on the richter scale. In addition, there have been regular quakes off the coastline of El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico which can be felt in San Salvador. As I was typing this post, another quake shook the building where we live. El Salvador's environment ministry, MARN, explained the recent quakes: The origin of this activity is attributed to the activation of the geological fault system in the AMSS and, it should be noted that, due to the seismic potential of these faults, the occurrence of major earthquakes or the ac… Pro surfing at Surf City One of president Nayib Bukele's signature initiatives is Surf City -- a name for developing El Salvador as a world class surfing destination and attracting related tourism development along the Pacific coast. This week that initiative was on full display as the Association of Latin American Professional Surfers (ALAS) held the Surf City ALAS Latin Pro 2019 competition at Playa El Tunco. El Salvador's own Bryan Perez did not disappoint as he took the silver medal in the men's open competition. Surfer Noé Mar McGonagle of Costa Rica took the gold. You can see highlights from the finals in this video. Participants in the Surf City competition received an invitation to the Casa Presidencial where president Bukele greeted them with a message to spread the word that El Salvador was a world class surfing destination where no other government could claim to be a better friend of surfers. Celebrations of 30th anniversary of the UCA martyrs The 1989 massacre of six Jesuits priests and their coworker and her daughter was commemorated this weekend in El Salvador. Two weeks of events led up to anniversary date of November 16, including lectures on the legacy of the martyrs of the UCA from Father Jose Maria Tojeira,S.J. Father Jon Sobrino,S.J. and Cardinal and Jesuit Micheal Czerny. There was a forum on the ongoing search for persons who were forcibly "disappeared" during the civil war, and US Congressman James McGovern spoke of the need for ongoing commitments to justice in both El Salvador and the United States. The university unveiled a new mural dedicated to the martyrs, and the traditional candlelight procession wound its way through the streets of the campus where colorful salt carpets (alfombras) had been created hours earlier. Here is a sampling of English language coverage of the anniversary of the Jesuits massacre and its relevance today. Remembering the Jesuits: Seeking justice in El Salvador, a … Remember their names Too often when we write about the murders which happened 30 years ago on November 16, 1989, we just refer to the "6 Jesuits, their co-worker and her daughter." As people around the world commemorate them this weekend, let us remember these martyrs of El Salvador's civil war by name: Father Ignacio Ellacuría, 59, was since 1979 rector of the UCA, and an internationally-respected intellectual and advocate for human rights and a negotiated solution to the Salvadoran civil conflict;Father Ignacio Martín-Baro´, 44, was the vice rector of the UCA, a leading analyst of national and regional affairs, the founder and director of the respected polling organization, the Public Opinion Institute, former Dean of Students, Dean of the Psychology Department, an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of social psychology and pastor of the rural community of Jayaque;Father Segundo Montes, 56, was Dean of the Department of Social Sciences and a sociology professor at the UCA, and th… Witness to the truth When soldiers from El Salvador's military massacred six Jesuit priests and their co-worker and her daughter, there was an immediate attempt to cover it up and to suggest that the killings could have been done by FMLN guerrillas. But there was a witness, Lucia Barrera de Cerna, whose testimony made it impossible to avoid the truth, despite the best efforts of the Salvadoran government and the FBI. From her testimony described in "The Jesuit Murders: A report on the testimony of a witness," by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 15 December 1989, Lucia and her husband Jorge Cerna lived in Soyapango, a suburb on the opposite side of San Salvador from the location of the UCA. She had a cleaning job at the university. Because of the intense fighting in greater San Salvador during the November 1989 FMLN "final offensive", Lucia asked one of the Jesuit priests, Father Ignacio Martín-Baro´, if they could stay with their 4 year old daughter on the campus of the U… Legal proceedings in Jesuit massacre cases As the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Jesuit massacre approaches, there are two judicial cases pending which seek to impose criminal liability on the military hierarchy which sent troops to kill the priests and teachers at the UCA. One case has moved steadily forward in a human rights court in Spain, homeland of 5 of the 6 Jesuits. The other case is barely alive in a court in El Salvador. In Spain, the human rights court is proceeding in the prosecution of the one defendant before it, former Colonel Inocente Montano. Montano is the defendant, found in the US, and later extradited to Spain after he finished a sentence for immigration fraud. Meanwhile the other defendants remain safely in El Salvador, which refuses to extradite them to the proceedings before the Spanish court. The human rights prosecutors announced this year that they are seeking a prison term of 150 years for Montano. Montano has been in pre-trial detention for the past two years in Spain awaiting his trial. The refu… Materials for 30th anniversary of Jesuits massacre This Saturday, November 16, is the 30th anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuit priests and one of their female co-workers and her daughter at the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador. For the rest of the week, El Salvador Perspectives will share several posts about the massacre and its commemoration this week. To begin, we have collected some videos on YouTube in English which provide an overview. In this video, ABC News offers early reporting on the massacre. In this video prepared for the 2018 commemoration of the massacre, José María Tojeira, S.J., the current director of the Human Rights Institute at the UCA and a fellow Jesuit working with his martyred brothers in 1989, shares his memories and reflections. In this video, the Center for Justice and Accountability describes the massacre and the efforts of the CJA to pursue justice. In this video, US Congressman Jim McGovern is interviewed about the Jesuit massacre. As a staffer, he was part of the team support… El Salvador's Legislative Assembly attempting "Amnesty 3.0" This November week in El Salvador is an important one for the country's historic memory. It is the 30 year anniversary of the "final offensive" launched by FMLN guerrillas in the country's civil war and of the November 16, 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, a domestic worker and her daughter at the University of Central America. It is a time to reflect back and to pray "Nunca Más" Never Again. Yet in the midst of remembering those events, deputies in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly are also considering a "Special Law of Transitional and Restorative Justice for National Reconciliation." It is a measure which critics say could work to blot out the memory of atrocities committed during the war, denying victims justice, and undercutting the possibility of "Never Again." The impetus for this proposal is a 2016 decision of the Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Judicial Court which overturned a blanket amnesty… An assortment of other news related to El Salvador this week: Democrats on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report disclosing that when the Trump administration cancelled TPS for El Salvador and other countries, career diplomats recommended a 36 month transition period following cancellation before any deportations would start. But some in the administration worried that date would fall just before the 2020 presidential elections, so the administration decided to grant only an 18 month period. (Now that period is of indeterminate length because of an injunction delaying the termination of TPS in a case called Ramos v Nielsen).Speaking of Ramos v. Nielsen, El Salvador's Legislative Assembly agreed to award Crisitina Ramos, the lead plaintiff in that case, the "Order of Merit, 5th of November 1811, Hereoes of the Country's Independence." The recognition of Ramos for her part in the lawsuit which obtained an injunction halting the termination of TP… El Mozote soldiers testify A few of the hundreds of small children who were victims at El Mozote On Friday November 1, the trial for the massacre of children, the elderly and others in El Mozote and surrounding communities took a new turn. For the first time, two soldiers who were part of the troops present in El Mozote during the massacre testified. The soldiers, who were cooperating with prosecutors, took the witness stand with their faces hidden and their voices disguised. They testified against their superior officers and against the high military command who had sent their unit to do its bloody work in rural El Salvador in December 1981. They testified under the pseudonyms "Juan" and "Sol." As Nelson Rauda points out in El Faro, the testimony of these two soldiers provides a key piece of the case. The fact of the massacre has been well established by civilian witnesses from Rufina Amaya to those who testified at the current trial over the past three years. But those witnesses were not… Judges and child sexual abuse The dismissal of a case of child sexual abuse committed by a sitting judge in El Salvador has rocked the country. It appears that just about every sector of society is outraged at the appearance that judges in El Salvador are protecting their own, and not protecting the most innocent of victims. The case involves Salvadoran magistrate Eduardo Jaime Escalante Díaz, 50 years old, who was accused of sexual assault of a child. Specifically the allegation is that he enticed a 10 year old girl on the street to approach him and then touched her genital area before fleeing after a neighbor shouted at him. The Legislative Assembly revoked Escalante's judicial immunity from suit so that he could face justice in a criminal court. Last week, that court ruled that a criminal case against Escalante could not proceed. The court ruled that the proof provided by the prosecutors was insufficient to establish the crime they had charged against Escalante, "sexual assault of a minor&quo… Good news, but why? El Salvador has good news to celebrate as November begins. The month of October closed with a post-war record low number of homicides according to official statistics. As shown in the chart above, the average number of Salvadorans killed in acts of violence has dropped from 9-10 per day to an average below 4 in only five months. President Nayib Bukele has been quick to take credit for the improved statistics: 112 homicidios en total. Dejando a agosto 2019 en segundo lugar con 130 y septiembre 2019 en tercer lugar con 143. Los 3 primeros lugares los ocupan meses ocurridos en nuestro Gobierno (que solo lleva 5 meses). — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 1, 2019 We are able to confirm that October 2019 has become the month with the least homicides since the Peace Accords... .... 112 total homicides. Leaving August 2019 in second place with 130 and september 2019 in third place with 143. The first 3 places are occupied by months which have happened during our Government (… Carlos Calleja Chaparrastique CICIES Commerce Group Crime and violence Decree 743 Deluge of 2011 Disappeared Children DR-CAFTA Dutch journalists El Salvador Spring Fernando Llort FGR FMLN Friday summary Gang truce IPAZ Jackeline Rivera Jesuit murders Just Garments Marcelo Rivera Movies/Video Munguía Payés Nayib Bukele Operation Jaque Oscar Ortiz Padre Toño PDDH Politician murders in Guatemala Quijano Rutilio Grande Salvadoran Bloggers Sanchez Ceren Sánchez Cerén Soto murder Suchitoto protests US relations Vendor clashes VMM Tweets by @TimMuth If you wish to subscribe to the El Salvador Perspectives e-mail list and receive e-mail updates each time new material is added to this blog, enter your e-mail address below:

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en - English (magħżula) Dan id-dokument mhux disponibbli bil-lingwa tiegħek. Jekk jogħġbok agħżel verżjoni b'lingwa oħra mit-'toolbar' tal-lingwa. Proċedura : 2019/2512(RSP) Ċiklu ta' ħajja waqt sessjoni Ċiklu relatat mad-dokument : B8-0053/2019 Testi mressqa : Dibattiti : Votazzjonijiet : Testi adottati : MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B8-0053/2019 PE631.649v01-00 with request for inclusion in the agenda for a debate on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law pursuant to Rule 135 of the Rules of Procedure on Sudan (2019/2512(RSP)) Charles Tannock, Karol Karski, Anna Elżbieta Fotyga, Ryszard Czarnecki, Pirkko Ruohonen‑Lerner, Angel Dzhambazki, Jana Žitňanská, Monica Macovei, Raffaele Fitto, Valdemar Tomaševski, Valdemar Tomaševski, Branislav Škripek on behalf of the ECR Group NB: This motion for a resolution is available in the original language only. European Parliament resolution on Sudan (2019/2512(RSP)) B8‑0053/2019 The European Parliament, -having regard to its previous resolutions on Sudan, in particular those of 6 October 2016, 16 November 2017, 15 March 2018 and 31 May 2018, -having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, -having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 to which the Republic of Sudan has been a state party since 1986, -having regard to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, -having regard to the Cotonou Agreement, -having regard to Sudan’s Constitution of 2005, -having regard to its Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) mission to Sudan in December 2017, -having regard to the statement by the EEAS spokesperson on the ongoing protests in Sudan on 24 December 2018, -having regard to the reports of the international human rights organisations on the situation in Sudan, -having regard to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; -having regard to the Universal Periodic review on Sudan of 2016; -having regard to the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2018; -having regard to the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief of 1981; -having regard to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; -having regard to Rules 135(5) and 123(4) of its Rules of Procedure, A. whereas since 19th of December 2018 demonstrators have taken to the streets across Sudan to protest price increases, cuts in subsidies on basic commodities and fuel shortages; whereas these protests have spread from towns and villages to the capital Khartoum after the government tripled the cost of a loaf; whereas protesters have also been marching against Sudan's dire economic situation and calling for the President Omar al-Bashir, in power for 29 years, to step down; B. whereas officially at least 19 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in clashes between protesters and Sudanese anti-riot police; whereas by the 1st of January 2019 international human rights organisations have reported 45 fatalities; C. whereas it is reported that the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security service (NISS) has used live ammunition and other forms of excessive force against unarmed protesters and arbitrarily detained them; whereas a number of opposition leaders, journalists, human rights defenders, university professors and students, including those with severe injuries, remain in detention without charge and without access to visits from family, lawyers or doctors; D. whereas Salih Mahmoud Osman –a human rights lawyer who has promoted the establishment of the rule of law and advocated for legal reform through the National Assembly of Sudan, and received the 2007 Sakharov Prize – was arrested on 8 January 2019 and his family has not been allowed to contact him; E. whereas arrested people face terrible conditions in prison; whereas abuse and torture has been reported; F. whereas, according to the human rights defenders, people from the Darfur region in particular have been harassed and arrested, even if they have not participated in demonstrations; G. whereas the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly are very limited in Sudan; whereas Sudanese authorities have censored newspapers, confiscating print runs and blocked access to the internet and in particular to social media; whereas the harassment of the media in Sudan has intensified with 18 journalists arrested last year while covering opposition protests; H. whereas doctors and journalists have launched a strike in support of the protests; whereas opposition groups are calling for further demonstrations and civil disobedience; I. whereas the next presidential elections in Sudan are scheduled for 2020; whereas according to the constitution of Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir is not permitted to stand again when his present term ends; J. whereas lawmakers in Sudan announced their willingness to amend the constitution in order to extend presidential term limits allowing President Bashir to seek re-election in 2020; K. whereas Sudan is classified as the fourth worst country to be Christian in the 2018 World Watch List prepared by Open Doors International; L. whereas Sudan is ranked 174th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2018; 1. strongly condemns the excessive use of force by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) during ongoing popular protests; furthermore calls for an end to end the killings, beating, and arbitrary arrest and detention of peaceful demonstrators; 2. expresses its deep concern regarding the wide-ranging powers conferred upon the NISS, whose officers have been accused of harassing and torturing opponents of the Bashir government with impunity; 3. urges on the Sudanese authorities to abide by internationally accepted standards in relation to the arrest, detention and prosecution of protestors and those accused of crimes; 4. calls the Sudanese authorities to respect due process regarding those arrested and facing charges in the context of the recent protests, and to carry out a full, impartial investigation into all reported abuses; 5. demands the immediate release of Sakharov Prize Laureate 2007, Salih Osman; 6. expresses its deep concern regarding an ongoing pattern of abuse of human rights in Sudan, in particular a deterioration of the already dire situation in recent weeks; notes a lack of any progress in re-engagement with the international community; 7. reminds the Sudanese government that it holds the primary responsibility for the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights in the country; urges the Sudanese government to restore and respect universal human rights and freedoms, in accordance with its international commitments and obligations; 8. supports the statement of the EEAS spokesperson from 24 December 2018, in which they called on the Sudanese government to respect the right of people to voice their concerns through peaceful protest, and for the authorities to respond peacefully to their grievances; 9. notes that Russian mercenaries have been sighted in Sudan during the recent protests; raising concerns about the potential involvement of the Russian Federation in support of the authoritarian regime in Khartoum; 10. calls on the Sudanese authorities to bring its national legislation into line with its international human right commitments; urges reform of the country’s legal system and reiterates that it is imperative that key laws in Sudan, including the 2010 National Security Act and laws regulating the media and civil society, are reviewed and amended in order to uphold freedoms of expression, assembly and association; emphasises that a free, pluralistic, and independent media is crucial for functioning the democratic society; 11. calls on the Sudanese authorities to stop imposing online censorship to limit political criticism and restrict access to information; 12. calls on Sudan to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; 13. deplores the state-endorsed persecution of Christians in Sudan and the closing and demolition of churches; calls on the Sudanese government to respect the rights to freedom of religion or belief and to ensure worshippers are able to do so free from the fear of persecution or violence; 14. underlines the EU’s engagement in providing humanitarian aid and in supporting civil society organisations with technical assistance and capacity building programmes in Sudan; encourages EU and its Members States to continue their efforts in these fields; 15. restates its demands that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir complies with international law in accordance with the conventions and treaties to which his government is party; further supports the role of the International Criminal Court in pursuing the charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against him; 16. instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the EEAS, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, the parliaments and governments of the Member States, the African Union, and the President and Government of the Republic of Sudan. Aġġornata l-aħħar: 15 ta' Jannar 2019 Avviż legali

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Home News Reviews Gallery Videos Calendar Blogs Cheats Demos Contact Us Area 51 (c) Midway By: David Brothers Area 51 review Game Over Online - http://www.game-over.com We've been hit with more than a few remakes of classic games in the past few years. NARC, Ninja Gaiden, Prince of Persia, and Conker: Live & Reloaded were all based in whole or in part on older games. Midway's Area 51 is the latest game franchise to be resurrected, this time as a first-person shooter instead of a light gun game. Area 51 made the transition pretty smoothly. The controls are about standard for an FPS, though placing the melee button on the right analog joystick was a stroke of genius. You get a full complement of customizable controls, including the all-important "Invert Aim" and aiming sensitivity options. The default settings are set at a fast enough speed that you should be fine, however. The graphics are good, if a bit dated. There's nothing that stands out as being awful, but there are better looking FPS games out there. The animation, however, is very well-done. It's very cool to spot a monster shambling your way and firing a rifle at you, only to have it duck and try to dodge when you open fire on it. Area 51 builds atmosphere like crazy. Everything from dead bodies placed along hallways, monsters leaping out of vents and swarming to your position, blood stains on the walls, or even just the panicked screams of your teammates works to build up a tense atmosphere. For the beginning part of the game, your teammates are essentially invulnerable, but that doesn't make the action any less frantic. Fighting off waves of baddies can be a terrifying thing, and Area 51 intends to make you feel every second of it. It's kind of thrilling to sit back with four or five other guys and simply burn through a couple dozen enemies. The only thing better is walking alone down a dark hallway, with only a flashlight and a nearly empty gun, hoping that no monsters come out to greet you. The AI on the computer teammates isn't too shabby. They'll call out positions, suggest new tactics ("Grenade!" seems to be the most common), and cover your six when you go off to flip a switch or retrieve something. I've yet to see one of them die when the plot didn't require it, so they're very helpful in a firefight. You can't simply sit there and let them win the game for you, however, because they'll often let monsters by, seemingly just so they can bite your face off. It's a very interesting way to play the team dynamic and the execution is very well done. The monster designs are remniscient of everything from Halo's Flood, the beasties from the classic film "The Thing," and your run-of-the-mill zombies. I honestly doubt that you'll be thinking "Oh, rip-off!" as hordes of tiny monsters swarm about your feet and try to kill you. The monsters, derivative or not, work with the atmosphere of the game. Stumbling blindly down a dark corridor is all well and good, but having a humanoid monster (or maybe something less than human) leap out at you is thrilling. The monsters do their job and do it well, even if it boils down to shocking you and getting shot in the face. The level design is definitely a high point. The textures tend to be nice and realistic, and the actual architecure is functional, which is a nice change of pace from most games. Most of the hallways and doorways seem to actually lead to something (or led to something in the past, before the base went belly-up). It really helps with the feeling of immersion. You aren't just wandering around some building that some guys sweated for months to program, you feel like you're walking around a facility that works, at least worked before everything in it was destroyed. On the downside, though, you can't call Area 51 an original game by any means. I spotted similarities to Halo, Doom 3, and a spot of Resident Evil within the first twenty minutes of the game. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Area 51 is a strong game, but it succeeds kind of in spite of itself. It would've been nice to see a lot more originality in the game, but Area 51 is a fun ride, regardless. Rating: 80% Written By: David Brothers Game Over Online - http://www.game-over.com We've been hit with more than a few remakes of classic games in the past few years. NARC, Ninja Gaiden, Prince of Persia, and Conker: Live & Reloaded were all based in whole or in part on older games. Midway's Area 51 is the latest game franchise to be resurrected, this time as a first-person shooter instead of a light gun game. On the downside, though, you can't call Area 51 an original game by any means. I spotted similarities to Halo, Doom 3, and a spot of Resident Evil within the first twenty minutes of the game. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Area 51 is a strong game, but it succeeds kind of in spite of itself. It would've been nice to see a lot more originality in the game, but Area 51 is a fun ride, regardless. See the Game Over Online Rating System • • • • • 80% • • • • • Web Game Over Online Copyright (c) 1998-2009 ~ Game Over Online Incorporated ~ All Rights Reserved Game Over Online Privacy Policy

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The history of the Guild Theatre The concept of a proper theatre in East London was born in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. An East London soldier and keen supporter of amateur theatre, Dr Bromilow-Downing, dreamed of the day he would be released and home again, and he whiled away the empty hours in the camp by writing a pantomime. After the war, he and another East Londoner, Arthur Markson, formed an association in November 1953 called the Theatre Guild, with the idea of initiating interest in building a real theatre in East London. The Theatre Guild soon comprised over 1 000 members through affiliated societies, including the Afrikaner Club, Association of Arts, Church Drama Club, Dramatic Society of East London, East London Music and Variety Club, East London Technical College Drama Club, and the East London Music Society. Fund-raising started in earnest in May 1954. The societies staged shows in churches and school halls, and every year a pantomime was performed in the East London City Hall. Proceeds from all these activities went to the fund. As the money started rolling in, the Theatre Guild requested the then Department of Education, Arts and Science to match their funds pound-for-pound. Finally, the Department gave a grant of £25 000,00, the East London Municipality a loan of £25 000,00 and the Theatre Guild raised £29 000,00 — and the Guild Theatre was built at a cost of £79 000,00 (R158 000,00). With their goal achieved, the Theatre Guild dissolved and the Guild Theatre officially opened on October 6, 1962 with a production of School for Scandal, directed by Mary Howe, who imported costumes from London especially for the occasion. At last East London had a theatre of which it could be proud and which provided a home for amateur and professional theatre, ballet and music concerts. The theatre was managed by the East London Guild Theatre Association, a non profit-making company, and the dramatic societies of the city provided the staff to run the theatre on a voluntary basis, with the exception of a part-time manager and one cleaner. With the advent of television, theatre audiences declined around the country and East London was no exception. Gradually professional companies began to miss out the city as they could not play to empty houses and the amateur companies, too, cut their productions to an average of two a year to limit costs. The Guild Theatre began to fall into disrepair and there was no money to make the modernisations that were becoming necessary. On July 1, 1986, CAPAB’s generous offer to take over the running of the Guild Theatre was accepted and the building was closed in March 1987 for extensive renovations. The revamped Guild Theatre, fully manned by permanent CAPAB staff, opened on February 29, 1988 with a performance of Carmen by CAPAB. CAPAB relinquished responsibility for the Guild Theatre in July 1997. It was handed over to the Eastern Cape Provincial Government in April 1998. The Department of Public Works did its best to maintain the theatre with the limited funds at its disposal, but major repairs – such as a new roof to replace the 40-year-old one – were just not possible. And to add to the Guild Theatre’s repair woes, Public Works relinquished all responsibility for repairs and maintenance with effect from April 2001. Nominations for a new management board were called for by the MEC of Sport, Arts and Culture at the time, Mr Mancotywa, from the citizens of East London and surrounding areas. The new eight-member board of the East London Guild Theatre was officially appointed in October 1998 with an undertaking from the Directorate of Sport, Arts and Culture to fund the theatre for three years on a sliding scale, ending March 2002. The East London Guild Theatre became an independent entity and a Section 21 company was formed. The board members all work on a completely voluntary basis to serve the theatre, representing the various cultural communities of Buffalo City and the surrounding areas. Its main task is transformation in line with the White Paper. To fulfil the theatre’s vision of transformation and redress, the East London Guild Theatre Dance Company was founded in February 1999 with funding from the National Arts Council and later from the Department of Arts and Culture. The lives of its dancers were transformed by providing them with employment and – as dance transcends all language barriers – they continue to impact their teaching skills and expertise in dance styles of this area from traditional to Afro-contemporary to classical, in the community.

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Walking Figure 78 x 56 in. (198 x 142 cm) Photographed late February 1960 1964 Cr Number Alley 163 Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts, Dallas 'Francis Bacon: Paintings 1959-1960', Marlborough Fine Art Ltd, London, 23 March 1960 - 22 April 1960 (24) 'Francis Bacon', Contemporary Arts Associates, Houston, 24 September 1964 - 01 November 1964 (unnum.) 'Francis Bacon: A Retrospective', Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 25 January 1999 - 21 March 1999 'Francis Bacon: A Retrospective', Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, 08 April 1999 - 27 May 1999 'Francis Bacon: A Retrospective', The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 13 June 1999 - 02 August 1999 'Francis Bacon: A Retrospective', Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, 20 August 1999 - 15 October 1999 (34) 'Francis Bacon: Lo Sagrado y lo Profano', Institut Valencià d'Art Moderne, IVAM, Valencia, 11 December 2003 - 21 March 2004 'Francis Bacon: Le Sacré et le Profane', Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, Paris, 07 April 2004 - 30 June 2004 (unnum.) 'Francis Bacon: The Violence of the Real', K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen , Düsseldorf, 16 September 2006 - 07 January 2007 (32) 'Francis Bacon in the 1950s', Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts , Norwich, 26 September 2006 - 10 December 2006 'Francis Bacon in the 1950s', Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, 29 January 2007 - 15 April 2007 'Francis Bacon in the 1950s', Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 05 May 2007 - 30 July 2007 (37) 'Francis Bacon', Museum of Modern Art (MoMAT), Tokyo, 08 March 2013 - 26 May 2013 'Francis Bacon', Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, 08 June 2013 - 01 September 2013 'Paint made Flesh', Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, 23 January 2009 - 10 May 2009 (unnum.) 'Paint made Flesh', The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 20 June 2009 - 13 September 2009 'Francis Bacon/Bruce Nauman. Face to face. Musée Fabre (2017)', Musée Fabre , Montpellier, 01 July 2017 - 05 November 2017 Ronald Alley, John Rothenstein, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné and Documentation (London: Thames & Hudson, New York: Viking Press, 1964). No. 163; pp. 128, 129-130, 273; ill. No. 163, unpaged, (b&w) Lorenza Trucchi, Francis Bacon, trans. by John Shepley (London: Thames & Hudson, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1976). ill. No. 65, unpaged (b&w) Margarita Cappock, Francis Bacon's Studio (London: Merrell, 2005). p. 103 Francis Bacon in the 1950s (55 works), Norwich: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts 26 Sep. 2006-10 Dec. 2006; Wisconsin: Milwaukee Art Museum 29 Jan. 2007-15 Apr. 2007; Buffalo: Albright-Knox Art Gallery 5 May. 2007-30 Jul. 2007; exh cat. (New Haven: Yale University Press in assoc. with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2006). ill. No. 37, unpaged Michael Peppiatt, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma, Revised edn. (London: Constable, 2008). ill. pp. 312-313 (b&w) Anna Maria Wieland, Francis Bacon, trans. by Michael Robinson (Munich, Berlin, London and New York: Prestel Verlag, 2009). ill. p. 35 (in studio, b&w) Martin Hammer, Francis Bacon, Phaidon Focus (London and New York: Phaidon, 2013). ill. No. 62, p. 72 Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon: La France et Monaco / France and Monaco (Paris: Albin Michel, Monte Carlo: Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation, 2016). pp. 47, 48; ill. No. 9, p. 47 Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné (London: The Estate of Francis Bacon, 2016). pp. 590, 594, 596; ill. p. 597

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Lillian Isabella is based in New York City. She grew up in the Bronx, sweat her way to a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, muscle cramped her way into first place in a New York Public Library poetry contest and fell in love with acting while performing as the lead in Twelve Angry Men at High School of American Studies. She graduated NYU, Tisch School of the Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute (LSTFI) with a BFA in Theatre and received the 'Drama Award for Outstanding Achievement in Studio' for her work there. Lillian has acted in plays at the United Nations, the Metropolitan Playhouse, HERE Arts Center, Fringe NYC, and with multiple NYC-based theater companies. Her notable film credits include: a co-starring role in Early Light, featuring Paul Sparks; a supporting role in Hannah Has a Ho Phase, co-starring Kate McKinnon; and a lead role in the short film Scheherazade which has been accepted into over 20 film festivals, winning several awards. She wrote for the Tribeca Film Institute blog for a year and has been a contributor to TribecaFilm.com, EverydayHealth.com, and stage combat magazine The Cutting Edge. She also co-founded On Her Shoulders a play reading series that asks the question: “Women have been writing plays for 1000 years, how many can you name?” with playwright Andrea Lepcio, and dramaturg Susan Jonas. Melody Brooks now produces the series in association with New School for Drama and New Perspectives Theatre Company. Learn more and connect: @LillianIsabela

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Samer Halawi Stephen Spengler Michelle Bryan Michael DeMarco Bruno Fromont Mark Rasmussen David Tolley Samer Halawi is the Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Intelsat where he is responsible for leading the Company’s global commercial operations, including the broadband, mobility, media, and government businesses, as well as the sales and marketing teams. He brings tremendous experience and expertise with more than 20 years in business development, telecommunications and global satellite communications. Prior to joining Intelsat, Samer served as the Chief Commercial Officer for OneWeb where he established and oversaw the distribution, product management, communications, business development, strategy, and sales and marketing functions for the company. Before that, Samer held the position of the Chief Executive Officer for Thuraya Telecommunications Company for six years, where he led a turnaround in Thuraya’s performance and positioning, and drove its growth to become a prominent international mobile satellite operator. Samer spent eight years at Inmarsat in global strategy and running operations for the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. His telecommunications experience includes roles at Flag Telecom and ICO Global Communications (ICO). His role at ICO followed a private placement for the shares of the company that he led during a three-year period in investment banking in the Middle East. Samer began his career in the automotive industry, where he occupied several positions with Chrysler Corporation and Ford Motor Company. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University and a MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the United States. Press Kit | U.S. Senate Testimony Corporate, Executive | In the News Intelsat appoints Halawi as CCO Intelsat has announced the appointment of satellite industry executive Samer Halawi to Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Assuming the role effective January 9th 2018, Halawi will … Intelsat appoints Samer Halawi CCO Intelsat has appointed satellite industry executive Samer Halawi to Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Assuming the role effective January 9, 2018, Halawi will lead an organisation … Corporate, Executive, Government | Press Release Stephen Spengler, CEO of Intelsat, ... Satellite Technology Vital to Delivering Affordable Connectivity and Driving Future Innovation, Intelsat CEO Tells Senate Committee Luxembourg, 25 October 2017 – Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I) (“Intelsat” …

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Intelsat Satellite Network Intelsat Fleet Intelsat 31 Serving Intelsat customers throughout the Americas Launched on 9 June 2016 at 7:10 GMT The Intelsat 31 satellite launch mission was successful today. Liftoff occurred at 7:10 GMT. The Intelsat 31 satellite separated from the rocket’s upper stage at 22:41 GMT, and signal acquisition has been confirmed. Intelsat 31 is a C- and Ku-band satellite manufactured by Space Systems Loral (SSL). The C-band payload will enhance Intelsat’s C-band infrastructure serving Latin America, and DIRECTV Latin America, will use the Ku-band payload to expand its current Direct-to-Home (DTH) entertainment offerings for Pan Americana, and provide backup and restoration services. The satellite will be co-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C and Intelsat 30 satellites at 95°W.

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Home Breaking News Google Wants Chinese Look-Alike to Knock It Off Google Wants Chinese Look-Alike to Knock It Off By internetnews.com Staff | February 09, 2010 Google has sent a cease and desist letter to the operators of a Chinese search website whose logo bears a close resemblance to its own. Goojje's home page is adorned with a Google-styled logo and the familiar paw print logo of China's top home-grown search engine, Baidu. The Web site, whose name is a play on words with the final syllable "jje" sounding like the Chinese word "older sister," while the "gle" syllable of "Google" is pronounced like the Chinese word for "older brother," provides search and social networking services. A Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the company has officially asked Goojje to stop copying Google's logo, which is protected by trademark. China has a notoriously poor record at protecting intellectual property rights. Pirated software, music, movies and clothing, among a host of other goods, are widely available throughout the country despite repeated government crackdowns. Goojje has already stopped using its original URL, www.goojje.com. Visitors typing in the address now get automatically redirected to dierqi.com, though the content appears to be the same. Last month, Google threatened to pull out of China over censorship concerns and what it said was a serious hacking incident that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.

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Home ISP IBM, Heller Financial Introduce SuccessLease To HK SMEs IBM, Heller Financial Introduce SuccessLease To HK SMEs By asia.internet.com staff | April 27, 2001 SINGAPORE -- IBM Global Financing, an IT financier, has teamed with Heller Financial, Inc. to introduce a Web-based IT solution financing program for small businesses in Hong Kong. The SuccessLease program enables small businesses to finance - in minutes - up to HK$500,000 (US$64,000) in IBM and non-IBM hardware, software and services. These businesses can also take advantage of attractive lease rates and quick credit decisions, which are all executed online. East Asia Heller Limited will provide financing and administration of the program in Hong Kong. "We are delighted to enter into a strategic relationship with the world's largest IT financier," said Anthony Cheng, managing director of Heller Financial in the Asia Pacific region. "With SuccessLease, IBM customers in key international markets will have quick, easy access to the lease financing they need to fund their IT growth." Through a global alliance with Heller, SuccessLease is now available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.S. and U.K. It has been available in North America since early 1999. There are plans to introduce the program to other countries in Europe and Asia through the IBM/Heller alliance, officials said. Said Cordelia Chung, general manager of IBM China/Hong Kong Ltd. "IT financing is a critical tool that enables small businesses to acquire the IT solutions they need to remain competitive, grow and implement new e-business applications, while preserving their other sources of cash. "IBM Global Financing recognizes that the traditional financing application process can be lengthy for these smaller companies, and SuccessLease changes this by providing easier, rapid credit approval over the Internet." She added that as SuccessLease is offered both directly from IBM and through IBM Business Partners, ISVs can provide their customers with instant quotes and automated credit scoring to speed up the credit application process.

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Facebook cafes offer free privacy checks The scheme comes after research found many social media users do not know how to adjust their privacy settings. Facebook is launching its first pop-up cafes aimed at encouraging users to personalise their privacy settings. The firm is opening pop-ups in London and Manchester, which will offer a free drink to visitors who choose to be guided through a privacy check-up on the site, with further branches to open in Brighton, Edinburgh and Cardiff over the next week. It comes as Facebook published research which suggests more than a fifth (22%) of UK social media users do not know how to customise their privacy settings on any platform. Only half of those asked knew how to customise privacy settings on Facebook specifically, the report suggested. (Facebook/PA) Facebook has come under intense scrutiny following a series of data privacy incidents, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, for which the company has been heavily fined. The social network has made a number of changes to its practices and has pledged to continue updating its range of apps, with founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announcing earlier this year that “the future is private” as he unveiled plans to make communications and other parts of Facebook’s business more secure. Last week, Facebook also announced the testing of a new tool which will enable users to clear data linked to their account that has been gathered through their activities on other websites, which is used to tailor advertising on the platform. Facebook vice president for northern Europe Steve Hatch said: “Millions of Brits use social media to connect and share with friends and family, but many are concerned about who is able to see what they post online. “We want people to have more control of their experience on Facebook and know about the many new tools and features we’ve introduced to help manage their privacy. “Doing a privacy check-up is quick and easy – but if you’re unsure how, then head down to one of our pop-up cafes. We can help you personalise your privacy settings – and all in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.” The social network is opening pop-ups at The Attendant in Hackney and Takk in Manchester on August 28 and 29, followed by the Flour Pot Cafe in Brighton on September 1, Union Brew Lab in Edinburgh on September 2 and 3, and the Coffee Barker in Cardiff on September 4 and 5. 27 August, 2019 23:01 Technology 11-year-old quadruple amputee receives Star Wars bionic arm Psychiatrists call for social networks to hand over data amid suicide concerns Molly Russell entered ‘dark rabbit hole of suicidal content’ online, says father

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Source: The Star Ledger Author: Bill Swayze Friends and family of a Fairleigh-Dickinson University senior who was killed in a car crash in Madison said the 21-year-old marketing major was a happy-go-lucky student with big plans after graduation. Adrian Cummings, of the Gillette section of Long Hill, was eager to move to Miami, having already enrolled in an advertising school there. He was going to head south right after his May graduation at FDU's Florham Park campus, his 22-year-old sister Ashley said. "He was really looking forward to going to Miami," she said yesterday. "He was such a good person with a great bunch of friends." Cummings lost control of his white 1988 Toyota MR2 while traveling east on Madison Avenue, also known as Route 124, near the entrance to the Giralda Farms corporate office campus about 6:20 p.m. Thursday, police Captain John Trevena said. Cummings' car crossed the roadway into the westbound lanes and he appeared to have been trying to swerve back to his side of the road when an oncoming car crashed into the driver's side of his vehicle, Trevena said. The student was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the westbound car, Patrizia Giassa, 43, of Chatham, was taken to Morristown Memorial Hospital, where she was treated and released, authorities said. Trevena said police do not suspect alcohol was involved in the crash and are awaiting the results of toxicology tests. Both drivers, who were in their cars alone, were wearing seat belts. Trevena also noted many drivers saw the accident, but did not stop to provide police with witness accounts. As a result, police do not know why Cummings lost control of the car. Police suspect Cummings might have been cut off by another driver, or Cummings swerved too far to stay away from the snow at his side of the roadway, Trevena said. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (973) 593-3000. Ashley Cummings and her brother's roommate since freshman year, Ian Bouie, 21, of Plainfield, said they do not know where Adrian Cummings was heading at the time of the crash. Bouie noted friends of the Watchung Hills Regional High School graduate were gathering yesterday to plan a memorial service on the college campus. Funeral arrangements also were being planned. Cummings, who was a Lenny Kravitz and Bob Marley fan and took pride in his physique, working out at a gym four times a week, was "very outgoing, carefree and happy-go-lucky. He was such a great guy. A class act," Bouie said. Besides his sister, he is survived by his parents, two grandfathers and a grandmother. 2nd Story: Victim in fatal crash identified By Minauti Dave, Daily Record The victim of a two-car crash on Madison Avenue Thursday was identified Friday as Adrian Cummings, a 21-year-old Fairleigh Dickinson University student. Police said Cummings, of Long Hill, lost control of his car and crashed into an oncoming vehicle. He was leaving the university's Florham Park campus and his 1988 Toyota MR2 was eastbound on Madison Avenue near Danforth Road, police said, when his car crossed into the westbound lane for an undetermined reason. It collided with a 2002 Audi driven by Patrizia Giassa, 43, of Chatham. The front end of the Audi struck the Toyota on the driver's side door area, causing severe head injuries to Cummings, police said. The Madison Fire Department used the Jaws of Life to free Cummings from his car. Paramedics from Morristown Memorial Hospital were dispatched, and Cummings was pronounced dead at the scene. Both her seatbelt and a driver's side airbag prevented Giassa from suffering serious injuries. She was taken to Morristown Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries and released. Toxicology test results are pending as the investigation continues, but police do not suspect that drugs or alcohol caused the accident. Road conditions, speed and equipment failure do not appear to have contributed to the accident, police said.

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IT'S PART OF THE CULTURE AND THE LANDSCAPE - almost every village in New Mexico and southern Colorado has an old adobe and stone church, a humble capilla like this small family chapel in Pajarito, a morada or descanso. These are not grand monuments, they are from and of the earth, built by hand, with love and faith and it becomes an adventure to find and identify them. Selection from this series have been included in "Pilgrims and Promises", a collaboration of photographs and poetry with my cousin Karen Biddle. Images currently in the studio are listed below with sizes, descriptions and prices. Just as sacred are the Native American sites - especially the healing sites and the ruins of ancient cities. They hold a special place in my heart. I try to research the stories behind them and hope my interpretations are respectful. San José de Gracia, Las Trampas Completed in 1780, San José de Gracia is one of the best preserved examples of Spanish Colonial Mission architecture in New Mexico and perhaps in the US. Still an active parish, it was re-roofed and repaired in 1932 and completely restored in the 1970s. Villagers take turns keeping the key and are proud to show you this beautiful church. This image was scanned from a 4x5 negative taken in the late 1970s. The church is a National Historic Landmark. Limited edition Archival pigmented ink print on fine art paper, printed as a duotone. 32x24" print (image size 24x16") unframed $400 framed to 32x24" $500 Capilla de la Sagrada Familia I have photographed and painted this family chapel in Pajarito many times over the years. It was in danger of collapse when I first saw it but family members and others came together to restore the chapel with help from Cornerstones Community Partnerships. Cornerstones works with communities to restore historic structures and reinforce cultural values. Archival print on fine art paper. La Morada de Nuestra Señora de Dolores del Alto de Abiquiú The famous morada in Abiquiu has been memorialized in photos that include the entire structure and the three crosses on the horizon by Ansel Adams and many more. But on Good Friday some years ago I was taken by the simple Madero (the crucifix used in processions) resting beside the door. My husband and I were honored to be invited to join in the procession from one morada to the other, listening to Alabados of Los Hermanos. 19x13" print (image size 12x9") unframed $75 framed and double matted to 20x17" $150 Inside El Santuario de Chimayó (which can no longer be photographed), the faithful lighting candles in prayer caught my eye. Taken with only natural light coming in the side window, everything was bathed in gold including the normally colorful altar screen. The most familiar view of El Santuario is outside from the front with the two bell towers prominant. Limited edition Archival pigmented ink print on Arches watercolor paper with the deckled edges showing. 22x15" print (16x10" image size) (available 8.5 x 11 matted to 11 x 14 - $100) Kiva Ladder This restored kiva at Pecos National Historical Park was photographed with only natural light coming in the opening above. Once the largest and most populous of the New Mexico pueblos (2,500 people or more), they traded with Pueblos and Plains tribes, became economically powerful and practiced the arts and customs of both worlds. Epidemics and Comanche raids took their toll and by 1805 only 104 people remained. In 1838 elders from Jemez Pueblo, which speaks the same language, traveled to Pecos to invite the remaining 17 to come to Jemez to live. Their descendants remain there. Weathered adobe walls of a Spanish church share a ridge with the pueblo ruins, which extend for a quarter-mile. Take time to visit both Pecos and the Glorieta Battlefield National Historic Landmark nearby, the site of an important Civil War battle. Rock and Raven Talk The raven is a well-dressed bird - proud and intelligent - a self appointed messenger. The language skills of the raven contribute to the legend of their being the ultimate oracle. Raven symbolism goes back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. In southwestern tribes (Hopi, Navajo, Zuni) the raven flew out from the dark womb of the cosmos, and with it brought the light of the sun (dawning of understanding). Limited edition Archival pigmented ink print on Arches watercolor paper with the deckled edges showing. 30x22" print (image size 24x15") superbly framed by Framing Concepts - floated on a black background and then matted in a rich complimentary red and finished off with a simple black frame. framed size 44x30" - framed price $1,200 The language skills of the raven contributes to the legend of their being the ultimate oracle and raven symbolism goes back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. In southwestern tribes (Hopi, Navajo, Zuni) the raven flew out from the dark womb of the cosmos, and with it brought the light of the sun (dawning of understanding). Consequently, the raven is considered a venerated bird of creation, for without the raven, humans would forever live in darkness. This messenger was in a window at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. Hawks touch something deep in our souls and it is said that Hawk medicine teaches you to be observant. For Native Americans, there are few symbols stronger than red-tailed hawks. To the Pueblo people of New Mexico, the red-tailed hawk is known as the red eagle. Its feathers and energy are used for healing ceremonies and for bringing the rains and waters necessary for life.

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‘Extraordinary’ breakthroughs in anti-Aging research ‘will happen faster than people think’ in: Medicine,Startup,Stem cells People 50 and older have a lot to look forward to, according to Juvenescence’s Greg Bailey—mainly that we won’t be aging as fast or poorly as our parents. “Science fiction has become science,” said the UK-based anti-aging biotech’s CEO about the company’s completing its $100 million Series B round of financing last week. “I think the world is going to be shocked,” he said in an interview. In total, Juvenescence has now raised $165 million in just 18 months to fund longevity projects with the lofty goal of extending human lifespans to 150 years. Bailey said the money will allow the company “to progress all of our products.” And there’s quite a list of potential therapies. “We have 12 programs based on hard, rigorous science, to try to modify aging. From stem cell research to senolytics to modifying or preventing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases,” he said. It’s no secret that anti-aging is big business. According to Endpoints News, “Bank of America has forecast the market will balloon to $610 billion by 2025, from an estimated $110 billion currently.” “I think there’s a huge amount of skepticism. There’s an enormous number of charlatans…I understand why they would be thinking you know, is this real?” Bailey told Endpoints. “Walk into your local drugstore, you’re going to see about 50 products that claim to be anti-aging, and I can assure you that none of them are.” Bailey said creams that claim everything and do nothing and vitamins that basically give users “expensive urine” are the reason for that skepticism. And investors are not as quick to step up as he would like. Bailey told Endpoints: “We’re dramatically being underserved…it’s not getting the exposure that tech gets, considering the size of the market.” He said he believes there is “a disconnect” on how investors and institutions are viewing anti-aging technology. “I don’t think they quite grasp how fast this is going to happen, and how big it’s going to be.” And according to Market Watch, Juvenescence has a fair share of competition, including: Life Biosciences, the Boston-based company founded in 2016 by scientists David Sinclair and Tristan Edwards to invest in the eight pathways of age-related decline. “In January, Life Biosciences raised $50 million in a Series B financing – twice its original target – to grow its portfolio of ‘daughter companies’ which carry out their own research and development programs,” Market Watch reported. Investors are also closely watching Rejuvenate Bio—the start-up, co-founded by Harvard Medical School professor George Church, Market Watch reports. The company is testing 60 different age-reversing gene therapies. “The company, which carried out initial tests on beagles, claims it can reverse aging in animals by adding new DNA instructions to their bodies,” Market Watch reported. “It has announced plans to launch a trial later this year to combat mitral valve disease, a condition which is common in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed and directly caused by ageing.” Among the Juvenescence-backed programs is one from AgeX Therapeutics. The company focuses on targeting human aging with new therapies and medicines. Currently AgeX is studying stem cells for tissue and organ rejuvenation. “Stem cells are programmed to die. The cells AgeX are creating are stem cells we could give to you, and they could bind to your heart and fix your heart,” he said. “They are creating cell lines from a single cell of tissue from IVF clinics. These are all living embryonic cells.” Bailey said with the company’s PureStem® cell-based technologies, it has the ability to generate pluripotent or self-renewing stem cell-derived young cells of any type to potentially cure a range of age-related degenerative diseases. For example, the company hopes to one day be able to inject the cells locally into the damaged portion of an individual’s heart or spinal cord. “They would be one-day old cells, not 70-year-old cells,” Bailey said. And, according to its website, with its induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™) longevity platform, AgeX hopes to “unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes in the body.” Healthier, longer lifespans with new tissues and organs will be a reality sooner than anyone thinks, Bailey said. “We are just learning so much so fast,” Bailey said. “It’s happening now. It’s not in the future, and it will happen faster than people think. The potential to regrow a lung or a limb is extraordinary.” Juvenescence-backed biotechnology company, LyGenesis, Inc., hopes to enter human trials next year on a therapy that could potentially give patients with end stage liver disease hope for new livers without having to wait on donated organs. The technology uses lymph nodes as bioreactors to regrow functioning organs within a patient’s own body. “In the U.S., we don’t have enough livers to do transplants—which are a $700,000 procedure,” Bailey said. The company is working on injecting cadaver cells into lymph nodes to grow secondary livers, he said. Fueled by research from Eric Lagasse, PharmD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh (UPIT) and LyGenesis’ Chief Scientific Officer, the research found that a variety of different cells types and tissues, including the liver, could engraft and actually grow within lymph nodes. “Remarkably, we were able to get these transplanted cells to organize, proliferate and vascularize into functioning ectopic organs, which rescued animals from otherwise fatal cases of organ failure,” Lagasse said in a statement. The research is funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and conducted at UPIT’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Michael Hufford, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of LyGenesis, said the technology could address the problem of the imbalance between organ supply and demand. Instead of one donated organ treating just one patient, one donated organ could serve as the seed to treat dozens of patients simultaneously, he said. And procedures using Lygenesis’ technology would not require major transplantation surgery, Hufford said in a statement, “but would instead use a minimally invasive outpatient endoscopy, decreasing costs while enabling patients considered too sick or having too many comorbidities to qualify for traditional organ transplantation to receive treatment.” “Wouldn’t it be amazing if you were a diabetic and you could create a new pancreas from your own lymph nodes?” Bailey asked. “The things happening are going to be extraordinary.” There is almost no limit to what tissue regeneration therapies could do to improve and lengthen the human lifespan, Bailey said. “If a child cuts off the tip of his finger and they are under the age of seven, it can regrow. We have that capability in us, but we lose it at a certain age. We are now learning how to turn that back on in adults. It is possible to regrow a kidney or a limb. And you know, I’m mindful that if you live to 150, people don’t want to be all wrinkled and in a wheelchair. So what we want to be able to do is regenerate tissues,” Bailey said. Aside from Juvenescence, he noted the 2017 study on middle-aged fruit flies wherein UCLA biologists developed an intervention that serves as a cellular time machine—substantially improving the animals’ health while significantly slowing their aging. The ongoing mitochondria-focused research aims to lead to therapeutics that could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cardiovascular disease as well as cancer, stroke and other age-related human diseases. Then there are the joint ventures with companies such as Alex Zhavoronkov’s AI shop at Insilico Medicine and the Buck Institute, where the biotechs and researchers at each company have combined their knowledge to form partnerships with Juvenescence to develop small molecules as new targets to attempt to extend life spans. Juvenescence is backed by British International biotech investor, Jim Mellon, who launched the company in 2017 and then wrote a 400-page guide to investing in the field of longevity. The study of aging and longevity is growing in popularity as well as fueling hope that humans could actually live into their 150s. “It is a popular vision. Inspired by Mellon, venture capitalist Sergey Young—who is in charge of all things longevity at the non-profit XPRIZE and VC fund BOLD Capital Partners—unveiled a $100 million fund with the same goal in February,” Endpoints’ Natalie Grover reported last week. “Google-owned stealthy biotech Calico is after the same prize — and has partnered with AbbVie $ABBV.” Nanalyze, a website that offers information for investors on emerging technologies, recently published a list of the top 10 companies working to increase longevity. Insilico Medicine and AgeX are among them. Bailey said Juvenescence expects to have at least four anti-aging products on the market within seven years. He likened the outcome of anti-aging research to the study of flight. “In 1903, two brothers flew a glorified kite for 14 seconds, the Kitty Hawk. Fifteen years later they were flying planes in WWI, and 35 years later, the Germans had invented the jet. Sixty-five years later we landed a man on the moon. For robotics and for aging, divide that number by 10. That’s how fast this is going to happen.” Via Forbes

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Peak District communities could disappear Communities living in the Peak District National Park in Staffordshire could disappear, claim people who live there. Many fear proposed funding cuts of almost 30% to national parks could destroy their living. "The Peak District is managed more for visitors than residents" said Dehra Griffiths, headmistress at Flash School - which only has 7 pupils. The relevant government department, DEFRA, says a new consultation will address the problems. All parties are grappling with the problem of keeping rural communities alive while, at the same time, maintaining the natural beauty of the landscape. The Peak District National Park, which spans over 550 square miles (about the same size as Greater London), is home to just 38,000 people. Even among these, there are competing needs: the requirements of the farmer, the businessperson, the singleton and the young family are each unique. Balanced against that are the 10 million or so visitors who make recreational use of the land. Then there are also the environmentalists who passionately defend its unspoilt beauty. Flash village The village of Flash, perched high up in the Staffordshire Moorlands (it is generally regarded as the highest village in England), experiences the familiar problems of other Peak National Park villages. Planning restrictions keep the housing stock low. Just five new homes have been built there over the past 50 years. This impacts on house prices, which, villagers say, are are often inflated and out of reach of most young families. As families find it harder to stay, the village primary school has seen a serious drop in the number of pupils. There were 15 children not so long ago at Flash Primary; now it has just seven. "Something has to change. The Peak District is managed more for visitors and for people from outside," warned acting headmistress, Dehra Griffiths. "The numbers have fallen in a natural way because we haven't enough housing. "Young people can't move back into the area and can't bring their families," added Dehra. A government spending review, which asks for big savings in almost every department, muddies the water even more. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), has agreed to a 29% budget cut in its budget over the next four years. In November 2010, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, who heads DEFRA, launched a consultation on how cuts should be implemented, with the aim of responding more to the needs of local people. Speaking on the BBC Politics Show, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the MP for another area of outstanding natural beauty, the Cotswolds, said: "I think that Caroline Spelman has done exactly the right thing to have this consultation so we can ask the people who live in the national parks, the people who taught at Flash Primary School, the farmer, exactly what they want for their own area." Mr Clifton-Brown is convinced that the concerns of local people should be of paramount importance. "Unless we actually provide a livelihood for the people who live in the national parks, communities will die out - the national parks are what they are because they were a living landscape. "They were formed by people who worked there, lived there, made their livelihood there. We have to adapt to modern times; we can't just have our National Parks preserved in aspic, they have to move a bit with the times," said Mr Clifton-Brown. The Peak District is the oldest of Britain's 15 national parks. Merry Christmas from HikingBlog J'aime le Massif Central Camp in Peak Park and help the environment Winter Weather Forecasts Who wants the Roaches? A lunchtime walk in the snow

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2010 NHL Draft: Philadelphia Flyers selections all done or departed By Jashvina Shah Photo: Though Michael Chaput is one of the most successful 2010 Flyers selections, he was traded to the Blue Jackets in 2011. (Courtesy of Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire) In the 2010 draft, the Flyers emerged with mostly forward prospects, taking a center, two left wings and a right wing. With no first-round pick that year, Philadelphia’s earliest choice came in the third round. The Flyers selected center Michael Chaput, who is now in the Blue Jackets organization. Some prospects have seen NHL action, and so far the most successful of the group has been Tye McGinn, although he now plays for the Arizona Coyotes. Like Chaput and McGinn, much of the draft class has either moved to a new team, and the rest have been a bust (save for NCAA prospects Michael Parks and Nick Luukko). Michael Chaput, C, Springfield Falcons (AHL) – 3rd round, 89th overall Status: Prospect NHL Games Played: 50 After being drafted by the Flyers, Chaput returned to the QMJHL for his third season with the Lewiston MAINEiacs. He served as an assistant captain that year, appearing in 62 games. He also spent the next season in the QMJHL, but this time with the Shawinigan Cataractes. In 2011, Chaput was traded to the Blue Jackets. He signed an entry-level deal with the club in April 2012, and spent the following season with the Springfield Falcons. Through 73 AHL games. Chaput netted 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists). In the next season, Chaput saw his first piece of NHL action, recording one point in 17 games. This season he saw a career-high 33 games at the NHL level, splitting his time between the Blue Jackets and the Falcons. He started the 2013-14 season with Columbus, serving as a bottom-six forward. Tye McGinn, LW, Arizona Coyotes – 4th round, 119th overall Status: NHL Player McGinn began his junior career with the OHL, but finished it in the QMJHL. He parlayed 62 points with the Gatineau Olympiques in 2009-10 into a draft choice from the Flyers. After the 2010-11 season, McGinn signed an entry-level deal with Philadelphia and joined the Phantoms. In his first professional season, McGinn recorded 18 points (12 goals, 6 assists) over 63 games. He saw his first NHL playing time the next year, appearing in 18 games. He returned to the NHL in 2013-14 for the same amount of time, replicating his five points over 18 games. Much of his time in the Flyers’ organization was spent with the AHL affiliate, though, where he scored a career-high 35 points in the 2013-14 season. During the offseason, the Flyers traded McGinn to the Sharks, who placed him on waivers after 33 games. He was picked up by the Coyotes, who dressed him for 51 NHL games—though he scored just two points. Michael Parks, RW, North Dakota (NCAA) – 5th round, 149th overall NHL Games Played: 0 After being drafted, Parks returned to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL. His 25 goals ranked second on the team, and he finished with 41 points. Parks began his freshman season at North Dakota in 2011-12, where he skated in 42 games and recorded 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) and was named the team’s Rookie of the Year. Though injuries limited Parks to 25 games as a sophomore, he rebounded as a junior, scoring 30 points (12 goals, 18 assists) while helping North Dakota to the Frozen Four. He also earned a spot on the All-NCHC Second Team. As a senior, Parks had a career-high 32 points. He has not signed with the Flyers organization yet. Nick Luukko, D, Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL) – 6th round, 179th overall In 2010-11, Luukko won the Clark Cup with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL. In the next season, he joined the University of Vermont, where he appeared in 17 games before sustaining a season-ending injury. He followed with 36 games during his sophomore season, netting 10 points—tied for the scoring lead amongst Catamount defensemen. As a junior, Luukko finished with eight points as the Catamounts made the Frozen Four. He appeared in all 41 games his senior season, netting a career-high 14 points. After the season’s end, Luukko signed an ATO with the Phantoms. In his first AHL stint, Luukko played in six games. Ricard Blidstrand, D, Kallinge/Ronneby (Division 1) – 7th round, 206th overall Status: Bust Drafted out of Sweden, where he played for AIK’s J18 team, Bildstrand joined the Regina Pats of the WHL. In his first season, he scored 17 points across 70 games. He spent the 2011-12 season split between the Pats and Prince George Cougars, but he returned back to Sweden after that season. He now plays for Kallinge/Ronneby in the Division 1 league. He has spent the last three seasons with Kallinge/Ronneby. In a combined 122 games, he has recorded 29 points and a cumulative plus-15 rating. It is unlikely that he will ever play hockey in North America again. Brendan Ranford, LW, Texas Stars (AHL) – 7th round, 209th overall After he was drafted, Ranford returned to the Kamloops Blazers. He put up 86 points in 2010-11, followed by 92 (40 goals, 52 assists) the next year. He played for the Blazers for a total of five seasons. The Flyers opted not to sign Ranford in 2012, so he became an unrestricted free agent. Unable to sign with a team for the 2012-13 season, Ranford returned to the WHL, finishing with 87 points (22 goals, 65 assists). He then attended Stars camp and played for Texas in the 2013-14 season—his first as a professional. After 65 games and 35 points, Ranford signed an entry-level contract with the Stars. He made his NHL debut during the 2014-15 season, but spent most of the year in the AHL—where he netted 51 points (18 goals, 33 assists) over 73 games. Notable Playoff Performances Nicolas Aube-Kubel had 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) through 17 games for the Val-d’Or Foreurs, 24th in playoff scoring. The Foreurs were swept in the semifinals by the Rimouski Oceanic, who went on to with the QMJHL championship. Prospect of the Month: Travis Sanheim When the Flyers drafted Travis Sanheim, they expected him to be one of the organization’s better defensemen. He immediately was, and has continued to show that through his second season with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. After leading all WHL defensemen in the regular season with 65 points (15 goals, 50 assists), Sanheim continued his point production in the playoffs. His 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) ranked 14th in the WHL and second amongst defensemen.

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Order Program The Mission | The Trailer | The Program Package The Holy Winding Sheet Exploring The Shroud of Turin This fascinating program traces the Shroud's journey from Jerusalem to Turin, explores the controversial 1988 carbon dating test, and shows how the image of the crucified man could not have been faked. More than 30 Popes have also recognized the authenticity of the Holy Shroud. Pope John XXIII said: "This can only be the Lord's own doing." Pope Paul VI said: "Perhaps only the Image from the Holy Shroud reveals to us something of the human and divine personality of Christ." Pope Pius IX said: “This salutary reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus is a Divine work, destined to save modern society.” Pope Pius XI said: "They are the pictures of the Divine Son of Mary; they come, in fact, from that object known as the Shroud of Turin; still mysterious, but certainly not the work of any human hand" - while giving pictures of the Shroud to the youth he met along the way. Pope St. Pius X said: “I would hope that the Holy Shroud be venerated in the homes of all Christian families.” Before the Shroud arrived in Turin, and became known as the Shroud of Turin, it was known and commonly called The Holy Winding Sheet. The Shroud arrived in Turin in 1578, from Chambery in France. The Feast of The Holy Winding Sheet is officially celebrated on May 4th every year. Although not celebrated widely in the United States, it is still commemorated every year in some parts of Europe. Including Saint Charles Borromeo, many great Saints held the Holy Winding Sheet in great esteem. They included Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Saint Bridget of Sweden, Venerable Mary of Agreda, and Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich. It came to Turin after an ailing Saint Charles Borromeo made it known he wanted to travel from his home in Milan, Italy, to Chambery to venerate the cloth. Only around 40 years of age, the Saint was in poor health, ostensibly from his exhausting work every day to feed tens of thousands of people ravaged by the plague. Officials decided to spare Saint Charles a dangerous trip over the Alps and meet him in Turin. The Shroud has been there ever since. Shroud.com Shroud Encounter The Holy Winding Sheet Feature Presentation What Others Think …easier to understand than other programs I’ve seen on television. I was most inspired by the student who did the interviewing. …really impressed by the quality of the research done by the high school student. …very well done. It will spark interest for students and inspire them to be inquisitive about other parts of religion. …very well balanced. The scientific evidence was clearly explained and understandable. …very powerful. …this was a great coming together of the experts and the research. …the young investigative reporter is very contemporary and will appeal to the youth. I am very impressed with the young man undertaking this project. …one of the top two or three best documentaries ever produced on the Shroud. Barrie Schwortz 1978 STURP Photographer and Researcher If you would like to know more, discuss the Shroud project or simply say hi, feel free to drop us a line here: Salt River Productions 178 Marcrest Dr. Chesterfield, MO 63017314.853.8786 chuck@saltriverproductions.com Subscribe to: Newsletter Copyright © Salt River Production Group, 2020. All Rights Reserved. | A Chuck Neff company | Developed by Web2Creative | Members Only

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Home > Video Premiere: Molly O’Malley – “that scares me!!!!!” Video Premiere: Molly O’Malley – “that scares me!!!!!” Molly O’Malley, crafter of dynamic sounds and emotionally heavy pop, is back with her new music video for her single “that scares me!!!!!”. The single, off of her fall release There’s Always More Show, captures the essence of her truly raw and intimate EP. The steady chord-driven track unveils a sonic feeling of a cautious, balanced steady fall into opening up and falling in the love. To match her steady, ease-into-love song, “that scares me!!!!!” chronicles a series of home video-style moments of Molly with her partner. The video, filmed by Molly herself with the help of Elliott Williams, showcases her artistry, vulnerability, and of course, budding relationship. The moments of performance are perfectly juxtaposed with the moments of intimacy, which works as a balance to not just the music itself but Molly herself. The sort of moments tucked in, from sipping coffee to sharing laughs in front of the lens, show the softer side of a relationship that revels in its comfort. Molly has mastered showing her talents as much as her true self within the space of a camera phone, a sure sign of what sort of adventures we’ll follow her on this year. Be sure to catch Molly O’Malley on tour this winter through the Midwest. Check out the dates below: Follow Molly O’Malley on social media: Amanda Starling | @starlingaj

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Never Mind Southern Softies, What About Those Namby-Pamby Northeners? I’ve curtailed my halftime habit at home games of playing hide and seek with the stewards on the stairwells, while surreptitiously sneaking a few pulls on a cigarette, ever since a steward mate of mine warned me that they’d started confiscating membership cards (which constitute our season tickets!) of anyone caught smoking. Apparently a grovelling letter of apology will get it returned after a first offence, but get caught again and one is in danger of losing it for good. And the umpteen thousand on the season ticket waiting list is enough to make me worry that this is no idle threat. Yet while the Arsenal might be doing their bit to save me from the ravages of lung cancer, it seems I am likely to end up losing the remainder of my teeth instead, as I nervously chomp my way through the packets of sweets that have now replaced the cigarettes, as this particular footie fan’s equivalent of a comfort blanket. Mind you if the conditions get much colder than they were on Saturday, I am going to end up needing one of these as well! Now if I was really organised I'd be taking a flask and some nosh, like some others I saw last weekend, as being deprived of a cigarette at the break wouldn’t be nearly so bad, if one was able to obtain some refreshments, without having to queue for the entire 15 minutes and risk missing the start of the second half. At our old gaff, you could always guarantee getting a warm up from a cup of tea or a Bovril, without missing a kick of the ball and it’s hard to believe that the club have failed so miserably in their ability to cater for the increased numbers, with the facilities at our grandiose new ground. On a freezing afternoon like Saturday, surely the club must be missing out on a small fortune in revenue, for while the 8,000 Club Level occupants are fortunate to be inside, in the warm, supping on their free beverages, it seems as if, like myself, the vast majority of fans in the upper and lower tiers just can’t be bothered with the huge halftime queues. Instead of which, everyone stands there feigning nonchalant disinterest in Gunnersaurus and his little helpers, circling the pitch perimeter, firing tightly wrapped t-shirts into the crowd by means of a positively lethal, air gun type contraption, which could take someone’s head off if it wasn’t pointed skywards. That is until one of these airborne missiles comes your way, at which point, regrettably, one can’t resist participating in the undignified scrabble. Myself and the missus will have to see if we can master the rugby line-out tactic, so that I can lift her up to gain some advantage, as for the second time on Saturday this prize eluded me, as it bounced off several folks’ fingertips to a chap in the row in front, only for him to smugly boast that this was the second time he’d been the unwitting beneficiary of the fact that none of us was going to make the cricket team. Until Willie stole into Wigan’s box to head home in the 83rd minute, it had begun to feel like the three points were also about to slip through our fingers, along with a crucial opportunity to gain ground on Man Utd. Despite totally dominating possession, we gifted Wigan perhaps the two best first-half goal scoring opportunities, with two free headers that resulted from a couple of moments of defensive indecision. Following the break and the news that Utd were behind at Bolton, the more fickle Gooners began to express their frustration at our failure to trouble the Wigan keeper. However despite my continued concerns about the solidity of Arsène’s first-choice partnership at centre-back, if there’s one attribute that William Gallas has added to the Arsenal party, it’s his winning mentality. For the second consecutive home game, we have to be grateful for Gallas’ tenacity, as without his late goals we’d have lost against Man Utd and failed to capitalise on their slip-up on Saturday. I had to chuckle listening to Carlos Queiroz’s comments on Match of the Day about Bolton’s intimidating tactics. Arsène always gets slaughtered over the Arsenal’s “don’t like it up ‘em” attitude whenever he does likewise. Myself I quite relish these ‘Beauty & the Beast’ type confrontations, so long as the opposition doesn’t resort to the sort of malicious attempts to inflict GBH, such as Marcus Bent’s cynical assault from behind on Denilson. To my mind it’s the physical nature of our football and the levels of commitment, which make the Premiership a far more enthralling proposition than the less intense brand of the beautiful game played on the Continent. In the knowledge that the majority of sides would be swiftly put to the sword in a straight contest of ability, we’ve grown accustomed to the opposition paying us the compliment of trying to kick us off the park. Theo Walcott is far from the finished article, but he's come a long way from the lightweight scnhip of last season, who was so easily muscled off the ball. On an afternoon when Wigan’s Michael Brown spent the 20 minutes leading up to his inevitable booking, charging around like a headless chicken, clattering into anything that moved, it was very pleasing to see young Gunners like Denilson, Diarra and Clichy, standing their ground in the face of such aggression. Whereas in the past we’ve acquired this faint-hearted reputation as a result of players who might’ve had more of a tendency to ‘bottle it’ when it comes to earth-shuddering 50/50 confrontations, more concerned with self-preservation than maintaining possession. Having held out for so long, Gallas’s goal knocked all the stuffing out of the visitors, while at the same time forcing them to be more ambitious. It wasn’t long before we took advantage of the Lactic's efforts to venture forward, cutting them to pieces with a swift counter that ended with Rosicky securing all three points, as he scuffed home our second off the inside of the post. It was then a matter of sweating out the remaining minutes of the radio commentary from the Reebok, fully expecting the inevitable last gasp equaliser after news of the four minutes of injury time. What has bothered me most in the past when Sam Allardyce’s Bolton have bullied us out of the points with a lion-hearted display, has been the knowledge that the very same team would be likely to timidly lie down like lambs against their Lancashire neighbours. However under Megson it would appear that Bolton were able to overcome their inferiority complex for the first time in nearly 30 years. I’m sure it was no coincidence that this defeat occurred with Vidic absent at the heart of Utd’s defence and on the face of it, Bolton away is a more taxing proposition than playing Wigan at home. However where previously one might have questioned the Arsenal’s strength in depth, could it be significant that we stood the test of coping with the enforced absence of the likes of Fabregas, Hleb and Flamini, while Fergie mistakenly assumed he could afford the luxury of leaving out similarly influential figures, from an already depleted side? The finely tuned Arsenal engine might clunk and grind a little without our first-choice stars but crucially we made it home safe. Meanwhile Alex might want to renew his AA subscription for the jump-start Man Utd require without Ronaldo & co. Arsenal Pass The Ball I had to finish the following piece in a mad rush, in order to get it filed to the paper prior to Monday's deadline, before dashing out of the house to get to Reading. Sadly I didn't end up leaving in time to meet up with a mate, as arranged, but with it only being a 45 mile drive, it wasn't such a big deal heading out on to the M4 on my tod. Although it wasn't until I turned off the motorway that I really began to regret missing out on a lift, as I'd completely forgotten quite what a nightmare parking can be, in the concrete jungle around the Madjeski, for while my pal was able to park up in the shopping precinct adjacent to the ground, courtesy of his blue disabled badge, the local council must be absolutely coining it in, from all the other unsuspecting visiting fans who must regularly risk leaving their cars in what is an empty, terribly tempting pitch, so close to the stadium. From past experience I was at least aware that this is a guarantee of a parking ticket. On the subject of Blue Badge holders, it seems that they've been cracking down on the abuse of disabled privileges around our new stadium, as there was a small crowd gathered at the top of Aubert Park after the Man Utd match, watching a tow truck picking up a large 4 x 4. I must admit that I also dallied briefly, I suppose attracted by the Schadenfreude of seeing the face of the owner returning to find their vehicle being removed. But I didn't need to wait to revel guiltily in the misery of others, as it seem the tow trucks had been very busy during the course of the 90 minutes. Heading back to Highbury Quadrant, there's a spot at the top of our road which we've previously labelled "Cripple Corner" because of the proliferation of blue badges. I've always found it somewhat ironic on the many occasions I've been walking around to the game, late as ever, to see folks parking up in this spot, placing there badges on the dashboard and then literally sprinting from their cars, in an attempt to make KO. It would appear that folks have become so accustomed to being able to abuse these privileges that they've absolutely no shame, whereas in their shoes, I would at the very least feel obliged to limp a little, for the benefit of anyone watching! Thus I couldn't help but feel slightly amused as I rounded the corner to discover a gaggle of gutted folks all sitting along a low wall, staring at the empty spaces previously occupied by their vehicles. Meanwhile I might not have made my lift to Reading, but my efforts to do so meant that I arrived in plenty of time to spend half an hour driving around looking for somewhere to leave the car. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to bribe the attendants guarding the assorted car parks (for badge holders, hotel guests etc), I eventually gave up and was following the signs to the nearest "£10" parking, when I was fortunate to spot someone leaving their car on a grass verge, where there was room for one more small vehicle. Although there's always some small satisfaction to be gained from finding free parking, to be honest, I'm often happpier stumping up, just for the reassurance of having somewhere safe to leave the car and knowing I don't have to spend the entire game fretting that a great result is going to end up soured, or bad day out capped by a fifty quid parking fine on returning to the car. However one's exit from a huge car park can often add an extra hour to the journey and after driving around for so long, I was just keen to dump the motor and get to the game. What can I say, we ended the evening back on top of the table, having hardly been tested, there was no ticket on my windscreen when I got back to the car and I was out onto the motorway and back home relatively quickly. Does my life sound so sad, if I say it doesn't get much better? After watching the weekend's games on Match of the Day, I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic about our prospects, as like ourselves, Man Utd look capable of scoring against anyone, but I have to admit that the Moaners appear somewhat more solid at the back. Although I wouldn't want to wish harm on anyone, let's put it this way, I wouldn't be so unhappy if Vidic ended up getting himself crocked for a couple of months (and even less miserable if he missed the rest of the season!). Yet I was in a much more positive mood following my brief trip to Reading, The Royals might have managed to frustrate us, right up until Flamini (our defensive midfielder!!) arrived in the box to score the opening goal, but after that, once the home side were forced to come out of their shell in the second half and chase the game somewhat, instead of merely trying to prevent us from winning it, we literally sliced and diced them, with a performance where we were never really forced out of first gear. The football that we savoured in the build up to our second and third goals (and the one that was incorrectly ruled offside) was pure poetry in motion. Although I'm sure most of those present behind the goal at the Madjeski will confirm that until we came out for the second half, with our tails up after the taking the lead on the stroke of halftime, we had looked a long way from playing at anywhere near our best. I'm not going to name names but focusing on a couple of players with my binoculars during the first half, I gleaned the distinct impression that on a particularly brisk night, there were those in red & white who would've rather been elsewhere. Obviously I might be mistaken but after the adrenaline rush of performing before an audience of a billion around the globe in our last glamorous encounter, I suppose it's perfectly understandable if some of the Gunners were struggling for similar motivation on a brass monkey Monday night amidst the new-town tedium of Reading. But then I guess this bodes well, because if we can blow teams away in this fashion when not at our best, then we can only begin to imagine what we have to look forward to, when we're firing on all cylinders. Yet if it was true on Monday that our far superior ability eventually began to tell, there are games on the fixture list in the none too distant future (with a fairly daunting December!), where we're unlikley to get away with it, unless all eleven can match the opposition with sufficient commitment and the sort of wholehearted attitude that will enable our ability advantage to come to the fore. I am sure there were others (Kolo, Sagna etc.) but from my perspective there was only one Arsenal player on Monday night who demonstrated, without any doubt, that he was performing (as ever!) at 100 per cent. Whereas, for example, both myself and my mate beside me happened to notice a 50/50 ball where Rosicky's effort was sufficiently tentative that we both remarked on him "bottling it". I really don't think Gael Clichy would know how to do anything without absolute commitment. What's more I always cringe at the sight of a Gunner going for a ball, when it's patently obvious that there's an element of half-heartedness about their approach because they're principally concerned about the prospect of picking up an injury, when they should be demonstrating a totally blinkered focus on winning the ball. From what I recall of my childhood education on the pitch, it was often the more timid of the two players competing for a 50/50 ball who invariably came off worse. By contrast to those who might've been a little less focused against Reading, Gael Cllichy continues to impress me more and more, with each passing match, as I find his enthusiasm and his energy levels increasingly mind-blowing. On those rare occasions when Reading advanced up the pitch and Gael wasn't goal side (of Kitson?) when the ball was directed down his flank, despite giving his opponent several yards start, I don't recall a single instance when he was beaten to the ball and there were a couple of occasions when Clichy arrived so far in advance of the Reading player, that you could be forgiven for thinking his opponent was running backwards! It was also good to see Diarra get a run-out as sub, as the Frenchman shows similar enthusiasm in his desperation to prove his worth to Wenger. And with the likes of the French international, the Brazil captain and Theo on the bench, I adore the fact that there's so little room for complacency, with such genuine competition for places. Mind you perhaps the best part about Diarra's appearance on the pitch was the fact that it inspired a rousing rendition of a relatively new chant (at least it's the first time I've heard it) from the Gooner choristers, which had me giggling away. I only hope Cashley Hole returns to fitness in time for our mid-December meeting with Chelsea and that on the day, Diarra gets a look in, just so we might hear the whole ground resound to several reptitions of "Diarra...he left the Chelsea scum, 'cos Ashley wants his bum"! There was one other conclusion which I drew from a weekend without an Arsenal game to focus on. I found myself watching Pompey v Man City on Sunday and it was interesting to think that these were two of the gaggle of clubs, currently performing relatively well in the wake of the leading pack, because to my mind there was one obvious difference between us and them. Watching possession passing from one team to the other as this game progressed, it suddenly dawned on me quite how brilliant the Arsenal are at keeping the ball. Reading's tactics were quite strange for a team playing on their own turf but then I guess Coppell felt under pressure to try something different, after last season's supremely efficient demolition (and it might have been the same on Monday, if Ade's had managed to find the inside of the post in the opening blows). Mind you I imagine many of the home fans must've been tearing their hair out in frustration during the first half, as it was as if the Royals had been instructed to adopt a zonal defence, whereby they sat right back, to take up defensive positions around their penalty area, allowing us as much possession as we wanted, apparently without even attempting to retrieve the ball until we threatened to encroach into their box. Perhaps Coppell's plan worked up to a point but surely there must be a correlation between the number of goal scoring chances we can to create and the amount of time in possession of the ball and we looked so incredibly comfortable while they stood of us, that in the shoes of the Royals fans, I would've been screaming my head off, demanding that my team put us under some sort of pressure. However if ball retention against a remarkably reticent Reading was no big thing, it was another matter all together against a Man U side, where Hargreaves, Anderson etc. were giving us absolutely no quarter. Nevertheless, there were periods during the previous week's match where it looked as if Man Utd might need their own ball if they were going to get involved in the game, as we certainly weren't allowing them to play with ours! Watching the Arsenal every week, doubtless I take the standard of our football for granted to some extent, but watching the broadcast of the game at Fratton Park, I couldn't help but notice the marked difference in the way that moves kept breaking down when both teams were guilty of giving away the ball. We might often lose patience, whilst waiting to see some end product but there's a truism in football that says you simply cannot concede a goal while the ball is at your feet and while most of the pundits would have us believe that we will eventually come unstuck because our defence doesn't match up to Man Utd, it should be remembered that it doesn't matter how solid (or not) we are at the back, so long as we retain the ball. Meanwhile I've managed to prattle on so long that if I don't wrap up this long-winded missive post haste , it will soon become so outdated that I will end trashing it, rather than sending it out. Appologies for the delay but it's been a very long week work wise and tonight is the first night that I've managed to stay awake long enough to get it finished. Although my views on International weekends might be well known to you by now, I am quite looking forward to this one, merely from the point of view that it's hard for me to get my head around the thought of this entire country supporting l'il ol' Israel on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Naturally an eternal cynic like myself simply cannot help but have some suspicions, as surely the likes of Abramovich will have been tempted to interfere, if only to prove to himself how powerful he is, perhaps offering the Israelis a few million for a new stadium if they go easy against the Ruskies. On the other hand (as the Fiddler on the Roof would've said), the home side's record in recent times might lead one to conclude that they are indeed "the Chosen People", at least when playing within the much disputed confines of the Holyland. On the basis of their home record, it wouldn't be such a surprise for them to achieve a result, especially when you consider that their players are going to be only too aware that they will be performing before their biggest TV audience ever and each one of them will be going to bed on Friday night, to dream of this chance of a lifetime to produce the sort of impressive display that might catch the eye of watching managers and earn themselves a highly-prized opportunity to join Benayoun on the Premiership's big stage. Although I'm not about the change the habit of a lifetime and start predicting results, but I'd quite fancy the Israelis to pull it off and breathe life back into England's qualification prospects and Steve McClaren's managerial career, by taking points off the Ruskies, IF it wasn't for the fact that I really rate Gus Hiddinck. Who knows how Hiddinck would fare when it comes to making the most out of the world class talent available to an England manager, but when it comes to achieving results by means of relatively modest resources, I'm afraid there is no better man. On the basis that there is bound to be a number of chinks in the Israeli armour, it seems to me that there's a fairly high probability that Hiddinck has prepared his team to best take advantage! Mind you, for all those who would be devastated at the thought of next summer's tournament taking place without any England involvement, the truth of the matter is that actually perhaps you should be grateful to Hiddinck for doing you all a huge favour, by saving you from all the undoubted misery when Steve McClaren's side fail to live up to expectations once again. Alternatively if Israel manage to take a point or three off the Russians, then as a PR exercise, this game could prove bigger than the Six Day War in terms of their popularity. When Saturday comes, just for the day, I guess we'll all be Yiddos After a decade or more of racking up huge debts, chasing the Champions League Holy Grail around Europe, it's basically the lack of any further lines of credit that's forced me to curtail my customary habit of following the Arsenal absolutely everywhere. With the exponential increase in the costs of tickets, travel and the amount of time off work required to achieve an 100% attendance record, I doff my hat in all due reverence to the ultra-loyal band of Gooner-holics who manage to maintain the nigh-on monastic devotion necessary, to ensure that social, domestic and occupational responsibilities don't ever impinge on their footballing pleasures. Obviously the nature of the overblown corporate beast that has swallowed whole the previously unencumbered blue collar kingdom of the beautiful game, means that there were probably plenty present in Prague last week who are in the fortunate position to be able to write off the cost of their outing, as a tax deductible 'entertainment' expense. Nevertheless, I often survey the vast majority of working stiffs like myself, who's faces I see every week, on terraces up and down the country, with ever increasing wonderments and incredulity. For while they remain ever-present on all the European trips, I'm beginning to feel like a positively lightweight part-timer by comparison. Even by blowing every last disposable penny of what must amount to far more than basic wages and with the most 'sympatico' of football supporting bosses, I honestly struggle to comprehend how they continue to manage it? Although I'm prepared to suffer the deprivations of being penned in and herded like lary Gooner livestock, on organised one day outings, in preference to stopping at home and screaming pointlessly at an inanimate television, personally speaking, I believe one might as well have been to Leicester for all the broadening of one's mind by this sort of tawdry travel experience. Whether it's the cut-price hospitality of promiscuous East European cathouses, or Prague's abundant cultural heritage that tickles one's fancy (better still, a historic building that happens to be a brothel!), it's downright criminal to travel to as interesting a city as the Czech capital, without enjoying any cultural interaction. While those long-suffering saps who support lesser lights like Spurs, live in hope of UEFA Cup trips to some godforsaken town in the back o'beyond, the thousands of pounds worth of debt I've acquired on the Champions League merry-go-round has enabled me to hop off at many of Europe's most alluring destinations. From Rosenborg to Panthinaikos, Porto to Spartak Moscow, with Real, Barca, Inter and Roma in between, we've savoured a sumptuous cultural meze across the length and breadth of the entire continent, most of which just wouldn't have been on the menu if it weren't for football. I consider myself most fortunate to be in possession of an "I was there" t-shirt, to prove I was present in Prague a couple of seasons back, when Thierry Henry unexpectedly returned from injury to finally trump Wrightie's goal-scoring record. However I've yet to tick off Seville or Bucharest and I'm gutted that I'll have missed out on experiencing two more unlikely destinations during this group stage. It wasn't just because I'd already been to Prague that I wasn't too bothered about being unable to afford last week's trip. Actually if I was going to miss out on an away game, I couldn't have picked a better one if I tried and I ended up feeling quite sorry for the fifteen hundred odd day-trippers who would be trudging through Stansted in their rain sodden replica tops in the wee hours of Thursday morning, after having frozen their cods off in the pouring rain, whilst enduring an anti-climax of an encounter, a dreadfully dour affair compared to the previous goalfest. I suppose it's a reflection on quite how far we've progressed in recent seasons, as it wasn't so long ago that the travelling hordes would've been returning in high-spirits, celebrating qualification for the later stages, considering it a job well done to have achieved this objective via a goalless draw, on a murky miserable night so far from home. Instead of which, there were more than a few disgruntled Gooners giving vent to their indignation the following morning, believing Arsène was wrong to send the kids out to do a man's job, when winning the group should've been his priority. You only had to see how the home side celebrated their hard earned-point to appreciate quite how desperate they were to redeem some self-respect, after having been so humiliated at our place. As a result Slavia worked their socks off all night, to stifle any possible potential for threatening their goal. Credit to them, their spoiler tactics were sufficiently efficient that their keeper could've remained in the dry of the dressing room, considering how unemployed he was for most of the evening. I doubt we did ourselves any favours by adding insult to the injury of the seven stabbing wounds inflicted a fortnight earlier, as Le Boss left four of team that played Utd at home and four more on the bench. A similar line-up might've made mincemeal out of Sheffield Utd but in the frenetic mêlée in the middle of the park in Prague, they lacked the composure to carve a path through committed Champions League opposition, where no quarter was ceded merely out of respect for our youngster's reputation. Denilson is undoubtedly a star in the making, in the same mould as Fabregas, but the Brazilian youngster hasn't had much game time and the conditions were hardly conducive for him to replicate the feats that have always marked his Spanish team-mate out as such a precocious talent and which are the trademark of every genuine midfield class act, namely the appearance of having time and space on the ball, where none exists, to pick out the killer pass. Consequently perhaps we can cut the likes of Bendtner some slack because our strikers saw so little of the ball. Eduardo might be the current incumbent of the actual shirt, but we've waited with stoic patience for the return of an authentic no. 9, ever since we saw the last of the likes of Smudger and Hartson. Although the loping Dane has proved he has the appropriate tools in his locker, with his brief cameos as an impact sub, I'm concerned he could be in danger of being devoured by the enormous weight of Gooner expectation. Perhaps I'm prone to being hypercritical due to Bendtner's 'Bertie Big Bollix' reputation (which wouldn't be quite so disturbing if the youngster had actually done something to merit such an inflated ego). But I was none too impressed by the images on TV, of him lurking at the mouth of the tunnel as both teams trotted out for the second-half, as if he was avoiding the cold and the rain, determined to be the last arrival at this disagreeable party. Instead of which, you'd imagine he'd be raring to get out there after such a disappointing first-half, desperate to prove to le Gaffer that he was borne to perform on the glamorous Champions League stage. It'll be a crying shame if Nicklas' career goes the way of so many of the "too much, too young" modern generation of professional footballers, following in the path of the Brit-pack likes of Pennant, Dyer and Jenas, who, coming from modest backgrounds, acquired the supercars, the bling, the birds and all the other trappings of success at such an early age, that they were convinced they'd cracked it, with nothing left to prove. But for all their material wealth, they've been treading water ever since, with no medals to put on the table. Meanwhile Bendtner's ego might not be the only worry for Wenger. The worst thing about a fixture free weekend is that without any football to fill the Arsenal related column inches, the Red Tops will fill the void with vacuous gossip. I only hope the team spirit on the pitch stands the test of the recent undercurrent of alleged bad vibes between our keepers and those that have resulted from Arsène's apparent reluctance to give the Brazil captain a regular run-out (let alone the armband!). As it stands I can fully appreciate Wenger wanting to stick to a winning formula, but we've just drawn three games on the spin and you can just picture the flock of vultures waiting to pounce come the transfer window, if the laidback Gilberto begins to lose patience. Hopefully the panacea for all such signs of unrest will prove to be a return to winning ways against the Royals. It might not be a total cure-all but hopefully it will keep the tabloids off our case! http://goonersdiary.blogspot.com e-mail to: londonN5@gmail.com Who the f*** are Man Utd......? ......and the Reds go marching on, on, on! It took a moment for us to realise that a goal had been given in the dying throes of Saturday's game. From our position in the stands, we assumed Howard Webb was about to call time in the last chance saloon, once the ball had stopped ping-ponging around Utd's penalty area and that we Gooners would be trudging out of the stadium seconds later, crestfallen at having ceded such a big psychological advantage to our principal Premiership rivals. Once the initial euphoria had subsided somewhat, I found myself contemplating the frantic activity in the press box, as all those journos were forced to bash out the polar opposite match report, from the one they'd been preparing to file a few moments prior, perhaps crediting the Arsenal as worthy title contenders, instead of writing us off as lightweight impostors. In truth, no matter how over-hyped Saturday's clash of the Premiership titans to maximise the theatre for the billions watching around the planet, no prizes are handed out in November. Yet while you may not be able to win a league title before all the leaves have fallen off the trees, you can definitely lose one (as, sadly, we've demonstrated all too ably these past couple of seasons), and I believe this was in the back of the minds of both managers in the tactical deployment of their respective troops. Perhaps Wenger wouldn't have opted to play 4-5-1 if Van Persie was fit, only he knows. Yet even if this was the optimum use of the players available to him on the day, if I'm honest, with the Arsenal's star in its ascendancy, I was more than a little disappointed to be lining up at home against Man U, with a lone striker. Adebayor might have already bagged a handful of goals (before his current seven game barren streak) and has contributed to the team effort with his Trojan work rate, but I think most watchers would agree that when it has come to the crunch, in and around the penalty area, to date Ade has struggled to find his touch. So it was that whilst we dominated possession in the centre of the park for long periods, the most common complaint on Saturday was that far too frequently when we advanced forward, there was no one in the box to be able to inflict any real damage. Whereas the more incisive approach play of Rooney, Tevez and co. meant that although they saw less of the ball, they looked far more likely to threaten our goal with it, while we patiently tried to pass it through the eye of a needle. Nevertheless there was some suggestion that Utd were guilty of showing us too much respect and I believe the recent progress of this Arsenal side was reflected in Fergie's focus on containing us on the counter, with his midfield duo of Anderson and Hargreaves both sitting deep for much of the match and concentrating almost exclusively on their defensive duties. I've been impressed with Anderson ever since seeing him stand out whilst playing for Porto last season. Despite his distinctive locks, with my premature Alzheimers, I'd forgotten this was the same player, when casting an appraising eye over the new additions to Utd's squad, in a televised pre-season game against Glentoran, where the Brazilian youngster's ability shone like a beacon. The cheating little sod hardly went about winning friends and influencing people in his first appearance at our place, when demonstrating absolutely no shame, in not even feigning a bit of a limp, but jumping to his feet just moments after he'd managed to get Fabregas booked with an outrageously melodramatic floorshow, as though he'd been felled by a bullet. Yet in spite of a somewhat more restrained performance on the ball, Anderson still managed to impress and I wonder if he might've been more influential if not fettered by Fergie's instructions. Meanwhile I'm not sure there are too many Gooners who'd agree (just yet!) with the latest contention that Alex Hleb is the best player in the Premiership. For my money, too much of Alex's best work still amounts to nought and he lacks sufficient pace to be able to support a lone-striker. However Hleb's poise and confidence increases apace with each passing game, to the point where he now has this matador like quality which makes me want to shout 'olé' each time he drops a shoulder and leaves a defender for dead. There was a period at the start of Saturday's game where Utd were having such difficulty relieving Alex of possession that it appeared as if our guests were going to need their own ball if they were to play a part in this encounter. It's not only Hleb who has benefited from our new-found fearlessness. Its awe inspiring watching the incredibly energetic Gael Clichy take on all comers down the left flank, late in the game and on the rare occasion space opens up in front of Kolo Touré, he appears positively unstoppable when he storms forward. While with his preference for the no. 10 shirt, you just know that Willie Gallas has never really accepted the limitations of his centre-back role, when just like every other child at heart footballer he continues to covet heroic goal-scoring ambitions. Willie's wishes were fulfilled at the weekend, where it was 'Gallas of the Gunners' rather than 'Roy of the Rovers' who saved the day for the Arsenal. I'd just been thinking how quiet Ronaldo had been when he popped up in the penalty area to tap home what looked like being the winning goal. Having stunned us Gooners into silence and given those pesky premature evacuators their cue to miss the rush and take their habitual early leave, the abiding mood on the terraces was that the game was well and truly up. However if there were few tangible clues as to which of the two teams is better equipped for a title challenge, the thrilling conclusion to Saturday's compelling contest did prove to be a reaffirmation of our side's never say die spirit. Despite the most rousing atmosphere to date, Rooney's goal just before the halftime left me reflecting during the break on the potential disadvantages of our new home and the possibility that we're more susceptible to conceding goals in the closing stages of both halves. Apparently Sam Allardyce has commented on the fact that the Arsenal are the fittest team in the league, but instead of making the most of this advantage by going for our opponents throats when they're beginning to flag, I get the distinct sense that we might occasionally be guilty of switching off somewhat, merely winding down the clock, waiting for the whistle. The players on the pitch must be aware of all the movement in the stands, as all those who are more interested in the beer, their bellies, or beating the rush home, head for the exits. As the atmosphere and all the intensity of the game appears to evaporate with the activity on the terraces, obviously there will be opponents who remain sufficiently focused to make the most of this shortcoming as Man U did when opening their account on Saturday. Mercifully the Gunners went and proved my theory wrong with William Gallas' last gasp equaliser. I might've been still screaming as loud as ever, urging them on to the last as always, but in my head, like the majority around me (not to mention all those who were already on their way home including many who must've missed the goal – poetic justice if you ask me!), I was already contemplating how I was going to cope with my workmates merriment over our misfortune. Of the 60,000 present, it was perhaps only some of the eleven in red & white on the pitch who maintained sufficient belief and refused to give up hope and this bodes very well for the massive challenge ahead. Other than this, some might draw conclusions about the comparative strengths of the two sides' keepers, with Almunia responsible for a couple of obvious rickets and the possibility that Utd appear a little more solid in defence. Yet with the talent at Wenger's disposal, why should we be "bovvered", when the occasional error at the back will only increase the prospect of our footballing pleasures. It was in this vein that I tried to console my neighbour at half-time on Saturday, by suggesting that at least going a goal behind meant that we were guaranteed a great second-half. The only other obvious opinion one can draw from Saturday's encounter, is that if there was any danger of peace breaking out between the two managers whilst they were both trying to knock Mourinho off his perch, the Chelsea manager's departure has resulted in a return to business as usual and the outbreak of the sort of hostilities that are bound to keep us all engrossed in the coming months ahead. Never Mind Southern Softies, What About Those Namb...

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Home > Jazz Education > Bexley Library Offers Live Streaming of Billie Holiday Tribute Bexley Library Offers Live Streaming of Billie Holiday Tribute by Brooke Hollis on January 28, 2015 Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City is hosting a Billie Holiday Festival to mark 100 years since her birth. A highlight of the festival will be Who is Billie Holiday?, a live-streamed family jazz concert. The program will showcase quintessential music from her career while also exploring her life and role as an icon and is meant to provide a historical context of the artist for new admirers young and old. The concert will feature jazz pianist, composer, and Columbus native Aaron Diehl performing with vocalist Charenee Wade. The Bexley Public Library, located at 2411 East Main Street, will be live-streaming the concert in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center on Saturday, February 7th at 3pm. This viewing is the first in an effort to offer educational jazz experiences to the community, and the library looks to continue this program in the future. Admission is free and seating will begin at 2:30 in the auditorium. More details below: BEXLEY, Ohio— Bexley Public Library is pleased to announce a new partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. This partnership, which will bring Jazz at Lincoln Center’s world-renowned programming to Central Ohio audiences, will begin with a live-streamed concert for all ages at the library on Saturday, February 7 at 3:00 p.m. This program will honor the life and music of the iconic Billie Holiday. All are invited to learn more about the woman with the gardenia in her hair, whose highly individualized style and embodiment of the blues influenced jazz and popular song indelibly. This is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Billie Holiday Festival honoring the singer’s centennial. The idea for this partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center was born from Bexley Public Library’s desire to be a center for lifelong learning and enrichment in its community. This fit with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission to entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for Jazz through performance, education and advocacy. The library hopes for this to be the first of many live-streamed concerts brought to Central Ohio and would love for this trend to continue all over the country. The partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center helps to support the library’s mission to serve as a center for lifelong learning and enrichment in Bexley. The library believes that this will be the first of many live-streamed concerts brought to Central Ohio. The concert will also feature Aaron Diehl, a Columbus native and St. Charles graduate, as musical director. Diehl is a jazz pianist and composer The New York Times calls a “revelation” and the recipient of the 2011 Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz of the American Pianists Association among other accolades. Diehl will be joined by vocalist Charenee Wade, who has been making waves on the New York City jazz scene and beyond. This concert is free and will be hosted in the Bexley Public Library auditorium. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m. To learn more, please visit www.bexleylibrary.org. Learn more about Jazz at Lincoln Center: www.jazz.org Learn more about Billie Holiday: www.billieholiday.com Learn more about Aaron Diehl: www.aarondiehl.com Previous post: JazzColumbus.com Interview Series: Aditya Jayanthi Next post: JazzColumbus Weekly – January 29, 2015

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Jazz Scan Jazz ain't dead; it's just evolving! Scott Reeves Quintet: Shape Shifter Miles High Records By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.3.09 Buy CD: Shape Shifter Chicago-born Scott Reeves is an innovative musician, composer, arranger and educator. He began playing the trombone when he was 10, having been turned on by Count Basie's bands of the 1950s and '60s. After earning a master's degree in music from Indiana University, he worked with a number of Midwest bands. Reeves has been on the faculty of a number of major institutions, including Juilliard, the University of Southern Maine and City College of New York. He also has written several books that are widely used in schools; after moving to New York in 1999, he played with a number of name groups. He currently leads two bands: Manhattan Bones, which has four trombones and a rhythm section; and the quintet featured on this album (which uses the same rhythm section). Although Reeves is best known as a trombonist, he doesn't play that instrument here. On seven of the nine tracks, he uses an alto flugelhorn, which is pitched a fifth lower than the standard version; as Reeves describes it, the tone is a combination of a valve trombone, French horn and regular flugelhorn. On the other tracks, he switches to an alto valve trombone (the standard instrument, with one-third of the tubing cut off). Whatever. They both sound great. Reeves composed and arranged all the tunes. The result is relatively complex, “thinking man's jazz” that is melodic and swings nicely. Posted by Ric Bang at 11:05 AM 0 comments Labels: Scott Reeves John Stowell: Solitary Tales Origin Arts Buy CD: Solitary Tales Guitarist John Stowell lives and works in and around Portland, Ore. He may not be well known to the general public, but he's a “musician's musician” to name guitarists and those who know the music world well. Stowell also is a famous clinician who conducts classes throughout the United States and Canada. This solo guitar album is his newest release on Origin; it's a true gem for those who enjoy the instrument. As it happens, Mike Doolin, one of the country's foremost luthiers — an individual who designs and builds string instruments — also lives in Portland. One of the guitars Stowell utilizes in this release is a nylon acoustic/electric instrument done by Doolin. Stowell also used another electric instrument, tuned a major third lower, that was designed by Jim Soloway; both deliver gorgeous tones. Another plus for this session: It was recorded at Doolin's home, not at a studio. That location, and the recording set-up, provided exceptional acoustics; you can hear the selection and movement of Stowell's fingers over the strings. It's as if you're sitting in the room with the artist, and he's playing just for you. The tunes include six Stowell originals, a couple of standards and one each from modern jazz composers Bill Evans and Ornette Coleman. All are done beautifully. Labels: John Stowell Jacques Loussier: Plays Bach Buy CD: Jacques Loussier Plays Bach Some time ago, I was blown away by an album from master pianist Jacques Loussier. Telarc has released another CD to celebrate this artist's ongoing involvement with his Play Bach Trio ... and this album is every bit as stunning as the last one I heard. In the 1950s, Loussier — a young artist trying to find a way to improvise on the compositions of J.S. Bach — sometimes entertained his friends by mixing Bach with jazz. This concept was such a hit that he organized his first Play Bach Trio in 1959. This album recognizes that group's 50th anniversary, and also is an early birthday gift; Loussier will be 75 in October. The tracks re-issued here were recorded as part of a Bach tercentenary celebration in 1985. In response to a request from cohorts, Loussier (who had retired the trio) re-formed it, using brilliant bassist Vincent Charbonnier and drummer Andre Arpino. I've never heard better quality and cohesiveness. Their original recordings have been out of circulation since the late 1990s; this album resurrects them. The 11 tracks of various Bach inventions were from concerts performed in France, Japan and England. Some are more “classical” than others, but just as you think to ask, “Where's the jazz?,” it works its way into the melody line. Bach's compositions have inspired jazz musicians for years. As jazz has matured and become more modern, the great composer's “lines” are heard more and more frequently. Let's face it: Deep down, ol' Johann Sebastian was a swinger! Labels: Jacques Loussier Geof Bradfield: Urban Nomad Buy CD: Urban Nomad Much time has passed since a tasty, swinging, straight-ahead jazz quartet has come my way; this release by Chicago-based saxophonist Geof Bradfield fills the bill. Originally from Texas, where he began his schooling, Bradfield moved to Chicago and entered DePaul University. He then went on to Los Angeles, where he received a master's degree from CalArts; moved to, and worked in, the New York area for three years; then returned to Chicago for a short time before he relocated to the West Coast and taught at Washington State University. Bradfield returned to Chicago in 2003, where he's currently on the faculty of Columbia College and works with his own unit and several other local bands. He uses both tenor and soprano saxes on this album. Seven of the nine tunes are originals, and all are his arrangements. His tone is clean, with minimum vibrato — Paul Desmond comes to mind — and his technique is flawless. The rest of Bradfield's group includes pianist Ron Perrillo, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer George Fludas. They compliment each other nicely, and their ensemble and solo work are excellent. I appreciate it when standards are included in an album — in this case, “You're My Everything” and “Con Alma” — because I like to hear how their interpretation and performance compares to what other artists have done. Bradfield performs both tracks beautifully. This unit is promising. Labels: Geof Bradfield The Renolds Jazz Orchestra: Cube Shanti Records Buy CD: Cube The Renolds Jazz Orchestra was assembled to perform at the Jazzar Concerts festival in Aarau, Switzerland, in 2005. This isn't a typical album with a group of tunes, but rather a 10-movement Suite “based on the Deity's great effort to restore peace and union with mankind,” according to the liner notes. If that description is a turn-off, ignore the liner notes and just concentrate on the music. Myriad jazz influences are involved, including Duke Ellington-related harmonies, Afro-Cuban rhythms and classical structures that echo composers such as Stravinsky and Liszt. Again, if the latter style isn't something that moves you, don't despair; this release has something for every taste. The orchestra is concert-sized and instrumented. The reed section includes five musicians, each of whom plays multiple instruments; the trumpet/flugelhorn section also has five artists. The rest of the orchestra features three trombonists; a rhythm section consisting of piano, acoustic bass, drums and an additional percussionist; a female vocalist; and a conductor. All but two of the movements were composed by Fritz Renold, who also plays four different reeds; his wife, Helen Savari-Renold, is the vocalist. The arrangements are quite complex but performed excellently; the musicians had two days of rehearsal prior to the concert and recording sessions. Many of the musicians hail from Europe and are relatively unknown in the States, with some exceptions; the brass section, for example, includes Randy Brecker. Some of the movements are balladic in nature, and Savari-Renold is used in the style of several early Ellington arrangements, where the voice is an instrument; others are joyful, up-tempo “flag-wavers” that swing like crazy. The entire album requires an attentive listener, and you'll find that it grows on you. This is accomplished modern/symphonic jazz. Labels: Renolds Jazz Orchestra Eddie Daniels and Roger Kellaway: A Duet of One IPO Recordings Buy CD: A Duet of One This is one of the most beautiful, innovative and impressive albums I've reviewed in a long time. During his early years, pianist Roger Kellaway was best known for his writing, and as an accompanist for “name” vocalists; he didn't begin to play and record as a leader until he was eligible for Social Security. Eddie Daniels has played reed instruments for decades; during the 1960s and '70s, he was featured on tenor sax with Thad Jones/Mel Lewis and other bands, then in the '80s began to concentrate on his clarinet. We're fortunate that both artists have extensive discographies. A Duet of One was recorded live at The Bakery — a Los Angeles jazz club — over a four-day period in early 2005, but wasn't released until now. Daniels and Kellaway are the duet; as the title implies, their performances were so musically “linked” that they played as one. They didn't use arrangements, instead relying on lead sheets, which contain just the melody and chords. They also didn't rehearse. Everything that ensued flowed from their experience and innovative talent. Four of these 10 tunes are jazz standards: “I'm Getting Sentimental Over You,” “I Want to Be Happy,” “New Orleans” and “After You've Gone.” I guarantee that you've never heard these old chestnuts played this way. Of the remaining original compositions, Kellaway wrote two, and Daniels wrote four; all are as impressive as the standards. The result wasn't just a session; it was a capital-C Concert! Don't miss this marvelous CD. Labels: Eddie Daniels, Roger Kellaway Subscribe to Jazz Scan via email Derrick Bang Ric Bang

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Watch We Got Married Couple BTOB's Yook Sungjae and Red Velvet's Joy luvsmiling, Aug. 22, 2015, 5:09 p.m. We Got Married couple Yook Sungjae and Joy are getting closer! On the August 22nd installment of 'We Got Married', Joy's father called and spoke to Sungjae over the phone. The two idols had just finished a yummy dinner when Joy's dad called her. Despite his nervousness, her father only had nice things to say. He told the BTOB member, "Yook Sungjae. It's good to see both of you. It makes me happy. You're very cool as well." Joy's father also said he wanted to later play Sungjae in a game of table tennis. Later on in the episode, Joy revealed her bare face to Sungjae for the first time. We Got Married is a South Korean reality variety show, one segment of the Sunday Sunday Night program. First broadcast in 2008, the show pairs up Korean celebrities to show what life would be like if they were married. Each week, couples have assigned missions to complete, with candid interviews of the participants to reveal their thoughts and feelings. Yook Sungjae is a South Korean idol, actor, singer, dancer and member of the South Korean boy group BtoB. He was a cast member in the variety show Real Men. He is best known for his roles in Plus Nine Boys (2014) and Who Are You: School 2015 (2015). Joy was born Park Soo-young on September 3, 1996 in Seoul, South Korea. She is the lead rapper and sub-vocalist of the k pop girl group Red Velvet. In grade school, she performed K-rock band Cherry Filter's Flying Duck, which began her aspiration to become a singer. She auditioned and was cast by S.M. Entertainment at the SM Global Audition in Seoul in 2012. She graduated with music honors from School of Performing Arts Seoul in February 2015. In 2015, Joy gained public interest by joining the fourth season of reality show We Got Married, where she was paired with BtoB member Yook Sung-jae.

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‘Paying the price’: Andrew Chan May 7th, 2019 / Categories: 苏州皮肤管理中心 / Comments Closed As he contemplated the death penalty four years ago, Andrew Chan remarked that it wasn’t right that his mother would bury him. The executions of Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 34, are now imminent, and may come as early as Tuesday. In interviews recorded in August 2011, most of which have not previously been published, the two condemned men spoke about facing the death penalty, but also of hope and their genuine efforts at rehabilitation. “It’s obviously affected our families the most,” Chan told AAP during a visit to Kerobokan jail. “Imagine your mother, or you know, your father picking up that telephone call. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s obviously harder on them than it is on yourself.” “You obviously look at yourself and you say to yourself, `I’ve really screwed up big time’. “It’s not right you know. “A mother’s not supposed to bury their kid. Obviously a kid is supposed to bury their mother.” At the time, Chan and Sukumaran were about to lodge their bids for clemency. They spoke about making mistakes – and paying for them. “Everyone makes mistakes in life,” Chan said. “No one’s perfect. Yeah, we screwed up big time, and you know, we’re obviously paying the price for it right now. “The death penalty. You can think about it, you can let it lay within your mind but we choose to continue doing what we’re doing.” Sukumaran said that in prison “you have a lot of time to reflect on all the stupid things you’ve done”. “You don’t see what you’re doing is really that bad. “Working with all these people, like inside here teaching … you get something out of it. I think that makes you a stronger person as well.” Despite testimonials to their rehabilitation behind bars from prison governors to politicians, academics and Australian artist Ben Quilty, repeated legal appeals and calls for a reprieve have failed. Chan and Sukumaran, convicted in 2005 for their role in a plot to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Bali to Australia, were given the official 72 hours notice on Saturday that means they could face the firing squad on Tuesday. « Firebirds remain perfect against Mystics Clarkson defends pushing AFL fan »

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Harmon Leon articles The first Harmon Leon article I ever read was in Might magazine, and it was funny. In it, he was trying to get fired from Jack in the Box. Since that time, Mr. Leon has written about television for HotWired, has performed stand-up, and has written many more articles--some of which ended up in his book, The Harmon Chronicles. His usual tactic is to assume a character and infiltrate an organization (the Raelians, Hollywood studios, the Guardian Angels, the Philip Michael-Thomas Psychic Reader Network) and then write about his experiences. Below are most of the Harmon Leon articles that I found online as of 1/2004. If you're reading this more than a few months in the future, some of these links may be broken. Sorry for any inconvenience, but I don't plan on keeping this page up-to-date. I did, however, put big red stars ( ) next to the articles that made me laugh out loud. infiltrative journalism Blind Date, Leiderhosen, and Me, The Wave, 1/28/2004 Michael Jackson's Media Circus of Horrors, The Metropolitan, 12/18/2003 New Urbanism, Mon Amour!, The Metropolitan, 11/6/2003 Major League Jack Ass, The Wave, 10/23/2003 Arnold Mein Governor!, The Metropolitan, 10/2/2003 Faith Healing: 21st Century-Style, The Wave, 7/2003 The Bay Area Pilgrimage, The Wave, 6/2003 The Armed Farces: An excerpt from The Harmon Chronicles, Friction Magazine, 5/19/2003 Infomercial Infiltrator, The Wave, 3/2003 A Waste of Timeshare, The Wave, 2/13/2003 Letter from Canada: Rael Against the Machine, The Rake, 2/2003 UFO EXPO Undercover, The Wave, 1/2/2003 Russell Racing School, The Wave, 9/12/2002 The Plight of the Actor, The Wave, 8/29/2002 The Insecurity Guard , The Wave, 7/4/2002 The Business Card Story, The Wave, 6/20/2002 Raiderette RAH RAH RAH!, The Wave, 6/6/2002 Get Fired in 3 Hours or Less, The Wave, 5/2002 A guerrilla telemarketer in the San Francisco Chronicle subscriptions office, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 10/10/2001 "It's Survivor With Apes and a Robot...", Stuff Magazine, 2/2001 Christmas In Hell, The Metropolitan, 1/24/2000 Love in the time of spam, Salon, 12/10/1999 Nose Job Hut, Salon, 11/20/1999 Model Behavior, The Metropolitan, 10/25/1999 Roller Boogie of Doom!, The Metropolitan, 10/11/1999 Xtreme Imposter, The Metropolitan, 8/2/1999 I Was a Telephone Psychic, Word.com, 1996 The Sweater Story, Axcess Magazine, 1996 My Life as a Celebrity Scientologist, The Met, 1995 I'm a Little Angel! & Now I Become a Scientologist, Modern Pirate How to find a Russian bride (named Boris), Sacramento News & Review, 12/11/2003 The Day We All Got Tattoos, Friction Magazine, 3/9/2002 I Spotted Curie, Friction Magazine, 9/21/2001 "A Lobster Walks Into a Bar...", Stuff Magazine, 10/2000 Holy Sh*t!: Holy gifts for the truly devout, The Metropolitan, 12/6/1999 Rock of Ages, 2, 3, The Metropolitan, 6/21/1999 Can You Get Rich at Home?, Maxim, 5/1999 The Great Infiltrator by Spike Gillespie, Pop Cult Magazine bear.mov

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the apocalypse says hi genially disagreeing with the internet since 1995 Who Are You and Why Are You Doing This? BestHollie on Welcome Back to the Hellmouth: “Some Assembly Required” a on Welcome Back to the Hellmouth: “Bad Eggs” youngCarmel on Intermission, with READY PLAYER ONE Jen on Who Are You and Why Are You Doing This? Fish, Barrel: YA vs. WSJ June 6, 2011 June 6, 2011 Molly Templeton Not for the first time, I feel a little like I’ve been trolled by a major newspaper. Just recently, we had The New York Times‘ inane Game of Thrones review (it’s for boys and the “sexy” bits were added to lure women); the NYT again with a review declaring that YA fiction’s purpose is to tell a story and provide a message; and now the Wall Street Journal has joined the fray with a piece — somewhat questionably labeled a book review — decrying the terrible, dark, violent, gloomy state of young adult literature. These pieces almost read as if they’re positioning themselves to get a response — knowingly assigning a reviewer who doesn’t care for a genre and is likely to say something dismissive, or creating a straw-man argument so that the writer can appear to be responding to a trend, not just bitching in a vague and overgeneralized way. And even as I feel like I’m playing into their link-baiting hands, I get irritable and cranky and feel compelled to post something, somewhere, in response. Can I add anything to the chorus of voices pointing out what’s wrong with this piece? Is it worth writing a response when this ground has been so thoroughly covered, from so many sides? The arguments have been made, and well, by Cecil Castellucci writing for the L.A. Review of Books; Josie Leavitt writing for Publishers Weekly; author Gayle Forman, from a journalist’s angle; author Laurie Halse Anderson, writing with anger and compassion; everyone posting on Twitter with the hashtag #YASaves; and The Horn Book‘s Roger Sutton, whose perspective is as refreshing as ever. But every response still matters, because they’re our responses as readers, and as former (or current) teens. Every story about a girl who found solace in a dark book that stretched her understanding, or about a boy whose world grew because of the gritty story he read — every one of those personal anecdotes is the argument against the WSJ‘s narrow-minded piece. They pile up untidily, like stories do; they link dirty, tired, exhilarated hands and form a bigger, longer tale, all of our individual moments knotting themselves into something bigger than each of us. My story is simple. I was a pretty good kid, but I never felt like I belonged. Books — young adult books, fantasy books, all kinds of books — gave me stories in which that could change. They promised that the world was bigger, and that it was full of more kinds of people than I could imagine, plenty of whom were just as unsure and unsatisfied as I was. I read countless fantasies in which a seemingly ordinary but unhappy, uncomfortable kid found out she really had another life waiting, if only she could get through the challenges and obstacles that waited on the path to that life. Maybe a girl would become queen; maybe a boy would save the world. Maybe it was the other way around. Some of these stories were fluffy and light, but others went to dark places full of loss, grief, violence, suffering and painful survival. They all said the same thing, though: You can get through it. You can find allies. You can fight your battles no matter what shape they take. You will change, and your life will change. Not all the characters who change their lives and/or their worlds turn out to be world-saving wizards, reluctant revolutionaries, or long-lost monarchs, but some of them do. There are plenty of brilliant, dark books that take place in the real world, but I always opted for the books with the heightened, fantastical stakes, where magic and horror helped reflect the internal reality that whatever we’re facing is often the most important thing ever, even when we’re not 15 anymore. For Buffy Summers, not going out one night really will mean the world ending. For the rest of us, the results are usually smaller, but the hurt and excitement is just as real. I still read a lot of YA and I still look for these stories. They’re the ones that remind me how to find magic in the ordinary, or how to take scary leaps of faith, or how to make the things you need out of the things you have, and how to be grateful and compassionate. They’re the ones that remind me that family is built as well as born, that your friends will save you and you’ll save them back, and that the fantastical can be a beautiful metaphor for feeling different. They’re the ones that tell stories in which teenagers do great, incredible things, and stand up to broken societies, and see the world in ways I never would have thought of. They’re the ones in which the battle to be yourself can be the most difficult fight of all, and the ones that remind us that everyone else is fighting that same battle — and sometimes losing. They’re the ones full of hope. And the darkest books are often the most hopeful, whether they’re Laurie Halse Anderson’s heartbreaking Speak (a book I love unreasonably), or Patrick Ness’ heavy, relentless Chaos Walking series, or books that are a different kind of dark, like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series and countless other books in which the world the adults have made is not the world in which the next generation wants to live. If the books seem to get darker, it’s worth asking where the darkness comes from. There were dark books when I was a kid. There were dark books when you were a kid. There were dark books handed to me in high school, safely patted down by the authorities and deemed acceptable, and there were dark books I pulled off the shelves myself. It’s been pointed out that kids can self-edit, that they skip or ignore the things they’re not ready for or don’t fully understand. A book lets you do that. I see what I’m reading in my head, like a tiny, flickering movie screen I control. If a thing is too much, I don’t have to see it. If a thing is too much, you don’t have to read it. But you also don’t have to freak out and fear for the children, because if young adult books have taught those of us who read them anything at all, it’s that the children are a lot smarter than we remember being. ← Read ALL the Things: The prequel Read ALL the Things: Revisiting Ellen Gilchrist → Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Minnow by WordPress.com.

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The OSA Telegraph Art+Music Poetry Horoscopes Drama Qu33n Food + Culture Internet Sparkles Boston Tea Party vs. Ferguson Protests - Kelsey Tostenson A common wish of freedom and independence from Great Britain united colonists to fight for change in the American Revolution, just like hundreds of Americans took to the streets in protest of the Verdict of the Ferguson case, Thanksgiving week. —Kelsey Tostenson he United States of America started as just a jumble of thirteen colonies struggling to find their place in the world. A common wish of freedom and independence from Great Britain united the colonists to fight for change in the American Revolution, just like the hundreds of Americans that took to the streets in protest of the verdict of a Ferguson case Thanksgiving week. America’s founding fathers wanted American citizen’s to have the right to assemble, as protests and boycotts were common occurrences leading up to the revolution and were powerful tools for gaining support, however some of the protesters that took to the street nationwide in November, made more of an impression with violence than with their words. Police brutality is an issue being discussed more and more in the media. An emerging desire for change has spread across America like wildfire. Protesters in Ferguson were completely within their first amendment right, freedom of speech, but just like a fire their high spirits got a little out of control as millions of Americans watched protesters burn cars, loot businesses, and act out violently. Even with good intentions this left a sour taste in many Americans mouths. Of course not all protesters were violent, but in every large group there is always a few sour apples, and they are the ones that people take note of. In the Boston Tea Party, colonists boarded ships in the Boston harbor and threw barrels of tea overboard. They were boldly protesting a British tax on tea, but ultimately there could have been better means of conveying their point. This can be compared to the Ferguson riots, no matter how much someone disagrees with someone, it does not justify violence, it ultimately only ends up making that person bad. Furthermore these acts of defiance were ultimately hurting small business owners and in the case of the Boston Tea Party, the fish. Throughout history there are so many examples of revolutions, violent and nonviolent. People tend to resort to violence and force, when they are most desperate, because it’s easier to force change rather than to inspire it. However, change takes time and nonviolent changes can sometimes be the most effective. Gandhi paved the way for people searching change in a nonviolent manner during the time of imperialism. He did hunger strikes and lectures, and when opposing forces made violent attempts to stop the protests it simply made them look bad, further promoting Gandhi’s message. There are many parallels that can be drawn between current events and the days prefacing the American Revolution, but ultimately it is people’s right to protest. Just be mindful of the consequences whether they are positive or negative. Photo used under Creative Commons from www.ilkkajukarainen.fi

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Cover To Cover: FLASHPOINT #5 FLASHPOINT #5 Writer: Geoff Johns Art: Andy Kubert, Sandra Hope, Jesse Delperdang & Alex Sinclair DC $3.99 Matt C: It’s fair to say that the hoopla surround DC’s New 52 has stolen some of the thunder from Flashpoint over the last few months as the focus has shifted away from what was happening in the summer event book to what would happen after it concluded. We’ve already known for some time now that Barry Allen would somehow ‘fix’ the timeline that created the world of Flashpoint and that it wouldn’t result in everything reverting back to the way things were before. It would essentially be a reboot of sorts, with a large helping of the familiar accompanied with a side order of something a little different. So it may seem surprising then, considering we’ve had a rough idea of how things would turn out, that Flashpoint #5 is quite as effective as it is. In one sense, it’s very predictable. Barry is confronted by Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, who reveals the root cause of the divergent timeline (perhaps not what you’re expecting) before the two set about duking it out while various other parties engage in fisticuffs in the background. It works because Johns ensures the characters don’t got lost in the action and Kubert ensures the action looks spectacular. Johns brings in the various plot threads together without confusing the reader by staying tight on a couple of characters: Allen primarily, but also Thomas Wayne, who’s determination to save his son has given the series a lot of its emotional weight. I still contend that the numerous Flashpoint tie-ins have been superfluous (entertaining as they may be) as this is one of those rare crossovers that doesn’t make you feel like your missing out on much of the finer details of the plot if you haven’t been picking up a bunch of other books. There’s lots of stuff going on in this world, but essentially the series has been about two men and their desire to mend the timestream, and when Johns doesn’t overcrowd his plots, he really, really shines. As a blockbuster comic series it’s succeeded in a way that few others of a similar ilk have in the last decade or so, but what I wasn’t anticipating was how successful it would be at tugging at the heartstrings too. There are several moments here were certain members of the cast have to deal with both the idea and the reality of losing loved ones, and these moments pack an unexpected punch. Most people will probably highlight the powerful final pages - and deservedly so - but I was also quite taken with the scene between Barry and his mother, beautifully written with a real tenderness at its core, even amid all the high octane displays of superheroics that surround it. Kubert’s been around for a while now – can it really be two decades since he was illustrating X-Men?! – but clearly he hasn’t been resting on his laurels when it comes to his craft because, as good as it was way back when, his art now is frequently remarkable, full of explosive vivacity, springing off the page with the help of Hope and Delperdang’s inks and some eye-popping colouring from Sinclair. It’s a testament to Kubert’s skill that those moments were emotion comes to the fore are just as, if not more, powerful than dynamic visuals when the Flash is on the move. Too many times I’ve got onboard with an event book only to come away disappointed with the finale, so it’s really quite refreshing to find one that exceeded my expectations right up to the end. It hasn’t done anything particularly new but what it has done is remind me of the pure thrill a superhero comic can deliver when all the right elements are in place. There are a lot of exciting things due out of the DC Universe over the coming months but for the moment, while Marvel are failing with their own summer event, let’s just be thankful with the knowledge that, in 2011, its still possible for such as big, high profile series to enthral, thrill and surprise in equal measure. 9/10 Posted by Matt C at 21:37 Labels: Cover To Cover, Matt C

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Dokumentenidentifikation EP1699056 19.10.2006 EP-Veröffentlichungsnummer 0001699056 Titel Halbleiterspeichermodul und mehrschichtige Leiterplatte zur Herstellung eines Speichermoduls Anmelder Celetronix International, Ltd., Hamilton, BM Erfinder Peddle, L., Charles, Simi Valley, CA 93065, US Vertreter derzeit kein Vertreter bestellt Vertragsstaaten AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IT, LI, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE, SI, SK, TR Sprache des Dokument EN EP-Anmeldetag 24.02.2003 EP-Aktenzeichen 061154126 EP-Offenlegungsdatum 06.09.2006 Veröffentlichungstag im Patentblatt 19.10.2006 IPC-Hauptklasse G11C 29/00(2006.01)A, F, I, 20060808, B, H, EP IPC-Nebenklasse G11C 5/06(2006.01)A, L, I, 20060808, B, H, EP Beschreibung[en] The present invention is related to US Provisional Patent 60/360,036, filed on February 26, 2002, and references co-pending U.S. Patent Application Attorney Docket Nos. 65887-0006, entitled "Improved Patching Methods and Apparatus for Fabricating Memory Modules," filed February 20, 2003, and 65887-0007, entitled "Improved Methods and Apparatus for Fabricating Chip-on-Board Modules," filed February 20, 2003. The present invention relates to the field of electronic memory modules. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to the fabrication of DDR memory and other logic modules that selectively use operating segments of a plurality of less-than-perfect chips or packages exclusively, or in combination with perfect ones. Semiconductor manufacturing processes have become increasingly more complex. From the beginning with the creation of discrete transistors and other semiconductor devices through subsequent medium and large scale integrated devices, the number of transistors or independent elements we can fit on to a semiconductor chip has grown exponentially each year. For example, the first integrated processors comprised on the order of 2300 transistors. A recently announced integrated circuit processor comprises more than 220 million transistors. Other circuits are projected to contain over 1 billion transistors in the foreseeable future. This continued exponential growth of semiconductor manufacturing processes, while contributing to the greatly decreased costs of individual semiconductor devices and products has also exacerbated many production and testing problems associated with commercial semiconductor manufacturing processes. The substantial increase in the density of electronic circuits in the semiconductor integrated manufacturing processes has resulted in the production of many more less-than-perfect semiconductor die or chips. This increase in the production of less than perfect chips and die has spawned a new market for electronic component sellers who find ways to utilize less-than-perfect chips or die to assemble working components. The many enhancements and advancements in semiconductor manufacturing and packaging processes have resulted in the creation of a number of price sensitive semiconductor product applications for electronic parts sellers. In particular, these electronic parts sellers develop low cost memory modules or other semiconductor devices through the utilization of cost effective processes and less-than-perfect semiconductor parts. One particular advancement in memory technology, called DDR (Double Data Rate), has improved (approximately doubled) the read/write access speed of memory by using both the rising edge and falling edge of the driving clock to access memory. Using both the falling edge and rising edge of a clock signal necessitates the use of a clean clock signal. Often logic modules that use partially-defective memory parts require a greater number of parts in order to provide a desired amount of functional memory. In DDR memory and other logic modules, the driving clock signal will become increasingly distorted as more memory parts are added to a module, i.e., each part adds a resistive load for the clock signal to drive. A distorted clock signal may often cause errors when accessing memory parts which are sensitive to the rise and fall times of the driving clock. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a clean clock signal capable of driving an indeterminate number of memory parts, some or all of which may be partially defective. In summary, there is an ongoing need in the art for means and methods of producing low cost semiconductor devices, particularly memory modules. Related to this is an ongoing need to make use of modern, popular devices that are partially-defective so that such devices are not completely wasted. According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a multi-later circuit board for fabricating a memory module using a selectively operable clock booster and partially-defective memory parts, said circuit board comprising: means for utilizing an indeterminate number of memory parts; and means for selectively connecting said clock booster to said memory parts. According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an improved semiconductor memory module having a plurality of primary memory parts and a plurality of secondary backup memory parts arrayed on a printed circuit board to form a predetermined size memory module, said memory module comprising: a first conductor layout on said printed circuit board to associate individual ones of said primary memory parts with an individual secondary backup memory part to form a primary/secondary memory part paid, an individual bit patching network associated with each primary/secondary part pair to facilitate replacement of any inoperable I/O output line of a primary part with an operable I/O line of its associated backup memory part to form a fully functional primary/secondary memory part pairs, and a selectively operable clock booster circuit to correct any degradation of a primary data clock signal as a function of the number of backup memory parts utilized to patch any non-working I/O lines of associated primary memory parts. SUMMARY OF SELECTED EMBODIMENTS In one of many embodiments, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for implementing a selectively operable clock booster for DDR and other memory modules, which utilize partially-defective memory parts or a combination of partially-defective and flawless memory parts. The method and apparatus includes an improved clocking method and system, which enables the use of partially-defective memory parts without distorting the clock signal. In one embodiment, a Phase-Lock Loop circuit is used to significantly reduce clock distortion on a memory module. In another embodiment, a clock booster circuit may be selectively operated to allow an indeterminate number of memory parts to be used without distorting the clock signal on SDR (Synchronized Data Rate) memory modules. The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of the present invention and are a part of the specification. Together with the following description, the drawings demonstrate and explain the principles of the present invention. The illustrated embodiments are examples of the present invention and do not limit the scope of the invention. Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method of fabricating a memory module according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a graph illustrating a distortion of a clock signal due to clock skew. Fig. 3 is a graph illustrating a distortion of a clock signal due to electrical noise. Fig. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of a Phase-Lock Loop circuit that may be used as a clock booster for a memory module according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a layout of major components of a memory module fabricated according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig.6 is a block diagram illustrating a primary and secondary memory part in conjunction with a patching network according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a primary and secondary memory part in conjunction with another patching network according to another embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a PLL clock driver, which may be selectively connected to a number of primary and secondary memory parts using switches according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a PLL clock driver, which may be selectively connected to a number of primary and secondary memory parts using a clock patching network according to another embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a PLL clock driver, selectively connected to a number of primary and secondary memory parts according to one embodiment of the present invention. Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED EMBODIMENTS A method and apparatus disclosed herein for manufacturing DDR and other memory modules uses partially-defective memory parts or a combination of partially-defective and flawless memory parts. The method and apparatus include an improved clocking method and system, which enables an indeterminate number of memory parts to be used without distorting the clock signal. In one embodiment, a Phase-Lock Loop circuit is used to significantly reduce clock distortion on DDR and other memory modules. Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method of fabricating a memory module according to one embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, a clock booster is mounted on a multi-layer circuit board (101). The clock booster may be any apparatus that receives a clock input, and outputs one or more clock signals capable of driving a multiplicity of logic parts without clock distortion. In a preferred embodiment, a Phase-Locked Loop circuit may be used as a clock booster. During the fabrication process of a memory module, as described in US Patent No. 6,119,049 or the co-pending patent application referenced above, memory parts are tested and patched (102). The testing and patching (102) allows a fully-functional memory module to be fabricated using partially-defective parts. Due to the load that each memory part adds, it is desirable to only connect the clock signal to those memory parts that are utilized. This may be accomplished using any number of switching mechanisms to connect or disconnect a clock signal to a memory part. In a preferred embodiment, a clock patching network may be used to selectively connect or disconnect outputs of a clock booster to the memory parts (103). Fig. 2 is a graph illustrating a distortion of a clock signal due to clock skew. In general, clock skew may be described as a decrease of available time in a clock cycle. As shown in Fig. 2, CLK A (201) produces a clock signal with a fixed frequency, and CLK B (202) slightly trails the signal for CLK A (201). Because the two clocks are not synchronized there is a loss (204) in the clock period. For example, if two memory parts were being accessed at the same time, one with CLK A and the other with CLK B, the effective clock period (203) would be reduced because the clock signals are not synchronized. For many memory modules it may be desirable to access up to 16 memory parts at the same time. This makes clock skew an important design issue since clock skew is often caused by variations in the load the clock is driving, etc. In particular, applications such as DDR that use both the rising and falling edge of a clock are sensitive to reductions in clock period caused by clock skew. Fig. 3 is a graph illustrating a distortion of a clock signal due to electrical noise. Electrical noise is common in high frequency electrical applications, and is detrimental in memory units. As shown in Fig. 3, a clock signal (301) is rising from a logic low level (302) to a logic high level (303). Most devices, such as a memory part, use a logic threshold level (304) to distinguish when a clock signal (301) is "high" or "low." For example, when the clock signal (301) reaches point 1 (305), a device using the clock signal will recognize a logic high (303), but a period of electrical noise (306) on the clock signal may cause the clock (301) signal to dip below the logic threshold value (304), resulting in extraneous clocking when the clock signal (301) again crosses the logic threshold value (304) at point 2 (307). A period of electrical noise (306) on a clock signal (301) may consequently cause double clocking, false clocking, and waveform distortion, etc. In order to improve clock performance, devices such as phase-locked loops, amplifiers, filters, etc., may be used. In one embodiment that uses a variable number of memory parts, a device that strengthens a clock signal to allow a high number of memory parts to be driven by that clock signal is desirable. Fig. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of a Phase-Locked Loop circuit that may be used as a clock booster for a memory module according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 4, a PPL unit (407) may comprise a number of buffer units (417), PPL circuitry (406), and a mux (409). Several signals, including a clock signal, CLK (401), Inv_CLK (402), FBin (403), Inv_FBin (404), VCC (408), and Output Enable (423) are supplied as input signals to the PPL unit (407). In this embodiment, CLK (401) may be a clock signal input designed to drive DDR or other memory parts at a designed frequency. Inv_CLK (402) is the same as CLK (401), but shifted 180 degrees. FBin (403) is a copy of the output clock signal, FBout (421), of the PPL unit (407), which is used to ensure the outputs (411-416) are synchronized with the incoming CLK (401) signal. Inv_FBin (404) is a copy of the output clock signal, Inv_FBout (422), of the PPL unit (407) shifted by 180 degrees. VCC (408) is an input voltage to the mux (409) that may be used to determine if GLK (401) will be the output from the PPL unit (407) or if the output (418) from the PPL circuitry (406) will be the output from the PPL unit (407). Output Enable (423) allows a host device to control when the PPL unit (407) outputs a signal. Y1-YN (411-416) comprise a number of outputs from the PPL unit (407). More specifically, Y1-YN (411-416) are synchronized copies or phase shifted copies of CLK (401) and Inv_CLK (402). Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a layout of major components of a memory module fabricated according to one selected embodiment. In particular, a 64M(megabytes), 128M, or 256M DDR or SDR memory module fabricated using 8Mx8, 16Mx8, or 32Mx8 memory parts may be illustrated by the memory module of Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 5, the memory module (500) may comprise a multi-layer circuit board (531), paired memory parts (532), patching networks (533), and a selectively operable clock booster (507), such as the PPL unit (407, Fig. 4) shown in Fig. 4. The paired memory parts (532) are designated by P1, P2, P3, and P4, with each pair preferably comprising one primary and one secondary memory part. During the fabrication process, the patching networks (533) are utilized as described below. Once a determination of possible patching solutions is realized, the selectively operable clock booster (507) may be used to effectively drive the primary and secondary memory parts (532) whose I/O bits are accessed. Fig. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a primary and secondary memory part in conjunction with a patching network. As shown in Fig. 6, the I/O lines (I/O 1-I/O 8) of a primary memory part (601) may be connected to pads (604) of a patching network (603). In this embodiment, each pad (604) to which a separate primary I/O line is connected is preferably close to a separate output line (Out1-Out8). Additionally, the backup I/O lines (I/O 1b-I/O 8b) from a secondary memory part (602) are also connected to pads (604) of the patching network (603). As described for the primary I/O lines, each pad (604) to which a separate backup I/O line (I/O 1b-I/O 8b) is connected is preferably close to a separate output line. As shown in Fig. 6, the pads (604) connected to I/O lines, I/O 1 and I/O 1b, are close to the pad (604) connected to output line, Out1. This configuration of pads (604) used as a patching network (603) preferably allows one primary I/O line to be replaced by one backup I/O line. For example, I/O 1 may be replaced by I/O 1b, I/O 2 may be replaced by I/O 2b, etc. During the fabrication process of a memory module, the patching network (603) is used to connect a primary or secondary I/O line to an output line (Out1-Out8). This may be accomplished by connecting a single pad (604) corresponding to a primary I/O line or backup I/O line to a single pad (604) corresponding to an output line. Electrically conductive materials, e.g., solder, jumper wires, etc., may be used to connect pads (604) of the patching network (603) to allow a host device to access the I/O bits of a primary memory part (601) or secondary memory part (602). Fig. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a primary and secondary memory part in conjunction with another patching network. As shown in Fig. 7, two I/O lines (I/O 1-I/O 2) of a primary memory part (701) may be connected to two separate pads (704) of a patching network (703). Additionally, four backup I/O lines (I/O 1b-I/O 4b) are connected to four other pads (704) of the patching network (703). In this embodiment, each output line (Out1-Out2) is connected to a series of pads (704), thus providing a separate connective pad (704) adjacent to each pad (704) corresponding to an I/O line. For example, Fig. 7 illustrates two primary I/O lines and four backup I/O lines connected to six separate pads (704) of the patching network (703). Therefore, each output line is connected to six pads (704) adjacent to the pads (704) corresponding to the primary and secondary I/O lines. The illustration of Fig. 7 is incomplete in that only one patching network (703) is shown. In order to use the other primary I/O lines (I/O 3-I/O 8), additional patching networks (703) are preferred, wherein two primary I/O lines and four backup I/O lines are connected to each patching network (703). Therefore, a memory module using the patching configuration shown in Fig. 7, would preferably use four patching networks (703) for each primary memory part (701) and secondary memory part (702) pair. Additionally, the spacing between the pads (704) shown in Fig. 7 is for illustrative purposes only. In a real implementation, pads (704) are preferably close together, thus allowing electrical connections between pads (704) corresponding to I/O lines and pads (704) corresponding to output lines to be easily made. During the fabrication process of a memory module, the patching network (703) is used to connect a primary or secondary I/O line to an output line (Outl-Out2). This may be accomplished by connecting a single pad (704) corresponding to a primary I/O line or backup I/O line to one of six pads (704) corresponding to each output line. Electrically conductive materials, e.g., solder, jumper wires, etc., may be used to connect pads (704) of the patching network (703) to allow a host device to access the I/O bits of a primary memory part (701) or secondary memory part (702). Fig. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a primary and secondary memory part in conjunction with another patching network. As shown in Fig. 8, two I/O lines (I/O 1-I/O 2) of a primary memory part (801) may be connected to two separate pads (804) of a patching network (803). Additionally, eight backup I/O lines (I/O 1b-I/O 8b) are connected to eight other pads (804) of the patching network (803). In this embodiment, each output line (Out1-Qut2) is connected to a series of pads (804), thus providing a separate connective pad (804) adjacent to each pad (804) corresponding to an I/O line. For example, Fig. 7 illustrates two primary I/O lines and eight backup I/O lines connected to ten separate pads (804) of the patching network (803). Therefore, each output line is connected to ten pads (804) adjacent to the pads (804) corresponding to the primary and secondary I/O lines. The illustration of Fig. 8 is incomplete in that only one patching network (803) is shown. In order to use the other primary I/O lines (I/O 3-I/O 8), additional patching networks (803) are preferred, wherein two primary I/O lines and all eight backup I/O lines are connected to each patching network (803). Therefore, a memory module using the patching configuration shown in Fig. 8, would preferably use four patching networks (803) for each primary memory part (801) and secondary memory part (802) pair. Additionally, the spacing between the pads (804) shown in Fig. 8 is for illustrative purposes only. In a real implementation, pads (804) are preferably close together, thus allowing electrical connections between pads (804) corresponding to I/O lines and pads (804) corresponding to output lines to be easily made. During the fabrication process of a memory module, the patching network (803) is used to connect a primary or secondary I/O line to an output line (Out1-Out2). This may be accomplished by connecting a single pad (804) corresponding to a primary I/O line or backup I/O line to one of ten pads (804) corresponding to each output line. Electrically conductive materials, e.g., solder, jumper wires, etc., may be used to connect pads (704) of the patching network (703) to allow a host device to access the I/O bits of a primary memory part (701) or secondary memory part (702). Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a PLL clock driver, which may be selectively connected to a number of memory parts in one selected embodiment. As shown in Fig. 9, a PPL unit (907), e.g., the PPL unit (407, Fig. 4) described in Fig. 4, receives a clock signal, CLK (901), from which a number of outputs (synthesized copies of the incoming clock signal) are created. These outputs are connected to primary memory parts (932) and secondary memory parts (933) through switches (924). The switches (924) may selectively be opened or closed, thereby allowing a clock signal to be used preferably only with memory parts (932, 933) whose I/O lines are accessed. Additionally, the PPL unit (907) may be enabled or disabled using an enable switch (926). Fig. 10 is similar to Fig. 9 in that Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a PLL clock driver, which may be selectively connected to a number of memory parts. As shown in Fig. 10, a PPL unit (1007), e.g., the PPL unit (407, Fig. 4) described in Fig. 4, receives a clock signal, CLK (1001), from which a number of outputs (synthesized copies of the incoming clock signal) are created. These outputs may preferably be connected to primary memory parts (1032) and secondary memory parts (1033) through a clock patching network (1025), which uses pads (1024) to selectively complete a connection, thereby allowing a clock signal to be used preferably only with memory parts (1032, 1033) whose I/O lines are accessed. Additionally, the PPL unit (1007) may be enabled or disabled using an enable switch (1026). Fig. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a PLL clock driver, selectively connected to a number of memory parts. As shown in Fig. 11, a PPL unit (1107), e.g., the PPL unit (407, Fig. 4) described in Fig. 4, receives a clock signal, CLK (1101), from which a number of outputs (synthesized copies of the incoming clock signal) are created. These outputs may preferably be connected to primary memory parts (1132) and secondary memory parts (1133) through a clock patching network (1125), which uses pads (1124) to selectively complete a connection, thereby allowing a clock signal to be used preferably only with memory parts (832, 833) whose I/O lines are accessed. Additionally, the PPL unit (1107) may be enabled or disabled using an enable switch (1126). With connecting pads (1124), one of several methods may be used. As illustrated in Fig. 11, solder dots (1127) or jumper wires (1128) may be used. Additionally, a protective material (1129), e.g., a thermally curable material, may be used to physically protect jumper wires (1128), solder dots (1127), etc. As also shown in Fig. 8, all of the memory parts (1132, 1133) are connected to a clock output from the PPL (1107) with exception of the secondary memory part (1133) associated with the memory part pair, P2. As described above, this illustration is preferable if I/O lines of all memory parts are utilized to create a fully-functional memory module except the secondary memory part of P2. The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate and describe embodiments of invention. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to any precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims. Anspruch[en] A multi-later circuit board for fabricating a memory module using a selectively operable clock booster and partially-defective memory parts, said circuit board comprising: means for utilizing an indeterminate number of memory parts; and means for selectively connecting said clock booster to said memory parts. The multi-layer circuit board of claim 1, wherein said means for utilizing an indeterminate number of memory parts comprises patching networks. The multi-layer circuit board of claim 1 or 2, wherein said means for selectively connecting said clock booster to said memory parts comprises a clock patching network. An improved semiconductor memory module having a plurality of primary memory parts and a plurality of secondary backup memory parts arrayed on a printed circuit board to form a predetermined size memory module, said memory module comprising: a first conductor layout on said printed circuit board to associate individual ones of said primary memory parts with an individual secondary backup memory part to form a primary/secondary memory part paid, an individual bit patching network associated with each primary/secondary part pair to facilitate replacement of any inoperable I/O output line of a primary part with an operable I/O line of its associated backup memory part to form a fully functional primary/secondary memory part pairs, and a selectively operable clock booster circuit to correct any degradation of a primary data clock signal as a function of the number of backup memory parts utilized to patch any non-working I/O lines of associated primary memory parts. The improved memory module of claim 4 wherein said memory module comprises a DDR memory module. The improved memory module of claim 4, wherein said memory module comprises a SDR memory module. The improved memory module of claim 4, 5 or 6, wherein said clock booster circuit comprises a phase lock loop amplifier for generating a revitalized and resynchronized clock circuit for driving predetermined ones of said primary/secondary memory part pairs. The improved memory module of claim 4, 5, 6 or 7 further comprising: a stack array of a plurality of parallel arranged printed circuit board members; a plurality of said primary memory parts and of said secondary backup memory parts arranged on each PC board to form a predetermined total memory capacity; a memory module data clock booster circuit located on at least one of said plurality of stacked PC board members; and a switch for selectively actuating said clock booster circuit as a function of a number of primary and secondary memory parts utilized to provide operable I/O lines to form a fully operable memory module. Patent Zeichnungen (PDF)

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HOME / Madeleine L’Engle: The Kairos Novels: The Wrinkle in Time and Polly O’Keefe Quartets Madeleine L’Engle: The Kairos Novels: The Wrinkle in Time and Polly O’Keefe Quartets By Madeleine L'Engle About Madeleine L’Engle: The Kairos Novels: The Wrinkle in Time and Polly O’Keefe Quartets A Wrinkle in Time was only the beginning: rediscover an American classic with all seven of its sequels in this deluxe, two-volume collector’s edition boxed set. Here, for the first time, in a newly-prepared authoritative text, Madeleine L’Engle’s iconic classic A Wrinkle in Time, one of the most beloved and influential novels for young readers ever written, is presented with all seven of its sequels–what L’Engle called the Kairos (or “cosmic time”) novels–in a deluxe two-volume boxed set, complete with never-before-seen deleted passages from A Wrinkle in Time. L’Engle’s unforgettable heroine, Meg Murry, must confront her fears and self-doubt to rescue her scientist father, who has been experimenting with mysterious tesseracts capable of bending the very fabric of space and time. Helping her are her little brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O’Keefe, and a trio of strange supernatural visitors called Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which. But A Wrinkle in Time was only the beginning of the adventure. In A Wind in the Door, Meg and Calvin descend into the microverse to save Charles Wallace from beings called Echthroi, who are trying to erase existence. In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, when a madman threatens nuclear war, Charles Wallace must save the future by traveling into the past. And in Many Waters, Meg’s twin brothers are accidentally transported back to the time of Noah’s ark. The final four books center on Calvin and Meg’s daughter Polly. In The Arm of the Starfish, Polly disappears, and Calvin’s research assistant is implicated in her kidnapping. In Dragons in the Waters, Polly and her brother Charles are on a ship sailing to Venezuela when they help solve a murder connected to a stolen portrait of Simon Bolivar. Polly receives an education in different kinds of love in A House Like a Lotus. And in An Acceptable Time, Polly is lured through a tesseract by a friend who may be hoping to sacrifice Polly in order to save himself. #MadeleineLEngleTheKairosNovelsTheWrinkleinTimeandPollyOKeefeQuartets Madeleine L’Engle: The Kairos Novels: The Wrinkle in Time and Polly O’KeefeQuartets

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SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Here's Where 2020 Candidates Actually Stand On Abortion Rights Welcome to Got Issues?, MTV News’s candidate-by-candidate breakdown of your biggest concerns and questions about the 2020 race. Despite what buzzy headlines might tell you, abortion isn’t all that divisive an issue; the vast majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that ruled a person is entitled to have an abortion before a fetus reaches the point of “viability,” and that making such a choice is their constitutional right. The percentage of Americans who have held that belief has, for the most part, remained steady for years, but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from trying to push restrictive legislation that makes accessing abortion almost impossible for millions of people. Though people sought abortions well before the 1973 Supreme Court case, the procedures were often done in secret, and without much regulation. Untold numbers of people suffered. And even though abortion services are safer than ever, the procedure is still widely stigmatized. As more and more people speak up about their experiences and decisions, the procedure is taking up more space in a larger social and political dialogue — and if you’re running for president this year, it’s likely you’ll be asked your thoughts on abortion rights by at least one potential voter. So where do the 2020 candidates stand on people’s abilities to make decisions for their own bodies and lives? And how does each candidate plan to bolster — or in some cases, decimate — certain provisions and amendments related to reproductive health? Here’s your breakdown. Editor’s note: Throughout this article we refer to pregnant people and people who can become pregnant. Many candidates refer primarily to women in their campaign and policy language, but the reproductive rights of trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer people have also been under attack for years. We have made efforts to rectify language where possible. Photo By John Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images Does he have an official policy on abortion? Not yet The pro-choice Colorado Senator doesn’t have a policy on abortion on his website, but he has plenty of past work to show for it: He actually won his Senate seat in 2010 by attacking his opponent’s anti-choice stance. He co-sponsored the Women's Health Protection Act of 2015, a bill meant to “protect a [person’s] right to determine whether and when to bear a child or end a pregnancy by limiting restrictions on the provision of abortion services.” It did not pass. He called the Hyde Amendment, which stipulates that federal funds cannot be used toward abortion services except in extreme cases, “federally sanctioned discrimination” and said it is “wrong and should be overturned immediately.” He did, however, vote for a massive bill, which funded a big chunk of the government last year and included provisions that excluded any of the federal money from being used on abortions. He voted against the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” that would have banned abortions past 20 weeks, wants birth control covered by insurance, supports federally funding Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics, and received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images Does he have an official policy on abortion? Sort of? In early June, Biden was met with plenty of blowback when the former Vice President indicated that he still supported the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which stipulates that federal funds cannot be used toward abortion services except in extreme cases. (Given the breakdown of who is most likely to receive healthcare from programs like Medicaid, the amendment largely affects lower-income people, as well as people of color.) He quickly changed his stance, making him the last Democratic presidential contender to publicly oppose the law; Vox notes that spokespeople credit the shift to the state-level push by some lawmakers to ban abortion altogether as part of the reason for the move. Biden’s healthcare plan includes language promising to “protect the constitutional right to an abortion,” and promises to repeal the Hyde Amendment, fight targeted restrictions on abortion providers (also known as TRAP laws), and dismantle waiting periods and other hoops that create an undue burden on pregnant people seeking abortion care. Such stances are a far cry from his past votes and views as a U.S. senator; in 1981, he voted in favor of allowing states to overturn Roe v. Wade, and has also voted for spending bills that included the Hyde Amendment and other limitations in their language. Does he have an official policy on abortion? Yep! The Senator’s reproductive-rights plan outlines his support for Roe v. Wade, and promises that if elected, he’d end the “global gag rule” that bars healthcare providers who receive Title X funding from providing patients with references to abortion services, even if they ask for it explicitly. He also said he would work to repeal the Hyde Amendment, despite voting for a massive bill in 2018 with similar provisions tacked onto it. He says he wants to reinstate the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program to its original purpose of supporting young people’s sexual health. (The Trump administration has shifted the interpretation to focus on an abstinence-only model, even though such methodologies are largely ineffective at best.) As Vox notes, Booker also believes that cisgender men need to join the fight to protect abortion rights. “Don’t tell me just because you have a wife or a mother or a daughter, that that’s how you relate to this. You have a body,” he told a crowd at a Planned Parenthood forum in June. He received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Steve Bullock BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images Does he have an official policy on abortion? Not really? While the Montana governor says in his healthcare plan that he would support Title X funding to strengthen reproductive rights for marginalized communities, his policy does not mention abortion outright. Even so, he supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, which he indicated at an event in Ames, Iowa, this past May. He’s also done plenty of work in the efforts of protecting Title X in his home state, and supports codifying Roe v. Wade into law on its own merit. (The Supreme Court ruled that the right to an abortion was constitutional but politicians have yet to pass legislation affirming that jurisdiction.) “I would say that life begins at viability,” he also said in May, per The Hill, which wades into some sticky territory regarding anti-abortion rhetoric and language. He followed that personal belief up with a major caveat, however: “Either way, it's not up to people like me to be making these decisions. It's not what I think, it's what does an individual woman need to do with her body and with her healthcare.” Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images Buttigieg has yet to fill in the part of his healthcare policy breakdown that will seemingly be dedicated to “women’s health” and ostensibly lend space to abortion access, and he hasn’t had to do much legislating in the space as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He has been vocal about how abortion is an issue that affects people of all genders, though, and he has indicated support for Title X funding, repealing the Hyde Amendment, and ensuring that the conversation surrounding abortion access does not play into conservative gotcha-style talking points. “The dialogue has gotten so caught up in where you draw the line. I trust women to draw the line,” he said in May. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Castro’s plan is rooted in the idea of “reproductive justice,” and is one of the few plans to highlight the issues that trans and nonbinary people might face if they seek abortion care, too. He also brought up trans reproductive rights during a presidential primary debate in June; while he notably gaffed on the nuances, he apologized for misspeaking soon after. He supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, bolstering other healthcare agencies so that they are free and supported in providing abortion services to marginalized groups, ending the global gag rule, and only appointing judges that respect and affirm Roe v. Wade as law. “All women should have access to reproductive care, regardless of their income or the state they live in. Abortion care is health care,” he tweeted in June. Does he have an official policy on abortion? Yep Did you know John Delaney has four daughters, and is thereby required to care about your reproductive rights? Because he’d like you to know, which is likely why he started off his commitment to women's rights on his website by informing you that he is, indeed, the father of four daughters. He says he is pro-choice, supports codifying Roe v. Wade, and supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, despite voting for a massive bill in 2018 with a similar provision tacked onto it. He also pledges to protect federal funding to groups like Planned Parenthood. His proposed universal healthcare system would also codify abortion care as part of reproductive healthcare, just as it would pre- and postnatal care. “Decisions regarding women’s reproductive health should be made by the woman and her doctor, not politicians,” he said in a statement released in May, after state legislatures in Alabama and Georgia attempted to force restrictive bans that undermined Roe v. Wade. “Banning legal abortions will not stop abortions, it only stops women from having safe abortions.” He received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Does she have an official policy on abortion? Not yet Gabbard doesn’t want to tell you what to do with your body, but it took a while for her to get there; abortion is one of a few issues on which the Representative from Hawaii has had a change of heart (as Rolling Stone noted in January, she was once anti-choice). Now, she says she would support allowing federal funds to be used toward abortion services, but voted for a massive bill in 2018 that included provisions to exclude any of the federal money from being used on abortions, and this year voted for HR 2740, a massive spending bill that included the Hyde Amendment within its language (it passed 226-203, and has since been held up by the Senate). Her website points to a few quotes she’s given that stress “protect[ing] women’s right to choose,” but she has not offered more comprehensive policies as of publish time. In the past, she’s voted to protect Title X funding. She received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images Does she have an official policy on abortion? Yep For Harris, the conversation about abortion rights exists under the umbrella of gender equality. Her website states that she would work to “protect Planned Parenthood from Republican attempts to defund essential health services, nominate judges who respect Roe v. Wade, and immediately roll back dangerous and discriminatory rules put in place by President Trump to limit access to contraception and safe abortion in the United States and around the world.” She is in favor of repealing the Hyde Amendment, despite voting for a massive bill in 2018 with a similar provision tacked onto it. She supports codifying Roe v. Wade and restoring Title X funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that offer abortion services. She has also introduced an abortion rights plan that would put states that have tried to pass restrictive abortion requirements on notice; they would have to seek approval by her Justice Department before enacting any state-level laws or policies. She received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Does she have an official policy on abortion? Not really Klobuchar’s website is vague about its promises with regard to reproductive rights, and talks about them specifically as the issue pertains to women. In her plan for her first 100 days if elected President, she promises to end the global gag rule, reinstate Title X funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that offer abortion services, and work to codify Roe v. Wade. She has also joined Senators Harris, Gillibrand, and Warren in co-sponsoring legislation that would overturn the Hyde Amendment, but, along with all three of the Senators, voted in favor of a massive bill in 2018 with a similar provision tacked onto it. She received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Wayne Messam Sean Rayford/Getty Images Does he have an official policy on abortion? Kind of? Messam’s reproductive-rights platform is by far the simplest of the bunch. A page of his website with the URL “respecting-women-is-simple” asserts, “I trust women to make their own decisions when it comes to their health. Period.” As the mayor of Miramar, Florida, he hasn’t had to do much legislating in the space, but he says he views Roe v. Wade as “a settled law,” and in April his campaign indicated to ThinkProgress that he supports allowing federal funds to go toward paying for abortion services, which is directly counter to the Hyde Amendment. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The former congressman supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, and voted accordingly while he was in Congress. He has also said that if elected president, he’d task Congress with passing Roe v. Wade as law and freeing up Title X funds for Planned Parenthood and other healthcare providers who also provide abortion services. He wants to block TRAP laws and champions passing federal legislation that would ban waiting periods which put an undue burden on pregnant people seeking healthcare. (Such hoops are often implemented at the state level.) But the bulk of his reproductive-rights plan is pretty heavily focused on “women” — the word appears 19 times on the whole page, while “woman” appears nine times. Abortion access affects trans men and some nonbinary people, too, and truly affirming healthcare makes space for everyone. He received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Ryan knows that his past stances on abortion may come back to haunt him, so he copped to them in an April interview with BuzzFeed. “I came in as a Catholic schoolkid from northeast Ohio who didn’t think a whole lot about the issue,” he said of the anti-abortion stance he took then. [Editor’s note: Ryan used the term “pro-life” in the interview, as he has in others; this term is recognized as charged anti-choice rhetoric.] Ryan added that “my opinion changed that there should not be anyone from the federal government between a woman and her doctor.” He supports funding Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, repealing the Hyde Amendment (despite voting in favor of a massive bill in 2018 with a similar provision tacked onto it), and protecting Roe v. Wade. He does not currently have a policy specific to abortion rights on his website. He received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Photo by Paras Griffin/WireImage The Senator supports both Roe v. Wade and Title X, and promises on his website that he’ll help fund organizations like Planned Parenthood “and other initiatives that protect women’s health, access to contraception, and the availability of a safe and legal abortion.” (Planned Parenthood and other reproductive-health facilities cater to patients of all gender identities, not just women, so the government providing funding to them is a matter of healthcare in general.) Sanders has said he opposes the Hyde Amendment, and received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images Sestak’s platform about reproductive health is so deeply entwined within the rest of his “women’s rights” policy, it raises a few flags. “Thanks to countless courageous women — and at least a few male allies — the situation for women has improved dramatically over the past century,” he says just a few paragraphs ahead of reminding everyone that he is “the son of a mother” and “the father of a teenage girl” (yes, really). To be fair, however, he has a pretty good track record: During his time in Congress, he backed legislation that expanded birth control access and sex-education programs and supported the Affordable Care Act’s reproductive-health provisions. Tom Steyer He’s pro-choice, but does not currently have an explicit stance on his campaign website. What we do have is a tweet: “Abortion is healthcare and reproductive choice is an issue that affects all gender and sexual identities. We should not stop shouting it from the rooftops,” he wrote in June 2019, with the hashtag #MenForChoice. Ahead of the 2018 election, he promised to only support candidates who supported abortion rights; at the time he was still only a donor, albeit one with his own super PAC: NextGen America. “We do not work for a single candidate who is not pro-choice. I think people like to have litmus tests,” he told Politico. “We are explicitly pro-choice. We work a lot with Planned Parenthood, we work a lot with NARAL. We are absolutely committed to it.” As he is not an elected official, he has no voting record on the issue. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Does he have an official policy on abortion? [deep sigh] The Trump administration’s view on abortion has been both clear and horrifically misleading, far before Planned Parenthood withdrew from Title X funding because it felt the administration forced its hand. In April 2019, Trump lied about the nature of third-trimester abortions — which make up a significantly low percent of abortions performed every year and are often done because of fetal anomalies — by falsely alleging they involved the pregnant person giving birth. (They don’t.) Trump is responsible for nominating both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court; their confirmations solidified an anti-choice majority on the court, which emboldened conservative lawmakers in states across the country to pass legislation that aims to directly undermine or invalidate Roe v. Wade. He also reinstated a “gag rule,” which bars doctors from providing their patients with the full survey of their reproductive health options, even if those patients ask for a referral for abortion services. In January, a court blocked the administration’s attempt to allow employers to exempt birth control from their employees’ healthcare plans. Trump does not currently have a policy on his campaign website about reproductive health; instead, the healthcare section on his “promises kept” website is practically a testament to every way he has undermined the Obama administration’s legacy in the healthcare space. As the New York Times reports, however, being anti-choice is a new position for the President: In 1999, he told Meet the Press that he was “very pro-choice.” Many experts cite his growing evangelical fanbase as a reason for his switch. Does she have an official policy on abortion? You bet she does “When I was growing up, long before Roe, people still got abortions,” Warren notes on her campaign’s Medium account. “Some were lucky. Others weren’t. They all went through hell.” To that end, her reproductive plan promises not only to protect a person’s right to choose, but will also attempt to undo the myriad jurisdictional limitations that state and federal governments have since put in place to undermine a person’s reproductive freedom. She supports repealing the Hyde Amendment; passing “federal laws that ensure real access to birth control”; passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would protect against Targeted Regulations on Abortion Providers (also known as TRAP laws); and passing statutory laws that would protect both healthcare providers and patients from potential interference by states looking to limit access. She received a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL in 2018. Bill Weld George Frey/Getty Images “I have always been and will always be what the political world calls ‘pro-choice,’” he wrote in an Opinion article for USA Today in May. To him, that means he respects everyone’s right to decide what is best for their own life and body, and however they reach that conclusion is OK by him. This position is one carried by many libertarians, and, while Weld is currently running as a Republican, he did run as vice president in 2016 on the libertarian ticket. “I am in favor of people making their own decisions when it comes to their religious beliefs, their political allegiances, their sexual and gender orientation, their educational options, their health care providers and just about everything else,” he added. When Weld was governor of Massachusettes in the early 1990s, he attempted to make it easier for women in the state to get abortions, Axios reported. He does not currently have an official policy for either healthcare or reproductive rights on his website. Araya Diaz/Getty Images for Project Angel Food Williamson is both pro-choice and willing to fight for the freedoms protected by Roe v Wade, per her campaign website. She has also told ThinkProgress that she supports using federal funds to pay for abortion services, which would necessetate the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. Though she calls abortion a “moral” issue rather than a simple matter of healthcare, she says “I do not believe the government of the United States has the right to legislate our private morals. I believe the decision of whether or not to have an abortion lies solely with the pregnant woman, according to the dictates of her conscience and in communion with the God of her understanding.” Conversely, she also believes that “expanding a woman’s understanding of her alternatives to termination is a good thing,” which suggests support for Women’s Right to Know laws and other tactics that might delay or otherwise discourage pregnant people from receiving the care they initially sought. As she is not an elected official, she has no voting record on the issue. Joe Raedle/Getty Images “In a perfect world, only those who are ready for and desire a child would become pregnant,” Yang posits on his website. “But that’s not the world we live in.” Enter his plan, which would make both abortion and birth control accessible to all Americans who want or need it. He also believes his Universal Basic Income plan will help lessen the number of abortions performed each year, though there is currently no data to support that. Abortions are down likely to a rise in both comprehensive sexual education and access to birth control, as well as a lack of access to licensed abortion clinics and restrictive laws that can scare people away from receiving care. (Many people in America live over 100 miles from the nearest clinic.) Yang broadly promises that, if elected president, he would “appoint judges who support a woman’s right to choose” and “support a woman’s right to choose in every circumstance and provide resources for planning and contraception.” His plan does not offer specifics of how he might reverse abortion deserts and other laws that intentionally infringe upon or challenge Roe v. Wade. As he is not an elected official, he has no voting record on the issue.

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Brit punk Find the perfect stock photo of British Punk Rocker. In retrospect, the most important group to emerge from the extremist English punk scene could be Rudimentary Peni. The period of the exhibition entitled "Loud flash: British punk on paper" - obviously - extends from the middle to the end of the 70s. That means punk in English. Clash was a British-British punk band. UK punk: a term often used to describe the entire UK punk movement that "mimicked" newborn American punk groups and spread them to Europe. We can celebrate the birth of punk in 1975, when music manager Malcom McLaren returned from the USA and the clothing store "Sex" became the center of anti-fashion punk. Economic crisis, unemployment and recession were the natural humus thanks to which the movement gained a foothold throughout the UK. The landing of the Ramones in the United Kingdom gave the final consecration of a movement which as founding fathers also had The Damned and The Clash. Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious embodied the idea of punk, which is shaped in the collective imagination. Punk screamed an anarchistic desire for freedom. British-style punk: An often used phrase to describe the entire punk scene in the UK that "mocks" new-born punk groups across Europe. Punk was born in 1975, when Malcolm McLaren, a returning US director of musicals, redesigned "Sex", a clothing store at the heart of the anti-fashion punk community. Monetary crises, unemployment and recessions, where the earth's atmosphere, the ideal setting, increases the spread of the motion throughout Britain. Ramones' coming to the United Kingdom marked the completion of the dedication of a motion which among its founding members also had the damned and the struggle. Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious personified the concept of punk recognized by the collectively subconscious. Torn clothing, Dr. Martens and necklaces were the symbol of this age, anti-fashion that rejected every popular style. From lightning to exploitation, passing through Discharge: Alessandro from Moriarty Graphics tells us about the punk wave of the early 80s. The hi-fi system produces fast music, raw and unsheathed, reminiscent of the punk of the first wave, from which it differs in performance, rhythm, roughness, violence and despair..... We' re facing the second wave of punk, called "British Hardcore" or "Street Punk" from time to time, or with the all-inclusive label "UK 82": It's a big volcanic Kaldera containing the magmatic fluids from the subcultures of punk and skinhead as they manifested themselves back then. The reference period is the one that runs approximately from 1980 to 1984, with 1982 as the turning point: to dedicate the centrality of this year and give the new punk wave a name, there was the track "UK 82" by Exploited, which is included on their record troops of Tomorrow. Like all respectable second waves, the UK 82 attacked its opponents more fiercely, although - at least in part - it retraced the path of the less pessimistic Punk '77. It' s about meeting everything and everyone, with anger and no expectations: In fact, the UK 82 bands are often not very proactive and essentially have a nihilistic attitude. Compared to Punk 77, the UK 82 often has a powerful and throbbing drum beat, a more accentuated bass and voice, and strong guitar distortions reminiscent of the New Week groups of British hard metals - and Motörhead and other related bands in particular - until in some cases they reach a certain resemblance to heavier metals. If you look at the records of that time, you notice how dirtier and "kneaded" they often sound than the Punk '77. If own productions and independent productions had already had a certain relevance in the punk era of the 77s, they are now coming to the fore: It is inevitable to believe that they are at least partly the result of what they have done since 1978, anarchic punk realities like Crass and their Crass Records. Compared to the past, a large part of the punk and skinning scene is asking about social rules and the possibility of breaking them, perhaps together with the state, which is often seen as the biggest enemy. As a result, punk music not only adopts more brutal sounds, but also the lyrics become rougher and more explicit than in the past and sometimes more politicized: on the one hand, there is a greater attention to everyday life and, on the other hand, a tendency to talk about issues such as unemployment and the aforementioned government policy, to the touch of dark and apocalyptic issues such as the nuclear holocaust and the end of mankind, or at least society as we know it. At the beginning of the decade the punk look became even more extreme: The hairstyles of the first generation of punk rockers - who were already aggressively and at least according to common criteria deliberately unattractive - were often abandoned in favor of studs and Mohicans. Suits, jackets, ties and shirts are unusable today, as are the clothes worn by the first punks to change their original meaning associated with the ruling classes. The punks of the early 80s, on the other hand, took on more enveloping, torn and dark clothing, such as denim or tight pants, as well as paramilitary clothing. The preference for T-shirts and large, reinforced boots is great, while clothing of the earlier punk generation, such as clippers, is often put aside. From an aesthetic point of view, one sees - in a way - a greater resemblance between the new punks and the old rockers: the most used jacket is indeed the "Perfecto" or "Nagel" leather jacket, often modified by the addition of decorations such as lettering, pens, patches and rivets, following a typical Do It Yourself approach. Destructuring the rockers look and incorporating some of its elements into a new context helps to give the punk look a darker, more aggressive and anti-social look. There is also a greater tribalism that results from the increased desire to belong to a social group - in this case a subcultural group - and perhaps the greatest spread of tattoos, especially among skinheads. If the classic arm tattoo - which was also used in the early days of the Skinhead Age - was widely accepted, a greater use of this type of body modification was still subject to strong censorship, especially for facial tattoos. Although in the early 80's many skinheads tend to mark their origin stylistically and musically, a large number of shaved heads instead take up the legacy of that part of the skin scene that was strongly influenced by punk in the second half of the 70's. Of course, not all shaved heads interested in punk are aesthetically affected, but part of the scene still refers to the appearance of the so-called "shaved punks" of the late 70s, so they evolve. The appearance of these skins is particularly hard and aggressive - in other words: fight - thanks to the introduction of tighter clothing, the increased use of the air raid gun - which was also somewhat widespread in the 1960s - and denim and T-shirts, which are preferred to classic button-down shirts. Continuing the contrast created during the 1970skinhead revival, punk-influenced skinheads often see traditionalist skinheads as mods, while those who refer to the initial look give "shaved punk" or "thickhead" to those who prefer a harder and less elegant look. Of course, this distinction should not be taken too literally - there are nuances between the two trends - but it is still something that should be considered, also because the contrast between the two addresses is not only aesthetic, but also concerns other aspects, such as musical preferences: While traditionalistic skins can hardly ignore such an established one as punk, the so-called "shaved punks" often dispense with genres historically associated with subculture such as Soul, Ska and Reggae. This separation from the origins will have many consequences, including a greater willingness to turn to extreme right-wing organisations, also because of the economic and social crisis, who are interested in exploiting skinheads despite the multi-ethnic roots of the subculture. As mentioned above, the term "UK 82" does not mean a homogeneous scene - neither stylistically nor musically - but a suitable label that encompasses the punk realities - often very different - active in the UK during a particular historical period. It seems appropriate at this point to present a general classification of the main strands of the United Kingdom which we have made on the basis of the attitude, aesthetics, music and lyrics of the formations considered, namely: "Street Punk Band", "Desacrated Band" and "Politicised Band". Indeed, the boundaries between the subgroups we identified are sometimes very blurred, so much so that several bands could have been included in more than one UK subgroup: to put it bluntly, we counted Blitz and Attak of New Mills among the streets punk groups, but since they more or less explicitly follow anarchist thinking, we could also include them in the politicized strand. This clarification of the flexibility of the categories we use also concerns the musical plan: Utilized - that many were initially considered a group Oi! - it evolved over time into Metals and UK Harddcore, while the aforementioned Blitz over the years picked up significant New Wove influences at the expense of East Punk from the beginning. Before we move on to classification, let's make another premise: The bands mentioned were not necessarily founded in the early 80s, because some of them - like the Adicts - were active before. But it was during the '82 wave in the UK that these groups perhaps became more important, and if we had ignored them, the picture of the scene at that time would certainly have been less comprehensive. and therefore are little influenced by heavy heavy metals and closer to first punk. Stylistically, there are often skinheads or herberts in the formation as well as punks, while the texts are very much focused on everyday life, police oppression, youth discomfort and resistance to government policy. Key representatives of the punk trend include Crux, Business, Adicts, 4-Skins, Cockney Rejects, Attak, Violators, Blitz, Infa Riot, Red Alert, Cult Maniax, Partisans, Vice Squads, External Menace and Major Accidents, but the list could get longer. Banners of the genre include GBH, One Way System, Anti-Nowhere League, English Dogs, Court Martial, Picture Frame Seduction, Blitzkrieg, Dogsflesh and of course the Scottish Exploited, which are among the most representative bands of the entire UK 82 wave. This subgroup includes the bands most influenced by heavy metals and D-beat, i.e. the particular style of hard-core developed by bands inspired by the sound and attitude of Discharge. The most important bands are of course Discharge and then Subhumans, Varukers, Flux Of Pink Indians, Disorder, Skeptix, Chaos UK, Amebix, Death Sentence, Fits, Antisect and Conflict. Of course they are all part of the group. Perhaps the most striking thing about the UK 82 is the broad adherence of a large number of boys - be they punks, skinheads or even Hertie - to punk, whose caution and anti-system charge we have already highlighted, sometimes spiced with a touch of irony. However, it does not seem to us that punk is being strengthened - as was the case in the UK 82 - and in fact its most contradictory aspects are often hidden by media presence or freed from its content, which prefers to improve its most harmless features, also in view of its greater commercialisation. Furthermore, there is no evidence of the emergence of a new scene - musical, subcultural or countercultural - on the horizon, capable of counteracting existing political and economic trends, as was the case in Britain with the second punk wave. Below we present some films and documentaries dedicated to the UK 82 or other related phenomena, such as the Squatters' Movement and the infiltration of the Right into the skinhead scene. Alan Clarkes television movie about a young racist skinhead, Trevor (Tim Roth). Documentary by Christopher Collins with interviews and live recordings of bands like Vice Squads, Exploited, Adicts and others. Unknown Joy Division Minimal Techno Artists from Germany Artists of Minimal Tech House Small techno samples technno music production Low techno production Techno top music Techno Minimal Dance Low technology techno tracks Low Minimal Tech House Trance minimal Techno music artist Online minimum Minor Techno Tracks Complimentary Techno Music The Best Minimal DJs Mp3 techno Low Deep Mp3 Techno Music The Deep House Techno Download Techno Music Low electronic Music for Minimal House Radio Minimal Techno Min Techno 2016 Radio minimum Dust Springfield Movie Release Date Small Koala Mudguard Bender Singles Album The Brightside Movies Download Amazon Album Life Bigo Prime L deejay set Keep an eye on the bright side of the Life CD. Download Www Amazon Music Prime Musica Internet radio free of charge CDsong Swiss Single Charts Media cd Club albums The Album Diagram Amazon Internet Radio © musicaddiction.it

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Name: St Monica's School Address: 200 Lawrence Street History: In the mid-nineteenth century, a Bishop Fitzpatrick purchased land for a church on Broadway at the corner of Park Street. In 1876, Catholics began holding Mass in the town hall, but they did not have their own place of worship in Methuen until construction of Saint Monica's church, begun in 1896 (231 Broadway). Saint Monica's school was built nearby in 1957. Before completion of the convent in 1960, the teaching resided on the top floor of the school building. Establishment of the school and convent bears witness to the strength of the Catholic community in Methuen. The school was built on the site of Washington Park, laid out at the turn-of-the- century by Edward F. Searles whose estate Pine Lodge lay across the street (209 Lawrence St). A statue of George Washington by the noted sculptor Thomas Ball, the centerpiece of the park, was unveiled on Washington's birthday in 1900. Miscommunication between Searles' heir, Mr. B. Allen Rowland and the town selectmen caused the property to be sold to Saint Monica's. The monument was sold to Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles in 1958. Name: Lawrence St. Cemetery Address: Lawrence Street Date: 1832-E 20th History: In 1828, land on East Street was bought by selectman Joseph W. Carleton for a village burying ground, which now lies at the intersection of Lawrence and East Streets. Colonel Osgood's wife was the first to be buried there on March 15, 1831. Location of a burying ground on this site was part of a significant shift in the town center from the Meeting House Hill area toward the industrial and commercial sites near the Spicket River Falls and along the Medford-Andover Turnpike (Broadway). This shift was confirmed by the relocation of the First Congregational Church to near-by Pleasant Street in 1832 (30 Pleasant St). When the new Walnut Grove cemetery was laid out in 1853 the village burying ground, or the Lawrence Street cemetery as it is now called, fell into disuse. However, when Mrs. Edward F. Searles died she was buried in the old burying ground across the street from the Searles estate. Her mausoleum was designed by Searles architect Henry Vaughan. Searles cleaned up and restored the site and erected walls and a gate house in 1896/7. Name: Searles Estate Date: 1880s-1920 History: Edward F. Searles was born in Methuen in 1841 and died in 1920. He was the son of Jesse G. and Sarah Littlefield Searles, whose homestead sat on an 8 and 1/2 acre site on East Street bought by Jesse in 1840. Although Edward's first job was in the Methuen Company mill, he went on to become an interior and architectural designer in New York. Through influential clients, he met and eventually married Mary Hopkins, widow of railroad magnate Mark Hopkins, and upon her death in 1891, inherited a multi-million dollar fortune. Searles began to acquire additional land and to develop his estate on East Street in the 1880s, renovating the Searles homestead, which was known as "Appleside" and the adjacent Howell house, which he purchased in 1880. These two houses were eventually joined together with a series of porches and colonnades to become an elaborate mansion house which was called Pine Lodge. (The "mansion" stood about where the St. Claire Residence (#24) is now and was demolished in 1930.) After his wife's death, Searles indulged his penchant for architecture, building extensively and eventually connecting the old mansion house to a new Jacobethan residence (#19; built in 1911) with a series of connected hallways (#22) and wings in Classical, Renaissance, and Jacobethan styles. He also built or renovated a carriage house (#9), a new barn (#4), and various other outbuildings. Under construction for many years, were the granite chime tower (#29) and magnificent brownstone Gothic Revival style Searles Chapel (#33), designed by Henry Vaughan. The estate also encompassed several old farm houses (#5, 6, 7), which once stood on East Street. In 1912, he gave land to the town and paid to re-route East Street so that these properties, which were part of Oakside Farm, lay with in the bound of his estate. The entire estate was surrounded be an elaborate series of granite walls, embellished with crenellations and towers, which remain a landmark today. Searles also owned the adjacent Waldo House (233 Lawrence St), which he developed as a Historical Museum. Across the street, he laid out Washington Park which had a famous Thomas Ball sculpture of George Washington as its centerpiece. He was interested in organ manufacture and supported the Methuen Organ Company and built the Serlo Organ Hall (192 Broadway). His philanthropic endeavors included construction of St. Andrews Episcopal Church (82 Broadway), the Searles High School (41 Pleasant) St, the Central School (10 Ditson Pl), the B. & M. Railroad Station (55 Union St), and renovation of the Exchange Hotel, first as a YMCA and later as a Masonic Temple (275 Broadway). He also made many public works contributions to the town, such as the bridge and towers near the Organ Hall (see form). He undertook the care and restoration of the Village Burying Ground on Lawrence Street (see form), where his wife was buried, and the Meeting House Hill Cemetery, where he built a memorial to his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Artemus W. Stearns. Searles owned extensive properties in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Salem and Windham, New Hampshire as well and also gave generously to those communities. In 1957 the 74 room " Searles castle" was sold to the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary for $160,000. The Presentation of Mary Academy and convent now occupies this site and the Searles Chapel is known as Our Lady of Sacred Heart. The St. Claire Residence, named for Mother Claire D'Assise, was built in 1958, the new Academy wing in 1962, and the new Provincial House in 1985. The Pine Lodge estate possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship. It is significant as a well-conserved collection of high-styled, elaborately constructed buildings built by a single owner of considerable wealth and architectural taste, and an important figure in Methuen's development. Pine Lodge meets the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. Name: Searles Estate: Wood Shed/Ice House/Seed Shed History: These are among the many outbuildings that Searles added to his estate at the turn-of-the-century. Name: Searles Estate: Butters/Searles Barn History: In 1842 George W. Butters owned a house and 20 acres of land in Methuen. His farm, located on the north side of of the original course of East Street, can be found on the 1846 map of the town. By 1861 he owned a house, barn and shoe shop and in the 1860 Directory, sons Albert and Henry, both listed as shoemakers, boarded with George W. Butters. Although he owned a barn in 1861, a barn is not shown on the atlas maps until 1884. This is one of the several houses and barns acquired and elaborated on by Searles as part of his estate at the turn-of-the-century. Name: Searles Estate: Butters Homestead/P.M. Nursery Date: c.1870 History: In 1842 George W. Butters owned a house and 20 acres of land in Methuen. His farm, located on the north side of the original course of East Street, can be found on the 1846 map of the town. By 1861 he owned a house, barn and shoe shop and in the 1860 Directory, sons (George) Albert and (William) Henry, both listed as shoemakers, boarded with George W. Butters. William Barnes in his reminiscences of the town c 1845 states that Butters house burned, but he does not give a specific date. The rebuilt house, c.1870, will be referred to as the Butters Homestead. In 1868, the original house was valued at $300 and in 1872, $1400. The fire, and/or general reconstruction must have taken place at this time. Although located with in the bound of the Searles estate, this house was not actually owned by Searles until after the turn-of-the-century. In 1867 the Butters family built a second house, originally taxed to the sons, but according to the 1872 atlas, lived in by the father George W. Butters. After the death of George in 1882, the house was owned by his son-in-law John C. Webster who lived else where. This house was bought by Edward F. Searles in 1895 and became part of what was known as Oakside Farm. This is one of the several houses and barns acquired and elaborated on by Searles as part of his estate at the turn-of-the-century. Name: Searles Estate: Butters House/Kindergarten History: In 1867 the Butters family (see Butters Homestead) built a second house, originally taxed to the sons, but according to the 1872 atlas map, lived in by the father George W. Butters. After the death of George in 1882, the house was owned by his son-in-law John C. Webster who lived else where. This house was bought by Edward F. Searles in 1895 and became part of what was known as Oakside Farm. This is one of the several houses and barns acquired and elaborated on by Searles as part of his estate at the turn-of-the-century. Name: Searles Estate: Rivier Nursery/ not Cutler House- demolished 1889 History: Searles bought and sold many, many houses. This house was moved to the site and its original location is unknown. The atlases of 1872, 1884, 1896, show several house in the triangle at the intersection of East and Lawrence Streets. All were acquired by Searles. The Cutler house was demolished in 1889. The Rev. L. L. Eastman house, seen on the 1896 map, was still shown on the assessor's records for Searles in 1911, but only appears on the atlas in 1884. Thus, it is not old enough to be this house. Name: Searles Estate: Gardeners Cottage/Chaplain's House History: Sketch maps drawn by Stephen Barbin in his biography of Searles indicate that the Chaplain's house was once the gardener's cottage, built between 1895 and 1915. According to the assessor's records, a cottage was built 1899. Name: Searles Estate: Brick Tower History:This building is not mentioned by either Morgan or Barbin. It is one of several structures constructed to beautify the Searles Estate at the-turn-of-the-century. Name: Searles Estate: New Searles House/Old Provincial House (and office) History: Searles constructed this elaborate estate house to replace the Searles/Howells Houses which he had combined as a single residence in 1880. According to the assessor's records for 1911, Searles was taxed for a "cement house and office" valued at $5,000. Barbin's sketch map of the estate between 1895 and 1915 shows this mansion house and the "office" (#20) although it is not identified as such. Henry Vaughan's biographer does not list Vaughan as the architect for this building, although it seems likely that he was, as he was designing other buildings in a similar style for Searles at the same time. Name: Searles Estate: Provincial Hallways History: According to Barbin, the Hallways include a Tapestry Hall and Jacobethan Hall, built in 1912. These sections of the Hallways bracket the Renaissance tower, built in the mid-1880s, which once stood alone as the encasement for a wind mill. In 1890/91 the wind mill mechanism was removed and a set of harmonic bells installed. These bells were probably manufactured by the Tubular Bell Company, run under the aegis of Searles, in the Organ Company factory on Broadway. In 1894, this tower was valued at $1500. It was supplanted as a chime tower in 1895 by a new granite tower with a larger set of chimes. The Hallways were constructed to connect the old (demolished 1930) and new (#19) estate houses. Name: Searles Estate: Chapel History: This building was constructed in 1915, adjacent to the original estate house, but no other information is available in the standard sources. Name: Searles Estate: #25/26 Gate House etc. Searles Estate: Administration History: In 1900, the assessor's records show an entry for "gate house and other stone buildings" valued at $5,000. The "other stone buildings" may be what what are presently called the administration and music buildings, and other towers in the wall. The bridge connected Searles' properties on either side of East Street which was still a town way, before he paid to reroute the street in 1912. Name: Searles Estate: #29 Granite Chime Tower with "Angle of the Resurrection" Address:209 Lawrence Street History: William Morgan, biographer of Henry Vaughan states that the Granite Chime Tower was a Vaughan commission of 1896. The tower is first mentioned in the tax records in 1900 where it was valued at $10,000. The chimes were probably manufactured by the Tubular Bell Company, run under the aegis of Searles, in the Organ Company factory on Broadway. The sculptor of the bronze "Angle of the Resurrection" remains unidentified. According to In. Am. Art this work is called Attending Angel by Willaim Couper constructed in 1900. Name: The Chapel History:According to Henry Vaughan's biographer the Searles Chapel, designed by Vaughan, was completed in 1918 at a cost of $600,000. Searles, who died in 1920, was entombed in the crypt, "Egypt," beneath the chapel. The chapel, which now belongs to the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, is known as Our Lady of Sacred Heart. Name: Walls History: One of the most prominent and visible elements of the Edward F. Searles estate are the elaborate walls that surround it. The first documented mention of these walls was on August 7, 1880 when it was reported in the Methuen Transcript that Mrs. Searles (mother of Edward) had built at wall in front of her house on East Street. This probably accounts for the visible difference in stone work with the lower portion constructed of varied uncoursed stone with simple coping, and the upper constructed of a uniform random-coursed gray granite headed by crenelations. The only other specific mention occured on September 20, 1889, when the Methuen Transcript reported that Searles had taken delivery of 12 large granite blocks, each weighing 20 tons which may have been used to enlarge and elaborate the walls. Name: Bank of America Columns Date: c1838/1888 History: In 1888, Mrs. Mary Low sold the George Waldo House (233 Lawrence St) to Edward F. Searles, retaining a lifetime lease. Searles removed the adjacent Welch House, tore down the old barn, and made improvements to the house. He laid out a small park along Lawrence Street to the corner of Park Street. There, according to the Methuen Transcript, he installed the two Corinthian columns from the Bank of America in New York, each weighing 20 tons, which were delivered to Methuen in 1888. It is uncertain when the columns were erected, but it may have been as late as 1897. Name: George A. Waldo House History: According to an original deed, George A. Waldo bought land on Lawrence Street in 1812 or 13. The house was built in 1825, two years after the marriage of George A. Waldo and Almira Bodwell. In a reminiscence in the Methuen Transcript written in 1883, Rev. Henry Jewell said that Waldo came from Vermont, was engaged in the shoe business in the early 1830s, and did much to build up the village. William Barnes in his reminiscences written in 1905 mentions the Waldo Block of c. 1845, which was burned to the first floor in the late 1840s and then sold to Daniel Currier (300 Broadway). George Waldo was not listed in the 1860 Directory and by 1872 the Waldo house belonged to John Low. In 1888, Mrs. Mary Low sold the house to Edward F. Searles, retaining a lifetime lease. Searles removed the adjacent Welch House, tore down the old barn, and made improvements to the house. He laid out a small park along Lawrence Street to the corner of Park Street. There, according to the Methuen Transcript, he installed the two Corinthian columns from the Bank of America in New York, each weighing 20 tons, which were delivered to Methuen in 1888. In 1960, the property was bought by Kenneth Pollard from the Old Colony Trust. Pollard established a funeral home which remains in business today. The George Waldo House possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship, and meets the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. Name: house/garage History: Kenneth Pollard, owner of the adjacent Waldo House/Pollard Funeral Home (233 Lawrence St), deeded this property to Claire Pollard and Jacqueline Pollard in 1963. The house was built in 1964. This site was once a park created in the late 19th-century by Edward F. Searles, and is still partially surrounded by fine stone walls. Moved in Dec 1997 across the street to St Monica's Property. Name: First Baptist Church History: The First Baptist Church was organized in 1815. Baptists in Methuen prior to this time attended the Baptist Church in Haverhill. In 1815, the first services were held in the Daniel Frye house. The current church structure replaced an earlier building constructed in 1816. The construction of the First Baptist Church coincided with the development of a significant residential and commercial center in the vicinity of Lawrence Street and Broadway. The First Baptist Church possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship, and meets the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. Name: Park Lodge History: According to the Town of Methuen Assessor's records, in 1910 Edward F. Searles was taxed for one house next to the Baptist Church and the 16,596 sq. ft. Taylor-Clark lot. In 1911, the house was named Park Lodge House. It was valued at $6000 and set on a 16,596 sq. ft. lot. The Taylor-Clark lot, including the Taylor house and Clark bakery, can be seen on the 1884 map and the Sanborn Insurance map 1885. The Clark bakery was moved to Hampshire Street before 1892, and that site was vacant on the 1896 and 1906 maps. The newly constructed Park Lodge can be seen on the 1911 Sanborn map. It is possible that an old house was incorporated into this building since Searles bought and sold and moved many buildings. But, if an old house is included, it is not the 19th-century farm house of Jesse Searles, Edward's father. The Jesse Searles house was located on the Searles estate and was embellished by Edward. It is seen in the print found in the Essex County Atlas of 1884 and referred to on the previous survey form. That house, identified as Pine Lodge, the Edward Searles Estate, bears no resemblance to the Park Lodge house. After Searle's death in 1920, Park Lodge was sold by his heir Mr. B. Allan Rowland to S. William Colson. Park Lodge possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship, and meets the criteria of the Natioanal Register of Historic Places. Name: Corliss Bldg Address: 270 Lawrence Street also 1 Osgood St. History: Varnum Corliss (sometimes spelled Corless) built two buildings behind the James S. Dodge Store, one in 1882 and one in 1886. The first one, a wood frame building, was built for Corliss by Aaron Gilcreast and became the Pearson and Page Store, selling furniture and household goods. This building may be incorporated in the structure now covered in brick veneer. The second structure, begun in March of 1886, was described in the Methuen Transcript as being brick, with three stories on Osgood, St. and two on Lawrence Street. This building first appears on the 1892 Sanborn Insurance map. Varnum Corliss was born in Haverhill West Parish in 1810. He came to Methuen as a young man and went into business as a harness maker in Wilson's block, formerly on Hampshire St. In 1835 he bought a building and land from Major Osgood's heirs on Broadway and fitted out a harness shop which he shared with Dearborn and Clark, early shoe manufacturers. He was also a carriage-maker and in the early days drove his carriages to Boston for shipment by packet to Maine where he sold to farmers there. Corliss later bought the so-called Bowen and Emerson tract of land at the corner of Broadway and Osgood St, where the bank building and post office is now located. His livery stable was located behind the Broadway buildings off Osgood Street. The buildings on the Lawrence St./Osgood St. site mentioned above appear to have been real estate investments. At one time, Corliss owned more than two acres in the heart of the village as well as more than 80 acres of farm land in Methuen and Salem. Address: 1 Locust Road History: From the late 1880s onward, Edward F. Searles systematically acquired all available property on East and Lawrence Streets in the vicinity his estate "Pine Lodge," to provide privacy and resources for "Pine Lodge" and later for investment (see 209 Lawrence St). He even rerouted East Street to enlarge his estate. In 1896 and 1906, the property on East Street by Locust Road was owned by Searles and called "Oakside Farm." After Searles' death, a plan for the subdivision of "Oakside" was drawn by the Searles Real Estate Trust. (Assessor's Plan #380, May 20, 1992) "Oakside" was bounded by East and Lawrence Streets and Beedle Terrace and had 455 lots, averaging 5000 sq. ft. Development restrictions stated that there could be only one house per lot, costing not less than $5000. Houses should be 15 ft. from the lot lines and could have only one garage with no more than two stalls. These restrictions were to be in force until 1972 unless Pine Lodge was discontinued. By 1950, the size of the lots between East Street and Locust Street had been redrawn. In that section, there were five lots, averaging between 26,000 and 40,000 sq. ft. The house at 1 Locust Road was built in 1951 by Florence Robertson. Address: 31 Locust Road Date: c1951 The house at 31 Locust Road was built c. 1951 by William A. Berhan who acquired adjacent lot 5b in 1966. Name: gas station Address: 2 Lowell Street History: The land and most of the buildings along the south side of Hampshire Street between Broadway and Lowell Street were owned by the Methuen Company during most of the 19th-century. A building, identified (even in the assessor's records) as the "Old Bed Bug Block" stood on this site from 1826 until it was demolished in 1891. Tenements which had been attached to this block remained on the site until the early 1920s when they too were demolished. After 1927 a gas station was built and in 1936, this station was listed in the Methuen directory as the Methuen ESSO Station. In 1963 a new ESSO station, cinder block construction, was built by Frances E. Reusch. Name: Red Arrow Garage Date: Built after 1919 and before 1927 Razed Circa 2000 History: Methuen's first fire house was located on this site, on the island on the east side of Lowell Street. It was built about 1847/48 to house the hand tub "Spigot." Long obsolete, the building was torn down when the Lowell Street bridge (see form) was widened in 1909/10. According to the Sanborn Insurance maps, the site remained vacant until after 1911 when the Red Arrow Garage was located on the site. After 1927, the footprint of the building is different, although the use, auto repair remains the same. In 1935, Charles Lyons bought the Red Arrow Garage through the Methuen Co-operative Bank. Assessor's field cards from 1941 identify the building as the Jenny Service Station. Address: Lowell Street History: The Methuen Company was bought in 1864 by David Nevins, a prominent Boston investor who subsequently settled in Methuen. It quadrupled in size in the years between 1870 and 1881. Housing was needed for mill operatives and by the 1870s, double houses, which can be seen on the 1884 map, lined Pine Street on both sides. Individual house, such as 23 Lowell Street, built sometime before 1872, were also part of the mill housing stock. This house was owned by David Nevins in 1872 and by the Methuen Company in 1884 and 1896. A permit was issued in 1972 to add a Beauty Parlor and make offices on the second floor. The street front addition appears to predate this. See 1 Pine Street, 10-12 Lowell Street, 14-16 Lowell Street, 18-20 Lowell Street, 96-98 Railroad Street, 100-102 Railroad Street, and 104-106 Railroad Street for other examples of Methuen Mill's housing in the district. Name: The Lowell Street Bridge Rebuilt: 2000 History: The town of Methuen began planning the widening of Lowell Street in 1909. The old stone bridge was reconstructed and the old fire house of 1846/47, located on the island on the east side of Lowell Street, was demolished. Work on the the road and the new bridge was completed in October of 1910. The electric car tracks were relaid and improvements included new iron fences along the bridge and safe sidewalks. An 1836 lithograph shows a wooden bridge. Most of the early wooden bridges over the Spicket were replaced in the 1830s by stone arch bridges. On Lowell Street, the bridge at the island, built in 1832, was first widened and rebuilt in 1869. Name: Spicket River Dam History: According to an account published in the Transcript in October 1905 the first known reference to use of the falls was found in a deed belonging to David Nevins. The deed, from the widow of John Morrill, dated December 1709, conveyed to Robert Swan, for the sum of thirty pounds, one-forth of a saw mill and land "on Spicket river falls, the mill that was built by and belonged to and amongst Robert Swan, John Morrill and Elisha Davis." Afterwards, a grist mill was built on each side of the river, and as there was not enough business to keep them both busy, they agreed to run on alternate weeks. This arrangement kept up until the first cotton mill was built by Stephen Minot in 1814. It burned in 1818, and in 1821 the land and water privilege were purchased by the Methuen Company, which built a new mill in 1826-1827 (47 Osgood St). The Methuen Company was acquired by David Nevins in 1864. The company quadrupled in size between 1870 and 1881 and it was during this time that the new dam was built. An account of construction of the dam in the Transcript in October 1898 stated that the center portion of the present dam was built in 1880 by David Crockett. It took the place of the old dam, constructed principally of wood, which was about 12 feet up stream. (The front of the old dam was wood, with stone in the rear to prevent the wood from being forced out.) The stone for the new dam came from a Salem, N.H. quarry owned by David Nevins. Holes half the size of a cannonball were carved from the tops and bottoms of each stone so that a cannonball could be fitted in between each layer for reinforcement. The dam is said to be about 140 feet long with the highest fall of water being about 23 feet. On the right end, the fall is not as high. This section was constructed about 10 years before by Mr. Simmons, a Lawrence contractor. A contemporary photograph shows the dam with a wooden walk way across it, which was completed in November 1880. Address: 10-12 Lowell Street History: The Methuen Company (see 47 Osgood St.) was purchased in 1864 by David Nevins, a prominent Boston investor who subsequently settled in Methuen. Under his leadership, it quadrupled in size in the years between 1870 and 1881, creating a need for mill operatives' housing. By the 1870s, double houses, which can be seen on the 1884 map, lined Pine Street on both side. The earliest ones, which appear before 1872, remain on the left side, outside of the historic district. With the exception of the house at 1 Pine Street, houses from the right side have all been demolished or moved. However, houses owned by the Methuen Company which are shown at 96-98, 100-102, 104-106 Railroad Street by 1892 (and not before), and at 10-12, 14-16, 18-20 Lowell Street by 1911 (and not before), match the remaining Pine Street houses in form and detail and are presumed to be the Pine Street houses. Name: Stearns/Webster House Address: 15 Lowell and Pine Streets Date: pre- 1854 History: In William Barnes' reminiscences of Methuen in 1845, he states that this house on Lowell at the corner of Pine street was the home of A. W. Stearns who had a grocery store there. Methuen's Vital Records show the marriage of an Artemas W. Stearns and Lydia Searles in 1843. The town assessor's records show the Samuel Webster owned the house beginning in 1854 and the 1860 Directory lists Samuel Webster, grocer (Merrill & Webster), house Lowell. An advertisement in the same directory states that Merrill and Webster dealt in Dry and West Indies Goods, Paint, Oil, Hardware and Cutlery. In 1875, Webster moved closer to the center of town, building a new house at 7 Charles Street. In 1882, he took over the livery stable behind the Exchange Hotel and ran carriages to the depot. He died in the late 80s. In 1896 the heirs of Samuel Webster still owned the Charles Street house and the house at 15 Lowell Street. Name: Platt House History: The present house at 17-19 Lowell Street replaces an earlier house which was owned by Lorenzo Dow. Mr. Dow was listed in 1860 Directory as being an overseer at the cotton mill and was shown at this address in 1872. He died in the early 1880s and Mrs. Dow later moved to Dracut. She sold the property to Rylance Platt, who in 1898 was assessed for one house, valued at $900 at the rear of 17 Lowell Street, and one new house valued at $3000. In 1901/2, Platt an absentee landlord, rented to Peter Graham, blacksmith, and William Hyde at 17 Lowell Street, and John Ridley, bookkeeper, house rear. The old house at the rear is gone. Address: 18 -20 Lowell Street Name: Central Fire Station Address: 24 Lowell Street Date: 1899/ c.1930 History: Discussion regarding the need for the town to purchase fire apparatus took place as early as 1836, but it was not until 1847 that the first hand tub was bought and the Spiggott (sic) Engine Company created. A steam engine, purchased in 1870, lead to organization of the E. A. Straw Company in 1871 and the Mystic Hose Company was organized to man a hose carriage purchased in 1878. In 1887 the town voted to purchase a hook and ladder truck, which was manned by the C. H. Tenney H. & L. Company. A system of alarm boxes began in 1888. Edward F. Searles donated a new hose wagon to the town in 1891 and the Mystic Hose Company was renamed the Paul Methuen Hose Company. Fire apparatus was first kept in an engine house built about 1847/48 to house the hand tub "Spigot" (sic); it was located on the island on the south side of Lowell Street. That building was unable to accommodate the newer equipment purchased after 1870, so the hose wagon and hook and ladder were kept in the basement of the town house (290 Broadway). Construction of the long needed Central Fire Station did not come until 1899. The new station housed three pieces of apparatus, the steamer, hook and ladder, and hose wagon. Stalls for eight horses, (connected with the sewer), hose tower, engineers room, sleeping quarters, recreational rooms, work shops, feed loft and three brass polls were all included in the new building. Although the building was lit by gas, the lights were operated electrically. The sounding of the alarm activated the lights, and also opened the stall doors so that the horses could take their places under harnesses which were suspended from the ceiling. The station was designed by Lawrence architect John Ashton, and provided a facility which according to the Methuen Transcript was "up-to-date in every respect and a credit to the town." A 1905 article by the Transcript gives additional information on the department and describes major fires which occurred in the town, including the 1849 fire which destroyed the hotel and hotel stable, two other livery stables, five house and and part of the Currier Building in Exchange Square (now Gaunt Square). Address: 103 Lowell Street History: The house at 103 Lowell Street was built around 1903, according to town directory research. The earliest known occupant was Alice R. Wheeler, a principal, who lived here by 1904. By 1914 it was occupied by Ernest Munroe, about whom little is known. Mill workers, Henry and Leon Hamilton lived here in 1918. By 1921 Dr. Edward H. Ganley was living here. In the mid-1930s Elsa T. Hefner, a teacher, was the occupant. At the time it was built, there were just a few houses scattered along Lowell Street along this stretch. Quite a few houses had been built just to the east, closer to the town center by 1900. Date: c. 1875. History: Based on the style of the house, it appears that 387 Lowell Street was built about 1875. The earliest occupant to be identified is Moses G. Smith, a mason and contractor who occupied the house by 1885. Smith remained in the house until about 1910. By 1914 it was occupied by Frank Doble, a grocer in North Andover, who lived here until after his retirement until at least 1925. By 1929 Embert Polter lived here; Polter is listed in town directories as a clerk. This house remains a single-family dwelling. History: The house at 521 Lowell Street was constructed as a single-family farm house around 1800 (1799 according to previous form but no reference given). It appears that it was built for Aaron Sawyer, a local farmer. The house remained in the Sawyer family for many year and was part of a larger farm parcel until the 1890s. It appears that for a time the house was occupied as a two-family dwelling. At the time, it was owned and occupied by Francis Sawyer who lived here as early as 1884 and as late as 1904; the town directories do not list an occupation for Sawyer. Among the earliest tenants in the house were George P. Bancroft and Lewis E. Edwards, a farmer. In 1914 the house was occupied by merchant Neal Webster. By 1920 the house was occupied by mill workers, Edgar and Joseph Leach. For over 10 years, from 1923 onward, the occupants were George Newhill (mill overseer) and John J. MacKinnon (second hand). More research from Erick Olsen, the current owners (2008) The house has been a single family dwelling since the Cyr family purchased it, in the 1940’s I believe. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Mrs. Mary Dodson of Methuen (who unfortunately passed away in 2007). Mrs. Dodson was John J. MacKinnon and Elizabeth Newhill’s daughter. From my brief discussion with her and her son, it is my understanding that she lived there until 1938. While she was there, the house was divided into two halves. One half for Mrs. Dodson’s immediate family. In the other half lived, Mrs. Dodson’s grandparents, who I believe, but can’t confirm, were on the Newhill side of the family. This may have led to the initial set-up and appearance that this was a two-family dwelling. I’m uncertain what happened after Mrs. Dodson left, but it’s possible that non-family members may have lived there. However, I’m fairly certain that once the Cyr’s purchased the home, it was once occupied as a single family. Mrs. Cyr sold the property to Sean and Kathleen Murphy in the early 1990’s, and I purchased it in 1995. History: Map research into the early history of the site shows the block vacant in 1906. In 1884 and 1872 a house existed near the center of these lots; in 1884 that house was owned by Mrs. I. Sawyer. It appears that the Sawyer house stood until about 1890. The similarity of 523-527 Lowell suggests that they were built on speculation at about the same time (c. 1925). By 1929, all of the houses were occupied. Arnold Cassin (overseer) lived at 523, Harrison Bartholomew (overseer) lived at 525 and Gustave Cloutler (insurance) lived at 527. By 1938, two families were living in each house. Raoul Nadeau and Robert R. Boardman (mill worker) lived at 523. Frank Wuest lived at 525 and the second apartment was vacant. Edwin Boardman (WPA) and George McAllister (employed at Pacific Mill in Lawrence) lived at 527. History: 615 Lowell Street was built about 1838 as the farm house for Asa Sawyer. Sawyer acquired the land on which the house stands in 1838 from Aaron Sawyer. The property was sold by Asa Sawyer's heirs in 1852 and went through several owners until it was purchased by James N. Dowding in 1868. Since then the house has been passed to Samuel Dowding and his heirs, Harry Dowding and Doris Cox, and remains in the family. The town directory of 1885 lists James N. Dowding as a farmer and indicates that there were several other Dowdings living nearby on Lowell Street. In 1900 the house was occupied by Lucy Dowding. By 1904 it was occupied by Samuel Dowding, a motorman for the street railway who lived here until about 1940. Name: The Armory building History: Built in 1913 as an armory, this brick masonry pier and panel structure is a National Guard headquarters. The building includes an assembly hall, classrooms, a library, rifle range, administrative offices, kitchen and locker room. History: This was the farm of Phineas M. Griffin as early as 1885. Prior to that there were several farm houses scattered along Lowell Street, most in this area owned by the Griffin family. Stylistically, it appears that the house was built about that time. That year it was occupied by Henry R. Griffin (farmer), James E. Griffin (farmer), and Leslie A. Griffin (carpenter). By 1925 the house was also occupied by Rufus Griffin. The house remained in the Griffin family as late as 1940 when it was occupied by Charlotte R. Griffin (widow of James) and Susan B. Thurlow. By 1944 it was occupied by William Blanchette, a mill worker. Name: Asa Griffin House History: According to research conducted by Methuen Historical Commission, 709 Lowell Street was built by 1750 for Asa Griffin. At the time this house was constructed, there were only a few scattered farm houses in western Methuen. By 1846 the house was owned by Nathaniel Dowding, who still lived here in 1885 at the age of 88. The house remained in the Dowding family into the 20th century. The 1906 map lists Mrs. D. Dowding as the owner. In the 1960s the farm was sold to Colombo & Sons Creamery. Today it is occupied as a single-family home. Site Maintained by Dan Gagnon Hosted by Valcom ©2008 Dan Gagnon

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Environment: Global patterns of drought recovery Across diverse ecosystems, drought recovery times are strongly associated with climate and carbon cycle dynamics, according to a paper published in this week’s Nature. Drought is a recurring phenomenon with major impacts on both human and natural systems, and is the most widespread climatic extreme that negatively affects the ‘land carbon sink’, the land’s ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Recovery time is a critical metric of drought impact that measures the time it takes an ecosystem to revert to its pre-drought functional state. Yet, the factors influencing drought recovery are largely unknown. Christopher Schwalm and colleagues used a combination of satellite imaging, land surface models, machine learning and analyses from a network of micrometeorological tower sites to evaluate diverse ecosystems. Their data show that post-drought temperature and precipitation conditions were the factors most strongly associated with recovery time, and that drought recovery time was longer for warmer post-drought temperatures. Differences in biodiversity and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere also influenced recovery time, although to a lesser extent than precipitation and temperature. The analysis also shows that recovery is longest in the tropics and high northern latitudes (especially in the Russian Far East and Alaska - both of which are vulnerable regions of Earth’s climate system) and that drought impacts increased throughout the twentieth century. If droughts become more frequent, as expected, the time between droughts may become shorter than drought recovery time, leading to permanently damaged ecosystems and widespread degradation of the land carbon sink.

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Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? Lack of standard definition of "religion:" Whether Buddhism is, or is not, a religion depends upon how the word "religion" is defined. Lots of people have their favorite definition; some think that theirs is the only valid meaning for the term. Some definitions required a religion to include belief in the existence of one or more deities; this would classify most expressions of Buddhism as a non-religious since it is essentially a non-theistic religion. Other definitions do not require religion to include belief in a deity; these would probably include Buddhism as a religion. Webster's New World Dictionary (Third College Edition): defines religion as: "any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics and a philosophy." Buddhism would not be considered a religion under this definition, because it is basically non-theistic: it does not generally involve worship of a supernatural entity. Wikipedia once defined religion as: "... a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, traditions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought." 1 Buddhism could be considered a religion because its various forms share a system of thought that is considered to be the highest truth. It involves moral codes, practices, values, traditions and rituals. More recently, Wikipedia have adopted the definition of the late Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist from Princeton: Religion is: "an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendent quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, God or gods, or ultimate truth. 2,3 Here again, Buddhism would be considered a religion. Anthony F.C. Wallace, a North American anthropologist who specializes in Native American cultures, suggested a definition as: "a set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man or nature."4 Buddhism would not be considered a religion because it does not usually involve belief in supernatural powers. Robert Bellah, professor at the University of California, Berkley, in a legal declaration concerning the nature of transcendental meditation (TM), defined religion as: "a set of symbolic forms and acts that relate man to the ultimate conditions of his existence." 5 If the word "forms" is defined broadly, this would seem to imply that Buddhism is a religion, along with TM. H.L. Menken, 20th century editor, person of ideas, satirist, and Agnostic defined religion's "...single function is to give man access to the powers which seem to control his destiny, and its single purpose is to induce those powers to be friendly to him." 6 This would imply that Buddhism is not a religion, because it does not presuppose the existence of supernatural powers with whom humans can react. Comments by some Buddhists: The Drepung Loseling Institute, a center for Tibetan Buddhist studies, practice and culture, fully accepts Buddhism as a religion. They state: "Like all major religions, Buddhism contains an explanation of the origin of existence, a morality, and a specific set of rituals and behaviors. ... Buddhism presents a transformational goal, a desire to improve one's situation, and a distinct moral code. 7 The Late Ven Dr.K.Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera JSM wrote: "The Buddha's message as a religious way of life: 'Keeping away from ail evil deeds, cultivation or life by doing good deeds and punfication of mind from mental impurities'." "For our purposes, religion may be defined in a very broad sense as a body of moral and philosophical teachings and the acceptance with confidence of such teachings In this sense. Buddhism is a religion." 8 Venerable Master Chin Kung of the Buddhist Educational College in Singapore, describes four different types of Buddhism, of which one is: "... religious Buddhism. Originally, Buddhism was not a religion, but now it has become one. We can no longer deny that there is a 'Buddhist religion' because everywhere we look, Buddhism is displayed as a religion. Unlike the monasteries in the past which held eight-hour classes per day and provided another eight hours for self-cultivation, today's Buddhist 'temples' no longer uphold such a perseverance of the Buddha's Teachings. Today we mainly see people offering to the Buddha statues and praying for blessings and fortune. In this way, Buddhism has been wrongly changed into a religion." 9 A number of countries recognize Buddhism as their official religion: Kalmykia, a republic within the Russian Federation Tibet Government in Exile Sri Lanka recognizes Theravada Buddhism as occupying "the foremost place" among its religions. 10 Practices in North America: Many groups recognize Buddhism as a religion: Census offices and public opinion pollsters generally include Buddhism as one of the world's major religion. Books that describe the religions of the world generally list Buddhism as a religion along with Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc. Even the Boy Scouts of America, who systematically root out and expel Atheists, Agnostics and homosexuals, accept Buddhists as members. The Government of Canada denies registration of religious charities unless they teach the belief in one or more Gods or Goddesses. However, they allow Buddhist faith groups to register. They also register Unitarian groups even though they do not teach the existence of a deity. For what it is worth, "Hey Monkeybrain" conducted a poll of its visitors on whether Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy or both. Results were: Both: 63% Philosophy 29% Religion 8% 11 Buddhism as a "bottom-up" religion: Buddhism is not what we call a "top-down religion" -- one in which a deity reveals religious and spiritual truths to humanity. It is a "bottom-up religion" created by humans as an attempt to express spiritual concepts. Kerry Trembath, former Secretary of the Buddhist Council of New South Wales, in Australia writes : "Buddhism does not deny the existence of gods or of other worlds, and indeed the devotional practices of many Buddhist traditions involve the veneration and invocation of special beings such as Avalokitesvara (known as Kwan Yin to many Chinese, or Kannon to the Japanese). However, at its core Buddhism is a non-theistic religion and, unlike other world religions, Buddhism is not a doctrine of revelation. The Buddha did not claim to be the bearer of a message from on high. He made it clear that what he taught he had discovered for himself through his own efforts." "The Buddha himself is revered not as a deity or supernatural being but as a very special kind of human being. He was a human who achieved the ultimate in development of his human potential. The Buddha taught that this achievement is within the reach of every human being, and he spent his life teaching a practical methodology which, if followed with purity of mind and great diligence, would enable others to reach the same objective. In other words, he taught a method rather than a doctrine. When questioned about the validity of his teachings, the Buddha did not refer to the higher authority of a deity. He explained that his teachings were based on his own direct personal experience, and he invited all who were interested to test for themselves whether the method he taught was effective." 12 Unfortunately, Wikipedia is in a constant state of flux brought about by continual updating. Thus, the above quote no longer is on their site at Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System," (1973). "Religion," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion David Carpenter of Saint Joseph's University includes this definition in his list at: http://www.sju.edu/ Robert Bellah, "Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World," Harper and Row, Page 21. See: http://www.trancenet.net/ H.L. Mencken, "Treatise on the Gods," Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, (1930, revised 1946). "Is Buddhism a religion?" Drepung Loseling Institute, at: http://www.drepung.org/ V.K.S. Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera JSM, "Buddhism as a religion," Buddha Vihara Society, at: http://home.pacific.net.sg/ Venerable Master Chin Kung, "Buddhism as an Education The path to Enlightenment," at: http://www.geocities.com/ "State Religion," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/ "Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy?" Hey Monkeybrain, 2009-AUG-28, at: http://www.squidoo.com/ Kerry Trembath, "Buddhism and homosexuality," at: http://www.enabling.org/ Home page > here Home page > World Religions > here Go to the previous page, or go to the "Buddhism" menu, or choose: 10 command

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Introduction to religious change Quotes, ethics and truth, dynamics of change, examples Key quotations (repeated from the religious change menu) "We are in a transition between a new consciousness and old definitions. The new consciousness will win but as with every human struggle to emerge from ignorance, there will be casualties long after the issue is decided." Retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong speaking about same-sex marriage. 1 "On each of these issues, at one point the church had near unanimity of opinion and then, over time and painfully, changed its mind to almost the exact opposite view." Jack Rogers, referring to Christian beliefs on human slavery, roles of women, and homosexuality 2 The need for revised ethical policies and understanding of truth: Western countries have experienced Increasingly rapid social change since before the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century CE. Challenges to traditional Christian beliefs have arisen from other world religions, anti-religious sources, secular forces, and from science -- including astronomy, medicine, social sciences, geology, biology, human sexuality research, biblical research, etc. As each new ethical or religious "hot topic" comes to the fore, Christian denominations are forced to respond to the challenge. Liberal denominations tend be the first to change; mainline faith groups follow; conservative groups are often the last to alter. The process sometimes takes a century or more to complete on each topic. Faith groups have developed many new policies or modified old ones over the past 200 years. For example: A century and a half ago, the main "hot religious topic" of the day was human human slavery. One illustration of this was a debate in 1844 among the American Baptists: should slave owners be eligible to be appointed as missionaries? Many Baptists in the southern US thought that they should, and broke away to form the Southern Baptist Convention. Many other denominations split on north-south lines as various Christian denominations took either an abolitionist or pro-slavery stance. Fifteen years later, in 1859, Charles Darwin published "Origin of Species." This eventually touched off a firestorm of controversy over the authority of the book of Genesis in the Bible. The debate between evolution and creation science seemed to be temporarily settled in 1925 after the John Scopes trial. However, it simply went underground. It has since been reactivated, with the addition of a new belief system based on the existence of a supernatural entity or entities: intelligent design. Starting in the late 19th century, major ethical topics of the day were related to the status of women: Do they actually have souls? Should they be allowed to receive anesthesia during childbirth in apparent violation of a curse from God in Genesis? Are they really "persons"? Should they be able to vote? Should they be allowed to join various professions? Eventually, should they be considered for positions of power within churches, including being eligible for ordination as clergy and consecration as bishops (in those denominations that have bishops.)? A quarter century ago, in late 1969-JUN, a Stonewall riot in a New York bar caused "the hairpin drop heard around the world" and triggered a concerted drive for equal rights by GLBTs -- gays. lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals, -- including the right of same-sex couples to marry, the right to be considered for ordination, and have their unions recognized by church ceremonies. 1 Religions have responded in various ways. The dynamics of religious change: As noted in the above quotation by Jack Rogers, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), at least some Christian denominations have extensively modified or even reversed their teachings on a wide variety of social topics including Sabbath observance, human slavery, racial segregation, the role and status of women, divorce, remarriage, equal rights for homosexuals, etc. They have also altered their teachings on such theological matters as salvation, the afterlife, Hell, end of the world, etc. It is important that people understand how Christian denominations have been able to change their teachings over time. Many religious do not readily accept change. In the larger world religions, religious beliefs are grounded in a holy book -- e.g. the Torah for Jews, the Holy Bible for Christians, the Qur'an for Muslims, etc. Religious beliefs evolve only as the interpretation of their holy book(s) change. However, many people resist change; they specifically seek out faith groups because they need constancy in life -- an fixed anchor that they can count on. Sometimes change involves great agony, internal conflict, and even schism and violence. If the general public realized how how extensively faith groups have changed and even reversed their teachings over time, they might develop a different understanding of currently "hot" religious topics. They might anticipate future changes and be able to adapt more easily to them. In contrast to religiously-based beliefs, all scientific beliefs are open to falsification. Scientists know that their beliefs only approximate reality. Their beliefs are grounded in observations. New data is continually becoming available. Scientists expect and aggressively search out change. Fame and grants come to those scientists who are on the cutting edge of new discoveries. As a result, change comes rapidly. Some examples of religious change: Many denominations pride themselves in maintaining "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" 3 unchanged to the present day. In spite of this, major changes in beliefs and practices have occurred over the past two centuries : Premillennialism, declared a heresy in ancient times, was reintroduced in the 19th century, and is now the most popular belief about end times among conservative Protestants. The idea of the rapture also first surfaced in the 19th century. It involves the beliefs that saved individuals -- both dead and alive -- rising from the Earth to meet Jesus in the sky. Most denominations have abandoned the teaching of Hell as a place of eternal torture as described in the Bible. When mentioned at all today, it is often presented as being in a state of isolation from God. Human slavery was once widely considered totally compatible with the Bible, and a normal, natural cultural institution. It is now recognized as a profound evil by essentially all religions. Ordination of qualified female candidates was rarely allowed in the past. Severe restrictions on women's roles in the church, family and society have largely been lifted by liberal, mainline, and some conservative denominations. Homosexuals were once universally despised as sexual perverts and criminals for whom the appropriate response was the death penalty. Today, some liberal denominations have accepted gays and lesbians for ordination, have fought instances of discrimination against them, have fought for the right of loving, committed same-sex couples to marry, have blessed their unions and have married them. Mainline denominations are now conducting sometimes destructive debates over these issues and may well experience schism. Conservative denominations have generally not begun the transition and have no intention to start anytime soon. "Dr. Phil" often says that the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. If this is true, then Christian denominations may well go through the same agonizing processes to change their beliefs and practices about gender, sexual orientation and gender identity as they did during the 19th century over human slavery. They may try to hold the line on change. But that leads to a loss of the church youth and damage to the denomination's future. "Bishop Spong Q & A on Origins of Homosexuality," 2006-MAY-31 weekly newsletter. You can subscribe at: http://secure.agoramedia.com/ Jack Rogers, "Jesus, the Bible, and homosexuality: Explode the myths, heal the church," Westminister John Knox Press, (2006), Page 17. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store From Jude 1:3: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (King James Version).Joan Ryan, "A partial confession from the pope," San Francisco Chronicle, 2000-MAR-14, at: http://www.sfgate.com/ Site navigation: Main path Home page > Religious change > here Other paths too numerous to list Originally posted: 2006-MAY-29 Latest update: 2009-MAY-15 Go to the previous page, or to the "Religious change" menu, or choose:

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About Wicca: The Wiccan Rede: evaluating the morality of an action: Comments, history, possible origins, & application. See the preceeding essay for more information on the Wiccan Rede Some Wiccans' comments on the Rede: Judy Harrow writes: "The Craft, assuming ethical adulthood, offers us no rote rules. We will always be working on incomplete knowledge. We will sometimes just plain make mistakes. Life itself, and life-affirming religion, still demands that we learn, decide, act, and accept the results." 1 Robin Woodsong writes: " 'Do as you will and harm none' is not an easy way to structure morality. We have difficult personal choices to make and hard decisions to follow. It would be much simpler if all aspects of our lives were regulated, and the rules and regulations written down and posted. No more thinking, no hard choices, no more struggling over ethical conflicts." 2 Following the Wiccan faith can be much more difficult than participating in one of the organized religions. Wicca does not include a list of compulsory actions and of forbidden actions. The member has to figure out which actions are moral for themselves. Wren, writing for Witchvox, said: "Unlike most mainstream religions, Witchcraft does not have a long list of laws governing our behavior. Witches generally adhere to what has become known as "THE WICCAN REDE" and THE THREE-FOLD LAW. These two principles contain the basics of what Witches define as ethical and moral behavior within the Craft and the society in which we live." 3 The http://blessedbe.sugarbane.com website states: "The Rede ... expressly rejects the concept of sin outside of harm to oneself or to another. The Rede is only a guideline which the individual must interpret to fit each particular situation." 4 Erin Dragonsong writes: "The Wiccan Rede is the only Wiccan law. If we can generalize to all Wicca. And if we can call it a 'law.' Actually, guideline might be a better term. It implies a standard of conduct rather than a rule imposed by some outside authority and carrying a threat of punishment." 5 History of the Wiccan Rede within Wicca: John Coughlin researched the writings of Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) and Doreen Valiente (1922-1999). These are the two individuals who are generally regarded as the founders of modern Wicca. He found the first reference to a ethical guideline similar to the Wiccan Rede in Gardner's third book: "The Meaning of Witchcraft." 6 He wrote that Wiccans: "...are inclined to the morality of the legendary Good King Pausol [sic], 'Do what you like so long as you harm no one.' But they believe a certain law to be important, 'You must not use magic for anything which will cause harm to anyone, and if, to prevent a greater wrong being done, you must discommode someone, you must do it only in a way which will abate the harm'." 7 It appears that King Pausole was a character in a novel by a French writer, Pierre Louys, called "The Adventures of King Pausole," published in 1901. Coughlin writes that: "The first recorded mention of the Wiccan Rede in the eight-word form popular today, at least that I have been able to discover thus far, was in a speech by Doreen Valiente on October 3, 1964 at what may have been the first witches' dinner organized in modern history. The event was sponsored by 'Pentagram,' a quarterly newsletter and 'Witchcraft Review' [which was] started and published by Gerard Noel in 1964:" "Demanding tolerance between covens as well as toward the outside world, Doreen spoke the Anglo-Saxon witch formula called the Wiccan Rede or wise teaching: 'Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil, An' it harm none, do what ye will'." 8 Possible ancient origins of the Wiccan Rede: The most ancient possible source of the Wiccan Rede that we have been able to find is contained in the writings of Augustine of Hippo. In Homily 7 on the First Epistle of John, Augustine wrote: "Dilige, et quod vis fac" in Latin. This can be translated as "Love, and do what you will." A more recent source for at least part of the Wiccan Rede may have been by a 16th century novelist, François Rabelais. "DO AS THOU WILT because men that are free, of gentle birth, well bred and at home in civilized company possess a natural instinct that inclines them to virtue and saves them from vice. This instinct they name their honor." 9 This concept appears to have been adopted by Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) in his Law of Thelema which is contained in his 1904 book Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law). Many believe that Crowley received the text of the Law from an angelic entity named Aiwass: "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." 10 Later in the Book of the Law is a verse which states: "Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God." 11 Excerpts from these two verses are sometimes quoted together as two commandments: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." "Love is the law, love under will." Ellie Crystal writes: "Most Thelemites hold that every person possesses a True Will, a single overall motivation for their existence. The Law of Thelema mandates that each person follow their True Will to attain fulfillment in life and freedom from restriction of their nature. Because no two True Wills can be in real conflict ...this Law also prohibits one from interfering with the True Will of any other person." 12 Crowley initiated Gerald Gardner into the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in 1946. Gardner may have taken the phrase from Rabelais and Crowley: "do what thou wilt," grafted it onto a clear, unambiguous expression to do no harm, and produced the Wiccan Rede as we know it today. An alternative explanation is that the Rede was extracted directly from the Wiccan Credo which some Wiccans believe was written circa 1910 CE by Adriana Porter. Applying the Wiccan Rede: The Rede is not necessarily an easy guide to practice. Sometimes it is not even a practical method of reaching a moral decision. Consider some possible complications: Sometimes, all of the possible options would harm a person to some degree. A literal application of the Rede is then not possible. One might then decide to take no action; however under some circumstances to do nothing will also cause harm. Many, perhaps most, Wiccans substitute "harm least" for the Wiccan Rede's "harm none" in this case. They would then take whatever action would minimize harm to others. This necessitates the Wiccan evaluating the degree of harm each option is liable to cause. Sometimes, one must consider engaging in self defense by manipulating or controlling an attacker -- or perhaps even injure them. Many Wiccans use spells and other magical techniques to bind another person so that the latter cannot initiate an aggressive act. The Rede says to harm none -- that is, to harm no person. It is not necessarily clear to what "none" refers. Clearly, a newborn, infant, child, youth, adult, or senior citizen should be protected from harm. However, there is no consensus on when human personhood begins. A human ovum and spermatozoon are usually considered a form of human life because they are alive and contain human DNA. But both of them are not usually considered a actual human person. A substantial percentage of people believe that human personhood begins at some time during the process of fertilization after one very lucky spermatozoon and an ovum fuse. Others specify that it happens when the blastocyst is implanted in the inner wall of the uterus, or when blood starts to flow within the embryo, or when the embryo's heartbeat can be detected, or when the embryo loses its gill slits and tail, or when its higher brain functions turn on for the first time and the fetus becomes sentient, or when it becomes able to survive outside of the womb, or when the fetus half emerges from the woman's body, or when it is fully delivered, or when the umbilical cord is cut and the newborn is separated from her or his mother. Since there is no general agreement on when the pre-embryo, embryo or fetus attains personhood, the Wiccan has no reliable way of knowing when the Wiccan Rede becomes applicable. Another consideration is whether "none" would also include non-human species of animals or even plants. A very strict interpretation of the Rede would limit a person's options severely; many actions would not meet the requirements of the Rede. For example: Watching television, listening to a radio, etc. consumes electricity which, in North America, is partly generated by coal-fueled generators. The total pollution caused by such power plants kills thousands of people each year in North America. "Clean coal" is an oxymoron. Driving a car generates exhaust gasses, some of which contribute to climate change. The resultant global warming and the increases in drought, floods, excessive heat, etc. hurt every person on Earth. Another very strict literal interpretation of the Rede might provide some wiggle room to those who wish to do harm. The Rede says that an action can be taken if it harms none. However, it could be argued that the Rede does not specifically prohibit an action even if it does result in harm. Judy Harrow, "Exegesis on the Wiccan Rede," Harvest, Volume 5, #3. Online at: Real Magick: http://realmagick.com/ Robin Woodsong, "A view on the Wiccan Rede," Real Magick, at: http://realmagick.com/ Wren, "The Wiccan Rede," Witchvox, 2000-JUL-16, at: http://www.witchvox.com/ Anon, "The Wiccan Rede," at: http://blessedbe.sugarbane.com/ Erin Dragonsong, "The Wiccan Rede," at: http://www.wicca-spirituality.com/ Gerald Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft, (Reprinted 1982), Page 127. John Coughlin, "The Wiccan Rede: A historical journey. Parg 2: The Early Years," Waning Moon, 2001-2002, at: http://www.waningmoon.com/. John Coughlin, "The Wiccan Rede: A historical journey. Part 3: Eight Words...," Waning Moon, 2001-2002, at: http://www.waningmoon.com/. François Rabelais, "Gargantua," (1534). Aleister Crowley, "The Book of the Law," Chapter 1, Verse 40. Ibid, Verse 57. Ellie Crystal, "Aleister Crowley," at: http://www.crystalinks.com/ Site navigation: Home page > World religions > Wicca > here Go to the previous page, or to the Wiccan menu, or choose: ReligiousTolerance.org Buy a CD of this site

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Research and Policy Advocacy Social Accountability Institutional Development and Capacity Building Periodic Issues ECONOMIC OUTLOOK AND INDICATORS HOTEL PRICE INDEX PMC RESEARCH - IFO GEORGIAN ECONOMIC CLIMATE BLACK SEA BULLETIN Monthly Tourism Update Georgia and EU Public Finances and Public Administration Social Security System and Educational Policy Labor Market and Migration Enhancing Capacity of Georgian Farmers’ Association We are working with the Georgian Farmers’ Association (GFA) to support the strengthening of its internal capacity, aiming to increase its membership base, financial sustainability and independence. Supporting Growth of Rural SMEs in Georgia and Armenia We recently completed a research project, aimed at identifying constraints affecting the development of rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Georgia and Armenia, and ascertaining how these can be overcome. Training in Practical Marketing for First Rural Development Grant Competition Beneficiaries in Khulo Municipality On December 12-15, practical marketing training was conducted for 20 guesthouse owners in Khulo municipality, aimed at enhancing their knowledge and introducing the marketing tools necessary for the development of their respective businesses. Presenting Research Outcomes: “Russia's Disinformation Campaigns in Georgia: A Study of State and Civil Society Response” On December 12, PMC Research presented the outcomes of its research entitled “Russia’s Disinformation Campaigns in Georgia: A Study of State and Civil Society Response” and subsequently held a discussion thereon. Working with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport to Implement Newly-Adopted Law on Vocational Education and Training We are collaborating with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (MoESCS), under a UNDP project designed to support the Ministry in the implementation of the newly-adopted law on vocational education and training (VET). Business Climate Index in Georgia Being Established by the Georgian Business Association and PMC Research Together with the Business Association Georgia (BAG), we have started working on the development of the BAG Index, which is focused on evaluating the business climate in Georgia. Increasing Institutional Capacity of Vocational Educational Institutions PMC Research has launched a new project entitled “Strengthening VET institutions’ capacity in the development of needs-based project ideas and proposals.” Evaluating GIZ Program Dedicated to Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education PMC Research is implementing a final evaluation survey to evaluate the results achieved within the program - Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training South Caucasus – implemented by the South Caucasus Office of GIZ. Evaluating Progress of Penitentiary and Probation Reforms We recently started working on a European Commission project focused on monitoring and assessing the implementation of the Strategy and 2019-2020 action Plan for the Development of Penitentiary and Crime Prevention Systems in Georgia. PMC Research Elected as Fully-Fledged Member of Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) at Pre-presidency Conference in Zagreb We can happily announce that PMC Research has become a fully-fledged member of the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) through which it will actively contribute to the work and development of the organization. It is both a great honor and responsibility for PMC Research which becomes the first member organization from the South Caucasus. Indeed, even among Eastern Partnership Countries (EAP) PMC Research is only the second organization to enroll as a member of the TEPSA. PMC Research’s admission to the TEPSA was confirmed at its pre-presidency conference. Presenting Research Outcomes: “Trade Facilitation Component of the Peace Initiative - A Step to a Better Future” On November 26, PMC Research presented the results of its research entitled “Trade Facilitation Component of the Peace Initiative - A Step to a Better Future,” and held a subsequent discussion thereon. EU-Supported Khulo Local Action Group Partake in Kazbegi Study Visit to Enhance Guesthouse Management Knowledge During November 9-10, the EU-supported Khulo Local Action Group (LAG) organized a study visit to Kazbegi, in cooperation with the Kazbegi LAG to share experiences in the field of guesthouse management. Our Academic Publication in Latest Edition of Caucasus Analytical Digest It is with great pride that we can announce that our recent academic publication entitled “Connectivity, Trade and Financial Integration of the South Caucasus via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)” has been published in the latest edition of the Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD). PMC Research Gains New Regional Partner in Ukraine We are pleased to announce that PMC Research has a new regional partner, namely the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, a highly reputable and independent think-tank operating in Ukraine. Analysis of Gaps in the Law of Georgia on Public Service On November 5, PMC Research presented outcomes of the research entitled “Analysis of Gaps in the Law of Georgia on Public Service.” PMCG’s CEO Presents at International Summit Dedicated to 30th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall On November 7, Aleksi Aleksishvili, Chairman and CEO at PMCG, participated in the international summit entitled: “Berlin Wall 30 – From the Divided to the City of Freedom”, which was held in the German capital on November 6-10. PMCG’s CEO Discusses Governance Challenges in the Modern World On October 22, Aleksi Aleksishvili, CEO and Chairman at PMCG, participated at the 2019 Global Meeting of the Emerging Markets Forum in Virginia, USA Assisting Vocational Education Institutions to Introduce Higher Standards PMC Research has recently started working on a new project aiming to develop practical and effective mechanisms that will contribute to the institutional strengthening of vocational education and training (VET) institutions in Georgia. Functional Regions and Competitive Economic Sectors in Kakheti, Tbilisi and Kutaisi On September 19-20, PMC Research participated in a conference organized by the Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC) and presented three research reports which related to identification of functional regions and analysis of competitive advantages. Analyzing Labor Migration Trends On September 9, we presented the findings of our latest research project entitled “Labor Migration and Private Employment Agencies in Georgia.” Introducing Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (PMESs) in Georgian Municipalities During June and July, PMC Research visited Lagodekhi, Ambrolauri, Marneuli, Mtskheta, Gori, Akhaltsikhe, Zugdidi, Lanchkhuti, Batumi and Kutaisi municipalities as part of the EU project - “Networking for Efficiency and Development (N4ED) – a News Modality for Effective Local Self-governance in Georgia. Advancing Communication Capacity of LAG Members On July 22-26, a training module was conducted for potential members of the local action group (LAG) Mestia in order to enhance their communication skills through social media. Our Research on Status of SME Finance in Georgia Published by Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) The Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) recently included PMC Research’s paper “Leveraging Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance Through Value Chains in Georgia” in its working papers. Analyzing the Diversification of the Rural Economy in Georgia At the end of June and the beginning of July, PMC Research conducted three presentations and public discussions on the outcomes of the policy brief “Diversification of Rural Economy in Georgia” in Mtskheta, Tkibuli, and Batumi.The main goal of the research was to study the current state of affairs in the rural economy and to identify steps towards its diversification by analyzing the vision, strategy and programs of the Government of Georgia, as well as regional and municipal authorities. We evaluated the development potential of linkages between farm and non-farm sectors and basic factors supporting the diversification of the rural economy.“Economic diversification of the rural economy has the potential to significantly alleviate poverty and contribute to local and regional economic development in Georgia,” said Mikheil Skhiereli, Affiliated Researcher at PMC Research. Civil society organizations and representatives of local governments also participated in the discussion. The research was conducted by PMC Research in collaboration with People in Need, as part of the EU project “Regional Civil Society Organizations Supporting Free Trade with Europe.” Two Georgian Projects Presented at European Development Days (EDD) for First Time On June 18-19, we participated in, and presented two Georgian projects at, the European Development Days (EDD) 2019 in Brussels, the first time that projects from Georgia have been showcased at the forum in its 14-year history. Analyzing Municipal Social Policy in Shida Kartli Region On June 11, PMC Research conducted a presentation and public discussion on the outcomes of the research ”Municipal Social Policy Analysis in the Shida Kartli Region" in Gori. Presentation on the Competitiveness of the Hospital Sector in Tbilisi On March 18, Giorgi Khishtovani, Director at PMC Research, presented the outcomes of the applied research "Analyzing Competitiveness of the Hospital Sector and its Value Chain in the City of Tbilisi – Using Smart Specialisation Methodology Components.” Promoting Rural Development in Mestia PMC Research, within the European Neighborhood Program for Agriculture and Rural Development III (ENPARD III), is working together with Care Austria to promote rural development in the municipality of Mestia in Georgia. Analyzing Private Sector in Municipalities of Two Georgian Regions On February 22, Giorgi Khishtovani, Director at PMC Research presented the outcomes of the study "Regional Market Assessment in Georgia by using the components of Smart Specialization". Discussing Monitoring and Evaluation Practices in the Government of Georgia On February 19, PMC Research conducted a presentation and discussion about the findings of the policy brief “Review of Monitoring and Evaluation Practices in the Georgian Government.” Value Chain Analyses of Tomatoes, Blackberries, Carrots and Laurels in the Regions of Georgia and their EU Market Potential At the end of January and at the beginning of February, PMC Research conducted four public discussions and presentations in Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Telavi and Akhaltsikhe about the outcomes of four value chain analyses of four agricultural products, namely tomatoes, laurels, carrots and blackberries. PMCG’s CEO and Research Director Discuss Impact of Belt and Road Initiative at Eurasia Emerging Markets Forum On January 27-29, Aleksi Aleksishvili, Chairman and CEO at PMCG, and Giorgi Khishtovani, Director at PMC Research, participated in the Eurasia Emerging Markets Forum in Switzerland, co-hosted by the Swiss National Bank. Discussing the Challenges Facing SMEs Seeking Access to Finance On November 29, Giorgi Khishtovani, Director at PMC Research, presented the main findings and recommendations of research entitled “Leveraging SME Finance through Value Chains in Georgia” in Astana, Kazakhstan. Chinese Academy for Fiscal Sciences Set for Cooperation with Tbilisi State University and Academy of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia On November 6, PMC Research organized a meeting between the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences (CAFS) and Tbilisi State University (TSU), with the aim of introducing these two institutions to each other and discussing collaboration opportunities. As a result of the meeting, various cooperation models were discussed, including an internship program at the CAFS for researchers from TSU. Hosting Delegation from China to Start Collaboration On November 6-7, PMC Research hosted a delegation from China, comprising high-ranking officials from the Chinese Academy for Fiscal Sciences (CAFS). The aim of the visit was to discuss the prospects of future collaboration between the two institutions. New Study to Improve Access to Employment, Entrepreneurial and Educational Opportunities PMC Research recently launched a new applied research project entitled “The regional market assessment in Georgia using components of Smart Specialization” aiming to assess the private business sector in Tbilisi and five target municipalities within Kvemo Kartli and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regions. Enhancing the Vocational Education and Training System in Georgia PMC Research recently launched a new project entitled “Updating Vocational Education and Training (VET) System in Georgia with Estonian Experience” aiming to develop VET programs to become more attractive in Georgia and to prepare students to meet the needs of the local labor market. Presenting Conceptual Design of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) for Municipalities On September 28, PMC Research organized the conference “Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System for Local Self-Government Activities” in order to facilitate dialogue between key stakeholders and to reach an agreement on the specific performance monitoring and evaluation system to be introduced in Georgia’s municipalities. Supporting Government of Georgia to Enhance Human Capital We are honored to be supporting the Government of Georgia (GoG) to implement its role as an “Early Adopter,” as part of a World Bank (WB) initiative aiming to encourage investment in people to boost sustainable economic growth. Value Chain Analyses of Broccoli, Mandarins and Raspberries in the Regions of Georgia and their Potential on the EU Market PMC Research recently finished working on value chain analyses of three agricultural products in three specific regions, namely broccoli in Kvemo Kartli region, mandarins in Adjara region, and raspberries in Mtskheta-Mtianeti region. Analyzing the Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the South Caucasus At the beginning of August, PMC Research started working on a Country Note on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the South Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) in order to study its impact on Central Asia and the South Caucasus (CASC). The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Implementation of the DCFTA On July 25, Ms. Mariam Saghareishvili, Researcher at PMCG, participated in a working meeting about the DCFTA and the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in its implementation. PMC Research Awarded Again for its Transparency We are excited and proud to announce that PMC Research was recently given a 5-star rating for transparency by international organization Transparify. Study to Identify Challenges for SMEs Seeking Access to Finance PMC Research recently launched a new project entitled “Leveraging SME Finance through Value Chains in Georgia”, designed to study the challenges facing SMEs with a particular focus on access to finance in Georgia. Discussing Opportunities and Challenges of the EU-Georgia DCFTA at Georgian Farmers Congress On June 15, PMC Research participated in the Georgian Farmers Congress, an event designed to homeworkforme and support dialogue between farmers and state bodies, a crucial aspect in the development of Georgia’s agricultural sector. Value Chain Analysis of Broccoli, Tangerines and Raspberries in Georgia and their EU Market Potential At the beginning of June, PMC Research hosted three public discussions and presentations in Marneuli, Mtskheta and Misaktsieli about the value chain analyses of three agricultural products, namely broccoli, tangerines and raspberries. PMCG and PMC Research Open Call for Policy Papers PMC Research has launched a project entitled “Public Policy Discourse and Dialogue Platform – 2018” targeted at creating a platform to stimulate constructive and systematic policy debates and to establish cooperative practice among different political and social groups of Georgian society. Working with Georgian Municipalities to Enhance Good Governance We are collaborating with the municipalities of Georgia to strengthen their levels of good governance and sustainable development by building their capacity and by facilitating experience-sharing between local self-governments. Research into Railway Infrastructure in Tbilisi Presented and Discussed On February 22, we hosted a presentation and public discussion of research outcomes regarding railway infrastructure in Tbilisi. Georgia as a Transit Hub and its Increasing Potential in the Implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative On January 25, at 10:30 am, PMC Research hosted a presentation and public discussion of the research findings “Georgia as a Transit Hub and its Increasing Potential in the Implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative” at Tbilisi’s Rooms Hotel. Ifo World Economic Survey (Third Quarter of 2017) In November 2017, ifo published its World Economic Survey for the third quarter of 2017. In the report, among other countries, Georgia’s current economic situation was assessed and predictions were made. Trainings Conducted as part of the “Civil Society Organizations Supporting Free Trade with Europe” Project In September and October 2017, PMC Research Center conducted trainings and stakeholder meetings about value chain analysis methods in seven regions of Georgia. More specifically, the trainings were carried out for civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Imereti, Samegrelo, and Adjara regions. Product Selection for Value Chain Analysis Discussed in Adjara On September 23, PMC Research hosted a working meeting to discuss and select the most valuable agricultural product for Adjara in order to conduct a value chain analysis (VCA), as part of the European Commission (EC) project “Regional Civil Society Organizations as Vectors of Rural Economic Development”. New Project to Support Rural Development in Khulo On September 15, the European Union launched a new development project entitled “Promotion of Rural Development and Diversification in Khulo Municipality”. Georgian-German Startup Forum On September 4, Georgian-German Startup Forum was held at Technopark, organized by PMC Research in collaboration with Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA). The event aimed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience regarding entrepreneurship and was part of the Germany-Georgia Friendship Year, supported by the German Embassy in Georgia and Procredit Bank. Welcoming Our New Research Director We are delighted to welcome Giorgi Khishtovani to our team, as our new Research Director. Giorgi brings with him eight years of sound experience in public, private and non-governmental sectors in Georgia and abroad, as a lecturer, trainer, consultant, researcher, and project manager. Enhancing Role of CSOs in Georgia in Regional Economic Development Process PMC Research, in cooperation with People in Need (PIN), the Rural Communities Development Agency (RCDA), and Association ATINATI, is working under the European Commission project - Regional Civil Society Organizations as Vectors of Rural Economic Development - to promote rural economic development and stimulate the agricultural sector in Georgia. Promoting Rural Development in Khulo Municipality PMC Research, as part of a European Commission project, has started working together with Caritas Czech Republic and the Croatian Rural Development Network to promote rural development and diversification in the municipality of Khulo in Georgia. Welcoming Our New Junior Researcher at PMC Research We are pleased to welcome Andro Tvaliashvili to our team as our new Junior Researcher, replacing Irakli Barbakadze who has moved on to the National Bank of Georgia. Increasing Transparency of Public Spending in Georgia Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG) has recently launched a project - Partnership for Budget Transparency: Civil Society Oversight of Public Spending in Georgia, funded by Europe Foundation, focused on enhancing civil society engagement in Georgia regarding budgeting process. Onion Value Chain Analysis in Samtskhe-Javakheti Region On December 9, PMC Research held a presentation to introduce the findings of a Value Chain Analysis (VCA) on onions in the city of Akhaltsikhe, Samtskhe-Javakheti region. We are Awarded for the Highest Level of Transparency We are excited to share the news that PMC Research Center (PMC RC) was recently granted a 5 star transparency award. It is a great honor for us to be awarded by international organization Transparify for setting the gold standard for the field as a whole, by reflecting exemplary transparency in publicly disclosing sources of funding. Discussing the Role of Think Tanks in Facilitating Sustainable Development in Asia On June 8-10, PMC Research participated in the 4th Asia Think Tank Summit held in Seoul, South Korea. The Summit was dedicated to “Sustainable Development Goals in the Asian Landscape: Think Tanks as Catalysts for Policy Analysis and Implementation”. Empowering Modern Research Practices of Regional Agriculture-Related Institutions in Georgia On April 13-25, PMC Research is conducting trainings for regional education and research institutions on modern tools in research, focusing on the agricultural field. We are very pleased to welcome Maya Grigolia to our team as our new Research Director after the position was vacated by Tamar Jugheli who is pursuing her PhD in Germany. PMCG Scholarships Enabling Students to Attain High Quality Education On February 10, Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG) awarded students with PMCG’s scholarships to continue studying at the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET). Hosting Belarus Delegation Experience in Introducing Effective Economic Reforms On November 26-27, PMCG hosted an official delegation from Belarus in order to share details of Georgia’s successful reforms in tax administration, E-governance and public services. Discussing Structural Economic Reforms with Moldovan Government and Private Sector At the end of October, PMC Researcch held meetings with the Minister of Finance of Moldova and with the European Business Association (EBA) to share experiences of dealing with structural economic reforms. Facilitating Dialogue on Benefits and Challenges for Moldovan and Georgian Private Sectors in EU Integration Process PMC Research hosted high ranking representatives of the Moldovan and Georgian governments, the EU delegation, Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Slovakian diplomatic missions and representatives of EBRD, EIB, USAID, WB, and IFC to discuss the most efficient ways for governments and private sectors to navigate through the EU Integration Process. We Have Moved to a New Office We are excited to announce that we have moved to a new office at 61 Aghmashenebeli Avenue in Tbilisi (Georgia). We enjoyed three successful and hard-working years in the old... Press Release: Possible Consequences of Georgia-China Free Trade Agreement The study showed that a free trade agreement between Georgia and China has great potential. Georgia’s export to China would increase by 9% approximately, in the short-term period including significant growth of wine exports (28.5%) and non-alcoholic drinks (36.7%). Possible Outcomes of Potential Georgia-China Free Trade Agreement On June 17, PMC Research Center, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, started a new research project: Joint Feasibility Study of Possible Outcomes of Georgia-China Free Trade Agreement. Media Announcement: Knowledge Sharing Event to Facilitate EU Integration for Georgia and Moldova Zaza Chelidze Discusses Challenges of EU Accession at International Conference in Kosovo On May 15-16, Zaza Chelidze, Member of PMC RC's Advisory Board participated in the international conference “Activating the Sources of Economic Growth in Kosovo”. The event organized by local think-tank Riinvest Institute served as a platform for debate about the potential sources of economic growth in Kosovo. Chelidze participated in the panel together with the Minister of Economic Development, Minister of Trade and Industry of Kosovo, and the former Minister of Finance of Albania. His topic was “Agricultural and Rural Development in Georgia – Challenges of EU Accession” and also discussed Georgia’s successfully implemented reforms in areas including: trade liberalization, tax system simplification, deregulation and other free-market enabling reforms that resulted in Georgia being ranked very highly in The World Bank’s Doing Business, Economic Freedom Index and Corruption Perception Index. Understanding Labor Market in Georgia PMC Research will conduct labor informality study, in partnership with the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University, the University of Bologna, the University of Bonn and Maastricht University with the financial support of Volkswagen Foundation and the Institute for Study Labor (IZA). PMC RC Awarded to Share Experience of Public-Private Dialogue in EU Integration Process for Moldova and Georgia PMC Research Center was awarded a grant by the International Visegrad Fund to implement the project Sharing Experience of Public-Private Dialogue in EU Integration Process for Moldova and Georgia. PMC RC Successfully Concludes EU-Albania/Kosovo Integration Project The project was aimed at enabling Visegrad countries to share their experiences and to play significant roles in the process of the economic integration of both Albania and Kosovo with the EU and transfer of Georgian know-how in successful structural reforms for Albanian and Kosovar stakeholders. Addressing Solid Waste Management Challenges in Georgia On November 18, PMC Research Center (PMC RC), under the umbrella of Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG), with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, held a presentation and public discussion of research findings and recommendations regarding “Solid Waste Management in Georgia”. The presentation focused on construction waste, polyethylene bags, municipal dumps, as well as the separation of solid waste collection systems and the involvement of the private sector in this process. PMC RC and KAS Continue Presentations and Public Discussions of Policy Researches for Sustainable Economic Development On October 3, PMC Research Center (PMC RC) together with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation organized the presentation and public discussion on two research findings and corresponding recommendations on the following issues: Effects of Clean Investment; Possible Challenges of Harmonization of Georgian Legislation with the Acquis Communautaire of the European Union in the Energy Sector. The researches were conducted in the framework of the project Policy Research for Sustainable Economic Development, which is developed by PMC Research Center, with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Costs and Benefits of Labor Mobility Between European Union and Georgia On September 30, PMC Research Center (PMC RC) together with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation hosted a presentation of the research findings and held a public discussion on the Costs and Benefits of Labor Mobility between European Union and Georgia. The research was conducted within the framework of the project “Policy research for sustainable economic growth”.In particular, the research observed the advantages and challenges that may be faced by the country’s economy, after visa liberalization. The discussion was also focused on the main trends and characteristics of labor migration from Georgia. Specific attention was given to the possible influence of the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia and visa liberalization on labor migration to the EU. PMC RC Published Final Report about the State Procurement System of Georgia The research paper “Analysis of the State Procurement Policy of Georgia” studies the strength and challenges of the existing state procurement system of Georgia. PMC RC Issued Final Report about the Fiscal Sustainability in Georgia The research “Analysis of the medium term fiscal policy sustainability in Georgia” assesses the fiscal sustainability of the country in medium and long-term periods. Presenting Procurement Research Findings On Tuesday, June 24, at the Sheraton Metechi Palace hotel, PMC Research Center (PMC RC) delivered a presentation and public discussion on “Analysis of the State Procurement System of Georgia”. The research had been conducted with the support of the USAID program - Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC), which is implemented by the East West Management Institute (EWMI). Analysis of the Medium-Term Fiscal Policy Sustainability in Georgia On Thursday, June 5, at the hotel "Holiday Inn", with the support of the USAID funded program G-PAC, PMC Research Center organized a presentation and public discussion of the project “Analysis of the Medium-Term Fiscal Policy Sustainability in Georgia". PMC RC to Present Research Findings On June 5, PMC Research Center will present the findings of the research “Analysis of the Medium-Term Fiscal Policy Sustainability in Georgia”, which was implemented within the framework of the USAID-funded program G-PAC. Supporting the Parliament of Georgia to Implement Sustainable Institutional Reforms PMC Research Center (PMC RC), an independent non-governmental think tank, under the auspices of Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG) will assist the Parliament of Georgia to implement sustainable institutional reforms, by facilitating the development of a comprehensive Institutional Reform Plan (IRP), program-based budgeting and introducing effective donor coordination mechanisms. Analysis of the State Procurement Policy of Georgia"- Presentation of ongoing research On Thursday, March 13th a presentation and public discussion of PMC Research Center's ongoing project "Analysis of the State Procurement Policy of Georgia" was held at the hotel "Sheraton Metechi Palace". The project has been prepared by PMC Research Center with the support of the USAID funded program G-PAC. Preliminary results of ongoing research: "Analysis of the medium-term fiscal policy sustainability in Georgia" On Thursday, February 6, at the hotel "Sheraton Metechi Palace", a presentation and public discussion of ongoing research "Analysis of the medium-term fiscal policy sustainability in Georgia" was held. The project is prepared by PMC Research Center and is implemented in the framework of the East-West Management Institute's (EWMI) Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC) Program, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Economic Effects of Labor Market Regulations: Research Results Presentation On Thursday, 6 June, PMC Research Center, as part of the study funded by the Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC) program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), held public discussions on the topic: "Economic Effects of Labor Market Regulations". Study Released: Economic Analysis of the Amendments to the Labor Code of Georgia PMC Research Center has released a draft study report on the Economic Analysis of the Amendments to the Labor Code of Georgia. Proposed amendments to the Labor Code were given an economic analysis by PMC Research Center, which scrutinized the following: PMC RC provides consultancy services to the State Competition and Procurement Agency of Georgia PMC Research Center is providing assistance to the State Competition and Procurement Agency (SCPA) to enhance the transparency and accountability of its operations and procurement procedures with support of USAID. This project follows up on a recently developed study into the SCPA's Dispute Resolution Board procedures, prepared by the PMC Research Center. (More information about the study is available via this link). Working with Competition and State Procurement Agency (CSPA) of Georgia PMC Research Center (Member of PMC Group) has been awarded the grant by USAID for the project entitled Study to Enhance the Public Outreach Function of the Compitiion and State Procurement Agency (CSPA). PMC Research Center will work with CSPA to conduct a desk study of current operations and processes of the CSPA Dispute Resolution Board and provide recommendations to improve public outreach function of the CSPA. PMC RC Launches Fiscal Risk Study for Georgia PMC Research Center (Member of PMC Group) has been awarded the grant by USAID funded G-PAC Program to conduct a comprehensive research and risk analysis of the fiscal system of Georgia in order to identify possible risks associated to the fiscal sustainability for the medium (3-5 years) and long (5-15 years) term periods. The study will evaluate the likelihood of the fiscal risks by considering 2 main directions, the decrease in budget tax revenues to GDP and increase in the public debt (including external) service. Financing Model of Georgian Higher Education System and its Unintended Implications Giorgi Khishtovani, Director at PMC research, and Mariam Saghareishvili, Researcher at PMC Research, discussing about financing model of Georgian higher education system and its unintended implications. ENGLISH PUBLICATION

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Retroland The Social Archeology Channel Home » Toys » Dominoes Planning is about to meet execution. You can’t move a muscle, you can hardly breathe, lest you (or one errant sneeze) accidentally lay to waste your hours spent slaving over piece after endless piece. But now it is here, the moment of reckoning, as you prepare to fell your arch-rival – the domino, and all the troops behind him. One tiny touch, and clickity-clackity, it’s over. More than just a child’s garden of cause-and-effect – though the stacking and toppling of them is certainly a staple of American childhood – dominoes are better described as gaming tiles, having originated in China as early as 1120 AD. They are derived from the 21 different pairing possibilities for rolling a duo of six-sided dice. Originally they were made of bone or ivory with ebony inlaid on the dots. The name “domino” popped up when they arrived in Europe during nineteenth century; it was possibly derived from a similarly-named masquerade mask, while Another etymological theory considers that the domino is also the French word for a monk’s hood, which were double-faced in white and black. Modern dominoes are much less likely to be crafted from the endangered animals; most companies manufacture the tiles out of wood or plastic now. Much like cards, there are a wide array of games that can be played with the traditional spotted tiles. The most common is a blind-draw multiplayer game, with each person matching dominoes end-to-end in a chain. Endless variations include the chicken-scratch (which divides into three directions), the train (which lays them side by side) and several versions of solitaire for lone wolves and the socially ill-equipped. Domino games are an enjoyable way to pass the time, but what we really prefer to do as a species is set them up and knock them over, in what is known as a domino show. And the more, the merrier. An official set of dominoes contains a mere 28 tiles, but a domino show can use from dozens to hundreds of thousands. In case you were wondering, the World Record as of this writing is 4,345,027. Most of us weren’t professional topplers though. We simply gathered as many boxes as would could and started stacking them on the kitchen table. The more ambitious you were, the more you needed the steady hands of surgeon. One poorly-timed flinch of the wrist could undo minutes, hours or days of work. Once they were all in place, the time of reckoning had arrived. The object was to leave no domino standing, and you only got one chance to test your efforts. Push the first one and either bask in the glory or go back to the drawing board. Public domino shows were performed in the 70s and are held around the world to this day. And although the game itself may not be as prominent as it once was, dominoes have managed to work their way into our culture, from phrases like the “domino effect” to musicians Fats Domino and Derek and the Dominoes, to the pizza chain with the red and blue domino on every box. Whether used for family game night, or by spending the day stacking them from end to end, one thing is clear – these little black and white spotted rectangles have brought people countless hours of enjoyment for a very long time. And that makes them more than worthy of mention. Did you play with dominoes as a kid, either as a game or by topping them? We’d love to hear all of your thoughts and memories of these timeless toys in our comment section below. Domino Rally Scrabble Monopoly Barrel of Monkeys Parcheesi Freshen-Up Necco Wafers © 2003 - 2014 Retroland. All rights reserved. Retroland, Inc.

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The Martian: A Review I haven't read Andy Weir's novel about a man stranded on Mars. I admire the cleverness of the plot, but I cannot vouch for any liberties the film version of The Martian has/hasn't taken. Be that as it may I cannot get behind the idea The Martian is a comedy (sorry, Golden Globes). Yes, there were funny bits, but by and large its designation as being the same as Trainwreck is bizarre to say the least. As a film, I found The Martian well-made, with a beautiful and thrilling ending. It just isn't as good a film as I was led to believe, or as it thinks it is. Man has begun his explorations of the Red Planet. As the crew of the Ares III is getting ready to depart, a massive storm forces them to rush to the ship and flee. In the chaos of the storm, one of their own, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) appears to have been crushed by debris and killed. Reluctantly, Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain) agrees with her crew to not search for his body and go back to the mother ship, which will take them all home. Back on Earth, NASA learns of Watney's death, the nation mourns, and they await the return of Hermes (the mother ship). However, Watney has survived. He makes it back to the base where he works to heal himself from his injuries and try to survive on Mars despite there being no food or water native to the planet. His skills as a botanist will save him and keeps a video journal of his time. On Earth, they discover that Watney is alive. NASA Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) is more irritated than relieved that Watney lives, and he's rather not go and get him. Sanders certainly does not want the Hermes crew, heading slowly back to Earth, to learn of Watney's survival. Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), NASA's Mars Project Director, is adamant about doing what they can to bring him home. With the rediscovered Mars Pathfinder, Watney is at long last able to make contact, and soon plans are made to rescue Watney. Problem after problem arise: rushed launches without the whole safety tests end up in exploding rockets, they need help from the Chinese (who volunteer it despite having to reveal state secrets), and eventually when the Hermes crew discovers the truth, only one quirky scientist suggests using the Hermes to get Watney back. Sanders will not hear of it, but the Hermes crew decides to essentially have a mutiny in space and disobey orders to follow the apparently nutty idea. It leads to a long rescue that makes one wonder whether they will make it or not. As I read my synopsis, something struck me as curious. Again, not having read Weir's novel, I cannot say whether this is a new addition or not, but the portrayal of the Chinese as very noble and sacrificing leaves me wondering. The fact that the Chinese market is the largest in terms of filmmaking, I'm sure, played little part in just how well the Chinese were portrayed (noble, philanthropic, technologically more adept than their American counterparts, willing to reveal state secrets to save one man). That whole 'militarily aggressive, polluting, politically oppressive' deal I'm sure is just capitalist propaganda. I don't know again, whether the Chinese in the novel were that good, but I couldn't help wonder whether the fact that the Chinese movie market is so big had anything to do with the extremely positive portrayal in The Martian. Now, as for the film itself, I found The Martian to be very quiet. This I know sounds like an odd criticism, but what I mean is that for the most part, there was no real life to the characters. Everyone is either taking things too seriously or not seriously enough. For example, Daniels struck me as one-note (gruff) but not once did I believe he was a real person. Cardboard character would be the term. Same goes for Kristen Wiig in a rare 'dramatic' turn. It's as if director Ridley Scott told them that people don't smile, don't laugh, don't show any real emotions. That can't be said for Damon, who for long stretches is the show. I have to give him credit in that it takes a lot to keep a monologue going, but sometimes I wonder whether Watney's goofy persona conflicted with the seriousness of the situation (I guess this is where the 'comedy' comes in). When he finally makes contact, he's asked to pose for a photo. What he ends up doing is adopting a Fonzie-like pose, and I wonder whether a true professional would have done something so silly. I suppose in our selfie-obsessed world it might happen, but since we're far into the future when The Martian is set, I wonder whether we've gone past that. I also wonder why Chastain is so still too. Here, she and her crew discover Watney is alive, and it registers like they've been told there'll be a slight delay in landing. I'd be happy, but the crew on the whole seems...rather blasé about it. On the whole, I found Scott's directing very dry...so still, so quiet, and sometimes pushing the 'comedy' bit. About the one thing that drives Watney crazy is having Commander Lewis' disco music as his only soundtrack, and sometimes the film gets too cute with how it uses it. When Watney is transporting some plutonium for his trip to a rendezvous point, do we really need to hear Hot Stuff? I get the pun, I just don't find it funny. When Watney is on the point of starvation due to his improvised farm having been destroyed (what I like to call Neil Armstrong's Revenge), hearing Don't Leave Me This Way is again trying too hard to be clever with the use of music. It might also be a 'comedy' when you consider that Sean Bean, who plays another NASA scientist, is called to a secret meeting for a project quickly dubbed Project Elrond. All that was needed was for him to say "One does not simply..." For some of The Martian, I was falling asleep, the combination of the uber-serious and the flippant not going well. Then we get to the end, when Watney blasts off and the Hermes is going to attempt a rescue from space. Those minutes as problems upon problems come in, the tension of whether Watney will make it (or whether any of them will make it), the sheer beauty of space and the tension of it all make it worth the price of admission to The Martian. It is Gravity-like in terms of visuals and tension and certainly the highlight of the film. Minus that though, I think The Martian is a good film, but not the great film everyone appears to be making it out to be. I found some of the performances pretty flat, Damon's character not that interesting enough to have the entire nation worry whether or not he makes it, and on the whole very still. Again, it's not a terrible film. I did like it in the end. However, I think The Martian is a bit overhyped. Pity The Martian never had the chance to use this song, one of the Great Songs of the Twentieth Century... DECISION: B- Labels: 2015, Literary Adaptations, Review, Sci-Fi Henry Gamble's Birthday Party: A Review (Review #7... Pajama Party: A Review (Review #775) We'll Cross That Oscar When We Get There The Librarians: And the Point of Salvation Review Hell to Eternity: A Review Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A Review A Madea Christmas: A Review The Librarians: And Their Christmas Carols The Librarians: And the Image of Image Review The Librarians: And the Infernal Contract Review Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House Min... Romeo and Juliet (1936): A Review (Review #770) Star Wars: The Force Awakens. First Impressions Passport to Oscar The Entertainer (1960): A Review The Librarians: And the Hollow Men Review The Librarians: And the Cost of Education Review Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?: A Review Johnny Guitar: A Review Best of Enemies: A Review The Librarians: And What Lies Beneath the Stones R... The Look of Silence: A Review (Review #765) My All-American: A Review Emma (1932): A Review (Review #763)

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ANNOUNCING... Shared Space Resident Artists 2015! (part 3) terri loewenthal / http://blog.terriloewenthal.com / oakland CA Terri Loewenthal is a self-taught photographer and musician living in Oakland, California, where she plays with her band Shock. Born in Florida, she attended Rice University in Houston, Texas. In 2012, she co-founded an artist residency in Oakland called The Chetwood. Terri's portraits capture a sense of intimacy in collaborative situations with friends and strangers. Her landscape photography straddles the line between documentary and fantasy, highlighting the magic ever-present in the world around us. In these explorations of the relationship between reality and imagination, Loewenthal creates images that we can all relate to. morganne wakefield / http://www.morgannewakefield.com / chicago IL Morganne Wakefield earned her BFA at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT in 2010, and is currently an MFA prospective at the University of Chicago. She has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center Residency and Birch Creek Artist Residency, in Spring City, UT. Morganne makes things and situations that ask questions about fantasy, freedom and escape. Memory and history (cultural and personal) are devices often used in her work to drive these questions. Congruently, she loves to travel and daydream. evan english / www.evanpaulenglish.com / brooklyn NY Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, Evan graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.F.A. in 2012. His academic career also included 6 weeks in Orvieto, Italy where he studied drawing and art history. He is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Printmaking at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, developing a body of work that includes sculpture, printmaking, and painting. "My work explores themes of sexuality, identity, and desire, embodied in the image of the figure. Decoration and craft are employed as allusions to memory, beauty and gender. Deeply rooted in autobiography, my work uses a collection of accumulated sociocultural signs to construct the self from, and often into a state of ambiguity." Shared Space offers visiting artists and artists-in-residence facilities and support in a secluded and beautiful setting with the chance to meet and exchange with other artists as well as the responsibility of engaging the local community.

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ZZAH is live on the Broad Street Stage at the 3rd Annual 2016 Mercedes-Benz SLO Jazz Festival May 14, 2016 1PM SET Mission Plaza, San Luis Obispo, CA Watch ZZAH Video 1 Video 2 ZZAH consists of five talented and dedicated musicians: Keyboardist Richard Garoogian, Guitarist Rod Borges, Drummer/Percussionist Mark Shuklian, Bassist Mike Gruwell and Percussionist Ron Gibian. The band hails from Central California, an area whose contribution to the world of music is rich and plentiful. Though from California their music souls reflect the traditions of the East Coast. These are serious musicians, yet their playing mirrors their sense of joy and effervescence – the meaning of the word ZZAH. This is a band whose greatest joy is turning people on to their band of contemporary jazz… melodic West Coast sensibilities with an East Coast approach to soloing. ZZAH has been featured at the Russian River Jazz Festival, the Santa Barbara Jazz Festival and the Sierra Summer Festival, as well as countless venues up and down the West Coast including the famous Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. The group has appeared with George Benson, Billie Preston (the 5th Beatle), Spyro Gyra, David Benoit, The Yellowjackets, Pancho Sanchez, Maynard Ferguson, Joe Sample, Larry Carlton, Richard Elliot… The list goes on and on! Tracks from ZZAH’s four CD releases have been programmed on more than 260 radio stations throughout North America. ​Learn more about ZZAH here: zzah.org

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Arne Duncan, Randy Best, and the Profitizing of Teacher Education “ If there was any piece of legislation that I could pass it would be to blow up colleges of education.” — Reid Lyon, Chief, Child Development and Behavior Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, speaking at a major policy forum held November 18, 2002 by the Council for EXCELLENCE in Government, titled “Evidence-based Education Forum with Secretary Page. Before Reid Lyon could carry out his higher ed demolition mission for the Bushies, however, he became embroiled in the Reading First corruption scandal, where the OIG's report pointed to Lyon as mentor to the young, attractive thug and Director of Reading First, Chris Doherty, who was eventually canned for forcing states into the Lyon and Carnine approved reading programs, which were authored by the same folks who put together the guidelines for Reading First. Think of the oil companies making energy policy, and you get the picture. As ED's own Inspector General's reports have shown, states that applied for Reading First grants were manhandled into choosing reading programs aligned with the Lyon and Carnine back-to-brutality phonics orthodoxy. And if grantees ended up off the direct instruction reservation, Reid Lyon's Reading First Director, Chris Doherty, could simply pull the plug, as he did in Rockford, Illinois: Mr. Doherty then directed the state to freeze the district’s funding, and ultimately to withdraw the grant. Those actions prompted another e-mail from Mr. Lyon: “wow – Talk about a guy with smarts, integrity AND balls,” he wrote. “I am talking about you Chris. Doherty was fired and Lyon slunk back to Texas, where his mission to blow up colleges of education took on a new form. He became Executive Vice President of a new for-profit edu-venture for teacher preparation, the American College of Education (ACE). ACE was owned by the infamous Randy Best, who had become fabulously wealthy by selling off one of those companies, Voyager, in 2005 for $350 million. Voyager had gotten very fat, of course, from the aforementioned corruption. From Mother Jones, September 2, 2008: . . . . Voyager was Best's first foray into the business of education. After three decades of making money the old-fashioned way, the serial entrepreneur says he caught the philanthropy bug. He launched Voyager as a nonprofit that offered after-school programs as a way to keep latchkey kids engaged in learning. Yet after two years of sluggish growth, he switched to a for-profit model and hired school superintendents from Dallas and a nearby suburb to pitch the program to their former colleagues. Business picked up, and Best became a believer in a market-driven approach to social problems. "If you become a for-profit, then every single person in the organization is incentivized to do what you are trying to do," he explains. "Their rational self-interest is at stake; it is not just always trying to do something for the greater good." Voyager enjoyed an enviably cozy relationship with its customers. After Texas' education commissioner intervened to help the company dodge child care regulations, competitors complained that it had cashed in on its connections. In 1998, Best and his investors donated more than $45,000 to Bush's gubernatorial reelection campaign. (Best says they supported Bush "because he was billing himself as the education governor," not because they expected anything in return.) That August, Bush dropped in on a Houston elementary school and spoke in front of a Voyager banner. Touting the benefits of for-profit after-school programs, he called for $25 million to fund them across the state. Voyager's friends in high places were not enough to make it profitable. But by staying close to Bush and his allies, Best learned of new, bigger opportunities. In the mid-'90s, Charles Miller, a Voyager investor and Bush campaign donor, worked with the governor's office to design a new state reading program, the Texas Reading Initiative. Miller's team—"this small little mafia," as he puts it—included Bush's adviser Margaret Spellings and several others who would go on to occupy key positions in Bush's Department of Education in Washington. By 1998, Best had reinvented Voyager as a reading program, hiring researchers who'd worked on the Texas Reading Initiative or had ties to its designers. Best says the idea for the new direction came from his own experience as a dyslexic and his interest in cutting-edge literacy research. "I think Voyager copied from a lot of the things we did with our reading initiative," Miller says. "Voyager saw that and just got in the draft, so to speak." In 2000, Best and Miller signed up as Bush Pioneers, pledging to raise at least $100,000 for the governor's presidential run. When Bush entered the Oval Office, his education team included several people with connections to Voyager—and some who went on to work for Best. They set out to implement a revolutionary new policy that, despite the talk of smaller government, essentially put Washington in charge of setting state education standards. Miller helped select former Houston schools superintendent Rod Paige, a longtime Voyager booster, as secretary of education. Bush made G. Reid Lyon, a reading researcher who had consulted on the Texas Reading Initiative, his unofficial reading czar. Lyon cowrote the section of No Child Left Behind that created Reading First, a $6 billion program to fund state literacy curricula that drew upon "scientifically based reading research"—exactly what Voyager had been selling back in Texas. . . . . . . . Best's education company became, in his words, "a selling juggernaut," earning roughly $25 million a year from Reading First alone. (See "Best Practices", for more on Voyager's success in landing education contracts.) According to Best, Voyager benefited from "really good timing." . . . Best and Lyon were joined at the new venture, the American College of Education (ACE), by Rod Paige, who now sits on the Board of Directors and serves a chief commencement speaker. ACE is designed to 1) make money, 2) counter the "liberal agenda" of real teacher education programs, and 2) indoctrinate ed students in the crackpot science of Engelmann and Carnine's direct instruction scripted phonics approach to literacy, which has now been supplemented by reading codebreaker, Reid Lyon. You see, Lyon's junk science begins with the proper programming of the proper code at the neuronal level, which then will control children's behaviors. The following quote is from a promotional video that Lyon did for ACE, which has since been scrubbed from the site. What I learned at NIH and what guides our course development at American College of Education is that children's brains can literally be molded, changed, by the teaching they receive. Our goal now is to close the gap between our science tells us about learning and what our teachers apply in the classroom. A graduate degree from American College of Education means that teachers know the science behind how children learn . . . Just as the Latin grammar school masters of 19th Century New England saw Horace Mann's new-fangled import, the whole word approach to reading, as a challenge to their tyrannical pedagogy and iron-fisted classroom control, so now does Lyon and his cabal view the balanced approach to literacy as particularly unfit for the poor, who require the behavioral brainwashing that goes hand in glove with his brand of code-breaking phonics on steroids. (See KIPP). Ironically, it was one of those balanced approaches that he detests, Reading Recovery, that received the highest marks for effectiveness by Spellings' own research shop. Legitimacy for ACE came when Best and Co. were able to close a deal to buy Barat College from DePaul University in November 2005, along with Barat's regional accreditation and library holdings. Instrumental in that deal was DePaul's Executive Vice President and former board member of Randy Best's Higher Ed Holdings, LLC. , Scott Scarborough. This is where our Secretary, Call-me-Arne Duncan, becomes important in the ACE story. Early in 2006, Duncan made a deal with ACE to drum up business for the Lyon-inspired Masters degrees in both C&I and Ed Leadership. CPS would pay a portion of CPS teacher tuition for the programs, while offering classroom space to run the classes. Thus, Chicago teachers, hungry for a raise and professional development, would become the guinea pigs in experiment to replace teacher education with the methodological fundamentalism and social conservatism of the Texas ed gang. From the Dallas Morning News 5/29/06: . . . .Most colleges of education get their students the traditional way: Students hear about their programs and decide to enroll. ACE plans to get most of its business by contracting directly with school districts, which would supply the students and pay a portion of their tuition. Wave of retirements Arne Duncan, Chicago's superintendent, said the coming wave of baby-boomer retirements would require the district to train dozens of new principals. "Obviously we're early on, but I'm hopeful it will work out well," he said of the district's deal with ACE. "The feedback I've gotten from our aspiring principals has been very positive so far." Mr. Duncan said he was introduced to ACE by Dr. Paige. "We talked once or twice" after he left office, Mr. Duncan said, "then he started to put this team together. He was getting something going very interesting." About half of the program's course content is taught in spare Chicago school classrooms, after the regular school day. The other half is delivered online, through documents and discussions that students access at home. Danusia Gerlach is a math specialist in Chicago schools and one of the students in ACE's inaugural class. She said she was initially hesitant about taking education classes from a company based in Texas, known in some circles for a test-heavy approach to education. "I don't have a real positive view of Texas," she said. But she said she has been happy with her experiences. "I really enjoy the classes, actually," she said. "The instructors share their experiences and really tie things into practice. It's very well-presented." The online component has been good for collaboration and getting feedback from classmates and instructors, she said. Ruby Everage, a math and science specialist, said she liked the convenience ACE's classes offered. The first course in the master's program, taught by former Woodrow Wilson High School principal Judy Zimny, was outstanding, she said – but a more recent course was lackluster. "It's a great bargain," she said. "I do plan to continue, and I am satisfied." Since ACE has only been in operation since October – and on a very small scale – it's too early to judge its quality. There's not enough data, Dr. Lyon said, and "we're all about analyzing data." ACE is only one player in a competitive teacher-education market in Chicago, with several established universities offering similar master's degree programs. But ACE's tuition, at $1,000 a course, is slightly below most in the market, and the idea of a new approach to training educators appeals to many districts. "Like most districts across the country, we are aware that the master's degree programs for administrators need to be revised," said Nancy Laho, who leads Chicago's principal-training programs. "There has to be some connection made between the theory and what it looks like when you're standing there in that role." ACE believes it can do that, and at a profit – even though it plans to offer cut-rate tuition. Teacher training programs are traditionally moneymakers for colleges. At the same conference where he made his famous comments about colleges of education, Dr. Lyon noted their profitability. "We talk to deans and presidents all the time, and of course they have a business situation with colleges of education," he said. "Those colleges of education generate a heck of a lot of credit-hour production, tuition dollars. Those tuition dollars pay the physics professors where you don't have a lot of money going in there, studentwise." Master's degree programs, in particular, are known as cash generators for colleges of education. That's because school districts generally pay their teachers more if they have a master's. (In DISD, the annual pay bump ranges from $1,000 to around $6,000, depending on a teacher's experience.) Some districts even require teachers to pursue a master's. ACE's own budget projections, filed with Illinois regulators, reflect the company's optimism. It expects to be generating $4.6 million in revenues annually by 2009. And it expects a profit margin of around 21 percent. But Mr. Best said that even the relatively low tuition ACE currently charges in Chicago would be cut severely when the company expands. Because ACE will use public-school classrooms instead of a traditional campus – and because it plans to rely heavily on online learning – he expects tuition to be around 20 percent to 25 percent of what other colleges charge. ACE plans to make up the difference in volume. "Our dream is to be truly the first national college of education," Mr. Best said. ACE officials expect to have operations in Texas this fall and are in talks with districts in at least three other states. When ACE officials met with Texas regulators last fall, they produced a document titled "The Big 'To Do' List." It outlines the company's plans to expand, including offering a full bachelor's degree program. Then comes an expansion "in all 50 states" and a broadening of ACE into other subjects, from engineering to law. The final step on "The Big 'To Do' List," the only item in bold print: "Expand everything internationally." In addition, ACE has hired two lobbyists from the Dallas law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp to work on its behalf in Washington, particularly on the Higher Education Reauthorization Act. The version of that bill passed by the House in March includes $300 million in federal grants for teacher training programs – many of which ACE could be eligible for in partnership with states and school districts.. . . In January 2009, 450 Chicago teachers were granted Masters Degrees from ACE. Rod Paige spoke, of coure, and he took the opportunity to read a congratulatory letter from Arne Duncan. Now Randy Best has his eye on a new target, this time a public university: the University of Toledo. Making the task of buying a big chunk of a public university would be more difficult, no doubt, without a "market-driven" university president and a new University of Toledo CFO by the name of Scott Scarborough (remember the DePaul deal?). The story (so far) from Inside Higher Ed: Tension is mounting at the University of Toledo, where administrators are exploring a partnership with a private company known for churning out quick and inexpensive degrees. Toledo officials are considering a deal with Higher Ed Holdings, a Texas-based company that would help deliver online masters-level education courses to students in exchange for a share of tuition revenues. The company, founded by Dallas entrepreneur Randy Best, already has a similar arrangement with Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. The potential partnership with a for-profit company comes at a time when faculty in the Judith Herb College of Education are increasingly skittish about the administration’s apparent affection for the private sector. Those concerns were stoked in part by the circulation of a letter, obtained by Inside Higher Ed, in which the university’s president outlined the parameters for finding a new interim dean to replace Thomas Switzer, who is retiring. In the Jan. 27 letter, President Lloyd Jacobs told his provost that a “business orientation” – not a background in education – was essential. “I strongly suggest a person outside the JHCOE: indeed, a person outside the ‘educational establishment,’ ” wrote Jacobs, who is a medical doctor. “I have some ideas I would like to share with you.” Efforts to reach Higher Ed Holdings Wednesday were unsuccessful. Gregory Stone, an associate professor of research and measurement, said he’s worried about the implications of the partnership with the company, as well as the broader notion of running a public university like a private corporation. “The problem is education can’t be entirely run as a business,” he said. “It’s not as clear cut as making widgets and selling them, and unfortunately the notion of quantity over quality within the business world seems to be paramount.” Details of the potential partnership with Higher Ed Holdings are still sparse, but Provost Rosemary Haggett said Wednesday that Toledo is not looking to outsource curriculum development. “They would be our degree programs taught by our faculty members,” she said. “Where HEH comes in is they would provide a distance learning platform.... This is a way to take these [programs] to scale, to reach a large number of individuals in the state.” “What’s important to us is to maintain the high quality of our programs,” she added. “These remain our degree programs.” Under the roughly outlined agreement, Toledo faculty would continue to teach online courses through video lectures, but students would be assisted by “coaches” employed by Higher Ed Holdings. Toledo faculty say they’re unsure what the credentials of the “coaches” would be, and that’s a source of discomfort. “They would be hired by HEH, [but] we would have the opportunity to decide whether or not the coaches were adequate,” Haggett said. “We have the opportunity to say ‘No, this isn’t working.’ ” “The way I’ve thought about these coaches is they are sort of like graduate students, which we use in our face-to-face classes all the time,” she added. The American College of Education, a subsidiary of Higher Education Holdings, LLC, describes the coach as “the primary contact person for students’ concerns and questions.” Furthermore, the coach is charged with evaluating students’ performance and participation after “training by faculty.” The professor, on the other hand, has the responsibility of maintaining course quality and serving as the “role model for students as well as the professor of academic record.” The arrangement, as it’s been described, stands to undermine quality, according to one faculty member who asked not to be identified. “If I’m a talking head on video, I would have very limited contact with my students,” the faculty member said. “The only people who would have contact would be ‘coaches,’ who have a masters degree – or not; who would understand – or would not understand – [course] content or the province that I have in my classes. It’s probably the worst case scenario, as far as I’m concerned.” Cronyism Charges Apart from concerns about the model, faculty say they’re troubled by the choice of Higher Ed Holdings for a number of other reasons. Best, who runs the company and served as a major fundraiser and contributor for George W. Bush, endured charges of cronyism when he received lucrative contracts connected with the No Child Left Behind program. Voyager, one of Best’s companies, sold for $380 million after its program for remedial students was employed in Reading First, a $6 billion federal initiative designed to help low-income schools meet federal NCLB requirements. Charges of conflicts of interest plagued Reading First, particularly after a federal report demonstrated that participants weren’t reading any better than those who didn’t participate. “We’re concerned about the quality of our educational programs, given that this guy’s first company, [connected to] Reading First, was pretty questionable,” said one Toledo education faculty member, who asked not to be identified. Best, who denied that his connections to Bush helped him win contracts, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Asked if she thought Best’s history was a source of legitimate concern, Haggett said “No. I do not.’” A few moments later, however, Haggett sought to clarify her statement: “We intend to do due diligence about the company, certainly if we want to pursue anything with them.” The decision to pursue anything, however, will happen “in a matter of weeks rather than months,” she said. Toledo CFO sat on Company’s Board It’s no coincidence, professors say, that Higher Ed Holdings ended up on Toledo’s radar. Scott Scarborough, the university’s chief financial officer, has a history with the company, and once sat on its board. When Scarborough was executive vice president of administration at DePaul University, he helped broker a deal with the American College of Education. In a controversial agreement, the college acquired DePaul’s Barat College, and – more importantly – Barat’s accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Toledo officials concede that Scarborough’s history with American College was what started the conversations with Higher Ed Holdings. They dispute, however, any notion of a conflict of interest. “This company has no direct connection to our CFO,” Haggett said. “He happens to know who they are.” In an e-mail to Jacobs, Toledo’s president, Scarborough sought to dampen any suggestion that he had a stake in the negotiations with the company now courting the university. “I have no financial ties to Higher Ed Holdings,” he wrote in a Feb. 20 e-mail. “I do know the people who work at Higher Ed Holdings and admire the quality of their work.” Scarborough went on to explain that while at DePaul he was the university’s representative on the company’s board of directors, but he vacated that position when he “left DePaul.” Scarborough, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, was questioned by faculty about his ties to Higher Ed Holdings even during the DePaul negotiations. In a statement provided to the Faculty Council in 2006, Scarborough said he was given $1,750 for attending four board meetings – a fact he said he disclosed in conflict of interest papers. If DePaul faculty had a primary concern about Scarborough, however, it was his tendency to allow financial concerns to override academic priorities, according to Anne Clark Bartlett, who was president of the Faculty Council in 2006-07. “Academic decisions were being driven by financial parameters and protested vigorously [by faculty],” said Bartlett, chair of DePaul’s Department of English. “That was definitely the historical view [of Scarborough].” A business-driven approach to academics, however, appears to be in keeping with President Jacobs’ desires for the College of Education. In his letter last month to the provost, Jacobs stressed that a business focus was essential to the college’s future, and that the search for a permanent dean should be conducted with that goal in mind. While a search committee will be formed to help select candidates, Jacobs insisted that “we will not approve the selection of a [search] firm from the ‘educational establishment.’ " “The search should emphasize the need of fresh thinking, creativity and new paradigms,” he wrote. “A business orientation is essential.” — Jack Stripling Meanwhile, Arne Duncan couldn't agree more as he continues his support for the kind of chain gang urban work camps that result when the Carnine and Lyon methodologies are implemented--which, by the way, would never, ever, be used on children of the leafy suburbs. Labels: Arne Duncan, Randy Best, teacher preparation Scott Scarborough spend more than a decade in Texas before going to DePaul (in Chicago where Arne Duncan was) and now Toledo. It is difficult to believe there isn't a connection among all 3 of these locations. Is it any wonder that the students at the University of Toledo have organized a coup to have President Lloyd Jacobs removed from the presidency? Since the merger between UT and the Medical University of Ohio, the word merger has been changed to "takeover" and the decisions of the MD-CEO have no regard for education of students, especially in the Arts and in Education. One must post anonymously for fear or reprisal. Scott Scarborough can be very engaging of the board of trustees; in the name of so called "transparency". He was very instrumental in lunching each of the DePaul board of trustee members to engage their support; ultimately leading to the removal of the former President at DePaul. Has any one else become pregnant yet at Univ of Toledo? Just asking in the name of "transparency"? Just speculating, but Scarborough's fundamental conflict of interest with Toledo may be more a result of a broader political agenda for higher ed. His (or someone with his first and last name) history in texas suggests a pretty far right political orientation. It seems someone by that name left a record while running for office in a texas primary in the 90s and was a repub party operative, maybe a local party chair around austin (reported on there in the local paper's searchable archives). Also, likely was student body pres at UT Austin in the mid-late 80s with a reputation for reaction. In any case, as seems clear from this and the depaul years, arguably a wolf in sheep's clothing CFO for any non-right wing institution of higher ed. New Feature: Bill Gates's Deep Thoughts (BG's DTs)... Where Will Be the 1st Class Action to Challenge th... Fred Hiatt and the Horse's Orifices On the Growing Outcry Against KIPP, Charters, and ... KIPP Information Minister Continues to Ignore Abus... British Teachers Plan to End National Testing Texas Taliban Poisons the Science Teaching Well Arizona Supreme Court Rules Unanimously Against Vo... Dunc Goes After "Status Quos" with $5 Billion for ... Bobbie Battista Is Back KIPP: "It is not the solution to urban ills that M... Bloomberg's Autocracy Sued: Parents and Teachers ... Duncan: To "offer every child in this country the ... Chris Hedges On Casino Capitalism and Moral Bankru... Arkansas State Takes the Randy Best Diploma Mill R... Letters to the NYTimes The Age of the Education Oligarchs: Nip It in the ... Obama: Just the Latest Misleader on Education New KIPP Abuses Reported in Fulton County Class Economic Rape--Enough! Creativity and Education: Contradictory Impulses? Duncan Favors Shutting Down Elected School Boards Jay Mathews Gets Called Out: Will His Editors Noti... Palin Axes Stim Funds for Poor and Disabled Kids KIPP Bullying Tactics Against Fresno Unified Fail The Joyless Club: The Changing Brains of Children... USA: The Federal Republic of One Test Fits All? Five Billion for Bribes KIPP Fresno Part 4: Will the City and State Cave ... Massachusetts Testing Kindergartners with Test Des... Duncan Informed of His Lie About DC Schools, While... Arne's Army of Moneyed Parasites Is On the Move One Word of Advice for UToledo's College of Educat... KIPP Fresno Part 3: State Mandated Testing Violati... KIPP Fresno Part 2: Questionable Leadership Abilit... The KIPP Fresno Horror Story That the National Med... Will Teacher Pay Follow Corporate Model? Let's Be Sick, But Educating Immigrants in Anticultural Schools If-You-Are-Sick Day April 1: Put the Fools In Char... How the Test Was Won Obama to Business Roundtable: ". . . right the shi... Chicago 2004: A Trip Down Memory Lane Gingrich Joins Duncan On the Unending Need to "Inc... Oh yes, Arne, the Great Incenter NEA Joins Corporate Raiding Party on Public Educat... How "Free Market" Capitalism Really Works Aging Geeky Oligarch Front and Center in Education... Bracey Offers Some Facts to Go With Obama's Stale ... Will Texas Lead the Nation Away from Child Abuse T... The Rats in the "laboratories of innovation" Michelle Rhee And the Venture-Philanthropic Conspi... Will American Testaholics Notice That Some Parts o... Another Report on Effects of Poverty You Will Neve... John Wittle 1, Ruby Payne 0 Interview: The KULT of KIPP and the Abuses in Fres... Jeanne Allen Charter Propaganda Goes Unchecked by ... Public School Choice for DC Kids? Public Schools Outperform Private Schools in NAEP ... Hands Tied or Brains Locked: More Testing Insanity... Two Seattle Special Ed Teachers Suspended for Hono... Peter Campbell's KIPP Archive Work Hard, Be Nice: My Review Duncan Wants DC Voucher Program to Continue, Even ... White Hat's Charter Propaganda Outgunned Bracey on Duncan and Obama: The Ahistorical and Fa... Jeb Offers Arne Advice on Corporate Vouchers Best's Higher Ed Holdings Withdraws from U of Tole... No Snow Days for the Children's Chain Gang Rhee's Secret Consultant Assures DC Council on Fut... Students at U Toledo Strike Back: Call for Presid... A Teacher Bailout? Getting Rich in the Non-Profit Charter Business Arne Duncan, Randy Best, and the Profitizing of Te...

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Home Primary What Happened History Concentration Camps The world first learned of the concentration camps in Bosnia after British Journalist Ed Vulliamy broke the Omarska story. An emaciated Fikret Alić appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, and suddenly, the realities of a hidden genocide became apparent. Photography Ron Haviv/VII Agency As war broke out, the Bosnian Serb Army began a systematic attack on Bosnian Muslim towns and villages, massacring civilians and taking many others prisoner. As the Serbian stronghold expanded, so did the numbers of those captured. It is unclear just how many concentration camps were established in Bosnia. But it is now understood that Omarska was the largest. The Omarska mines complex is located approximately 20km from the town of Prijedor. The first detainees were taken to the camp sometime in late May 1992. The camp buildings were almost completely full and some of the detainees had to be held on the patch of land between the two main buildings. “Upon arrival, the detainees were beaten, often with rifle butts and wooden and metal sticks.” Female detainees were held separately in the administrative building. According to the Serb authorities documents from Prijedor, there were a total of 3,334 prisoners held in the camp from May 27 to August 16, 1992. 3,197 of them were Bosnian Muslims. With the arrival of the first detainees, permanent guard posts were established around the camp, and anti-personnel landmines were set up around the camp. The conditions in the camp were abysmal. In the building known as the “White House”, the rooms were crowded with 45 people in a room no larger than 20 square meters. Upon arrival, the detainees were beaten, often with rifle butts and wooden and metal sticks. It is reported that men would suffocate during the night and their bodies would be taken out the following morning. The room behind the restaurant was known as “Mujo’s Room”. The dimensions of this room were about 12 by 15 metres and the average number of people detained there was 500, most of whom were Bosnian Muslims. The detainees at Omarska had one meal a day. The food was usually spoiled and the process of getting the food: eating and returning the plate, usually lasted around three minutes. Meals were often accompanied by beatings. The toilets were blocked and there was human waste everywhere. Vulliamy testified that when he visited the camp, the detainees were in a very poor physical condition. He witnessed them eating a bowl of soup and some bread and said that he had the impression they had not eaten in a long time. They appeared to be terrified. The detainees drank water from a river that was polluted with industrial waste and many suffered from constipation or dysentery. Several hundreds were slaughtered in concentration camps. Almost twenty years later, many remain undiscovered. Click here to read Sudbin Musić’s story of surviving Trnopolje Concentration Camp. Sep 7, 2014 Remembering Srebrenica Remembering Srebrenica remains committed to honouring the victims and survivors of the genocide. SUPPORT US & PLEDGE Make a difference, support our charity and all those affected by the tragic Genocide of Srebrenica. Pledge for our cause now. Remembering Srebrenica newsletter allows you to keep up to date with latest news, events and how you can support us. September 7, 2014 History Inspirational speeches from His Excellency The Grand Mufti during his UK visitMembers of our latest delegation share their reflections following visit Mothers of Srebrenica Remembering Srebrenica Reflections: Lilian Black, Chair of the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association Bridging the Divide: Confronting Hate – Resources

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Monday, October 29, 2018 Oasis On October 29th 1994 Oasis played at the Wetlands in New York, USA. Watch the gig in full below. On October 29th 2002, Noel Gallagher played at the Fairplay charity gig at London's Astoria to raise money for the Make Trade Fair campaign. On October 29th 2005 Oasis played at the Tresivo Palaverde in Tresivo, Italy. Watch highlights from the gig below. Lord Don't Slow Me Down is a rockumentary film, looking back on British band Oasis' Don't Believe the Truth world tour which took place from May 2005 to March 2006. The film is directed by Baillie Walsh. It went platinum in the UK. The DVD was released on October 29th 2007. On October 29th 2008 Oasis played the first of two nights at the Belfast Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On This Day In Oasis History... Reviewed by stopcryingyourheartout.com on Monday, October 29, 2018 Rating: 5

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THE MINOR PLANETS - IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER The Minor Planets are renowned Bluegrass musician Eric Christopher and renowned Americana vocalist Dana Thompson (plus a rotating assortment of Bluegrass, Country and Jazz musicians). Eric and Dana have worked together, off and on, for many years, though they each have other projects that keep them plenty busy. Together, their music has a sound that they describe as "soulful bluegrass...more inspired by the Walker Brothers than the Louvin Brothers." The Minor Planets are warming up to the release of the first Minor Planets album in more than 10 years; "Shadow In The Water" is slated for a January release. To chum the waters a bit, The Minor Planets have a two track holiday single that you can download for free through Bandcamp. They won't even ask you for an email address. Track one is "In The Bleak Midwinter", which sounds truly wonderful, and track two is "Holy, Holy, Holy". ANNIE MOSES BAND - BETHLEHEM HOUSE OF BREAD 1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 2. Bethlehem House Of Bread 3. Mary Had A Baby 4. Hark 5. Little Baby 6. Jingle Bells 7. Christmas On Cripple Creek 8. I Dreamed Of Christmas 9. When The Christmas Baby Cries 10. Holy Christmas Day DOWNLOAD FROM NOISETRADE I've been a fan of the Annie Moses Band since I discovered their wonderful Christmas albums a few years back. Ostensibly, they're a Contemporary Christian group, but their instrumentation is sort of Bluegrass meets Rock and their arrangements can sometimes venture into out-and-out Jazz or even Progressive Rock--"fiddle fusion" they call it. Annie (technically not the Annie this family band is named after--that would be her great-grandmother) plays a mean fiddle, too, so you're sure to catch dramatic classical flourishes as well. That kind of creativity deserves applause. One of my Annie Moses Band favorites is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Well, the group has packaged up an entire album's worth of their Christmas music and the set leads off with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". And they're giving it away free through Noisetrade. So here's your chance to sample this awesome band and it won't cost you a cent (unless you choose to Tip the band). I won't speak to the rest of the set--there are a lot of ballads here (the vocals are reminiscent of Alison Krauss by the way)--but you're gonna love "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". "Christmas On Cripple Creek" is kinda fun, too. Head to Noisetrade and get you some Annie. If you like what you hear, head to the Annie Moses Band web site and buy their Christmas special--two Christmas albums, a Christmas DVD and the band's "String Crossings" CD--for the holiday price of just $19.95. VARIOUS - PEOPLE MAGAZINE COUNTRY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 1. RANDY TRAVIS - O Holy Night 2. STEEL MAGNOLIA - It's Christmas Time 3. PHIL VASSAR - What Child Is This? 4. SKAGGS FAMILY - Christmas Time's A-Coming 5. JOEY + RORY - Remember Me 6. CARTER'S CHORD - Up On The Housetop 7. JACOB LYDA - Tis The Season To Be Lonesome 8. MANDY BARNETT - This Time Of Year 9. ATTWATER - All I Want For Christmas Is You 10. ANDY GIBSON - The Christmas Song SEE PEOPLE MAGAZINE ON LINE FOR DIRECTIONS I should probably tell you up front, this is an iTunes deal. Yeah, I feel ya. Sorry about that. But for those of you who like iTunes, read on. People Magazine can usually be counted on for a free Christmas song or two. This year, they're giving you TEN. It's part of their "Country Christmas Special" issue, so they're pulling out all the stops. Among the 10 selections are tracks from 2011 holiday releases by Joey + Rory, Ricky Scagga & Family, and Phil Vassar. The downloads also include 2011 Christmas singles from Jacob Lyda, Attwater, and Andy Gibson. To get your redemption code, head to the People offer (click the magazine cover above or the link in the next paragraph). To redeem your free downloads from People Magazine and iTunes, go to your iTunes store, click the "Redeem" button on the upper right, and--when prompted--enter the code. If you don't already have iTunes (and aren't averse to getting it), you can download it free and then continue. The redemption code expires on 12/31/11. To make things as simple as possible, just see the promotion at People and click the iTunes button (if you're from Canada, you'll have to click the Canadian flag and it's possible there may be a different redemption code for you folks, eh?). It's more complicated than it needs to be, but not as complicated as it sounds. Honestly. UPDATE: Well, Rick Perry had his "Oops" moment; I guess this was mine. I thought there was one code, but People generates a new one for each ISP. The wonders of the Internets. Anyway, you'll actually have to go to the offer page to get your code. I've changed the copy above to reflect that. So it's 3 steps: Go to People and get your redemption code, go to iTunes and punch the "redeem" button, and then.....oh....ah....the...... third.....there's...........I, uh......hmmmmm..........nope, I can't do it. Oops. Yeah, I know, gratuitous...but fun. WE THREE KINGS - THE 12 SONGS OF CHRISTMAS 1. Angels We Have Heard On High 2. Good King Wenceslas 3. The First Noel 4. I Saw Three Ships 5. Go Tell It On The Mountain 6. What Child Is This 7. Little Drummer Boy 8. O Come, O Come Emmanuel 9. Do You Hear What I Hear? 10. We Three Kings 11. O Holy Night 12. O Little Town Of Bethlehem When good friends get together, sometimes good things happen. I'm not sure whether We Three Kings is a regular band or not; they don't seem to have a web site that I can find. But these folks sure make a joyous sound. Although We Three Kings bill themselves as a Folk and Bluegrass band, there really isn't much in the way of Bluegrass here. This is pretty much a straight up Indie Folk effort. Having said that, "The 12 Songs of Christmas" is a pretty good listen. On rare occasion, We Three Kings miss, but when they are good, they are very very good. "Go Tell It On The Mountain", for example, gets a bluesy makeover that reminded me a bit of George Thorogood's version of "One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer". "Little Drummer Boy" has a nice arrangement as well. And, when everything comes together, as on "O Holy Night", you get a tune that's truly memorable--start to finish. It's all free at NoiseTrade, so you might as well check em out for yourself. I think you might just dig it.

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The 2nd International Humanities and Sustainability Conference January 22, 2010 AnnouncementsConstructions, Email Attachments, Fgcu, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Full Contact, Global Community, Gulf Coast University, Interdisciplinary Conversations, International Humanities, Myers Florida, Panel Members, Panel Proposals, Role Of Media, S Center, Sustainability Conference, Sustainability Education, Word Paper HandSCon@fgcu.edu Florida Gulf Coast University’s Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education, and Departments of Language & Literature and Communication & Philosophy are currently accepting individual abstracts and panel proposals for FGCU’s 2nd International Humanities and Sustainability Conference, to be held in Fort Myers, Florida, October 7-9, 2010. Our goal is to encourage interdisciplinary conversations about the role of the humanities in fostering sustainability, however defined, and about the sustainability of the humanities as we move into the second decade of the 21st Century. Please submit 300-500 word paper and panel proposals, with A/V requests, by email to HandSCon@fgcu.edu. The deadline for proposals is June 4, 2010 at midnight EST. Include all text of the proposal in the body of the email (attachments will not be opened), and be sure to include full contact information for all panel members. Seehttp://www.fgcu.edu/cas/HandScon/ for more information. Possible questions for investigation might include, but are not limited to: What have “nature,” “culture,” and “environment” come to mean? How have these concepts been constructed, for better or worse, in the academy, but also in the global community at large, and how have these constructions structured our relationship to what we refer to as the natural world, whether in a limiting or a liberating way? What role do the humanities have, not only in fostering awareness of global environmental and social issues, but also in creating thoughtful and productive analyses of these issues by questioning the way environment and culture are represented in humanities and non-humanities disciplines alike, in addition to examining the role of media and information technology in establishing, complicating, altering, and/or breaking down those representations? What are the different ways we understand and relate to nature and society in the academy, both through humanities disciplines like religious and spirituality studies, cultural studies, new media studies, art, literature, and philosophy, and non-humanities disciplines like political, natural, and social sciences? What have been the goals, implementation, and outcomes of efforts toward integrating environmental and cultural sustainability education into humanities courses and curricula? How can information and media technology be used to enhance such efforts? Is “sustainability” sustainable? What pressures are being exerted on the humanities to transform themselves so as not to become obsolete in the ultra-practical and future-oriented information age, and how should the humanities respond to such pressures? Eric Otto, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities 10501 FGCU Blvd. S. email: eotto@fgcu.edu

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Stephen Yablon Architecture Projects Firm News SYA SELECTED FOR EXPANSION OF ANGELO GORDON'S NEW YORK HEADQUARTERS A 25,000 sf workplace will establish a new office design direction for this leading global alternative investment firm – an environment that is considerably more open and flexible. We are delighted to continue our relationship with Angelo Gordon; a relationship that has spanned almost 18 years and resulted in bespoke offices in Europe and the U.S. Posted: December 17th, 2019 PACE UNIVERSITY AWARDS SYA WITH NEW PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT AND THOMAS J. MCSHANE CENTER SYA is thrilled to assist Pace University in creating a new home for its distinguished Department of Psychology and Thomas J. McShane Center for psychological services, the training clinic for their well-established psychology program. The new facilities will support cutting-edge research and clinical training, dramatically enhance therapy services for its community, and encourage collaboration between students and faculty in an uplifting environment. CHELSEA DISTRICT HEALTH CENTER WINS The Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of Design Award for Healthcare Interiors We are thrilled that our Chelsea District Health Center won The Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of Design Award for Healthcare Interiors! The annual international awards honor excellent architecture and product design. Proud to be among this esteemed group - congrats to all the other winners! Posted: December 4th, 2019 Chelsea District Health Center will be open for tours during Open House New York Weekend! SYA’s award-winning Chelsea District Health Center will be open for tours on Saturday, October 19th as part of the annual Open House New York Weekend! Open House New York provides audiences with unparalleled access to the extraordinary architecture of New York, celebrating the best examples of design and planning throughout the five boroughs. Posted: October 3rd, 2019 HEALTHCARE DESIGN FEATURES SYA'S CHELSEA DISTRICT HEALTH CENTER SYA’s Chelsea District Health Center is featured in this month’s issue of Healthcare Design. The renovated LEED Gold building “offers a fresh new take on a public health clinic, strengthening ties to the surrounding neighborhood.” Read the full article here! Posted: September 4th, 2019 HOUZZ HIGHLIGHTS SYA'S SOUTH CAROLINA GUEST PAVILION AS A MODERN RESILIENT HOME Houzz highlights SYA’s South Carolina Guest Pavilion in “Modern Homes Mix Coastal Resiliency with Outdoor Living,” for its innovative approach to coastal design. The article takes a close look at how architects have effectively incorporated flood-proofing into their designs. Posted: August 30th, 2019 Stephen Yablon selected to present at Stanford Medicine X | Change We are excited to announce that Stephen Yablon will speak about SYA’s recent healthcare work at this year’s Stanford Medicine X | Change in September! The conference brings together innovators throughout the globe who are leading change in healthcare, technology and digital health. STEPHEN YABLON'S OP-ED, “Architecture for a Multicultural Society,” IS FEATURED IN OCULUS Excited about Stephen Yablon’s op-ed, “Architecture for a Multicultural Society,” in the Summer issue of Oculus, AIA New York’s quarterly publication. Check out how growing diversity might affect architecture! Posted: June 24th, 2019 SYA'S Twin Brook Capital Partners wins a Lumen Citation Award Our collaboration with Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design for Angelo Gordon’s Twin Brook Capital Partners in Chicago was recognized for its excellence and originality in lighting design with the Lumen Citation Award! The unique lighting creates a refined and comfortable work environment while maximizing the stunning city views. STEPHEN YABLON WAS A FINALIST FOR INTERIOR DESIGN'S HIP AWARD We are proud to announce that Stephen Yablon was a finalist for Interior Design’s HiP Award in the Design Leader: Greater Good category! The award honors industry people and innovative products. SYA'S CHELSEA DISTRICT HEALTH CENTER WINS NYCXDESIGN AWARD FOR HEALTHCARE We are thrilled to announce that SYA’s Chelsea District Health Center won the NYCxDESIGN award for Healthcare! Inspired by its unique park location, the renovation and restoration of the Chelsea District Health Center created a LEED Gold, state-of-the-art, free sexual health clinic. And to top it off, our recently completed Mount Sinai Doctors, Ansonia was a finalist in the same category! SYA’s design of the new Mount Sinai clinic was influenced by the original interiors of the historic Ansonia. Posted: May 21st, 2019 CHELSEA DISTRICT HEALTH CENTER SELECTED AS A FINALIST FOR THE NYCXDESIGN AWARDS SYA’s Chelsea District Health Center was also selected as a finalist for the NYCxDesign awards! Inspired by its unique park location, the transformation of the Chelsea District Health Center created a LEED Gold, state-of-the-art, free sexual health clinic that supports New York City’s ambitious goals to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS. MOUNT SINAI DOCTORS, ANSONIA SELECTED AS A FINALIST FOR NYCXDESIGN AWARDS We are excited to share that two of our projects, including our recently completed Mount Sinai Doctors, Ansonia, were selected as finalists for the NYCxDesign Awards! Winners will be announced on May 20th. Located in the landmarked Ansonia Building, one of the most iconic Beaux Arts buildings in New York City, Mount Sinai’s new clinic provides a grand setting for its signature leading-edge care. SYA’s Chelsea District Health Center Receives LEED Gold Certification We are excited to announce that our renovation of the historic Chelsea District Health Center received LEED Gold certification! The new health center serves as a model for how to sustainably reinvent and reuse historic and obsolete medical buildings. Posted: February 14th, 2019 SYA begins Constuction FOR Columbia University Engineering Department’s Innovation Hub We’re thrilled to start construction for a new Innovation Hub for Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The project is centered on an open work area with the latest digital modeling and fabrication equipment, inspiring cross-disciplinary research and design, creative prototyping, and open discussion of ideas. SYA’s design will enhance the “learn by making” model which is an essential and growing component of the engineering curriculum at Columbia University. Posted: February 4th, 2019 The New Mount Sinai Doctors, Ansonia is Now Open Located in the landmarked Ansonia Building, one of the most iconic and historic structures in New York City, this new clinic provides a grand setting for Mount Sinai Health’s leading-edge care on the Upper West Side. The interiors are a contemporary interpretation of the building’s historic interiors, featuring a black and white palette with brass accents. SYA’s design takes full advantage of the building’s unique features, including its street courts and corner turrets, to provide a variety of uplifting patient spaces. Posted: November 28th, 2018 Chelsea District Health Center Selected as a Finalist for Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year Awards We are happy to share that SYA’s Chelsea District Health Center is a finalist for Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year awards – winners will be announced on November 30th! Commissioned by the Mayor’s Design Excellence Initiative, SYA transformed the historic, outdated Art-Deco era public health center into a state-of-the-art ambulatory care facility inspired by a park pavilion. Oculus Features Stephen Yablon in its Fall Issue Stephen Yablon is featured in “Agile Spaces”, the Fall issue of Oculus, the quarterly publication of AIA New York. In the article, “Designed to Heal” by Bill Millard, Yablon discusses how design excellence expresses high-quality care and that patient-centered care is one of the most important trends in state-of-the-art healthcare design. Posted: October 11th, 2018 SYA Completes Columbia University's Engineering Headquarters The art of engineering is the theme of the gallery-like Columbia University Engineering Headquarters. Images of new materials from electron microscopes are exhibited throughout the entire suite, showcasing the intricate beauty of engineering. The new offices are open and inviting, conveying Dean Mary C. Boyce’s vision for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration within the engineering school and with other university departments. Posted: July 11th, 2018 New Offices for Angelo Gordon's Twin Brook Capital Partners Open in Chicago Spectacular city views and a sleek aesthetic form a lively Midwest hub for Angelo Gordon’s Twin Brook Capital Partners, located in the Loop along the Chicago River. The new 28,000 sf offices feature an impressive meeting and event area as well as a wide variety of work and social spaces that contribute to productivity and wellness. Posted: June 1st, 2018 Newly Renovated Chelsea District Health Center Reopens The Leona Baumgartner District Health Center in Chelsea reopened on Thursday in a grand ribbon cutting ceremony. Joining SYA and NYC DOHMH in the festivities were activists and elected officials including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. Transformed into a state-of-the-art Article 28 medical facility, this welcoming and soothing center encourages patient use and expresses that the highest level of health care is available to all city residents. Posted: March 16th, 2018 Stephen Yablon Presents at The New York Academy of Medicine Stephen Yablon was honored to present “Building Health: The History and Future of New York City’s District Health Centers” at The New York Academy of Medicine’s Ninth Annual History of Medicine and Public Health Night on Thursday. He discussed the history of New York’s New Deal Era district health centers and how several of those buildings are being transformed to better address the health challenges of today’s city. Angelo, Gordon Selects SYA for European Headquarters Expansion We’re always excited when a long-time client asks us back to help them grow. Due to the success of Angelo, Gordon Europe’s offices since opening in 2014, SYA is designing a new expansion to increase their space by fifty percent. Located on London’s Savile Row and serving as a hub for European operations, this project is expected to open May 2018. SYA Wins AIA QUAD Award for Planned Parenthood Queens SYA won an Honor Award with Distinction in the 2017 AIA QUAD Design Award competition for Planned Parenthood Queens. The jury praised on the “serene yet upbeat use of color… the celebration of the stairs and the pops of color inspire wellness.” We are thrilled the project continues to be recognized, winning nine design awards to date. Stephen Yablon Chairs Jury for Van Alen Institute Flash Competition Stephen Yablon was jury chair for the competition to design innovative mental health centers at “U Feel OK?”, Van Alen Institute’s 2017 Fall Festival. This fast-paced, one-day design competition invited multidisciplinary teams to propose designs that can change the way that New Yorkers perceive and directly engage with mental health care in their neighborhoods through street-level mental health centers, while also improving access to and awareness of existing resources. Stephen Yablon is Guest Speaker at NYC Dept. of Health Commissioner’s Luncheon Stephen Yablon was honored to speak at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene’s monthly Commissioner’s Lunch Lecture on Monday. He spoke about NYC’s historic and groundbreaking New Deal-Era District Health Centers, SYA’s award-winning transformation of two of them in Chelsea and Harlem, and how our work is part of a growing interest in how high quality architecture can affect well-being. Posted: November 1st, 2017 SYA Wins Contract Magazine Inspirations Award for Planned Parenthood Queens The Inspirations Awards recognize a commitment to social responsibility in commercial interior architecture and design. We’re thrilled that our client, Planned Parenthood of NYC, will receive a $3000 grant from award sponsor Tarkett as part of the award! Architectural Record Features Planned Parenthood Queens SYA’s Planned Parenthood Queens is featured in Architectural Record’s “Design for the Public Realm: Healthcare,” by Miriam Sitz. It is one of five projects selected across the nation that “demonstrate that good design can be the best medicine.” Posted: April 3rd, 2017 SYA WINS AIANY HONORS AWARD FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD QUEENS We are excited to announce that SYA has won an AIA New York Honors award in the Interiors category for Planned Parenthood Queens! We are especially proud to stand with Planned Parenthood by creating an uplifting, inviting environment for their patients and staff. Posted: March 7th, 2017 Stephen Yablon Speaks About Diversity in Curbed Stephen Yablon speaks with writer Emily Nonko on “Why the scale figures in architectural renderings need to be more diverse” in today’s issue of Curbed. Posted: February 22nd, 2017 NYU Langone Selects SYA to Design New Facility for Orthopedic Center & Initiative for Women with Disabilities We’re excited to be selected by NYU Langone Health to design their new facility in Midtown Manhattan. The 15,000 sf space will house the Occupational and Industrial Orthopedic Center and Initiative for Women with Disabilities. Stephen Yablon in AIANY/Center for Architecture Panel Stephen Yablon was a panelist in “Myth Busters: How Social Research Serves Different Typologies,” a roundtable discussion presented by the Center for Architecture (AIANY) about why some sectors believe in design excellence and research more than others. National AIA Selects Stephen Yablon to Serve on 2017 Healthcare Design Awards Jury We’re thrilled to announce that Stephen Yablon has been selected to serve on the National AIA’s Academy of Architecture for Health 2017 Design Awards Jury. Posted: January 19th, 2017 Fast Company Selects SYA's Planned Parenthood Queens in "The Year's Most Optimistic Architecture" Fast Company selected SYA’s Planned Parenthood Queens as one of seven projects in “The Year’s Most Optimistic Architecture”! Diana Budds writes, SYA “created a sophisticated, well-appointed space with ample daylight, vibrant colors, and modern touches that come together to make patients feel cared for.” Angelo, Gordon Selects SYA for New Chicago Headquarters We’re excited that Angelo, Gordon & Co. selected SYA to design their new 28,000 sf office in Chicago which will house the headquarters of their Twin Brook middle market direct lending business. This is the latest project in our fifteen year relationship with the esteemed alternative investment company, which includes the design of multiple offices in New York and their European headquarters in London. Posted: December 1st, 2016 Mount Sinai Selects SYA to Design a New Forward-Thinking Patient Facility in The Ansonia For its new presence on the Upper West Side, Mount Sinai Health System has engaged SYA to design a new 16,000-square-foot space for ambulatory care, internal medicine, and dermatology services.This location, on the second floor of The Ansonia, is Mount Sinai’s first in this part of Manhattan and is intended to completely rethink the patient experience. Posted: October 21st, 2016 Planned Parenthood of NYC Selects SYA for a Masterplan to Upgrade all NYC Facilities Following the success of its new Queens building, Planned Parenthood of NYC retained SYA to create a masterplan to upgrade its facilities citywide. The plan, which will be implemented in phases, will help ensure a consistent patient experience and aesthetic identity that aligns with the organization’s mission throughout NYC. SYA Wins IIDA International Healthcare Award for Planned Parenthood Queens We’re proud to announce that SYA has been named a winner of the International Interior Design Association Healthcare Interior Design Competition, which honors outstanding originality and excellence in the design and furnishings of healthcare interior spaces. SYA was recognized in the category of Ambulatory Care outpatient Clinics for Planned Parenthood Queens. View a gallery of all award winners here. Posted: September 13th, 2016 Broadly, Vice's women's interest channel, features Planned Parenthood Queens In “How to Design a $5 Million Planned Parenthood Clinic,” Broadly’s Gabby Bess describes the facility as “both minimalist and warm; a place that you would want to go, and perhaps wouldn’t even mind waiting in.” Posted: September 1st, 2016 Slate Magazine Features SYA’s Planned Parenthood Queens Slate magazine featured Stephen Yablon Architecture’s design in “One of the Best Health Care Building Designs Is a Planned Parenthood in Queens” by Kristen Hohenadel. One of seven projects selected for the American Institute of Architects’ national Healthcare Design Awards, SYA’s Planned Parenthood Queens is sleek and uplifting, embodying the mission of quality care for all. Posted: August 2nd, 2016 SYA Wins National AIA Healthcare Design Award for Planned Parenthood Queens The American Institute of Architects and its Academy of Architecture for Health awarded Stephen Yablon Architecture a National Healthcare Design Award for Planned Parenthood Queens. The jury praised the design’s contextual response, clear execution, and orchestration of color and details, saying “the project achieved a high level of consistency and sophistication.” Planned Parenthood Queens Wins NYCxDesign Award Presented by Interior Design Magazine and ICFF at MoMA, Planned Parenthood Queens won a NYCxDesign Award in the Health and Wellness category. See the complete list: http://bit.ly/1ZS2KMR The New York Times Calls Planned Parenthood Queens a “Bright New World” David Dunlap praises the center for its bright and airy design, ease of navigation, and welcoming atmosphere for a diverse community. Read the full article at “New Planned Parenthood Center in Queens Says ‘Welcome’ in Many Ways”. Posted: April 13th, 2016 Guest Pavilion featured on Architonic The Guest Pavilion and SYA are featured on Architonic, the Swiss-based online design showcase and magazine. Posted: April 6th, 2016 Columbia University Selects SYA to Design New SEAS Dean's Suite We’re happy to announce we have been selected to design the Dean’s Suite for Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering. The new spaces will provide a welcoming and open environment that conveys Dean Mary C. Boyce’s vision for fostering collaboration and discovery between departments and across the university in educating tomorrow’s innovators. Planned Parenthood Queens Presented at AIANY’s “Consider Light” Stephen Yablon presented Planned Parenthood Queens at AIANY’s Speed Presentation event, “Consider Light”, a showcase of ten of the best interiors presented by New York architects and designers. Posted: March 23rd, 2016 SYA and Planned Parenthood of NYC Present at AIA Panel Stephen Yablon and Meg Barnette, Chief of Staff at Planned Parenthood of New York City, presented Planned Parenthood Queens at AIANY’s panel discussion, “Program Cubed: Shaping our Intentions, Our Experiences, and Our Buildings” at the Center for Architecture. The panel discussion can be viewed on Vimeo. SYA in New York New Design Exhibition at Center for Architecture Angelo, Gordon Europe and Planned Parenthood Queens are on display at the Center for Architecture’s “New York New Design” exhibition. Metropolis Magazine Features Planned Parenthood Queens We’re thrilled that the Diane L. Max Health Center, Planned Parenthood’s first facility in Queens, is featured in this month’s issue of Metropolis Magazine. Praising the building’s design, editor Claire Barliant says visitors “will feel cared for, even pampered, at a time when they very much need it.” Angelo, Gordon Europe Featured in Designing Ways SYA’s Angelo, Gordon Europe is featured in the February issue of Designing Ways, the magazine of the South African Institute of the Interior Design Professions. The bright and spirited London office is flooded with natural light, features custom furniture and contemporary art, and embraces its Savile Row location. Brooklyn Museum Selects SYA to Create New Education Division We are thrilled to be assisting the Brooklyn Museum in creating a new home for its very busy and vital Education Division. The Education Division is central to the Museum’s mission, and the new spaces will provide a welcoming environment which will help visitors of all ages form meaningful personal connections with art. The facility will incorporate new state-of-the-art studios, a multimedia program space, a gallery, and offices. Interior Design Magazine Features Angelo, Gordon Europe For its annual art issue, Interior Design magazine featured SYA’s Angelo, Gordon Europe for its seamless integration of architecture and art. The bright and spirited London office is flooded with natural light, incorporates Angelo, Gordon’s preference for openness and transparency, and embraces its Savile Row location. SYA Selected for CUNY Medgar Evers College's Athletic Center The $8M renovation of the historic Carroll Street Building, which includes the expansion of the Athletic Center, is the first phase of a $22M multi-phase major renovation of the entire 145,000 sf building. SYA prepared the master plan for the dramatic transformation of the building which includes major renovations, new infrastructure, and the creation of a new, more welcoming entry elevation. Planned Parenthood Queens Opens in New York City Described as “The ‘North Star’ for the rest of the Federation” by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the sleek, light-filled facility evokes the state-of-the-art care provided in its first location in Queens. The calm and spirited architecture offers an uplifting experience for patients and staff. To learn more, watch Even More Care in Queens and Diane L. Max Health Center Ribbon Cutting. Posted: July 1st, 2015 PLANNED PARENTHOOD QUEENS RIBBON-CUTTING Joining PPNYC and SYA in celebrating the completion of the new facility were Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer, Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Joseph Crowley, other elected officials, donors and community partners. Completed in May, the light-filled, state-of-the-art health and education center expresses the future of Planned Parenthood and offers an uplifting experience for patients and staff through its youthful, sleek, and joyous architecture. To learn more, watch Even More Care in Queens and Diane L. Max Health Center Ribbon Cutting. “The ‘North Star’ for the rest of the Federation!” Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Angelo, Gordon Europe's Offices Open on Savile Row Angelo, Gordon & Co.’s new London offices evoke their excellent reputation in alternative investments and embrace the surrounding Savile Row streetscape throughout. Designed as a hub for their European business, the bright and spirited offices are flooded with natural light and incorporate Angelo Gordon’s preference for openness and transparency. White walls, bold color accents, warm materials, and distinctive art create a welcoming and crisp environment. "Building Health" at DDC Talks Lecture Series Stephen Yablon, Suzanne Nutt, and Andrew Miller presented “Building Health,” at the January DDC Talks, a monthly lecture series open to the public and all city agencies. Our talk included the fascinating history of NYC’s historic New Deal era health centers and described SYA’s recent transformations of two of them under the DDC Design Excellence Initiative. We discussed our work in the context of major themes in the history of health care design, from the Greeks to the present day, as well the current growing awareness of the relationship between the built environment and public health. Posted: March 3rd, 2015 SYA to Create a New Home for Lehman College's Department of Social Work SYA has been selected to design a new academic and administrative center for CUNY Lehman College’s Department of Social Work. Attuned to rapidly evolving societal challenges, the new facility will enable the department to expand their faculty and student body and prepare new social workers to be leaders and innovators in addressing social problems in the 21st century. Posted: March 2nd, 2015 Planned Parenthood of Queens Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony in May 2015 We are thrilled that construction of Planned Parenthood of NYC’s newest health center in Long Island City, its first in Queens, is nearing completion. A dramatic transformation of a lumber warehouse, it includes a new exterior which is a sleek, well-scaled addition to the neighborhood. The bright spacious interiors, with strategic color accents throughout, are shaping up and feel cheery, calm, and uplifting. SYA is proud to assist Planned Parenthood in creating a first class reproductive health facility for all residents of Queens! Posted: March 1st, 2015 “Yona on the Beach” selected for Long List World Architecture News 2014 Urban Design Award SYA’s “Yona on the Beach,” a new vision for sustainable coastal living and one of the winners of a MOMA/PS1 competition, has been selected for the long list of the World Architecture News 2014 Urban Design Award. The project was selected from 90 entries worldwide and will proceed into the next phase of jury deliberations. Posted: November 5th, 2014 Planned Parenthood Queens Begins Construction In June, construction began on the new Planned Parenthood of New York City center in Queens, the first in the borough. The project, an adaptive reuse of a lumber warehouse, will create a calm, reassuring and safe state-of-the-art reproductive health and education center. SYA is proud to contribute to ensuring that all Queens residents, regardless of income, have access to high-quality healthcare. SYA Selected to Renovate CUNY Performing Arts Center The City University of New York has engaged SYA to renovate the Performing Arts Center, MAC Theater Arts Playhouse, and Theater Arts Studio at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. The upgrades will strengthen the college’s performing arts programs and enhance an important community venue. "Yona on the Beach" Selected for BIG IDEAS Issue Interior Design magazine featured SYA’s concept for the future of urban coastal living in its second annual BIG IDEAS issue. The project was earlier chosen for MoMA/PS1’s Rockaway Call for Ideas and can be viewed on YouTube here. Andrew Miller Promoted to Associate Partner SYA is thrilled to announce that Andrew Miller, LEED AP, has been promoted to Associate Partner. Mr. Miller has been responsible for a number of SYA’s award-winning projects including Chelsea District Health Center, the Guest Pavilion in South Carolina, Angelo, Gordon Europe offices in London, Central Harlem Health Center, and Enterprise Community Partners. NYC's Chelsea District Health Center Begins Construction Commissioned through NYC’s Design Excellence Program, construction has begun on the transformation of this historic New Deal era public health center. Once completed, the updated exterior facade and new, airy, state-of-the-art health care clinics will engage Chelsea residents and inspire healthy, active lifestyles. The project will be LEED Gold certified. SYA Selected for MoMA/PS1 Exhibition on Post Hurricane Sandy Housing in the Rockaways SYA’s “Yona on the Beach” was one of 25 winning schemes in MoMA PS1’s “EXPO 1: New York, Rockaway Call for Ideas”, a competition for creative visions for the future of the coastal New York community that is still recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy. Members of the jury included PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach, PS1 curator Peter Eleey, MoMA curator Barry Bergdoll, and independent curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. The winning entries are currently exhibited at MoMA PS1’s new venue, VW Dome2, and is part of a programming series which addresses some of the ecological and sociopolitical challenges impacting contemporary life with art installations, lectures and a film program. To see SYA’s video submission, click here. Posted: April 1st, 2014 SYA Shortlisted for UPenn’s Pennovation Center SYA is one of 6 firms shortlisted for the University of Pennsylvania’s Pennovation Center. The $22M project is the first phase of the transformation of a former DuPont paint testing plant across the Schuylkill River from UPenn into a new “Innovation” campus that will foster collaboration between the university and entrepreneurs. This scope includes creating the new identity for the campus as well as the adaptive reuse of abandoned factories, landscape design, storm water management, environmental remediation and site way finding. SYA Featured in We Build The City SYA’s work is featured in We Build The City, a new book that profiles public projects commissioned through NYC’s Design + Construction Excellence Program. This book celebrates the City’s commitment to the idea that great design reinvigorates public spaces and ultimately transforms people’s lives NYU Langone Medical Center’s New Miller Practice Opens SYA transformed a former industrial building on the Westside of Manhattan into a new ambulatory care facility that will enhance medical center’s presence in a developing residential neighborhood. SYA’s contemporary, warm, and crisply detailed interiors express the world class care offered by NYU Langone Medical Center. Transforming the United Nations International School in Queens The United Nations International School has selected SYA to transform and expand their K-8 school in Queens and create an inviting and energetic green campus. Our approach will be guided by their mission to provide “an international setting that fosters understanding, independence, interdependence, and cooperation.” Master Plan for CUNY’s Medgar Evers College The City University of New York has engaged SYA to complete a master plan for the 166,000 square foot Carroll Building, one of the main buildings on the campus of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. The plan will identify strategies for updating the building to better serve the diverse academic and student life activities housed in the building, including a new athletic center. The Wall Street Journal features SYA’s Guest Pavilion The Wall Street Journal featured SYA’s award-winning Guest Pavilion as an innovative design approach to raised coastal-living in the article, ”Built on Stilts: Beach Houses Reach New Heights”. Reflecting the increase in requests for hurricane-resistant design, reporter Candace Jackson surveyed raised homes recently built around the country and explored the benefits and design challenges of elevating homes in flood prone areas. Interior Design features SYA’s Sony Music Publishing Project An article in the October, 2013 issue of Interior Design on the use of super-graphics featured SYA’s new offices for Sony Music Publishing. Created for the company that owns the rights to some of the most iconic songs of our times, the project incorporated custom wall graphics of cascading lyrics throughout the spaces. Stephen Yablon in AIA/Center for Architecture Panel Stephen Yablon spoke at ”Living in a Fit Nation” as part of a panel of industry professionals that discussed how design, policy, and grassroots strategies can promote physical activity as part of daily life. The discussion was part of the AIA/Center for Architecture’s ”FitNation” exhibition, showcasing ways that changes in the built environment can contribute to healthier lifestyles by promoting physical activity as part of daily life. SYA'a award-winning Betances Community Center is part of the traveling exhibition. Betances Community Center in “FitNation” Exhibition Included with projects from across the United States, SYA’s Betances Community Center is featured in the Center for Architecture’s “FitNation” exhibition, showcasing ways that changes in the built environment can contribute to healthier lifestyles by promoting physical activity as part of daily life Located in the Bronx, the award-winning Betances Community Center is a new model for community centers in public housing projects: Instead of a defensive approach, the light-filled and open facility is emphatically public, encouraging community use. The exhibition is traveling to architecture centers in the 18 cities included and beyond. Posted: June 2nd, 2013 SYA’s Guest Pavilion featured in Dwell, Houses We Love The award-winning pavilion, a modern addition to a traditional beach house in South Carolina, “reimagines the stilt-house typology,” according to Dwell magazine’s Kelsey Keith. More about the pavilion’s superb hurricane resistance, its creative use of the space underneath as a shaded veranda, and its open airy interiors can be read in the article online here. Posted: May 1st, 2013 Planned Parenthood of NYC Selects SYA for New Queens Healthcare Center Planned Parenthood of New York City has commissioned SYA to design a new health center in Queens, New York. The 10,000 sq ft + facility will be the 90 year-old organization’s first in the borough, and will provide essential affordable reproductive health care and educational programs to the Queens community regardless of age, income, or circumstance. Rise: GSAPP Alumni Forum As a member of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) Alumni Association Board, SYA Principal Stephen Yablon coordinated the 2013 annual GSAAP Alumni Forum. This year’s event was a panel discussion among global thought leaders on the relationship between climate change, extreme weather events and the built environment. Moderated by Andrew Revkin of Pace University and author of the Dot Earth blog of The New York Times, the panel included Susannah C. Drake, Klaus Jacob, Guy Nordenson, Jeff Orlowski, and Cynthia E. Rosenzweig. The Chelsea District Health Center is shortlisted for World Architecture News Award The project is one of six from around the world on the WAN healthcare sector / unbuilt awards shortlist. Emphasizing how a “healing environment can be created with a sense of play and excitement,” the panel praised SYA’s reuse of an historic building and design to LEED Gold standards. Announcing New Work SYA has recently been engaged by NY Presbyterian Hospital to create two new facilities that will evoke its world class brand as a premier teaching hospital: the new Department of Radiology which includes classrooms and offices, and Workforce, the general health care facility for all NY Presbyterian employees. Two SYA projects on the longlist for World Architecture News Award Central Harlem STD Clinic and Chelsea District Health Center have both been selected to go through the longlist for the WAN Healthcare Award 2012. 32 built projects and 25 unbuilt projects have been selected for the longlist from around the world and are featured on WAN’s website. Distinguished Alumni Award presented to Stephen Yablon Washington University in St Louis presented SYA partner Stephen Yablon with the 2012 Award for Distinction for work that is “open, light-filled, carefully detailed, responsive to context, and focused on spaces that encourage social interaction.” SYA Speaks on Public Health Panel at NYC AIA SYA was invited to speak on a panel at AIANY/Center for Architecture about the role of design in creating facilities that enhance public health in New York City and internationally. The firm discussed their work assisting the NYC Department of Design and Construction & Department of Health with new community health centers for under-served communities. NYU Langone Medical Center has engaged SYA to design a new healthcare facility that will extend their brand to a developing residential area in Manhattan’s West Side. Located in a former garage space, the adaptive re-use project will include physicians’ offices, exam rooms, GI procedure rooms and a recovery suite. Posted: January 1st, 2012 SYA Published in Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture SYA’s Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym is one of 200 notable buildings and spaces constructed in New York’s five boroughs since the new millennium featured in John Hill’s new guidebook. Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. Guest Pavilion Wins Professional Builder Magazine Award Stephen Yablon Architect’s Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina Guest Pavilion “Sunscreen” has been awarded a Design Award from Professional Builder Magazine. The project will be published in the 2012 awards edition. SYA Featured in Archtober SYA’s Betances Community Center has been selected as Project of the Day for October 12 as part of AIA NY’s Archtober Architecture and Design month. Sign up for a tour of Betances by Stephen Yablon: archtober.org Posted: October 1st, 2011 Stephen Yablon Architect Awarded Contract with CUNY SYA was awarded an Architectural Design Services Requirements Contract with The City University Construction Fund for services for their 23 academic institutions. Stephen Yablon Profiled in Design Bureau Stephen Yablon’s interview with Design Bureau magazine is featured in the Summer 2011 issue. Read the article here: “Fill In the Blank”. Stephen Yablon Architect Wins Two SARANY Design Awards SYA’s Guest Pavilion in Sullivan’s Island, SC and the Central Harlem STD Clinic, New York, NY have been awarded Design Excellence Awards from the New York Chapter of the Society of American Registered Architects. Guest Pavilion Wins Custom Home Magazine Award Stephen Yablon Architect’s Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina Guest Pavilion “Sunscreen” has been awarded a Grand Award from Custom Home Magazine. The project will be profiled in the May/June 2011 edition. Guest Pavilion in Charleston Home Magazine SYA’s award-winning Sullivan’s Island, SC Guest Pavilion is featured in the Spring/Summer issue of Charleston Home. SYA Healthcare Projects Published in Medical Construction and Design Stephen Yablon Architect’s Design Excellence Initiative projects for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene are featured in the March/April issue of Medical Construction and Design. Heyman Center Renovations at Columbia University Columbia University has selected SYA as the designer of the renovation of the Heyman Center for the Humanities. The Center brings together the various departments in the Humanities at the University presenting events open to students and the public. Posted: February 1st, 2011 Central Harlem Health Center Wins 3form Installation Award The Central Harlem Health Center has received a Full Circle Award from 3form as part of the 5th Annual People’s Choice 3Form Installation Awards. Stephen Yablon Chairs AIA Detroit Awards Jury SYA Principal Stephen Yablon led a jury that presented six AIA Honor Awards to Detroit area firms. Speaking at the awards ceremony, he stated “the winners elevated humble, sometimes overlooked projects to inspiring architecture.” The distinguished jury included Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, Robert Frasca, FAIA, and Wendy Evans Joseph, FAIA. SYA in Las Vegas and Boston Exhibitions The Central Harlem Health Center is in two Design Excellence exhibits this month, at Healthcare Design.10 in Las Vegas as part of Contract Magazine’s Healthcare Environments Design Awards Competition and at Build Boston 2010 part of the Boston Society of Architects Healthcare Facilities Awards. For more information on the Boston Society of Architects award winners visit “Healthcare Facilities Design Awards Program 2010”. Read Contract’s coverage of the winning projects at “Live Long and Prosper: 2010 Healthcare Environment Awards Winners”. Guest Pavilion Featured in Charleston’s The Post and Courier SYA’s new sustainable, beachfront guest pavilion is featured in The Post and Courier.“A modern wing inspired by the past”. Central Harlem Health Center Wins Contract Magazine Healthcare Environments Design Award The Central Harlem Health Center has received an Award from Contract Magazine as part of the Healthcare Facilities Design Awards Competition. The project will be exhibited at HEALTHCARE.10 in November, 2010. Central Harlem Health Center Wins BSA Healthcare Design Award SYA’s Central Harlem Health Center has received a Design Excellence Award from the Boston Society of Architects as part of their Healthcare Design Awards. SYA Featured in Interior Design SYA is featured in the Crosslines section of Interior Design. The Columbia University Division of Student Affairs, Central Harlem STD Clinic, Betances Community Center, Chelsea District Health Center, and Sustainable Guest Pavilion are among the projects featured. SYA in The Architectural League Exhibit SYA’s Betances Community Center will be part of the The City We Imagined/The City We Made: New New York 2001-2010 Architectural League exhibit on view at 250 Hudson Street in Hudson Square, May 8-June 26, 2010. SYA Featured in Oculus SYA is featured in the Winter 2009/2010 Oculus issue, “Architecture Gets Fit”. The article “Clean Bill of Health” discusses SYA’s health care projects for the City of New York’s Design Excellence Initiative. New Center for Student Advising at Columbia University Columbia University has selected SYA as the designer of the new Center for Student Advising in Alfred Lerner Hall. The Center for Student Advising is a brand new department which will unify advisors currently spread throughout the campus. SYA on Display in New York Now Subway Exhibit SYA’s Enterprise Community Partners will be part of the New York Now Subway exhibit on display in the West 4th subway station and organized by the Center for Architecture/American Institute of Architects New York Chapter. Betances Community Center in Open House New York SYA’s Betances Community Center will be open for tours on October 10 as part of the annual Open House New York weekend. SYA Speaks at The Architectural League SYA’s Betances Community Center was selected by the The Architectural League to be included in the juried lecture series New York Designs: Public. Stephen Yablon, AIA, LEED AP presented the project. Watch a video of the presentation here. Enterprise Community Partners Wins 2009 SARANY Design Award SYA’s Enterprise Community Partners has been awarded a Design Excellence Award from the New York Chapter of the Society of American Registered Architects. Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym on Exhibit SYA’s Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym is part of the 2009 Design Awards and Building Type Awards Exhibition at the Center for Architecture in New York City from April 23, 2009 - June 30, 2009. SYA Wins AIA Award SYA’s Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym has won a Design Merit Award from the New York Chapter of The American Institute of Architects. SYA Featured in The New York Times SYA’s new sustainable offices for Enterprise Community Partners were featured in The New York Times Sunday, October 19, 2008 article “Inside an Office, Reflections of a City” by Claire Wilson. New Center for Student Affairs at Columbia University Columbia University has selected SYA as the designer of the new Center for Student Affairs in Alfred Lerner Hall. SYA Wins New York Construction Award SYA’s Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym has been awarded the Best Of Adaptive Reuse Award from New York Construction magazine. SYA’s Betances Community Center and Boxing Gym has won a Design Merit Award from the New York State Chapter of The American Institute of Architects. SYA Places Second in RIBA International Competition SYA has won second place in an international competition sponsored by the Royal Institute of British Architects for a corporate headquarters in Preston, England. Six finalists were chosen from over 50 entries. Competition guidelines called for an ‘exceptional piece of architecture’, with a strong visual presence and the highest quality office environment. Visit RIBA’s website at riba.org for more information. SYA Receives City of New York’s Highly Prestigious Mayor’s Design and Construction Excellence Contract The Department of Design and Construction of the City of New York has selected SYA and 23 other award-winning design firms for the second round of the highly prestigious Mayor’s Design and Construction Excellence Initiative. Selected from 139 submissions based solely upon design excellence and experience in public projects, the City of New York will use these architects through 2008 to design libraries, fire stations, health care facilities, and cultural centers throughout the five boroughs. SYA was originally selected in the first round of firms for this program in 2005 and is one of only 11 that were re-selected in the second round. SYA Designs Winning Scheme for Mixed Use Development Competition for Orange, New Jersey SYA designed the winning scheme for the Jefferson Art Walk development, a 12-block neighborhood of abandoned industrial buildings and historic 19th century hat factories. Located in the Central Valley neighborhood of Orange, New Jersey, along the train line to New York City, this development will use the arts as the engine for urban revitalization. The plan done for the designated developer team, will include more than 500 condominiums, 75 artist live/work spaces, art galleries, retail shops, restaurants, a renovated vintage workingmen’s tavern, and a public greenway along a resurfaced stream. First Place Winner! SYA was awarded first prize in a national design competition for the Boston Harbor Park Pavilion, expected to be the first building on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston. 306 West 38th Street New York NY 10018 · +1 212 868 1665 · info@syarchitecture.com · keep me posted · · sign in

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← Clawing At The Eyes So Tough → There’s Power in a Name: Seth on His Twenty-Year Project, Clyde Fans BY Dominick Grace & Eric Hoffman Apr 25, 2019 The following conversation was conducted at Inkwell’s End, Guelph, Ontario, on August 25, 2018 by Dominick Grace and Eric Hoffman. It has been edited by Dominick Grace, Eric Hoffman, and Seth. Dom: Congratulations on the completion of Clyde Fans. Seth: Thank you. The book is at the publishers, and they are doing all of the post-production work. They’re still scanning pages, still making corrections. Dom: I know when we last spoke (in 2014; published in Seth Conversations [University Press of Mississippi, 2015]) you were talking about perhaps doing some revisions? Yes, there are a fair number of revisions, but they are not the kind of revisions that people will immediately notice. I didn’t rewrite huge sections of the book, not a tremendous amount of re-drawing either. The changes occur mostly in Part Three—that’s where I really fiddled around. In Part One, I mostly corrected the color—trying to fix up how I applied the blue and grey tones back then to make them jibe a little better with the later work—but not dramatically, just attempting to make the book look more consistent. In Part Two, there were a few sequences that got fixed up, not much, but in Part Three, there were major changes. I cut pages apart, or I added in pages or fixed storytelling that was awkward. The main thing that I changed—the section I was waiting for years to change— was the sequence I did of Simon talking to his toys. This was a sequence I always hated, and I always thought it came off really corny. And it bothered me. Almost the moment it went into print I knew it was bad. I rewrote that sequence many times over the years to fix up the awful dialogue but it was always unsatisfying, and then finally about a year ago, I got what I think was an inspired idea, which is I took all of the toy’s dialogue out of the story. So, Simon’s talking, and there are only empty word balloons responding. A simple solution but it solved the problem of the corniness of that exchange. That sequence had come off like a bad horror movie sequence or something. It was crummy. Now I feel so much better about it. Thank God I finally figured out how to handle it in time for the collection. I had thought, this scene is a stubbed toe —but now it ties in much better with a couple of other oddball sequences in the book. It feels right. I’m very pleased about that. Dom: That’s interesting because one of the things that I noticed when re-reading Fans was that it had felt like the style had changed a lot more than it really does. There’s actually a much more consistent feel to it then I previously noticed. Dom: But especially with regards to Simon, it was deeply creepy. I want to say not like a bad horror movie, but it had that kind of a Twin Peaks vibe to it. Well, I kind of went for a weird vibe with that, and, as so often happens when you go for a weird vibe it ends up as an obvious vibe. And that was the key problem for me, as I said, this feels like somebody trying to create something weird, rather than maybe having the proper emotional tone naturally come out in the storytelling. Overall, I hope the middle chapter will still have a slightly otherworldly feel to it, but I pray it won’t have the clichéd element to it that it had when I first put some of it down on paper. I’ll leave that for you to decide when you see it. Sometimes cartoonists will correct things in their work—I’ve encountered this myself as a reader, where I’ve read other people’s work, and then they’d fixed it up and of course, the cartoonist thinks it’s much better, and you’re like, “oh, you kind of wrecked that.” So, you never know. Maybe I’ve made a mistake fixing anything. Dom: The second thought isn’t always the best thought. Do you remember Jaime Hernandez’s story “Hundred Rooms” back in the early days of Love and Rockets? It’s about issue five, or something. It’s a big long story where Maggie and Hopey go and stay in Costigan’s mansion and there’s a big party. I thought this was a very great story at the time. When Fantagraphics started reprinting the work in the very first collections, Jaime fixed that story up and added about five pages and changed this and that. I remember even then I thought, “he flubbed it.” He was trying to clear up some plot point but something delicate disappeared in the correction. I preferred the original. So you never know how people are going to respond to changes. But of course you’ve got to go with your gut. Eric: The tone for that scene with the dolls did seem a little jarring, though not necessarily in a bad way. It did seem a little out of place when viewed in context with the rest of the work. I’d been waiting so long to get to that scene when I was drawing the story, I was very anxious. I thought, “Oh boy, when I get to that scene, I’m really going to love that scene.” And then almost immediately after it was published, I was like, “Eh, didn’t work.” Eric: I think withholding the dialogue might make the scene even creepier. I think so. I think it makes it that much more obvious that it is an interior dialogue that’s going on. Not something supernatural. And I dialed back a lot of what was being said there. It seemed too obvious or trite…even dumb. So it’s iffier now—less clear what exactly is being said—because we’re only getting Simon’s responses. Eric: Right. Did you change his dialogue at all? Yes. Simplified his responses. Made them less specific, but enough dialogue happens that you can guess at what’s being said without it being too clear. Original design of the Halloween toy. Copyright Seth Dom: While we’re on the toys specifically, the one toy, the one with the black nose… Talk about creepy. Is that based on a real toy or is that something you yourself designed? It’s funny you mention that, I changed that element, too. That toy was based on a Halloween decoration. Very loosely based. It’s funny, when I was working on the book, I missed an obvious point there, that Halloween toy is clearly a black racial figure. I’d incorporated that element without fully realizing it and the moment it hit me I knew I had to make that point clearer so I went in and fixed that up in the artwork. It’s totally obvious now. And it needed to be because it reinforces a point I was pushing earlier in the story when Simon purchases the little “pickaninny” doll he’s from the traveling salesman Whitey. I mean, this was an obvious connection and I flubbed it. I looked at those pages and was like, why did I not do that clearly? Somewhere in my subconscious I was connecting it with that other doll anyway, but I had not made it obvious enough that even I knew what I was doing. Now maybe I’ve gone too obvious, but those racist images aren’t in the book by accident and I’m glad I’ve thought this through fully now and that I know why they are in there. I’m often called a nostalgist but I’m aware of the racism and misogyny of that white man’s world I’m portraying. I don’t want some golden fog of the past. And since Clyde Fans has a strong main thread about the disappointments of progress, it was important that the closed world of these brothers not be a cozy retreat from reality -- not allow any simple ideas about the world being better in 1957. Why is it that Simon goes back to his room with the racist toy instead of any of the other cheap novelties Whitey was peddling? Because the vulgar toys are a symbol of emasculation, humiliation, servitude and the loss of human dignity, something Simon is allowing to happen to himself but is also complicit in. Dom: But the original was based on something you’d seen? Yes, I looked at a lot of books on old Halloween decorations and this image came out of that process. Eric: So it’s supposed to be a minstrel doll? Yes. It’s supposed to be a minstrel figure. Or I should say, my original image for the doll comes from the tradition of minstrel imagery. Like a lot of pop culture images do. Eric: That’s funny; I didn’t pick up on that. Dom: As soon as you mention that, it’s kind of obvious. Eric: Yes, it is. It’ll be even more obvious now. It just needed a couple of easy corrections—the obvious stereotypical elements. No one will miss the point, trust me. Halloween Toy Redesigned. Copyright Seth Eric: Will it be two books in a slipcase? No, one book in a slipcase. Eric: Because in our previous interview with you, we spoke with you about this and you were sort of on the fence about the format. Well, a couple of things made that decision clear. And the biggest thing would be the changing of the company from Chris Oliveros to Peggy and Tom. Originally, Chris Oliveros was still considering that perhaps we could do a second book and then maybe we would put them together into a slipcase or something. I’m not sure I ever even discussed this with Peggy, but when the regime changed I think it was simply understood by everyone, including myself, that that old idea made no sense whatsoever. The collection would be one book. I mean, let’s be realistic—this is a book where the primary audience will never have even heard of Clyde Fans: Book One [published in 2004 and now long out of print—DG and EH]. Cover of the out of print Clyde Fans Book 1. Copyright Seth. It doesn’t make sense after ten years or more to bother with that old format. In an ideal world, maybe I would have followed through with book two. On some level it would have been nice to do a second volume that matched the first, but I don’t think I even broached the idea. A single volume containing the whole thing just seemed logical. Eric: Abe was on the cover of the first collection, and Simon was to have been on the second. Originally, that was the way it was going to be, and that would have been nice. I still would have liked to have done that—it hurts to leave that design idea unfinished. But realistically I knew everyone was leaning toward a single volume, just because it makes financial sense, it would sell better, and the new audience is going to wonder why there are two books. I mean, we’d probably have had to reprint volume one just to make that plan work. It just makes sense to put out one single nice fat volume. So that’s the way it’s going to be. And to be honest, I’m glad. Dom: Do you know when it will be out roughly? I think in the spring, 2019. It certainly feels like the end of a phase of my career, that’s for sure. I feel very much like I’m dividing my life right now. Clyde Fans and then everything after. Dom: I guess you’ve spent close to half your life serializing it. Oh, for sure. It’s been twenty years, I think. It was started in ’97 and I finished it in 2017, so… It’s funny, twenty years sounds like a long time when you’re young. But when you’re older, it’s like, “ah twenty years, I barely noticed those twenty years passing.” 1997 still feels like six years ago to me. Somebody’ll say, “Oh that was ages ago, back in 2008” or something and I’m like, “what, 2008? That’s not a long time ago.” But with young people… You meet a young person who’s 22, and you talk about 2005, that’s a lifetime ago. 2005 feels like just the other day to me. Dom: I still think of stuff from the ‘90s as new. Oh yes, me too. I don’t know any of the music from the ‘90s because it was too new. My wife talks about music in the ‘90s when we’re in the car listening to the old folks’ channel, something comes on from the ‘90s and I’m like, “what’s this?” I stopped listening to contemporary music sometime in the late ‘80s. Everything from the ‘90s sounds too new to me. When I say “modern music” I’m talking about the 1990’s. That stuff is already on the oldies channel!! I’m really out of step with the culture, but, even so, there are the odd things that creep into my consciousness. Right now I’ve hit a technology gap. For years, I could always watch anything on a DVD, but now because I’m not streaming or on Netflix or whatever, I have no way to see a contemporary film if it’s not in the movie theaters nearby. I need to make the technological jump to some other system and yet I can’t dredge up the interest to bother figuring it out. They simply don’t make a DVD of anything anymore. And you can’t rent anything any longer either. All the video stores are gone. There was a time, even ten years ago, where I would go down to the video store, and we had a very good video store here in Guelph, and you’d be like, “okay, here’s a modern film. this looks interesting.” Now I’m out of the loop. Entirely. Eric: Speaking of technologies fading away, and recognizing that you’ve told this story many times before, it perhaps bears repeating: why fans? It’s simply that there was a real Clyde Fans. It was a storefront at King and Sherbourne in Toronto. In fact, the building is still there. It’s a clothing store now. For a long time it was a gallery and still had the words “Clyde Fans” on the front. Sadly, they’ve scrapped the old hand painted lettering off now and not a scrap of evidence remains to show the old fan business was ever there. So yes, it was an old storefront and it looked exactly like the storefront that I draw in the comic. First appearance of the Clyde Fans storefront, cover of Palookaville 10, 1997. Copyright Seth. I’ve told this story many times. I passed by it all the time in those days. It was already pretty much of out-of-business when I first noticed it. I would look in the window, into the dark office— very much like the office in the story—and on the back wall were two photographs, as I have in the book, of two men that, in my memory, looked much like the brothers I ended up creating, although to be honest I can’t really remember what they looked like now, it’s been so many years since I last saw those dim photographs. But yes, there were two men and I often thought, “who were these guys? What were their lives about?” and that simply was the origin of where Clyde Fans came from. I had no particular interest in fans, and in fact actually at first I was going to change the name because I thought, "Oh, well maybe I shouldn’t use the name of the actual business—the real place.” I was going to call it Boyd Fans I think, but then I was like, "Oh, who cares? Nobody's going to know about this or anything. It's in a comic book. No one connected to that old store will ever see this comic story.”…and you know what—I guess that nobody ever has because I’ve never heard a word from anyone connected to the real Clyde Fans business. This is the funny part about it all: I mean, imagine if your father had a fan business and it was called Clyde Fans, or your grandfather. Wouldn't you have Googled it by now to see if there was anything on the internet about it, and wouldn't you be surprised if there were hundreds of references to some comic book called Clyde Fans? After you looked into it and saw that the comic was clearly based on your father's store, wouldn't you contact the guy who's doing this book? I have never heard a thing from anyone. I find that downright odd. So, what does that say to me? It says that there's no family left. It didn't carry on beyond these fellows. Maybe they died bachelors, I don't know, or maybe the last family members are too old to be internet-savvy. Or maybe they are just not the type to reach out and contact. It strikes me as strange though. I would have thought for sure by now somebody would have said, "Hey, that was my uncle's store," or something of the sort. For example, I’ve run into people ... there's a guy I see every year at TCAF [Toronto Comics Art Festival] who comes up to me every year and talks to me about how I drew his dad's antique store in It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken. For the first few years I was like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, you," but now when I see him coming I'm like, "It's the guy whose dad owned the antique store." So it's funny that, yeah, the only reference to Clyde Fans on Google is pretty much my book. You can't even find much of anything there about the real fans themselves. And, of course, there are real electric Clyde Fans. I’ve got a huge Clyde fan sitting out there in the porch. They exist. If you look around you can still find them occasionally. They've got little metal tags on them with the company name. They weren't a huge manufacturer, but I'm literally surprised that there is such a pittance of information about them online. Eric: But the idea was to center it on a fading technology. Exactly. I was— Eric: That was the central impulse— Yes, the metaphor that drew me to it. At that point in time I was probably still formulating a lot of my feelings and opinions about all the change that was occurring in the culture. Eric: Because technology is something that changes so rapidly, especially in the 20th century. The funny thing is—well, yes, I obviously I was trying to make some kind of a direct overt commentary about changing times and technology in those first issues of Clyde Fans, but in retrospect, I look back and I laugh at how completely computer illiterate I was at that point. I'd never even been on a computer then—never even moved a mouse. I don’t think I sat down in front of a computer until sometime around 2002 maybe. So in the early section where Abe is talking about technology changing, that's mostly just reflecting my antagonism towards the computer technology I was feeling at the time but without any real understanding of it whatsoever. Just sensing it encroaching into my life and dreading the change it was bringing to the world. Essentially, I think all the technological change I'd experienced before that was somewhat gradual—relatively unnoticed. A technological change that one accepts without thinking because one is used to a kind of step by step progress. You know, we all saw televisions go from black and white to color, records to cassettes, incremental changes ... I remember my brother in law having a home computer in the '80s and it made no impression on me whatsoever. He was like, "You want to look at my home computer?" And I remember thinking nothing of it. It wasn’t any different than when he showed me his de-humidifier. I'm like, "Yeah, whatever.” I did not recognize what was coming at all. Dom: I remember the first time I saw one, I thought, "who would want this?" That was what I was thinking. I recall asking, "What is it for?" But by the time I was writing Clyde Fans I was definitely thinking about the effects of big cultural change and getting kind of frightened by it. I was seeing it firsthand in my work as a commercial artist. That field was changing. Suddenly artwork was being scanned rather than being sent physically to the printer. The technology wasn't so good in the first couple of years too. So a lot of the early reproductions in the magazines were really quite crappy. The color trueness was really off when they'd scan from a watercolor painting, and the pixelization was really apparent in the early years, and I was thinking to myself, “this is a definitely step down.” It didn’t even seem like progress. I was irritated that I was being dragged into a world that I had no interest in. I sensed that soon I might be forced to learn a bunch of technological skills that were anathema to me. Although now, here we are 20 years later I will freely admit the technology has revolutionized things, and the printing today is much superior to what I was used to back then in the 90s. It's incredible the quality—the reasonably priced quality you can get because of— Eric: So you spoke too soon? Exactly. In some ways, although in other ways I’ve stubbornly stuck to my guns. I'm still with Abe in his basic ... the basic point he puts forward in the first chapter. That you can get rolled over by technology. I feel right now I am being rolled over by technology—social media, the internet, the nature of how human interaction is changing. I’m feeling like I’m a pin in a bowling alley. It's incredible how much change has occurred in the last ten years, and that I'm not ready for it. I'm sure you guys must feel it as well. Dom: The only social media I'm on is Facebook. But you must be aware the dialogue that's going on online. The way people ... it's like… how do people relate to each other? Dom: Trolling each other, yeah, it's not been good for civil discourse, that's for sure. I think we're living in an odd period. We're living in this period that they'll probably look back on in the same manner as the Wild West where they'll say, “Man, that was a confused period." Something or other will undoubtedly change in the next twenty years that will sort out this mess. It’s got to change. This can't be the way it's always going to be from now on. Eric: I hope so. It's leading to societal chaos, I think. In the future they'll look back on all this and say, "These were the years before we figured out A, B, and C," because right now I think ... I just don't see this as culturally sustainable. We are in trouble. Dom: Well yes, it's in theory democratic access to information. You'd think it'd be a good thing. Dom: But the most insidious thing that it's led to is the annihilation of the concept of truth. That's one thing I've been thinking about and of course following so closely what's going on with Trump. Eric: Giuliani's recent statement, for example. Dom: Truth isn't truth. Yeah. It’s interesting how quickly we absorb each day’s chaos and then move on to the next. It seems to me that what's happening here is a complete breakdown in all the societal norms that keep our societies running smoothly. You've got people now who are saying things like, "Who cares if ... these crimes don't matter." It's like, now we'll admit they're crimes, but— Dom: They're irrelevant ones. They're irrelevant ones. That's a big shift from ... you couldn't have had that without this dividing line of alternate media where people are only believing one thing or the other and there are no longer the old gate keepers that set the standard of what truth is. Now you could make good arguments that that was a bullshit system too, and that you couldn't necessarily ... that when you look through the history of 20th century government and media that people were being lied to consistently and facts were hidden and etc., etc., etc., but it did mean you had a common ground of information. Now, it's like you can't even talk to each other because it’s a matter of you've got your talking point and I've got my talking points and they have nothing to do with each other. Eric: There doesn't seem to be a consensus reality anymore. That's problematic, and the more people dialogue exclusively through digital means, the less likely they are to be reasonable about it—to even consider meeting in the middle. Dom: Yes, because no one's close enough to punch you in the nose for saying something really nasty. True, in regular life you wouldn't be so nasty. If I was talking ... I went out to lunch recently with an acquaintance I hadn't seen in ten years and when we began talking I started in with my anti-Trump talk and then suddenly I realized he's a Trump supporter, and I was like, "Oh, I didn't expect that," but I didn't say to him, "Fuck you." I was polite and accommodating— like, I was surprised, disappointed, even a bit disgusted. It wasn’t entirely out of character but still—supporting Donald Trump!! But whatever ... we had a conversation about it and at a certain point it was obvious we simply came to a wordless decision not to talk about it any more. Dom: We'll agree to disagree. Exactly. So in effect, I was being more reasonable towards Donald Trump and he was lessening his active support. We could meet in the middle with, "Well, I can see your point, but," and then we moved on to other topics, and I thought this is the way people used to behave because they had to. But online you're like, "Fuck you and fuck your children, and I hope you die of a horrible cancer," and this is not how people should talk to each other. Dom: No, it's toxic. So we shall see what happens, but anyhow, enough of Donald Trump. My life doesn't revolve around Donald Trump. Dom: We can leave this out of the transcription if you want. I don't care. I'm fine with it, but my poor wife— she's like, "I've heard enough about Donald Trump for two lifetimes." Eric: When I crossed over the border I felt an enormous weight had been lifted. Ha-ha. It’s interesting because I was never much interested in American politics before. I couldn't tell you much of anything that went on during the Obama years. All that mattered to me was everything seems fine. So it's like I'm not ... I wasn't checking in on Obama every day. Not at all, and in fact, I'm not checking in on Canadian politics every day. I get the basic news from the printed newspaper in the morning and that's enough. I don't need any more than that. Even when the guy I dislike, like Doug Ford here in Ontario, I'm not obsessively following what Doug Ford's up to. Somehow it's very different with what's going on with Donald Trump. Eric: Very different. I'm not following Brexit every day. There's a cultural breakdown of norms that's going on that's very unique here, and we're living through interesting times. Eric: That's the Jewish curse. Yes, exactly. Here is one thing that Trump will be happy about— in the future when they talk about American presidents he’ll be right on the tip of everyone’s tongue. The big names, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, JFK, Nixon, and Donald Trump. He will be one of the presidents that is talked about forever. He won't be up on Mount Rushmore, but he will be ... people will be like, "Name a president." He'll be among the first few people named for 100 years. Longer even. Anyhow, back to comics. Dom: You were saying a few minutes ago, this is a question we had coming up anyway, but since you mentioned how you’d been looking forward for a long time to getting to the point where you would be doing the toys sequence, that fits with my impression when I was rereading it as a completed work that despite the length of time the serialization took, it feels like it was very carefully planned. It was, although there's two sides to that answer. It was very carefully planned, but it was not written in advance. So just about every single thing that happens in the book was planned back in '97. Every scene basically, although vaguely. So I knew, back then, that in the final chapter, for example, after his vision concludes there would be a silent sequence where he walks to the train station, and then I could see I wanted to have a long sequence of the train and then back in Toronto, all the way back to the house. Section of the long walk home. Copyright Seth. I didn't have any ... I hadn't given it any real thought to the very images themselves or how the pages broke down. I just knew that would happen and when I got to that point in the story I was ready to execute it. I knew the arc of the scenes for every section, but I didn't bother to write anything beyond copious notes because I knew that it would be far too boring a process to write a script and then draw it over a long period of time. Even when I initially came up with the idea of the book and I planned that Clyde Fans would take about five years to do, I still was like, that will be far too boring for five years work. So, of course, I plotted it all out in point form and then spontaneously write each section as I went along because that in that way it was easy to my interest alive. Ultimately, I’m glad I did it that way too because after such a very long time you change—I mean, you yourself change, the way you think changes. Probably if I had actually written it all out as a script I’d have had to rewrite it every few years. I mean, the story itself wouldn’t have changed but the subtleties of how I wanted to get those scenes across would have evolved. That’s the irony of the book. The story evolved over time…and yet it remained essentially exactly as I planned it. Dom: That's where I was coming from with that. It took twenty years, but it doesn't feel like the point of view or the ethos or the informing ideas change over that time, and you do see that sometimes with serialization where someone clearly changed their conception. From an artistic point, there must be an interesting and challenging aspect to doing that. It’s funny. I wasn't trying in any way to keep any dogmatic consistency, but I think it might just speak more to the fact that I've had a consistent set of interests over all those years. Certain things have changed, of course, in that time and perhaps say, how I might pace a story has changed, but the underlying tone of what I was doing hasn't really changed much in twenty years. I’ve been on a very consistent thread of thought for decades. It narrows or widens, but I think a certain way. Even the work I'm doing today, I can see that I might have still been attracted, back in ’97, to the story I'm writing at this moment for my next book. What might have changed is my understanding of why I'm interested in these things now. I think that when I wrote Clyde Fans I didn't really know what I was writing about, why I picked this particular story or why these particular characters or what any of the underlying qualities in the book are about, or "about" in quotes. Now I think I know why I would write such a story. I look at the work and ... except for a couple of minor things, this old story is pretty much exactly the same themes I'm interested in writing today. Over the years I've said to myself repeatedly, "What do I like and why do I like it?" So you watch a movie and you say, "I like that movie. That really appealed to me, but ..." and often what I'll say is, "... but I wish they had stayed in one contained location." Or, "...too many characters," or whatever. You have a qualm of some kind. Then eventually over the years, especially when you’re a writer as well, you say to yourself, "What's the ideal story I'd like to write so that I could read it?" Often that takes a really long time 'til you figure out what it is you're actually interested in. It seems obvious, I know. You'd think, I'm interested in blah, blah, blah, so I'll write about that, but when I look at Clyde Fans now I think, "Well what was I interested in there enough to make me write that story?" Clearly, for example, I’m interested in isolation. I like the idea of characters that exist in isolation and how they deal with it, how they deal with loneliness or being alone. I like a very limited environment. So most of the story takes place in the Clyde Fans building. If I were to write that now, knowing what I think about it now I might have set the whole thing in the building and never have them leave the rooms at all. I like a low amount of conflict in a story. So even with Clyde I’m like, there's too much conflict in the way I wrote it. The scene where they come together to talk, it's kind of an argument. I probably would have lessened that if I'd planned it today, and because I find that when I ... well, almost anything I watch or read today when I get to the end I say to myself, "I wish there'd been a little less conflict in that." Abe and Simon's confrontation. Copyright Seth. Eric: I think probably one of your main criticisms of anything is there's too much going on here. It's true; I always want to narrow things down, make them flatter. It's funny, there's some process of acclimatization that occurs through repetition... I mean, if you like something a lot, a film or a book, and you return to it over and over again, the level of emotional conflict gets lessened by the simple fact of familiarity—of knowing what's going to happen. So there's certain things I love that are conflict ridden like say, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I love the film version and yet it’s literally fighting and backbiting from the first scene 'til the last, but at some point the nature of the experience changes; once you've watched the movie 50 times, it's no longer stressful. Actually I watch it for pure relaxation—the pure enjoyment of the repartee between the characters or whatever. So I think a lot of conflict has to do with the initial encounter. A lot of books I love have a certain amount of conflict in them as well, but once the conflict is resolved then I'm happy to read it a second time. Generally the thing is, I've realized I don't like tension in a story which I suppose is usually the opposite of what they're telling you makes a good story. Isn’t conflict/tension considered the basis of any solid piece of fiction? I feel that's an oversold element in how we write fiction. It's one of the first rules they will tell you when you're writing something, “where's the conflict?” Eric: Man versus man, man versus himself, man versus nature? Yes. If you're taking a creative writing course or something and you hand in your low conflict story they'd say, "This is really flat. There's no conflict, you know, whatever." It's interesting that we've placed such a high value on that aspect of drama. Some of the things I probably most enjoy are ... and in fact, in almost every book I read lately I find myself really paying attention to the slower sections—I’ll say to myself, "Pages 70 to 89 were great. Nothing happened. Then unfortunately a big fight occurred on pages 90 to 99 and I lost interest.” I’m almost always saddened when the plot picks back up. Everything was going along so nice and slow and dreary and then…blah blah blah. So there it is, a lot of yakking to just point out the simple idea that over twenty years I've figured out what I most liked, and fortunately a lot of it was in Clyde anyway. Nothing much happens in the story, which is just peachy with me. So getting back to the final sequence, the out of body experience, that was something that I didn't realize why I put that in when I first wrote the story, but today, it is blatantly obvious to me that I have some sort of a... I guess I would say a mystic bend in my thinking. I'm basically a materialist, but I have a very strong feeling of unreality about reality as I am sure most of us do. That said, I feel like ... when I look back at almost everything I write, there's always a scene where a character somehow tries to deal with the more profound nature of mundane everyday life, and that final sequence in Clyde Fans was particularly ... well, maybe the essential Seth plot point—somebody coming to an interior experience of the unreality of life. I think ... I may have always felt deeply interested in this specific sensation, even when I was a child or a teenager maybe, but I wouldn't have put my finger on it and said, "This is a story point that interests me." Over the years that element has grown stronger. More pervasive. So the book I'm planning out right now, it's got a good amount of that mystic element to it, for sure. Dom: That's one of the things that struck me rereading it. I mentioned before the sense of the uncanny about it, that there's a feeling in the book that there is sort of a subterranean or extra-material world. Especially for Simon. I love that moment where he steps in the crack in the wall, and that's a completely mundane statement and yet it's completely impossible. Simon steps in a crack. Copyright Seth. Yes, I was pleased with that particular sequence—not so happy with the toys—but that crack in the wall worked because it was a simple flat statement that sets up the idea that Simon is involved in another level of reality or perhaps a hallucinatory experience, but the toy stuff felt too forced for me. I think that's the tricky part for me was trying to get that in between tone. Somewhere in that sweet spot between mundane and fantastical. Hard to do. You mentioned Twin Peaks. Lynch is particularly good at creating a separate ... particularly good at capturing that reality that this isn't reality. Do you know Inland Empire well? Dom: I've seen it, yes. That's my favorite of his films, and as I watch it more and more, the most remarkable element of it is the shifting sense of reality. The characters are doubled. They change identities, character traits…in some odd way that is what real life feels like. He’s getting at something complex there. He recognizes and portrays that odd sense you feel in life that perhaps you might have been somebody else, or maybe in the back of your mind you almost remember a different life. If you thought hard about it you might think, “Oh, no that's not true. Maybe that's just a dream," but there's a strange shifting quality to reality that you wouldn't ... I feel like I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if suddenly it was revealed to me that this life was a dream and this had all been a dream, and you’d say, "Oh, well of course. It felt like a dream. It couldn't have been reality, could it?” Dom: Makes sense now. Yes. Exactly. Eric: With regards to Simon's sort of hallucinatory state, mental state... there’s an ambiguity in Clyde Fans because you're not sure if that's contributing to his isolation or if it's the result of his isolated state. It's a good question, and I'm not sure I have an answer. Eric: I hate to say, but there's a tension there. Eric: It's not a conflict. I don't mind if there’s some tension. It's true. I like a bit of ambiguity in a story, and that's another thing that I've realized over the years is that everybody likes a mystery, but most people don't really care for the solution of the mystery. Eric: This gets back to David Lynch who puts the mystery at the forefront. Exactly, and a lot of people don't care for Lynch because they want answers. Dom: Even if they don't like them, they want them. …and when they get the answers it almost always deflates the experience. So, myself, I like ambiguity in a story, and I'm not entirely sure what any all of my own work means either. It's much like Simon's vision ... is that vision ... is there any truth in that vision? Is there actually anything revealed to him that's true, or like you say, is that vision a response to his own fear? Is it what leads him into retreat? I feel that the first time through— when people are reading the book serialized— nobody would have been understanding, in Part Three, where I'm showing how the vision fails Simon, because the reader hasn’t experienced the vision yet. It’s just hinted at. When you read it I’m clearly showing that the vision has not lived up to what it promised, which is an exquisite world of isolation and decay. Instead it has solidified into a prison of loneliness for Simon. So, there’s a lot of ambiguity, in that I haven't made up my mind either whether that vision at the end is representative of something that is beautiful. A crystal cave of exquisite solitude, whatever words I used, or if it is literally the hallucinations of a deluded person who's consigning himself to a mistake. A realm of crystallized stasis. Copyright Seth. Obviously in real life I would’ve advised Simon, "You need to get out." That is not the answer. Poetically, I’m encouraging him to stay put. Eric: I think also, though, in a way his isolation acts as a metaphor for the life of an artist, and you do imply that he has an artistic sensibility, since he's working on the book that he never gets around to writing. So there's that isolation that the profession sometimes demands, and I'm speaking personally as a writer, that feeling of the distance from one's audience, of being anonymous, and yet at the same time having a persona that's public in a way. Having one's life at work at best misunderstood and at worst completely disregarded. Abe's speech about Simon reflects this. He's talking about himself, but he might as well be talking about Simon. He's saying, "It's funny how long he could simply be doing what he's always done no matter how futile, day in, day out while the world goes on without noticing." Simon also recognized this anonymity and disregards the results from his isolation. Yet at the same time he considers that isolation a necessary condition of his experiences of profound feelings. You say that the "unfortunate irony" of his prerequisite of isolation is that there's no opportunity to share it. Simon’s resigned to the fact that the artist must ultimately come to terms with this irony. I often think this is the basic dilemma of loneliness is that ... or loneliness verses being alone—is that being alone is an essential quality to experience certain things. Certain things you only experience or you experience deeply when you're alone. Earlier when we were talking about the drive you took to visit here, that drive is a deeper experience when you're on your own because you notice things in a different way. You're not distracted by conversations with other people. Your senses are somehow more alive. I recall a trip to Hudson, New York, a couple of years ago, I went there, and I had a terrific afternoon where I walked around the streets on my own, just looking at the town, and then I walked a long time trying to find a perfect spot to have lunch. Finally, I settled down in this cavernous Mediterranean restaurant and I was reading a really good book, drinking a couple of glasses of wine, and I had no responsibilities in life whatsoever. That day is burned in my brain as a really, really exquisite afternoon because it was that perfect experience you can only have when you're alone. Now, I could think of other experiences that go a few years back in time when I was single and very lonely walking around by myself on a book tour or something. When you're miserable, you’re often not actually experiencing things more deeply, or maybe you are, but the desire to share them with someone is so deep that it actually undercuts the value of being alone. There's an interesting dichotomy because almost always if you're alone long enough you start losing the wonderful quality of observation and experience and contentment and the alone time begins to transform into the interior experience of loneliness. When you're lonely all you really experience is being lonely. You walk around saying to yourself "Oh, I'm lonely. Nobody cares ... Why can't I find a girlfriend?" or "Why doesn't anybody like me?" Eventually you've turned inward and so you've lost that precious quality. I'm extremely interested in loneliness because I'm extremely frightened by it. The times I've had real loneliness in my life have been a little close to madness because they were so filled with anxiety. They were probably closer to panic attacks. Really, the kind of thing where you can't stop thinking about your dilemma. You can't sleep. You can't enjoy anything, and so I'm pretty terrified of that experience. It takes all the pleasure out of life, and that's one of the reasons why I think I'm so interested in the idea of isolation because on the flip side of that terrible loneliness, I'm really, really happy when I'm by myself and content. I mean, I’ve almost always been happy alone. I grew up as basically an only child, but not a lonely child. The difference always was, when I was a child, it was mother and me and that cozy little world of two kept loneliness at bay. and now it's my wife, Tania, that supplies that emotional balm. These figures, Mother or Wife, do not need to be with me all the time—far from it—but they give me this powerful buffer against loneliness. Just the knowledge of their presence. Knowing I am not actually alone in the world makes all the difference. When I'm in the studio alone and Tania's at work at her barbershop I'm very, very content and happy. I know I'll see her later in the day. We'll have a good time together. I don't feel lonely for one second. Sometimes I'm in the house for weeks on end without even stepping out the front door, except when I go out with her on the weekends. Most of the time I never even think about anybody else. But, if she were to die or leave me, probably after a couple months the whole day would be long dirge like "Oh, another gray day alone in this horrible house, how can I stand it?” It's interesting how perspective shifts. There's a series of artists I'm particularly interested in because they were either isolated or alone —just interested in how they dealt with it. I can't remember, last time we talked I may have mentioned this list of artists then too. I’m often thinking of them. My own little pantheon of lonely artist. Anyhow, to return to what you were talking about—about Simon's dilemma being comparable to the experience of being an artist—hmm, well, what I think essentially differentiates those two experiences is that Simon isn’t involved in communicating through his art to others. He’s alone. I've talked to Chester Brown about this a few times, more than a few times, where we say, "Would we still be doing comics if nobody really cared? Would we have given up years ago if we were just putting out a Xerox comic and few people cared? I mean, maybe, but you're not really getting much feedback?" That feedback of positivity is so essential to allow you to keep working. When I started out, I was unsure of what I was doing, like all young artists are, but now I'm very sure of what I'm doing. It's not simply because of a natural progression of skill by which you do get better, but it’s confidence. That changes. Eventually, if you get enough positive feedback, you're no longer bothered so much by the negative feedback or even the lack of feedback. Let’s face it, you don’t develop confidence in a vacuum. If you get little or no feedback to your work... well, jeez, I’m always impressed by people who continue to put out work when they're getting almost no feedback—then you must ask, "Why are they doing it? Is it just for themselves?" “Can you be that self focused? That confident and secure?” Of course, that sense of doing for yourself has to be a big part of any kind of artistic endeavor, but let’s not kid ourselves. It's never just about that alone. Dom: Otherwise you wouldn’t publish it, right? Exactly, just put it in a closet. You want feedback, and probably there's not a single person who doesn't create some work and secretly (or not so secretly) hope, somewhere in the back of their minds, that someone's going to say, "This is the greatest thing I've ever seen." Who doesn’t do that? I mean, you always have the same two opinions of every piece of work you finish. "This is great," or "This is terrible." Usually you have both. Usually about the same work. What changes is that over time, when you’ve received enough positive feedback over the years, is that you stop worrying and say to yourself, "This will be received fine." Chances are nobody's going to say "Finally, they've revealed themselves to be a complete idiot." Not at this point. They'll just be, "It's more of what they do" or if you are lucky somebody might say, "It's the best thing you've ever done." Occasionally it’s, "Oh, this is the sad sign that they're heading downhill," but generally the confidence comes from communication, and without that communication I'm literally not sure how people endure, how they keep doing the work. Some people literally do continue to produce ... Well, there's another point too. I was about to say continue to produce really tremendous work that nobody seems to care about, but that's actually stacking the deck because then they probably have, from a small quarter, perceived the kind of feedback where somebody says, "This book of monoprints or this poetry is tremendous and I love it." One letter even, or some important things that a few people have said to you, or one good review or something in a small magazine, but it's quite different than absolutely an indifferent mention in a zine about what you've done. That's not going to keep you going for twenty years. Then that's where I'm particularly interested in artists like Henry Darger, who did all that work in private. You say, "Why were they doing it?" I’d guess Darger was doing it to save his life because he would have died if he didn't have that artwork. It was an interior world to live in. That's a very different use of art than I’m what I employing to construct my next book. That's a really different experience than most artists. Eric: That's like more the therapeutic theory of art. … which is extremely interesting, but you know it didn't make him happy. Working on that did not bring happiness, but it probably brought a kind of day-to-day ... salvation…I mean, I can relate to that somewhat. When I was a teenager I came home every single night and drew these shitty super hero comics that I was totally into because that was a more interesting world to me than the world of high school, and I needed that. Eric: That's a low bar. A very low bar. Eric: You could say that about Darger, that it was cathartic. Yes, he was taking sustenance from that deep experience of immersing himself in fantasy. His landlord could hear him through the walls talking to himself in several voices. That's a total immersion—having conversations with yourself and you're playing both sides. You can’t write a story like that. You would never write that. It's too good. Or too corny. I’m not sure which. Eric: It's kind of what Simon does, though. It is, and that's why I had to tone that down. I've gotten off track here. Somehow that had to do with loneliness. There are artists I admire because these are artists whose work I love, or I'm influenced by—whatever. Then there's this other, smaller group where mostly it is their life story that is interesting. I do like their work as well, but I probably would like their work less if they had had a different life. Edward Gorey's another good example. I like Edward Gorey, but I like Edward Gorey a lot more for being Edward Gorey than I do for his books. Dom: One of the things I was I think noticing more, rereading Clyde Fans, is that, and I think this ties in with what you were just talking about, Simon is, in some ways, a kind of visual analog to some of your avatar characters. Is there an element in which you see Simon as a way of expressing that aspect of what you were talking about, about loneliness and aloneness? He is, for sure, but Abe is as well. They're both flip sides of the same person. It's funny though, with Simon, problematically he's drawn too much like some of my own self-caricatures. He's a bit more—he’s certainly thinner and he's a little more gnarled looking, but I actually feel like I've got to a point where I was drawing him and I'd gotten too used to drawing him. He was starting to merge with my own self-caricature. The problem with that is that I worry that a reader who doesn't know my work might find the various parts of Palookaville confusing. Mixing up the various bespectacled, fedora wearing protagonists. Or even the simple worry that someone might think I am using Simon entirely as a self-flattering avatar. Dom: No, it doesn't feel like it was autobiographical or anything, but it seemed like it had to be a deliberate choice to make him resemble the Seth persona. It wasn't deliberate. Not really. I just drew two 1950s types when I first started Clyde ... Going back, it's so hard to even remember what my thinking was because I didn't put a great deal of thinking into these initial character designs. I needed two characters, and these are the two guys I drew. One of them had a mustache and one of them had glasses. Then over time— Abe Matchcard. Copyright Seth. Dom: It's iconic, so they're easily recognizable. Simon Matchcard. Copyright Seth. Exactly, so you could tell them apart quickly. One would be heavier and one would be skinny. That made it much simpler, but I did know at the beginning that they were both going to be the two sides of my own personality. That was an obvious point that I knew from the word go. I think when I first started working in comics there was this idea that I was a reclusive person who was shy, which is not who I am at all. I’m, as you know, a very gregarious person. I talk a lot. Far too much. I’m not a person who's quiet. Often, when I meet people they would be like, "Oh, you're a lot more outgoing than I expected you to be,” So, when I was first working on these characters I knew I wanted to take the two sides of my personality, the very extroverted personality which would be Abe, but also the introverted me. Essentially I think of myself as an extrovert who doesn't value extroversion. I value introversion. Simon is more the quieter side of my life. If you're a very outgoing person you often end up being filled with a kind of low level self-loathing. It's a natural thing that if you go out and you talk and talk for hours, then you come home and you have this experience of what I call “the physic hangover.” You're like, "Oh God, I talked way too much. What was the thing I said? That was so stupid. Oh, I would like to take that back but" blah, blah, blah. Then when you spend five days by yourself and a calm descends— you’re like, "Those were five great days because the only person I'm dealing with is myself." When you're by yourself, your true self comes to the fore in some strange manner, maybe that's an illusion, I’m not sure, but you're not reflecting off of anyone else and that makes a tremendous difference. So much of the experience of talking to other people is what is bouncing back to you from them—you see yourself reflected back and very often that is off putting. I wanted to deal with two characters who were those two types, my extrovert and my introvert. It gave me a perfect opportunity to have Abe be the much brusquer character and Simon to be the much more reluctant one. Eric: Simon, albeit to a much more extreme and probably less well-adjusted degree, like you in a way, kind of lives in a self-constructed world. There's a comfort to that, but can't you also regard that, as with Simon, as a kind of prison? For sure, I do recognize that. Although as you get older, whoever you are—you become more of that person. Eric: In a way it's also freeing. There's a dichotomy there. There is. I don't think it's so freeing for Simon. He has constructed a prison. I feel like he's made ... I feel the vision he experienced, it was a misleading choice in his life. It was probably his one opportunity to change, and instead it reinforced the worst choice he was already making—which was retreat. Retreat; in my own life I favor retreat. It's something that I value deeply, but I recognize that it is not a quality that society value and when I talk to people about choosing to opt out of certain things I can just sense that most people don't see retreat as a healthy choice. It's interesting that people are ... If you talk about getting older the thing that is always valued when people are getting older is how much they remain in contact with what's changing and with youth ... Eric: But that in its own way is imprisoning. I see people walking around with their phones. These gadgets take over their life and then by you saying, "Well, I would rather not do that" they respond, "What's wrong with you?" It's very true. I think the good thing about getting older, like you were saying, is it is freeing because you no longer need as much approval. This ties in again with the positive reinforcement idea; at a certain point in your life if you've had enough positive reinforcement you become more confident too in making choices that are outside of society's pressure. Well, within reason. We're all conformists so you can't really get away from that, but you can say, "I'm not going to get a device,” for example. That’s not much of a stand. You’ll take grief for it but it’s a little thing. I've refused. My wife has one and I've seen, even with her, it taking over her life. I catch her when I'm going to the kitchen for a second. I see she's checking something on it. I've told Drawn and Quarterly I will not get one for traveling or book tours or whatever. I've already capitulated and got a laptop. That's more than enough. If you need to contact me, send me an email. I will check it in the morning, at night, whatever. I do think that as I grow older I'm much more confident in doing things because they're the way I like them rather than just being purely reactionary. When I was younger ... I used to always make fun of Chester, that he was a contrarian. It seems like every choice he was making it was just to be the opposite of what you're supposed to do. I used to make a lot of fun of him about that, but at some point I realized I think I’ve pretty much been doing the exact same thing. Sadly, being contrary often means taking a stand against things that mean nothing to you. For example, someone might say, "Have you seen Breaking Bad?" I'd be like, "No, I am not interested in any contemporary television shows." But why? Why am I not interested in any contemporary television shows? I might even trust the person’s taste who is recommending the show, but I will still reject it. It’s like, "Why would I refuse to watch that show?" It's just contrarianism. I'm just taking a stand on something that's totally unimportant. Just stubbornly refusing to keep up with the culture. I’m not proud of this stubborn silly behavior, but it is a fact and isn’t likely to change. For me, that is the type of character I’ve grown into. I’m not going to make any effort to “keep up” because it’s expected of me. I just don’t care. I’m following my own little thread. On the flip side of that, though—you do come to recognize that there are certain areas where you're literally being left behind. You don't know what's going on any more. You feel that there's a tipping point you passed where the culture has somehow moved on somewhere else now and you don't know anything about popular culture any more. I think I've hit that point. I don't know the name of any modern singers. I don't know what any of these video games are people are playing. I might see the occasional contemporary film, but not too many. I'm not unhappy about this, but it is an awareness that, "Yeah, I'm totally out of the loop now." Eric: With Simon, then, in a way is his depiction of your thinking through, "Well, this is the darker side," or this where this sort of isolationism can lead essentially? I think it's the recognition. In Simon I see the danger of where isolation leads to ... Eric: Mental instability? It's the difference between, again, the difference between being alone and being lonely. Eric: There's a healthy level of isolation. Eric: Then an unhealthy level. Eric: He's gone way beyond. He has, although Abe doesn't fully see that because somehow or other by the beginning of the book Abe sees Simon's struggle as somehow laudatory and even at the end of the book when Abe goes back to live in the Clyde Building, you know that it's because he's decided that Simon is somehow correct and made the right choice to retreat, but is that a right choice? I'm not really sure that I have a concise answer for that. Dom: The value of retreat with dignity? Yes. I do believe that both the characters are fighting for some kind of dignity. I understand that. Getting older that's exactly what I'm thinking too, how to maintain yourself in this culture with dignity. It's not a particularly dignified period we're living in. Eric: It's kind of guilt by association isn't it? It's funny. I look at the internet and I think it's interesting that it's a let-it-all-hang-out culture, and I'm not sure that I'm 100% behind that idea. It's not prudishness. Nothing shocks me, or it's not censoriousness ... I am opposed to any censorship, but I certainly don't think we should be ... I think what it is, is just that—the culture is lacking in any kind of dignity at the moment. It’s like “Hey, I just shit my pants. Who wants to see it?" My feeling—there are things that we should keep to ourselves. There are ways that we should interact with each other. There's a veneer needed to maintain dignity that isn't just ... It's about formality, but it's not about being trapped by formality. I feel like we haven't hit that point yet where our society has said, "We don't want to be trapped by formal custom that inhibits us to be happy or free, but we also don't want to live in this complete, undignified, let-it-all-hang-out culture either." There's got to be a middle way. This is why I have such a dislike of the era I grew up in, the '60s and early '70s. This period where the hippie culture officially took hold. That's when we threw the baby out with the bath water. Don’t get me wrong—there was plenty of bath water to throw out. I certainly wouldn’t have been happy living in the 1950s with that particular culture, but somehow or other that period of the ‘60s to the early '80s was a miasma of change that didn't necessarily lead, I think, to an obviously better culture. I mean, that was an interesting period. A break that had to occur— where they had to, of course, throw away a lot of that early 20th century thinking. Social progress is important and the changes in society made a world where I can do what I wish and make the kind of work that I wish. The monolithic quality of the Western culture has totally fragmented. And that’s all good. However, the vacuum left by the discarding of the tone of the old culture doesn’t feel right to me somehow. This is one of the things where I sometimes crave for more formality, where I say, "There doesn't seem to be enough effort being put into things.” Maybe it’s just personal inclinations— I liked a culture where you went out more, where you had to dress up for things. I liked a culture where people had more interest in aesthetics or ritual or whatever, blah, blah, blah. It’s a messy argument. The current culture feels cheap and junky to me. It's about instantaneous pleasure rather than long-term accomplishment. Even just in the arts, or in the popular arts, I feel like there's a strong pressure to get something out every five minutes before people lose interest in you. I was just thinking that the other day, "I haven't had a book out in quite some time. Thank God that Clyde Fans book is coming out because I don't have a new work at the moment." It's like after a couple of years you're totally off everyone’s radar. Whereas I’m not losing sleep about whether people are “talking” about me or not, I do care that if you're off the radar people stop calling to offer you opportunities where you can make some money. It's disturbing to me just how quickly everything is moving right now. I don't feel like the people would be ... It would not be a wise move right now if I met a young artist and they told me, "I'm thinking of doing a book that will take me 15 years to do and this'll be the only thing I'm working on." I'd say, without doubt, "That is a terrible plan because you need to get your name out there." People have to see what you're doing, practically every day, or else you can't build a career. That was not so true when I started out. Not true at all. Eric: Right, there are these YouTube performers, I guess you would call them, and there's been news stories about these people having mental breakdowns, committing suicide because of the incredible pressure to produce content and to produce it constantly. And for that content to work its magic and get enough people to care. You can imagine how stressful that must be. Dom: You were talking about how that it's kind of crummy, people don't dress up anymore, and so on. It seems to go hand in hand with what we were just talking about. Ultimately it comes down to ethics, doesn't it? It's an ethical consideration, as far as how we are determined to act responsibly toward each other. Eric: ... in this agreed way of being, decorum, civilized behavior and so forth, and how it's degenerated. Politeness is a basic formality that you would think everyone agrees on, this goes back to what we were talking about earlier, but that's not the case. You will have people who will say, and to your face too, not just on the internet, they'll say, "Ah, that's just bullshit." Why should I pretend to be nice about something when I don't believe in it? They’re making a case that politeness is hypocrisy. No, that's not how politeness works. You needn’t get into a disagreement with every single person you're talking to. That's not valuable. There are all sorts of unspoken rules that people—there's a certain kind of attitude that polite behavior is simply bullshit. I call this the “keeping it real culture,” which basically appears to me as just an excuse for self indulgence. Maybe it’s just old man stuff, but I honestly believe that politeness is the oil that keeps society moving smoothly. It doesn't work well if we don't have a certain level of formal behavior, and there is a limit to how much formality you can throw away before things fall apart. Yes, lots of commonly agreed upon values change within your lifetime. Nothing new there. Hanging around with Chester Brown, you get into these kinds of discussions constantly. He’s very good at challenging my complacent thinking. Lots of arguments about society and convention—prostitution, of course. Prostitution vs. romantic love etc. etc. Complicated arguments. Chester and I often disagree. I feel like in many arguments about prostitution and morality, he's got his own blind spots—where he's not willing to look so closely into some of the dark corners because it hurts his argument. Not that my arguments about anything are so tight that he couldn’t take them apart at a moment’s notice. Dom: Well, isn't he, at the moment, in a monogamous paid relationship? He is. Definitely, he's a monogamous john, which makes no sense to me. Makes no sense at all, but of course that's because he's an entirely odd character. Any other guy who was a big supporter of prostitution would be all about variety. I mean, the very purpose would be for sexual variety, wouldn’t it? Or convenience. It's funny, but that's Chester for you. Dom: Speaking of Chester, and the whole contrarian thing, when you were talking about that a few minutes ago, this is completely tangential, but one of the things that kind of struck me, rereading Clyde Fans, is there's a kind of ... it doesn't feel like a very "Seth" moment, where early in the book where we actually have Abe urinating. A private moment with Abe. Copyright Seth. Oh yeah. Yes. Dom: And I was thinking was that a Chester comment on the whole, you know, let it all hang out element in his work? No, it wasn't a comment on anything, but now that you say it, it probably is more reflective of when I was doing that comic than anything else—during a period when I was probably trying to do comics that were a little bit more straight forwardly open about bodily functions etc. So you would ... I think the first part of Clyde Fans might be more connected to the earlier work I was doing back then. In Good Life, there's a couple of scenes where I'm naked or whatever. And I think I was probably trying at that point to do work, much like my peers, which would be a little bit more bold or honest, although there's certainly nothing bold about having somebody taking a pee. But I think later, I'd probably got to the point where it never even occurred to me that I should probably have a scene where Simon goes to the bathroom or something. I’d stopped thinking in those terms. That kind of thing was more connected to the idea of reality that people were trying to get in to their auto-biographical comics. I think there was a time where I was considering having some sexual fantasies in Simon's mind, but I wasn't sure when I got to that point in the story whether that fit the tone of Clyde Fans or not. And I think I was considering a scene that when he was taking his mother to the old folks’ home for the first time, that there would be some scene where he looked at one of the nurses and had some kind of a sexual fantasy of ... not very involved, but just enough to let you know he was thinking. To give some reality to the sexual side of the character. He so rarely saw any women, that maybe I would have had a mental image of her naked or something. I don't know. But whenever I did get to that point, it felt totally out of place. That no longer felt like a scene in a “Seth” comic. And I think, progressively, as I'm doing my work, I don't feel very comfortable writing about that kind of thing. In my memoir that I'm drawing right now, Nothing Lasts, yes, I’m writing about sex and yes, there will be more mentions of sex, but it won't be particularly explicit in any way. Very mild. Very modest. I mean, I include my first orgasm and then I think I'm showing myself involved in a one-night stand at the end of the last segment. That's just the beginning of my sexual life, so there will be stuff about sex, but it will all be rather modestly presented. I don't feel ... it's not in my nature to talk openly about intimate matters in my work, but back in the early 90’s I probably was trying a little harder to be more naturalistic. If an old man is getting up in the morning, well then—he’s going to go to the bathroom. But I wonder if I would have bothered showing that if I drew that scene today. Hmm, I might have just had him flushing the toilet or something. I might not have bothered to actually show him urinating. I don't know. Dom: It does, in a way, though, tie into something else that I was sort of noticing, which is ... and we've already talked about this to some extent, but you know, the very real focus on mundane reality— Dom: ... whether it's things like an entire page of fan designs or it would seem to be a kind of echo later when Simon is cataloging all of his mother's possessions. The things we leave behind. Copyright Seth. Dom: There was a real, and more of a very deliberate conscious sense, especially later in the book it seems, when the chapters are getting a little longer and more contemplative, that these artifacts, the day-to-day things, the things that we use on a daily basis, are ultimately what people are going to have left, and they're going to be us. Dom: I mean, someone peeing isn't in the same vocabulary, but it is still mundane, sort of. It is about mundane reality. Well, you've hit on two points that are important to me. One is that you're right. I'm very interested in description. And that's something I've become more aware of as time has gone on. When I did the first chapter of Clyde, what I was focusing on was ... I wasn't thinking of it as description … I was thinking of it as moment-to-moment comic book story telling. So I wanted to make a point of that. If you have a guy get up and get out of bed and walk to the next room, you have to show it all. So, you follow the character around, and I know that was an approach that, back then, I was very interested in. I think of it as "naturalistic” storytelling. You basically follow the character around as they do things like you're a ghost watching them. So that meant that everything that occurred in the first chapter of Clyde had to be moment-to-moment. There would never be a jump. There might like a shift, you know, where you change from one perspective to the other, or it might be on the inside of a door in panel one, and then you cut to outside the door. That was acceptable. It wasn't like animation where you had to follow it directly. But eventually, I came to realize that one of the reasons why I was interested in that kind of story telling in the first place is that I'm actually really interested in description less than action. I think if I was to write Clyde Fans again right now, in that first chapter, there probably would have been a long sequence where Abraham talks about the objects in the house. He doesn't really mention them much. I made it a point to show things, to give a feeling of each room, what was in the room, because I knew that later, you'd be coming back to those rooms in other chapters and I wanted the reader to always instinctively know the layout of the building. You always know where he’s going. But over time, I've become more and more interested in just the idea of describing things. Talking about them in detail rather than just pointedly showing them. For example, the sequence where Simon describes his mother's room, which is like ice cream for me—a total treat. I simply adore a good, deep description. A lot of the books I've been enjoying in the last few years, I really like when the author gives you three pages describing a church or something of that nature. Certainly, Proust is great for this kind of thing. You know, you've got 100 pages talking about the garden. Sometimes it can get a bit much, I admit, but I really do like that deep experience of looking closely at something. Certainly, in the new graphic novel that I'm working on at the moment, there's going to be a lot of that kind of description. Although I'm hoping, I'm still working out some of the details on this, but I'm hoping to mix it so you have the two things: The naturalistic story telling where you follow someone around in real time, and the deep description. These two approaches don’t always work so well together because deep description usually means a lot of narration and that doesn’t always go well with a smooth storytelling style. It often requires a lot of “jump cutting.” We’ll see how that comes together. Fingers crossed. One of the things that I felt when I got to the end of Clyde, after I had drawn out that long vision sequence, which is somewhat naturalistic, but it's also jumps about, and got to the scene where he gets up and walks to the train; I was like, I don't do enough of this this slow style of storytelling any more. I said to myself, this is a kind of storytelling I really value, but you have to put the work in to do it right. It's boring to draw that ten pages of a guy walking from one place to another when you could do it in a page. You could do it in two panels if you really wanted to be expedient—panel one, off to the train station, and then, panel two, there you are coming in the door at the final destination. To digress, one of the reasons why I'm even interested in that kind of storytelling ... this is something Chester and I used to talk about all the time back in the late 80s and early 90s … was you simply that you could do it. In the old days of comics you couldn't do it. Your editor said, here's your story—you’ve got eight pages. You didn't have any room to have characters walking for page after page. So there was a freedom and a luxury to be able to do that kind of languid pacing. In the course of any artistic career you change and the work changes, but sometimes you look back and you realize you may have gained in some changes and lost in others. So when I was working on that end sequence of Clyde, I definitely had a feeling of regret because I don't do enough of this kind of storytelling anymore. I’ve been doing more truncated kind of stories. More expedient storytelling. If you look at something like Wimbledon Green or The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists or even George Sprott, these are very concise comic books. Eric: Compressed. Yes, that’s the term. They’re very compressed. So, with George Sprott, those strips had to be compressed because they had to appear on one page, and then when I assembled it into a book, I added in extra material to slow the read down, and if you look at the pages I added, there's like a three or four-page sequences in-between the one pagers that allowed me to drop a bit of that naturalistic story telling into the mix. Without those sequences the story is much flatter. That naturalistic approach is just really powerful. There's something about reading a comic that mimes the rhythms of measured human movements that gets inside you as a reader. Did either of you read Nick Drnaso's latest book, Sabrina? Eric: Yes. Dom: No, I want to pick it up. I've recently been reading a lot of good things about it, but I hadn't even heard of it until a few weeks ago. It's so great. And one of the reasons it's so great, there are pages and pages and pages of people getting up from their cubicle, walking over somewhere and doing something small. Nothing is happening, except a lot is happening, because it's a very intense book. The environments are boldly bland and modern. Offices, malls, whatever, where there's practically nothing exciting of visual interest, there's just shapes and hallways, and the characters are relatively bland looking too. It's really very powerful for that kind of ... it's funny when you really slow down on something where somebody takes a moment. You do this in ten panels where you're like, they're writing something and in the next panel they're thinking. Then they're maybe scribbling something out, then they're thinking again. When you slow down like that, that has a real narrative power somehow. Although, it sounds like it should be boring. But it isn’t— that somehow brings real life into the comics form in a way that you don't get with just some narration block over top of an image. So it's a powerful tool. Eric: This also ties in to Clyde with its theme of time, I think, because the attraction Simon has for the postcards, for example, is that they depict this one frozen moment in time where there's no context. Everything's been sort of collapsed into this one image. Eric: And he seems to want that. He wants to stop time from progressing, essentially. Eric: Whereas, Abe looks at the postcards—specifically the one with the fisherman with the enormous fish—which Abe interprets as representing forces beyond Simon's control, Simon being overwhelmed by forces beyond his control. But both Simon and Abe are talking about the same thing, which is time. Postcards and time. Copyright Seth. Certainly the frozen moment of the postcard is alluded to in the vision when he's talking about kind of a vision of a perfect life, a frozen life. Eric: Frozen life, right. And this is, I think, again ... a quandary; that is, why am I interested in this idea? I'm not 100% sure, but the idea of a frozen life is connected to somehow being freed from the torment of human despair. There's something in freezing time into a moment—a big part of the vision is that it's saying to Simon, or perhaps Simon is saying to himself, that there is perfection in a kind of perfect stasis. Clearly that is what his character is longing for. And it seems to be presented as the answer, as well. Eric: Well, he's being faced with loss, death, decay, not only of himself but of his mother, of his mental state, the business. Simon's realization about the postcards. Copyright Seth. Mm-hmm. The thing about when you try to talk about a story like this, it's interesting that one of the real things I do when I write is I don't make up reasons for why things are happening, but I know that they will be supplied as the story is written. For example, when Wimbledon Green came out, I think Chris Ware said to me something about a brilliant sequence in it. He said it's so brilliant that you had Wimbledon lose his memory and become a hobo. It ties in with Fine and Dandy, and he went over all this sort of stuff about collectors and memory, and afterwards, I thought to myself, “God that does sound great. I wish I'd thought of that when I was making the book.” But, of course, I hadn't thought of it in any way, shape, or form. I turned that comic out really fast and I didn't even think for a second that Wimbledon becoming a hobo connected to the other hobo characters or any of that stuff. However, looking back—well, it’s so obvious. It can’t be a pure accident. And I thought, “That does seem very clever. How did that work out that way? How did that get into the story? If I didn't obviously choose these elements … I mean, how does that all fit together so nicely? Well, the simple answer is that my brain made these choices unconsciously.” That’s what your brain does—it connects ideas, even if you don't realize it. And working on Clyde Fans over twenty years was a good example of seeing your brain connecting things that you didn't plan out, with a capital P, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t put all these things in there on purpose. What it comes down to is that I trust my brain to tie these ideas together unconsciously, I count on that when I'm writing. So I know a story is more interesting if you don't worry too much about what it means while you're writing it. You know that it will come together even in spite of you. Sometimes you make mistakes or miss obvious connections. It happens. Like when I said like I had to change that doll figure into more of an obvious racial character. My brain missed that. With the matter of the freak-postcards—Simon's interest in the cards— I knew that that was just a good potent image to use for his interest, and I knew I could interpret that in several ways. When I first put those in, did I really know what I was thinking? Probably not. But I knew that it would connect later. I knew it would resonate—connect with the central images of isolation that pervade the story, and the later vision. I knew that they would all somehow circle in around on each other. So yes, by the time I got to the final vision, I certainly knew how I they were connected. But again, it's not as planned as you would suspect. I like a certain amount of ambiguity in things —leaving the door open for interpretation. Even for the author. And the truth is that I picked those cards for the simplest reason. I was just really interested in them back around the time I started the book. Much like the same way Clyde Fans itself was chosen kind of arbitrarily. Why fans? It's the same thing with those postcards, but after using them for a little while in there, I came to recognize that they were a good choice. They were much more interesting than if they had just been postcards— say old motel or main street postcards. It was the essential element of them that they were a manipulated reality that made it more powerful as a metaphor for what Simon was longing for. I mean, Simon wasn't longing to live in the past or live in some postcard of the frozen past. It was being obsessed with these things that never existed in the first place. They are a completely artificial creation. And a strange creation that operates more as a metaphor, an unearthly realm. They're corny but something about them worked well too for when he refers to the little rhyme of the entire world made of paper, which is again, peering into those cards as another reality. Dom: And in one way, his world is paper. Actually that's true. It's a bit meta now that I think about it. He's a paper character himself. Dom: And then again, you know the whole time issue. I mean, one of the things that you can do in a comic that you can't do in real life is violate linear time. It's very interesting; the very purpose of the comic language itself is always a metaphor for time—just as the way the medium operates. Dom: I mean the narrative is structured. We start, in effect, chronologically at the end ... Yes. Yes. Dom: But we end in the middle. That was planned, of course. I definitely knew when I started the book that there were a few things that I wanted to try, and one of them was a nonlinear structure. And I knew that readers would be perplexed by the ending because it doesn't resolve anything particularly, but it does explain or fill in the gaps of how the story unfolded. For me, this structure was to withhold the central element of the story till the end—you don't get that explanation till the end, when you see what Simon's vision is all about. It’s a minor plot point in the earlier chapters—barely referred to—but in the end it’s the big “meaning” of the story. Dom: It's probably ironic because we know, as he does not, what happens in the following years. Exactly. I felt it was interesting to leave the reader with a greater knowledge than the character. You are meant to buy into the beauty of his “frozen life” but also know that it will fail. The other thing I really wanted to do was, I knew that I wanted to have each of the chapters have a different style of narrative structure for how the story is told. A different approach. So chapter one is clearly a monologue. Dom: Seventy pages of an old man wandering around talking to himself, as I think you described it. Exactly. And that's an exterior monologue. All spoken aloud. And then chapter two is the opposite of that, which is that entirely naturalistic approach discussed earlier, where you don’t have the character’s thoughts, the character doesn't tell you what they're doing, and you just follow around and watch them perform. And then in the third section, I wanted to do the opposite of both of those, which was to have an interior monologue. So it's all Simon alone talking to himself. And then in the fourth section, what I wanted was to finally have a dialogue—to bring together the two characters together. They have barely even shared a scene before this. In fact in the third section, that's one of the things I went back and corrected—I’d made a mistake the first time through with their shared panels. When I had Simon and Abe speak to each other, just a couple of minor scenes. I changed those so you no longer see Abe's face any more. Originally it was just the usual thing. Abe's talking. You have a close up of Abe or they talk to each other showing both faces. So now, in Part Three you only see Abe from the back, just the back of his head. I wanted to lessen those few scenes so that Part Four, where they come together to talk, would be more meaningful. So now, you don't actually have a scene where they talk to each other directly face to face until that comes together in Part Four. And Part Four is kind of Abe's story as well. You follow Abe like you followed Simon in Part Two. And then, of course, finally in Part Five, it is an hallucinatory experience. Now, I don’t expect the reader to really notice these things. The chapters read conventionally and these conceits are my concerns. Something for me to think about. I’m not sure the chapters are different enough that a casual reader would even think about these details. But it was fun to do. Eric: Getting back to metaphors that you did not have planned, but you will take credit for … Eric: With all due respect. I notice that Simon toward the end, he's sitting in the house. Mm-hmm. Eric: It's summer. He's wearing a cardigan. Eric: He's got no fan on. Simon with sweater and cardigan, but no fan. Copyright Seth. Yes. That was intentional. Eric: And he's quite consciously rejecting his real-world responsibilities. Eric: His fantasy world has now extended into his objective reality as it were. And it's all consuming. Eric: And he is, figuratively speaking, at that point he is frozen in time. I mean, he's ... maybe that's why he's wearing a cardigan. So it's interesting to me, though, that correspondingly, he equates that slowing down of time in his description, "moment-to-moment progression," which I think is very important to what you were describing about ... Actually, you're right. I'd forgotten about that. He does talk about the idea of jumping forward in time, gulping time, rather than a moment-to-moment experience. Eric: Right. He describes that as being somehow more honest. It's interesting to me that you would choose honesty, and I wonder if you might unpack that a little bit. Well, that's a good question. Somewhere I those words felt right to me. I think—and forgive me if I bluff my way through this because I hardly recall my thinking on this—I think what Simon is referring to would be about putting his integrity and value in the idea of slow time. Paying attention. What we were talking about earlier, of investing in the experience of being alive, rather than the bigger experience of gulping down time in big chunks of distraction out in the world. Losing the close focus by losing your sense of alone-ness. This is probably coming out of me—what I instinctively believe—it reflects a kind of… what should I call this? Well, priggishness or monkishness in Simon that he would see his decision to suffer in this kind of slow time as more admirable than the people out in the world who, even though he says he is connected to them, it’s obvious that he has lost all connection to people living regular lives outside in the world. He’s afraid of people outside in the world. So the term “honest.” Hm. It probably reflects my… without deeply planning it… it’s a statement mirroring my own feelings about the world. I mean, I do invest integrity into that rejecting stance. I suppose it’s odd that I would think of that in terms of integrity— as if going out into life and ploughing forward is somehow dishonest. I guess it connects to Abe’s complaints about how much hypocrisy is involved in being in the world. And again, there’s something in smallness that holds a great deal of value to me. “Honest” is a charged word yet it totally feels right to me. Perhaps that saying from the Mennonites describes this best—“Of the world but not in it.” Simon sees his retreat into slow time as earnest and real and the outside world with its “regular” time as fake and illusory. Now, let me ask you a question: What do think a person who’s never read this story before and who doesn’t read comics would think of this book? Would it read like a normal book that you’d find in a bookstore, do you think? Dom: I think that someone who doesn’t read comics coming to this book would find it a useful introduction because I think, initially, the Abe chapter is very easy to read, because it’s moment to moment, it’s a single character, it’s a monologue. Non-comics people might trip a little over who he’s talking to, but I think as the book goes on, non-comics people might find it an interesting education in the complexities of how comics can work, especially with the Simon chapters, where you have to really be intimate with comics conventions to understand things like when we shift from things that are really happening to fantasy, like where he steps into the crack in the wall, or the dream of drowning, or to me, what I thought of as a particularly brilliant sequence, the bird sequence. Simon as bird approaches the city. Copyright Seth. I still remember the first time I read the issue, and I flipped the page, and there was the two-page spread of Simon flying over the city, with the wings … we were talking earlier about the elements of the uncanny in the book. This to me is where it hit the sublime, where you suspend any sense of “what does this mean? How is this allegorical? What is this symbolic of?” and just go “Wow.” It was an arresting moment. I think that non-comics readers, because it’s not “comicy” in terms of narrative style, in terms of characterization, in terms of what we were talking about before about conflict and plot structure … something that I was kind of amused by when I read it first was when we finally come back to Simon and Abe getting together again, it’s a chapter that ends, “let’s see where this goes,” and where it goes to is a huge dialogue with no real resolution. I think people who read literary fiction will find this familiar territory. That’s reassuring. The reason I was wondering is, when I began the book, back in 1997, it was a very different world of comics than it is today when I finished it. When I began I was writing it for a small group of people who read alternative comics and even though I was making an effort to do a kind of “literary” writing it was still done in the context of that small community. Now, it’s going out into a cold world of bookstores and Amazon, where I wonder what people will make of such a book. Dom: It’s going out into a world in which a book like Jimmy Corrigan or Building Stories can be a best-seller. Yes, well, I certainly don’t expect that— Eric: Building Stories was a best seller? Dom: Well, it was probably too expensive to be a best-seller, but it did really well. When you think of how original and unorthodox the packaging was, it did surprisingly well. Dom: I think in 2018 we have a more sophisticated readership, who aren’t comics readers but who will buy a graphic novel. I certainly don’t imagine the book as being something that’s going to do really well. I mean, I think it will do fine, but I know that a lot of authors, when they put a book out, they have their fingers crossed, like “come on, let this be the—” I never imagine anything I make will ever be on any best-seller list, but I am always curious, especially with such a long-term project like this, whether or not—you know, will it find its audience. Sometimes you put something out and you get three reviews, and that’s it. On to the next book. Dom: Well, as I was saying earlier, despite the length of serialization, and despite the nonlinear narrative, it’s very clearly the kind of thing that readers who pay attention to echoes and reverberations and structure will pick up on. I mean, they’re not the kinds of things you notice reading it when it was serialized— Yes. Serialization was ultimately a bad way to read it. Dom: For instance, the Stephen Crane poem that comes up early and then comes back later, or the magazine that Simon is reading with his mother, with the images which much later we see with him as a child—those are the kinds of things that I think will resonate really well with non-comics readers. Simon reading with his mother. Copyright Seth. I hope so. I’m curious. I’m waiting to see. I’m also just kind of glad to get it out of my life. For the longest time, it was there, as something that had to be done. Eric: I totally sympathize. I worked on my Oppen biography, which I told you about—it just came out. My daughter is seventeen years old—I started writing that when she was born, so I can date how many years it’s been by how old she is. Gosh, yes. That must be a real indicator of time changing. Eric: It was. I mean, I did an initial edition of it, sort of like what you did with Clyde, you put out Book One, but it was many years ago, and then I reworked it, I added some more material, and this US edition came out, but it’s seventeen years of my life. So I sympathize. The genuinely felt relief that it’s off your back. Eric: It’s almost like, in a way, getting out of a marriage that has played out. True, or maybe it’s more like it ended on a good note because you didn’t bail. Eric: Right! Well, I still sweat about what I left out, or got wrong, especially the mistakes I haven’t yet discovered. Even if at the end you’re saying, like, “I hate it,” at least you finished it. There’s something about bailing out; you never get over that one. It’s like, “there’s the book hanging over my head that I never finished.” A kind of tombstone. Dom: And it’s a very satisfactory conclusion—or non-conclusion. Well, I’m glad to hear that. I must say I’m really just glad that it’s done because for the last twenty years, it’s always day in and day out been in the back of my head, “I’ve got to get some work done on that” and “Will I get it finished?” There’s always a bit of a worry—well, there’s the worry that you’re going to die—but the other worry is that you’ll just feeb out somehow. You’ll finally make up a good enough excuse to quit and let yourself off the hook. Eric: For example, Stephen King with The Dark Tower series. He wrote two or three books and then nothing for ten, fifteen years. And then he gets hit by a car, and nearly dies, and then he says, “I think I better finish that.” Yes. I’m sure that was a motivator. Eric: That was the impetus for him completing it: he almost died. Well, it’s interesting that Chester has—he’s a hard worker, but he has, let’s see, several things that are unfinished. That’s kind of unusual, considering he’s so dedicated. I love to dangle that fact over his head. Dom: And that’s unfortunate. I mean, even Underwater I thought was fascinating. It was great. I’ve told him many times, “Just do three more issues, just wrap it up.” But unfortunately, the problem was, that book was planned to take like the rest of his life. So there is a totally bad idea, right there. The minute you come up with a project that will take the rest of your life—you’ve made a mistake. Eric: I think he said thirty years, or something. Dom: It would take 200 issues or thereabouts. And he had decided he was going to become dedicated to it, he had decided, “I’m going to devote myself to this story for the rest of my life,” you know, and then, of course, he got to a point where he thought, “I don’t want to do this story for the rest of my life.” That’s to be expected. Only Dave Sim thinks that way. Still— just like the Gospel stuff—I always encourage him—just wrap it up! Make a nice book out of it. But that is not Chester’s way. Dom; The Gospels were the one I wish he’d finished. Did he even finish two? He finished Mark. Eric: And he did most of Matthew; he got to the Passion, or just before, so all he would have had to do was maybe two or three more installments. The problem with that, though, of course, is that you’ve got four gospels, and hanging over your head that you’ve only done two. He almost would have been better off if he’d just quit after Mark, and then he would have put out one gospel. Dom: Right. Because then the expectation isn’t there. Exactly. He could have pretended he never intended to do all four. But now—I can see how even if he finished the second one, he would still have the other two hanging over his head. “I still have to finish those other two, or else what’s the point?” But, I would have been perfectly happy to have had both of those books. I will let him off the hook! Eric; I would have liked to have seen what he would have done with John, because it’s the Gnostic gospel, it’s so odd... Oh, yeah? And his thinking has certainly changed over the years too, so each of the gospels would have quite different. It would be a fascinating collection. Eric: But I think John, because of his Gnosticism—that’s his cup of tea—and then I see that in Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, in the notes section of all things, he does this incredible adaptation of Job, which is maybe eight pages, and it’s extraordinary, it’s unbelievable, and I read something like that and I just marvel at his talent. And then I read some of his other things, and I … I don’t know what to think. I think Chester’s a genius, but I would say, and if he was here, I would say it to him, I would say, I think this prostitution thing has been a wrong turn. I think that it’s interesting, but he’s got such an axe to grind, and every single future work, now, seems like it is going to be about proving some point about prostitution, and I just think that’s limiting himself. Hopefully I’m wrong. Eric: Have you read the reader reviews of Mary? No, I haven’t, what’s the—is it that bad? I imagine it could be bad. Eric: Well, he’s had the few fundamentalists who just take umbrage at everything, but then you get even the people who are more considered, they know where he’s coming from, they have the context, they understand what’s going on, they’ve read the notes, they’ve read the book back to front, and even those reviews are quite tepid. I have to say, I didn’t know anything he was talking about in the notes, but I read the notes and almost immediately, I was thinking, “you did not convince me with your notes.” And that’s a mistake. There are a couple of spots in the notes where he admitted he fudged the information, and that throws the whole argument into danger. He should have just lied! And I thought, if I as a friend who is totally sympathetic to you am not convinced, then a random reader is quite likely not going to be meeting you halfway with this controversial material. Eric: And it’s a complex argument that requires considerable— Thought. Eric: —right, so it’s not an easy argument to make. I think he wants it to be easier than it is. He does. As well, Chester is a very sure person— he’s sure he’s right, and we’re all wrong, and we just will not admit we’re wrong. My opinion is that Chester really does believe that if we would all just stop overreacting and listen carefully to him that we would all be convinced that there is no such thing as romantic love and that society is built on a fallacy of some sort, and that everything is an exchange of goods—a Libertarian kind of idea, I suppose—and that, you know, we need to restructure how we get along with each other and then everything would be hunky dory. Except that it’s completely unworkable, and that no human being—society is never going to head where he’s going, but he’s the one lone man in the universe who knows all the answers, and I always think that that’s a pretty good sign that you’re wrong. I don’t for a second believe that my lame-duck rejection of modern society means I have any answers about how society should function. I really don’t think that I could get up and give a convincing speech about how I think life could work better, because I’m far too aware that all these issues are so complicated. Nothing is black and white. Take that whole argument from earlier—about formality. The minute you start talking about formality, and you start talking about the society pre-1965 or something, it gets so complicated to start determining what from that society should have carried on and what shouldn’t, and what the nuances are in that argument. When I see people talking about things being better in the past, well, you know, that’s just a ridiculous statement. There’s no such time when things were better. There were some things that were better— Eric: … and the things that were better about what it was like, almost always are diametrically the very things that they are opposed to. Yes, exactly. The interesting thing is that absolutely nobody who is talking right now about how things were better in the past is equipped to actually live like that again. In America right now, this idea of turning back the clock is literally a joke—the very people who are subscribing to that silly notion would be completely outcast in that old society. These people have very base desires that are not going to be met by that society back then. Those Trump supporters would be utterly marginalized in 1950s America. They would be shocked to find themselves in a society that would completely judge them. They’d hardly be welcomed there as kings! Dom: What I find interesting about the whole, you know, “Seth is nostalgic” thing, is that’s always been there in your work, that skepticism. I’ve always been doubtful, but to be fair, if you’d talked to me when I was twenty or twenty-five, I would have been a lot more argumentative about how things were better in the past. Dom: Yes, but even in It’s a Good Life, to me, the moment that really stands out there in this regard, is when “Seth” and Ruthie are talking and, you know, the best thing Seth can come up with about what’s better now is his that mother wears makeup, and Ruthie’s “Really? That’s your standard? What about all this other stuff?” and I’m thinking, you know, even that book doesn’t just say, “things were better in the past,” it says, “this character thinks things were better in the past,” but it leaves lots of room for readers to ironize and to distance themselves from that character. I never wanted anything to be too set in stone. Maybe knowing Chester helps with that because even back then was when I first began to figure out that Chester wasn’t actually shy, just quiet but extremely arrogant, (laughs), he was very useful in making me defend my stupid opinions. He often shamed me out of my desire for simple answers. I mean, you have to be somewhat sure, you have to be arrogant enough to believe you know what you are talking about to make judgments, but I do think that everything is far too complicated to have any simple answers. There’s a great line in The Simpsons, where somebody shouts out, “where do we get these simple answers” and I agree, “yes, if only we had the simple answers, life would be so great.” I hesitate to bring up Dave Sim— Dom: I think that Cerebus basically crossed the line when he shifted from showing you what he thought to telling you what he thought. It’s true, that’s a very good—I mean, even with my limited knowledge of Cerebus, I can see the difference between Jaka’s Story and what he was doing at the end. Eric: The odd thing about the end of Jaka’s Story is that reading it at the time, and at the time he wrote it—and he admitted this—is that he was trying to portray Jaka as a kind of victim, but then later, as his reality shifted, now all of a sudden she is the villain, as it were, in that story. I suppose it speaks to the strength of the material that you can read it either way, so hats off for that, but at the same time, Jaka is sort of representative of this 180-degree turn that he seems to have undergone. It’s interesting. How do you transform that completely? I mean one of the things we’ve been talking about with Clyde, is that it’s been twenty years, and I think my essential answer is that I’m not that different a person now than when I started it, but Dave, over twenty years time, seems to have undergone a dramatic personal shift, and the question is, is Dave a different person now than when he was doing the work twenty years ago, or is the person who he is now who he always was, and there was a veneer disguising that person, that he was hiding who he was? I mean, I feel like that can’t just come out of left field, unless perhaps it is mental illness. Dom: I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an element of both veneer and transformation. I do think that when he read the Bible, that was a transformative experience, but I also do think—because he’s also kind of admitted this—he has said that things he said, like that his mother was a great mother, that he was lying, so early on, at least sometimes he was disingenuous. But which is the lie? The nice things he said about his Mother early on or the revision of that statement? I do think we lie to ourselves, absolutely. There are certainly things that I thought when I was in my early twenties that I now realize were just comforting to think, but not necessarily true. Eric: I think that Dave is ultimately a contrarian. He’s unquestionably a narcissist, and narcissists tend to be contrarian. They just love to get under your skin. And I think that the general shift, politically speaking, in culture—I think Dave just likes being a stick in the mud about things. Back then, being a stick in the mud meant having these beliefs, and now it’s something else entirely. I think that sounds true. It’s interesting. Who told me this recently, that when Ditko died, Dave Sim said, “Now I’m all alone.” Someone told me that, and I thought, that is a very grandiose, narcissistic statement—it’s like, “Now I’m the only one representing the truth.” I’m surprised he even let Ditko into his ivory tower, but it’s funny, I mean that really is overstating it. Dom: As I understand it, even Ditko at some point basically said to Dave, “Stop writing to me.” I’m not surprised. I could see Ditko—why would Ditko want to be the sidekick to Dave’s narrative? I mean, you know that anyone Dave’s writing to basically has to somehow shore up what he’s saying. They get stuck with the secondary role. I mean, I’m sure Dave would enjoy an argument with Ditko, but he wouldn’t enjoy losing an argument with Ditko, I would guarantee it. And you couldn’t win an argument with Ditko. I mean, how could you penetrate that force field of Randian thought? Even Super-Dave couldn’t penetrate that, I’m sure. Eric: No, that’s baked in. There’s just no— There’s no entry point through that philosophical wall. Eric: Getting back to Fans, as you grow older and life invariably becomes more complex and the ambiguities, moral or otherwise, pile up, do you find yourself drawn towards a greater degree of simplicity in your artwork? Do you find simplicity in art to be synonymous with purity? You seem to be edging toward that in Clyde Fans. I think I am edging towards it, although, if I had to make a real argument for simplicity and purity, I think it would be a difficult argument. It’s an extremely complicated argument, and the minute you start bringing forward simplicity as some sort of answer to a purer way of getting anything, you quickly get caught up in the fact that there are levels of simplicity, of course, and while simplicity is an excellent tool for organizing complexity, pure simplicity is not a goal in itself. Eric: A distillation, when it’s that intensely focused, paradoxically results in more complexity— Eric: —because you’re so focused—like, in Clyde Fans, you’re so focused on essentially what are a handful of moments. Yes, very true that—I do think that I’m trying to boil things down and create a more intense direction for my work. That’s very true in the drawing of course. The drawing is getting simpler and simpler, and I am starting to feel that I could do a comic where the characters were just silhouettes. I’m not interested in complexity in drawing any more. I might even go so far as to say I’m not even interested in drawing. Whatever it was that made me interested in drawing when I was young, I don’t have that feverish impulse any more. I would much rather just create shapes, or—design is very appealing to me at the moment. There’s something about it that is simple and direct and exciting to me in a visceral way that is similar to how I felt when I started making comics. I’m still interested in telling stories, of course, but I’m certainly not interested in drawing the way some people love to draw. Somebody like, I don’t know, like Rick Altergott, who sits down and does that incredible Wally Wood approach, you can see he really loves doing it, though I’m sure it’s hard work. But I don’t love drawing in that way anymore. My wife has been doing a lot of drawing, just for fun, and she likes to draw. Genuinely gets pleasure from the act. I don’t get that pleasure anymore, and I think that part of the drive toward simplicity in the artwork is simply wanting a more direct way to impart the information. I mean, if I have to do a complex drawing, I’ll do it—when you have to turn the page and have a whole cityscape, because you need it in the story, I will do that drawing. I’ll sit down and I’ll sweat it out, but— Dom: And it’s worth it! —but if I can do ten heads on the page that are just silhouettes and get the same effect, I’d be just as interested in that. The funny thing about comics is—sort of to circle back a bit—is that there is a strong impetus to draw, and to show off that you can draw. When I first started out, I remember while working on Mr. X, Dean Motter, who wrote that comic, told me that he’d shown some of my work to one of the guys at DC, and that fellow said, “I don’t know what to make of it, because I can’t tell if the guy can draw or not.” It was a funny comment that struck me; I’d never thought about it until that point, and it occurred to me, he can’t see through the cartoon style. He’s too used to looking at the superhero characters and that form of stylization, that he can’t see beyond my cartoon style of drawing to understand whether it’s good drawing or not. Cartooning is cartooning. Those superhero guys get caught up in the idea of rendering, how it’s approached—how many lines or what kind of figural detail is show. That is what drawing is about to them, but of course there’s a wide variety of drawing approaches, and whether you’re any good at drawing or not has certainly got much wider parameters than how much rendering is involved. But it made me think about how important it is in comics to show that you can draw. There’s a lot of folks—ask the question, “who ’s the best artist in comics?” If you talk to some older fans about it, it might be Frazetta, or “I’m a big fan of Al Williamson,” or whatever, and when you say, “what do you like about them?” they say, “Oh, those guys really can draw, or “They’re very realistic,” or whatever, and you think to yourself, well, Frazetta’s not a realistic artist. Frazetta has a very stylized approach. I’m not too sure there’s anybody in comics I would say is a realist. What they’re dealing with is a variety of levels of cartoon stylization. Neal Adams is not drawing realistically, not in any way, shape or form. He’s just got a different set of cartoon stylizations than Charles Schulz has. They’re quite different, but they’re both just sets of cartoon symbols that they’re working with. It’s a language— Eric: Kind of a dialect of sorts. Yes. But people really are impressed by the visual power of comics, and so, the more you draw, the more you show you can draw, the more people like it. And cartoonists, because of that, have a real chip on their shoulder about getting too simple, because they’re afraid people will say, a) it doesn’t look like you’ve worked on this hard, and b) they’ll say, you don’t know how to draw, because they want to see the show-offy kind of quality of drawing. Chris Ware is very interesting in that his work is visually potent, people are like, “Whoa! That’s really impressive!” But he could make it so much more impressive if he wanted to. You look in his sketchbooks, and that guy can draw like anything. He’s deliberately thrown away that ability to render to instead make simple little round characters, because he’s more interested in the storytelling itself. He’s made a choice. But I would go so far—and Chris would probably totally disagree with me about this—but I would still say that somewhere in him is some desire to show off. He’s making those pages very complex. It’s hard for us cartoonists to give up the desire to try to win praise for rendering. It is hard to give it up, because you still want to show you’ve got the chops. Eric: But you have to strike a balance between … there has to be a certain degree of artlessness to it. Otherwise it gets in the way. I remember Dan Clowes saying that the main thing he does when he sits down to draw, is he wants to replicate the fetishistic vibe of the comics he saw as a kid, the potency of the images themselves. Chester has told me that what he’s trying to do is recreate a Harold Gray drawing the best he can do; that’s what he’s doing. I’m not doing that, but somewhere in my mind, I am still thinking, I need this to have some sort of visual appeal that still shows that I’m up to it. So, beginning this new graphic novel, I am really torn about which way do to go with it. Do I do this in the “Nothing Lasts” approach, which is just to draw it and not worry about it, or am I going to do it in the Clyde approach, which means it may look very simple, but a lot of work has gone into it—I call it the full style. The full style, I hate; it’s a drag. “Nothing Lasts” is pure fun. It’s actually one of the few times I do enjoy drawing. I’m on the fence but I suspect the new comic’s got to be the full style or I’ll feel I have cheated somehow. Though to be honest, the “full style” has gotten closer to “Nothing Lasts” in the last year or so. Somewhere in this decision there’s still the old cartoonist aesthetic that if it’s not as good as you can make it, you’re wimping out and people will say you can’t draw. Inevitably, when you see cartoonists who literally have the farting-it-out style, it’s hard to respect because there’s something in the old-world cartooning ethic wherein people my age and older can’t seem to help thinking, “you’re not putting enough effort into that!” It’s not good enough if you did that in an hour. Eric: You said you were thinking about doing an entire comic in silhouettes? Eric: Did you see the Anders Nilsen book from a few years ago [Rage of Poseidon, 2013]? Um, I would think I’ve seen all of Anders’s—oh, you mean the one where it’s just a single page? Eric: It’s folded out and done in silhouette. I think it can be entirely effective. I like the idea. After all I just said let me contradict myself—the interesting thing about cartooning is it is an art form where you shouldn’t be paying to much attention to the drawing. But, as the person doing the drawing it’s hard not to. I know—at least, I think—that people reading “Nothing Lasts” probably don’t think any more about the drawing in Clyde Fans than they do in “Nothing Lasts.” They both do the job. That’s really all you need. But there’s some itch inside you that says, “I will know later on that I didn’t do certain things with the full intent,” and then you got to make up your mind whether that matters and commit to an approach. Certainly, I know people who like the “Nothing Lasts” stuff better than the other stuff, and so you say to yourself, “Well then, it doesn’t matter, does it? Maybe I should do the easier approach.” You’re never quite sure, the problem is, if you want to get enough work done there’s got to be certain works that you relegate to the “I will give it the full effort” and others that will be in the “easy does it” style, as Crumb calls it. Dom: One of the things absent from the collected book is going to be the paratextual material. A lot of that stuff is irrelevant to the book, but some of it, the covers especially, often were oblique or symbolic companion pieces or comments. Dom: And I guess that ties into—earlier we were talking about serialization maybe not being the best format for this story, but on the other hand, serialization does present options, or opportunities for covers, additional pages and so on to make oblique or secondary contributions. So, do you have any ambivalence about anything from the serialized version being lost in the book? Not necessarily entirely lost in the construction of the book … though most of those specific things will not be included. I do not reprint any of the covers etc., but I do have a really long introductory design sequence before the story starts, which is literally about forty pages in length—it’s the most ridiculous opening to a book that I’ve ever done. To explain quickly—Chip Kidd told me this once, he said, the space between the half-title page and the title page is the designer’s chance to write a bit of poetry. That’s where you have a couple of pages where maybe you can put a spread, or a couple of images. People usually do, at best, three or four pages there, and I tend to try and stretch those out when I design a book, so the Peanuts collections I think had something like six pages in between, I can’t remember the details. But that space there, between the half title page and when the story starts in Clyde Fans will be about forty pages. So it’s a really long sequence where I drag in some of the same visual elements that I used to design the comics. More new ancillary material. Copyright Seth. Pages 4-5 of the collected edition. Clyde Fans ad. Copyright Seth. It’s an attempt to do the same kind of thing I was doing in the comics, which is to bring in ancillary material, yellow pages, freak cards, business papers and the like—some quality of trying to build the world of the Clyde brothers with those kind of images before you even enter the story. Dom: One of the interesting things for me about the covers of the comic book is they set the tone before you start the chapter. Setting the tone cover to Palookaville 15. Copyright Seth. That’s funny you should say that because that is one of the big changes that’s come along in comics since those early days of the alternatives—the amount of design cartoonists employ. Just the other day I was talking to Joe Matt on the phone, and Joe has never been much interested in design—Chester always had an innate sense of it and has grown more interested in it, and his comics are always beautifully designed, but Joe is still from the old comics world, where he’s not interested in it—only in the comics themselves, not the design around them. So consequently he doesn’t know what to do with design, or what a good design is. Anyway, he was saying to me that he’s thinking of gathering all the Peepshows up into a book, and he was, like, “would you design it for me?” And I said, yes, I would design it for him, but he’d have to do the actual artwork for the different elements, and he was, “Okay, I just want somebody to tell me what to do,” and I thought to myself, I know Joe well enough that this will be a nightmare. But the strange and perplexing part of all this to me is the fact that he has no interest in that element of how you present the work. He literally is an old-time cartoonist, where it’s just about the comics. I think that most cartoonists nowadays realize that the way you package things has a tremendous effect on how it’s read, and just as you were saying, one of the fun things about making the comic was the cover, and the back cover, and what went onto the inside covers or the letters page, whatever. You didn’t have much to work with back in that format, but that gave you a little bit of an opportunity to build an aesthetic around the story, to set the reader up before they started page one. This was something unavailable to earlier generations of commercial comic book artists. I mean, when you opened up a comic—Weird Sports, or whatever—and there’s story one, story two, story three, whatever. You didn’t have much opportunity to elaborate the package, and you probably weren’t even the guy drawing the cover itself. Dom: And the cover might have had nothing to do with any of the stories anyway. Eric: Have you ever been tempted to do a comic in a retro sort of newsprint, floppy format? It’s crossed my mind. It’s funny; it falls into the category almost of being too easy an idea in a way— Eric: Too gimmicky? Tom Devlin asked me a couple of years ago, he said, would I be interested in doing a Fine and Dandy comic, and D&Q would publish it, and I thought about it a little. I was kind of interested in the idea and I liked the idea that such a thing might exist, but I didn’t want to put the work into it. It seems like a waste of my time. And it also struck me as a classic mistake—creating something that will be less than what it should be. I mean, Fine and Dandy, in Wimbledon Green I described the series in broad strokes—described it as being a certain kind of wonderful experience: could I really recreate those comics and make them live up to the ideal? I wasn’t sure I could. The only time I’ve seen somebody do something like that perfectly was Chris Ware when he had the writer in Rusty Brown—It was Rusty Brown, wasn’t it?—who wrote the science fiction story that was like the one science fiction story that he wrote, and it was supposed to be a really good story, and then Chris produced it on the page, and it was great. If that story hadn’t been good enough, it would’ve deflated the whole literary effect he was going for. It had to be a really good science fiction story, and it really was, and there aren’t many people that can sell you the idea first, and then produce it. So, I was impressed. Dom: To actually be able to pull off the pastiche. That was a really good piece. I remember being super-impressed. And it managed to be meta at the same time, too; it was full of all kinds of meaning about Rusty Brown’s life. So, pretty clever. Eric: I guess I have a question that sort of ties into that, as far as metafiction goes. The first chapter of Clyde Fans—we’re talking about Abe now, we’ve addressed Simon, but we haven’t really talked about Abe too much. In that first chapter you have him say, he’s lamenting his failure to transition into air-conditioning and he says sort of about his own life, but in a way it’s about Clyde Fans the story, “a story like this you can drag it out and make it into high drama. A man’s life, crushed by fatal error.” Fatal error. Copyright Seth. But it’s not like that, so, in a way, I think you’re sort of setting it up that this isn’t going to be high drama— Yes, definitely. Eric: —that this isn’t going to be a man’s life crushed by fatal error. But in a way, isn’t it? Eric: Are you being ironic? I suppose. But again, was anyone crushed by a fatal error or is that not simply how life goes? And, setting the story up like that—I’m just stacking the deck in my own favor by openly undercutting the grand theme right off the bat. I guess I’m having my cake and eating it too—attempting to steer off any charges of pretension but going there anyway. Dom: It’s not Death of a Salesman. Yes, exactly. Their lives are tragic, but they’re not really tragic in a certain sense. I guess it depends on how what you decide tragedy is, and I suppose that both those characters have made their decisions and have made their bed, and they had to lie in it. The fact that their decisions were poor prescribes what their lives are. Both Abe and Simon have made—as he said, they failed to close, and that is not a grand tragedy, but it is sad. It’s unfortunate for them. Do I feel bad for them? I suppose I relate to their decisions, and I understand them, And I understand that essentially it’s impossible to live life without a great deal—well, regret is an essential element of human life, it would be hard for me to imagine a story where characters do not feel regret, and so I’m not sure I do think of it as a tragedy so much as, this is what human life is, to some degree, although these are two slightly more oddball characters than most because they have so deeply failed to connect with others, and with each other as well. The real failure probably in the story is that they fail to know each other. They really are very isolated from each other. Very alone. Eric: Of course, you could also interpret that as Abe doesn’t want to admit that his life is a failure. That’s true. Abe certainly holds on to his glories in the story, and he does brag a fair amount, which is of course part of the salesman’s culture; I wanted to have him have a bit of that salesman’s culture about him. He’s certainly—is he less aware than Simon? No, they’re both a little on the—I’d say neither of them is very good at looking inward, and for characters that are doing an awful lot of self-analysis, I don’t feel like either of them are particularly self-aware or wise. Dom: I think it’s a subtle thing, but one of the things that tracks through the first chapter is Abe going around doing things and forgetting he’s done them. He makes a coffee, he abandons it. Abe losing track of things. Copyright Seth. Yes, I suppose so. Dom: So even though he seems to think that he’s in control, and he’s got a handle on things and he’s been successful, his reality is in effect disintegrating because his mind isn’t even holding onto the daily— It seems like much of his talk is about failure, although he doesn’t seem to have admitted who the central character is in the failure. I think in the beginning he’s blaming societal changes; although he recognizes of course that he should have gone into air-conditioning, he recognizes that there’s a fatal flaw that made him choose not to do certain things, there is an awful lot of blame-shifting going on throughout the story. Simon, I think, is more honest in that he knows he is the failure. Eric: And not even an interesting failure. Eric: Even his failure is a failure, in a way. That’s actually a good point. I like that. I think that ultimately I do like Simon more than I like Abe, but I didn’t write either one of them to be the more likeable. But much the way I use the word “honest” to describe Simon, as you brought up earlier, in his approach to time, I think Simon can’t help but be the character that seems to have more integrity because Abe is the one who has actually gone out into the world and has not dealt with people equitably. He’s been harsh. We just see the tip of the iceberg. You can imagine that he’s not always been a nice person to deal with, and he’s not even particularly nice to Simon, either. Eric: He’s—well, to me anyway, he’s a more complex character than Simon, in a lot of ways. That’s what makes it easy for Simon to be the more admirable, I suppose, because he’s got less—he doesn’t even deal with any other characters, practically, in the story at all. Eric. That’s true. Interactions with others ultimately result in an inevitable compromise of your character. Absolutely. And I certainly poured more of my life and who I am in the world into Abe than I did into Simon. Simon represents some of, you know, my experiences of timidity, but Abe gets much more the forceful role of what I’ve experienced and how I have behaved out in the world. Eric: At the beginning of Fans, though, he’s living in the family home. He’s surrounded, and you could say he’s imprisoned, by the detritus of the past, by the paperwork from the business and what’s left of the parts and things, and so on, but when he gives his reason for moving back, he says it made economic sense, and that’s a total copout. Eric: And he also says he had to take care of Simon, but you’re left with the impression that, you know, he’s divorced, he’s out of work; if Abe had something better to do, he would be doing it. So he’s giving himself these reasons for moving back, but ultimately they’re just self-deceptions. They are self-deception. I do think that his decision to go back at the end, which mirrors the same speech which Simon gives to go back, is—in both cases, I think of both decisions as bad choices. I think that it’s understood within the context of the story that they are lying to themselves. I mean I’m not 100% sure with Simon because I haven’t decided 100% what the vision truly means, but if we take it that it the vision is Simon speaking to himself, then his decision to retreat is a mistake and a self lie. And I believe Abe’s decision to come back to the house at the end after he’s faced some sort of final failure is again, a self lie that about embracing a deeper vision of reality. I don’t think it works out for him, either. Eric: Abe does have some self-awareness, though, because he acknowledges his own tendencies, when he wonders what it was about his family that breeds this desire to hide, and he saw they both were born with this family trait, both he and Simon. But he calls it playing the game, sociability, but that he paid the price with self-loathing. Why self-loathing? I guess that’s what we were talking about earlier. When you go out into the world and deal with other people, that means you must deal with the reality of—yourself bouncing back onto yourself. When Abe talks about all his interactions with other people in the world, you see that in them, he’s kind of—well, I guess you could say he’s the villain in the story. All the stories he tells in his narrations are about how he hurt people or took advantage of people. He doesn’t have a single story to tell where there’s anything good. With his wife, he reflects only on disgust; the thought of them being in love makes him feel sick, so he doesn’t even have a good memory of her. It’s like he doesn’t have a single good memory—Abe never speaks well of anyone in the story because much like Simon, he’s the only real character in his world. I think that both of them have the same problem, but they deal with it in a different way. That’s why Simon’s way seems more pure, because fewer people are hurt along the way. Abe’s little speech when he goes north to see that girl is really the speech of a complete narcissist who is not interested in anyone else, and the fact that he doesn’t even really remember what he did to that woman shows clearly that Abe is only concerned with himself. Abe confronts his past. Copyright Seth Even at the end, when he decides to leave, you can see that it’s part of that delusion, that now he’s going back to live some sort of monk-like existence that he imagined Simon living, except that it was pretty clear that Simon was no monk, and Abe certainly doesn’t end up as a monk either. In both cases, I’m playing around with the idea—I think to myself, when I do think about it—with the idea of retreat being some sort of movement towards purity, whereas for some unknown reason I don’t want to fulfill that idea in the story. I could have made one of them happy, or at least have it so that retreat paid off into some sort of deeper profound experience, but on some level I guess, without consciously planning it too hard, I just can’t do such a thing. I had to show it fail. I suppose that kind of isolation — it doesn’t seem the logical end result of these decisions would be profound enlightenment—certainly, not for these two characters. Even somebody like Wimbledon Green has his experience near the end of the book, in the last chapter, Wimbledon basically explains his life and talks about his experience of being in the world and when he was young and going out and being under the stars, and it kind of puts forward the idea of the profoundness of human experience, because I think my characters are all always ultimately looking for that transcendence. Wimbledon Green is obviously a bit of a joke, so you don’t really expect that Wimbledon is going to achieve enlightenment, although in some sense perhaps he is the most enlightened character I’ve done. At least he’s happy and knows what he’s doing. But I feel like my characters always come to that point, somehow, where they seek some grander thing—George Sprott with his dream of the afterlife, whatever it is, but there’s something there—some mystic experience that is lacking. Maybe I don’t feel like I would be able to write it earnestly where enlightenment pays off. I don’t know. As I said earlier, I feel there’s a sense of unreality to the world, a very strong sense of unreality… but I’m not sure what to make of that or what to do with it. Eric: That would be a betrayal of the naturalism. Oh, there’s always ambiguity. Even in Clyde Fans there is ambiguity about whether what is happening is real or not, and I drop a couple of clues that make it harder to take the story at face value—a couple of clues that imply a mystic reality. I just didn’t want it to be absolutely written as fact—the kind of ambiguity where perhaps this or that is just an illusion. Dom: That’s one of the things that struck me about it rereading it, is it’s clearly not fantasy, but it also seems to be hybrid, generically, in that it skews in directions that could go into, like the uncanny. Like in a movie, like in a fantasy or horror film, there will be times when you don’t know if what’s happening is real or not. Dom: That’s the definition of “fantasy” according to Tzvetan Todorov, one of the theoreticians of the fantastic. Todorov says the fantastic is that moment of suspension when you don’t know if what’s happening is susceptible of a realistic explanation or not. Oh yeah? That’s very interesting. I always like it that in a work where you don’t know what’s what. I recall that in the original Wolf Man film, they were going to have a scene—I think, I might be misremembering this—but I think there was to be a scene where Larry Talbot looks into a pool while he’s the Wolfman, and sees just his normal face. So that would be—that blows open whether it happened or not. That shows he’s probably insane. But they didn’t do that, and it’s pretty clear in the Wolf Man that he is a Wolfman. I would have liked that scene to have stayed because then it adds some doubt of whether he really was the Wolfman or not, whether this was in his head, or what that meant. You could spin that out into a variety of meanings, and that ambiguity always makes something more interesting. Dom: We were about talking about mysteries earlier, and how the set-up of mysteries is that you want a solution, but the solution is often unsatisfactory, and I wonder if there’s a kind of analogue to what you’re talking about with character arcs, or what a character achieves; that itself is a kind of fictional conceit. It’s not necessarily untrue that a life can be like that, but it’s a fictional conceit, and it seems that you’re suggesting that you’re sort of working against that yourself. You’re aware that on some level that’s what people expect to emerge from this— Eric: Everyone wants their life to have meaning. Absolutely. I think I’ve deliberately tried to undercut the idea that life has meaning in every single book I write, for some reason. George Sprott’s kind of about that as well, where it is ambiguous whether this a tragedy or not. Who is this man, was his life important? I feel like I have to undercut that kind of cliché. Good Life is basically about the same thing; I mean, was this cartoonist’s life of interest, is Kalo someone of importance, was he happy, did he fail, what does any of it mean, is it important in any way? I think it may have a lot to do with—if I got psychological about it, it’s simply that growing up with the kind of parents I had, I think I looked at both of their lives as tragedies or failures, and yet I wanted to defend them against it. I didn’t want to see them that way. I certainly loved them both, and it couldn’t have been a more difficult marriage—you know, two people who hated each other, and there was mental illness in the family, and a lot of acting out. It was a difficult kind of family to grow up in, but both my parents were entirely sympathetic to me, and both of them—certainly, I look back and say their decisions were terrible ones, their lives were ruined, and yet I can’t just view them as simple tragedies, and yet it’s also hard to say—to get caught up in that trite idea that every life has value, and every life is important and interesting. I mean, there’s something in that essential story of those two people —my parents— that keeps me always questioning, what is it all about? What is all this human suffering for? I feel like—I’m constantly—It’s hard even to explain, this kind of thinking, but you look around you at the world and —it’s like a statement I read somewhere—I don’t know who said this, Mark Twain, maybe—what kind of God is it who has all the power in the universe but has never made a single person happy? I mean there are degrees of happiness and degrees of suffering out there, people have lives that are complicated, and nothing is simple, and it’s almost impossible to write a story that just wraps everything up neatly about people’s lives. We watched this movie recently, my wife and I, called 45, from a few years ago, I guess. It’s got Charlotte Rampling in it. It’s the 45th anniversary of this couple, and just before they’re about to have the party he receives a letter that this girlfriend he had 45 years ago, who died falling in a glacier, they’ve just found her body frozen in the ice, perfectly preserved. And then suddenly this revelation throws a curve into everything in their lives, as he is suddenly right taken back 45 years to another life and another person he was, and it’s the kind of film that at the end, when it all came together in the end— it was very messy, and not really a pleasure to watch because it was one of those films where everything was unhappy in the story—and at the end, when it wrapped up, I think we were both unsatisfied, somehow, with the film. After it was over, we were like, “what was wrong with the film?” and “what would have made it right?” and we went through a bunch of scenarios to “fix” it— in the film near the end the husband gives an anniversary speech but it doesn’t resolve anything. It fails in a complicated way. Actually, it’s not a terrible speech, and you’re not entirely sure when he gives the speech whether you’re supposed to think it worked or not, but it certainly does not resolve any of their marriage problems. So then I started thinking to myself, could I have written the speech that did resolve the problems, that made it a great ending so by the end of the film you were—like Babette’s Feast or something—where you were “oh, life is beautiful!” I was working hard to try and figure out how to manipulate that storyline to wrap it to make the story again come back to reaffirm life and make life worth living and beautiful. And I could not do it. First off; I could not have written that perfect speech if my life depended on it. Secondly, the bigger problem was, is that kind of perfect emotional wrap up even a good ending? Does that not trivialize everything that went on in the film, if you could wrap it by solving the problems of their marriage in a touching anniversary speech? You’d really have to rewrite the whole movie for that. But, what it really brought to mind is how difficult it is to tell a story about the messiness of human life, how unsatisfying it is to the reader/viewer on some emotional level. I mean, there are many movies that tell hard stories brilliantly and at the end you say, “well that was an interesting movie about life”—but you often say as well, “and I don’t ever want to see that film ever again.” It’s not the one you pop in to watch again on a grey afternoon. We seek a certain kind of emotional experiences from our artform. Strangely, for me, something like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which is so harrowing, eventually becomes a strange sort of feel-good film, if you watch it enough times. There’s something in the structure of the film, the way the characters are connected to each other, that makes their unhealthy bond actually kind of appealing; at the end you almost feel like you wish that you were as close to someone as these two nightmare people are. So what is that all about? What is happening in this story that makes it something to return to whereas other books or films are good but messy—too grim. It’s all very tricky, when you come to write about real life, how to keep it so that it doesn’t sink into some maudlin pap, but also isn’t completely abandoning yourself to a kind of nihilism that makes the work unpalatable. Eric: Did you ever see that Whit Stillman film Metropolitan? A hundred times. I always go back to that scene, where they’re talking about Fourierism and how it ceased to exist, and the main character, the middle-class outsider says, well we all cease to exist, so by that definition we’re all failures. I love that film. It’s funny, that film has a line in it that I use all the time, I was just mentioning it the other day, which is when one of the characters says, “You know there’s a God because you sense that there’s someone listening to your thoughts.” And that is a line that really rings true to me even though I’m not a believer in God. But I do feel someone is listening to my thoughts. There is a strange quality in the sensation that you don’t feel like you’re only talking to yourself in your head, some illusion that the inside of your skull is limitless; you’re not inside your head at all. It’s this otherworldly place where your thoughts and your voice live. And I know in the film they’re kind of laughing at it because that’s the scene where he’s talking about communication with the pigeons, I think, or the seagulls, but that line has a real profundity to it. I return to that thought often. Eric: The two dull and gray pigeons— Uh huh? Eric: That’s Abe and Simon, right? Of course. I slightly altered that nursery rhyme. I don’t believe it actually reads exactly as I —I changed one line a bit. A piece of straightforward heavy-handed symbolism. Abe remembers a poem that resonates symbolically. Copyright Seth Eric: Just as an observation, Abe towards the end is saying how everything falls away, but then there’s something else that comes up and itches at you, and that there’s almost this sort of resignation that life by its very nature is incomplete,t hat there is a distressing lack of calmness or contentment. He seems to be sort of echoing Simon, in the sense that Simon once was looking for that frozen moment of perfection, and Abe seems to be feeling that same sort of distressing pull of time and experience, and the flow of time leading toward the inevitable. To me, the climax of Clyde Fans comes when Abe realizes that however much he despises his father, for abandoning him—there’s that reveal at the end—that he still yearned for his love, as a son does, and he kept the business running, which he despised, in the hopes that his father would return. There is sort of a dramatic payoff, in a sense. The dramatic revelation. Copyright Seth That’s probably the most dramatic thing in the whole thing. Eric: You’ll grant me that. Sure. Without a doubt. Eric: So, it was sort of a line he cast out into the future, and it was a hope that he secretly held, that he was keeping to himself, and his anger toward Simon was that he saw Simon, both Simon and his mother, as these burdens that were sort of foisted on him by his father. So at the same time he wants his father back he’s also terribly angry at him for leaving and leaving him with that burden and that lonely task of responsibility to keep that tenuous grasp on the outside world on behalf of Simon, and to keep both his mother and Simon from sinking further and further into isolation. Abe, like Simon, is imprisoned by his past, but unlike his brother, I think he’s more able to suppress these feelings of loneliness and isolation. Aspects of his past, as he describes it, only become dimmer. They become, he says, a series of names—and that echoes Abe's belief that there is power in a name—as a result, some things remain to him quite vivid, whereas for Simon, the past becomes brighter and brighter and brighter until it ultimately consumes him. So in one sense you have Abe sort of repressing and pushing all of this stuff down and on Simon’s side, it’s this yearning and grasping. I think you’ve touched on a very good dichotomy. You used a line there that hadn’t occurred to me. You said that Abe was throwing out a line into the future, because one of the important symbols from Simon’s narration in Part Three where he talks about a connecting thread into the past, this idea of a vibrating wire between past moments and the present, and I hadn’t really thought about it, but it’s true that Abe is a character who moves into the future, even though he’s talking about the past. Like you said, for him the past dims over time, The fact that he forgets this key event in his own life, this is a person who’s not focused on memory in the same way as Simon who, according to his own dialogue, still feels the people out there that he knew, moving from room to room, et cetera, et cetera. I do think Abe is clearly—I’m trying to write a more normal person— that he is the outgoing side of the two, like when I said earlier that they are myself, Abe is clearly the person who goes out into the world to deal with things, whereas Simon is the person who retreats from the world. But I didn’t want to make Abe the kind of person who—I knew he had to be the same inward type, on some level— like you said, as he sees things falling away, he plants his hope on going back home, as where the answers will lie, but it’s still a forward-moving thought. It’s wrong, but it is a plan, a concrete plan. Even though Simon makes a similar plan at the end of the book, it is not a move forward. It’s a retreat. He’s going back to where he already was—a justification for not making a plan. Abe is a more normal person in that he, like most people in the world, when you make plans, you’re looking into the future, we’re moving forward by saying, “I will do this, I will do that.” Abe has lived his life that way. And yet, ultimately, he wants retreat as well. I think that that’s why we start with Abe in retreat, so that we know how that works out, because it wouldn’t work if it was left hanging. It might give the impression that that was going to be a successful plan. But I do definitely think of Abe as the active character, and it’s interesting that he gets a mixed bag of qualities that make him, like you said, a more complicated character than Simon. Eric: Does that speak to your own family dynamic, you say there are reflections of yourself, and…? It does. My father was a lot like Abe, but a lot of these kinds of figures, George Sprott is a lot like my father, too. There was something, a kind of quality of bluster about a certain kind of man. I think my father was this way, and I think there’s—when I was writing George Sprott I was thinking a lot about a certain kind of middle-aged or older white guy. A type I recognized from the era of my childhood that strikes a kind of chord in me. I wouldn’t go so far as to call them tragic figures, because there’s something foolish about them as well. I think Abe is kind of a foolish character. It’s hard; they don’t have real tragedy because they don’t have enough dignity, I would say. Abe’s character, it’s hard to fully empathize 100% with him because he’s not a good enough person. It’s easier to like Simon because he seems like he’s more tragic, a born failure. I do find that my father had some of that same character as Abe or Sprott, whereas I admired him, I loved him, but ultimately, I didn’t respect him, and that was the problem, that’s where the foolishness comes in. As I get older, I find myself worrying about this for myself. I think the desire to struggle to maintain your dignity is something I would never have thought about when I was twenty—although I should have, because I wasn’t keeping a lot of dignity back then. But now, I find that every—it’s so easy to lose your dignity. To appear foolish in the world. Something that I have a genuine dread of. To get into dime store psychology again, I think it comes from being a child who was easily humiliated, who—like the typical comic fan story of the kid who got picked on too much— Eric: … sand kicked in your face. You grow up with an exaggerated fear of embarrassment, and that’s so tied into a sense of appearing foolish — I can’t help but write that into those characters somehow. There is something about them that I can’t demand a full-blown, “you should feel for this character” kind of response. There’s something in it that it’s just got to be their own fault. When I look at both of my parents, and they inform practically everything I think or write about, they’re such potent, giant figures in my mind, and I can’t let them off the hook for their choices. I’m deeply involved with them, and I think about them all the time, I love them dearly, but now that they’re both gone, and it’s impossible to get any answers, I have a lot more questions than I did when I was young. With mother, for example, I grew up with this innate belief that we deeply loved each other, and yet neither of us ever said a word about it, and now she’s been dead for ten years or so, and I find myself thinking, “Did she love me?” I mean, she never said the words, she was cold as ice, she had her problems, and you start to say, “How much of all that was in my own head?” “What was she thinking?” I start thinking about my mother and the strange isolated life she lived, and I think, what the hell was going on in her brain? I never even thought to really ask those questions until it was far too late, until she had dementia. And then you start to think about all the things you’ve taken for granted. Why did you take them for granted? Was it convenient? You know, as a child you would think, if you felt any lack of love, you’d know it, because it would have been something that registered and stayed in your mind. I didn’t feel unloved; on the contrary, I felt very loved, and yet, looking back and reflecting on it all I realize there’s no evidence to make this all clear. What was going on? What’s was all that all about? And now it’s too late to know. I suppose these are the kinds of complexities that when you start writing about anything, you realize that nothing is as simple as it appears. And with father, I look at all of his actions, and they seem self-defeating, poor choices, he lashed out too much at the world — and it’s hard for me, then, to write a character where I think of them as entirely sympathetic. Yet it’s also hard to do the opposite. George Sprott, many people have said to me, is a book about a bad person. I don’t think of that book that way at all. I think of George as equal parts admirable and equal parts a rogue. George’s behavior is bad—he takes advantage of women, he’s selfish, he’s narcissistic, whatever—but then, on some other level I find I can’t help but like George. George has his problems, he had a bad childhood, but his niece loves him though. You know, you could check off qualities on either side. I probably stacked it a bit hard against liking him, but essentially, I think the thing is I feel like it’s got to be a mixed bag when you write about people. One of the obvious reasons why certain kinds of entertainment is pleasurable is because it’s not a mixed bag. They give you what you want. Nice characters, bad characters, good endings. But, of course, why certain works are emotionally satisfying as art, is most often because of their emotional or moral complexity. I’ve been reading all the novels, for the last couple of years, of Anita Brookner, who I’m rather obsessed with, and almost every single novel is the same storyline. She’s done twenty-four books that are essentially about a lonely woman, who has a hard time integrating into society—oh, they are more complex than that, but we’ll just leave it there. The interesting thing is, those characters are complicated in each book. Even though it’s the same story over and over again, she slightly shifts gears each time, and nobody is entirely sympathetic in any of her novels. She seems to deeply understand, even though these are clearly about herself, that people’s lives—people—just aren’t good or bad. They are a bunch of this and a bunch of that. I mean, you must think about this occasionally, think about this yourself—Do you ever wonder, “What do other people really think of me?” Dom: I try not to, but yes. You know what you think of other people, your friends or whatever, and if you’re like me and my wife, there is something I refer to as “the culture of two,” where you have two people, usually a couple, and between you, you compose a collective world view. Talking things out together you end up coming to a consensus of what things mean. You can’t help it—in the end you sometimes forget that everybody else doesn’t see things in the same light as the two of you. You end up with very specific opinions about everybody you know, and you talk them out, and at some point you say things like “he’s selfish” or “you gotta laugh at her behavior,” or “she’s way too much of the mommy in that relationship” or “he’s certainly not the boss”—whatever. You build the narrative around who they all these people you know are—their marriages, their behaviors, the usual stuff. But of course, these folks don’t have any idea that this is who you’ve decided they are. They probably think, “I’m easy-going” when you’ve pegged them as “trouble”. But then, every once in a while, it will occur to you, “what is the narrative people have made up about me?” "How am I pegged?” It could be “does that guy ever shut up?” or it could be, “boy, he really thinks he’s smarter than he is,” or a bunch of opinions that you have no idea your friends would be thinking about you, and they all agree on it, all your friends, behind your back. All the other cartoonists I know, we have an opinion of the other cartoonists. When we get together, it would be like, “oh, yeah, so and so,” and we would all have a series of qualities that we’ve talked and somewhat collectively agreed upon….and it’s like, that’s who so and so is to us. But of course they don't know. Dom: It’s like consensus reality. Exactly. And so, this is who Chester Brown is, we’ve been talking about him or whatever, there’s a consensus reality, but you never know. You don’t even know your own story. You can’t even make a valuable calculation of what your own qualities are. You are probably literally the worst person alive to describe yourself. If you heard other people secretly describe you, you would probably complain that it isn’t a very deep enough interpretation—they’re missing out on all the best stuff. So, forgive this long rambling answer…but of course, when you write fiction, I think that you’ve literally got to build in some ambiguity there. Eric: You’ve been talking about whether your mother really loved you, and it sort of illustrates what you were saying about not knowing a person, or not knowing their motivations, even your own mother. But you know, a child has such a desire for love, especially from their mother— Yes, and their father. Eric: —that I think oftentimes, and I see this with my own children, is that that desire is so great that they will almost fill in the blanks, as it were. There’s such a need for it, psychologically and emotionally. That’s just an observation. Why do children want to stay with parents who are abusing them? Because that need for love is so deep. Eric: The other thing is I don’t think that being good is a prerequisite for tragedy. No, it isn’t. You’re right. That was a gross simplification on my part. Eric: You made a statement to that effect; I don’t think you intended it. No, when you put it out in the open, I do not agree with that idea. And it would obviously be, that would make it— Eric: You can say, he can’t be a tragic character because he’s not all that good— I think what I—I’m not sure I even agree with what I am about to say, but what I was leading more towards is that you don’t sympathize with those sort of characters. But, that said, I don’t even think you need to sympathize with a character for it to be a tragedy, and to be honest, I think sympathizing with characters is overrated, and there’s lots of amazing stories where you don’t sympathize with the characters but are still engaged with them. It’s just, we want to like characters, and in fact, one of the main complaints about a lot of films, for example, is that there are no likable characters. That comes up all the time. It’s seen as a failing, like they didn’t do it on purpose, they failed to make them likable. That cracks me up. Eric: Whenever any character is developed to be likable, they’re usually horrible. It’s really hard to create a likable character. I can’t even imagine pulling it off. It would be tough. Eric: I always think of the dog in the Itchy and Scratchy— Poochy. Eric: —yes, where they have marketing people, and they’re trying to construct this immediately likable and marketable thing, and everybody ultimately hates it. Dom: Do you think that that sort of almost predisposition to want characters in comics to be either good or bad is to some extent generically developed, that people would be less likely to be saying, “Well, George Sprott’s a villain” if it were a novel as opposed to a graphic novel? I don’t think so, actually, although I don’t think you could find a medium that was more simplistic than comics for defining characters, but even so, I think perhaps we’ve had a predilection for that for a long time. Look at Dickens, for example. Dom: It is that way in Dickens. Yes, exactly, that’s what I mean. There’s been a long history of a desire to make things simple. Just the other day I was laughing at Trump and Pecker and Weaselberg [laughter] and those are, like, that should be like a Dickens novel or maybe Harold Gray, Little Orphan Annie. You can’t make up stuff like that. Dom: I saw a headline yesterday that said, “Trump worried about Pecker leaking.” Eric: That’s the least of his worries. I think I saw one the other day, it said “Trump loses Pecker.” Dom: That’s even better. That was pretty funny stuff. What gods bring mister Pecker into the story? That’s where you do start imagining— Eric: There’s power in a name. That’s right. That’s a pretty good end line. FILED UNDER: Dominick Grace, Drawn and Quarterly, Eric Hoffman, Interview, Seth 5 Responses to There’s Power in a Name: Seth on His Twenty-Year Project, Clyde Fans Patrick Markfort says: Extraordinary interview. Worthy of the best from the print magazine. Well done. CJ Standal says: Robert Lamb says: Amazing interview, amazing cartoonist. Thanks so much for this. “That’s the Jewish curse.” Paul Slade says: I assume Eric was referring to the cliched remark that “May you live in interesting times” is an ancient curse from (fill in name of civilisation here). In my experience, it’s mostly said to be an old Chinese curse, but perhaps Eric’s heard a version which places its origins elsewhere? The sentiment behind the saying, of course, is that one should be jolly grateful to live a boring life, as the alternative is all too often warfare, famine and plague.

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(→Co-hosts) (→Broadcast) Central for ITV, 29 August 1983 to 4 June 1993 Sky One, 1994-5 Sky One, 1994 to 28 March 1995 BBC 2, 31 March to 28 August 1997 (60 epsiodes) Sky One, 2000 Sky One, 30 October 2000 to 23 March 2001 (100 episodes) TalkbackThames for ITV1, 2007 (one-off) TalkbackThames for ITV1, 14 April 2007 (one-off) 1 Host 2 Co-hosts 4.1 First letter first 4.2 On the run 4.3 Set and match 4.4 Channel hopping 5 Key moments 6 Catchphrases 7 Inventor 8 Theme music 11 Web links Original version: Bob Holness BBC 2 version: Michael Aspel 2000 Sky version: Liza Tarbuck 2007 special: Vernon Kay Andrew Lodge (ITV), Peter Tomlinson (ITV), Susan Rae (BBC 2), Dan Strauss (Sky One) Question-setters: Ann Meo, (1983-1987) Hilary Murphy (1987-1993) First letter first The UK version of this original American show consisted of twenty lettered hexagons. If a contestant nominated a particular space (say, W), host Bob Holness would read out a question in the format "What W is the most north-westerly state in mainland USA?" Master of ceremonies, Bob Holness Buzzing in and answering the question correctly meant that space would be turned your colour. One player had the white spaces, and a team of two players had blue. The idea of the game was to fill in as many spaces as necessary so that a contiguous line of your colour went across the board horizontally (for the blue team) or vertically (for the white player, who could make the journey in one less space than the blues to compensate for their single-ness). Getting a question correct also allowed you to choose the next letter. As you can see from the diagram, the single player had a shorter route than the pair of blue players. The contestants desk The board is constructed in such a way that ties weren't possible, although a frequent occurrence was the "mutual space" whereby both sides needed the same one space in order to complete their line across the board. One of the blue team contestants buzzes in The side who won the best of three matches went on to play the Gold Run. In this game, the participant (either the white player, or a nominated player from the blue team) had to work their way across the board from left to right within 60 seconds (or "within that magic minute", as Bob often put it). The hexagons had letter combinations such as "MTOC" and the contestants had to guess what these stood for using clues given by the host. e.g. "Famous humanitarian from India" would be "Mother Theresa of Calcutta". The gold run from the Gameshow Marathon version of the show Regardless of whether the player won the Gold Run or not, the champion(s) went on to play another team or single player. Winning successive matches earned a chance at further Gold Runs with increasingly impressive prizes. A fourth Gold Run tended to be a holiday break somewhere in Europe, while winning the fifth and final Gold Run led to an excellent adventure holiday somewhere in the world. A failed Gold Run meant that the contestant(s) would get £10 for every correct answer. Correct answers during the main game were worth £5. In the later series of the ITV version of Blockbusters they made an effort to cut costs, err... we mean, of course, get through more contestants by limiting players to three rounds only. In fact, one UKGS correspondent reports that when he was a conestant in 1989, he was told that the reason they changed the structure was because they wanted more people to win the big prizes. Even though it would cost more money, it was reckoned that this was a good move as it would lead to more "grand finals" and more instances of what viewers (apparently) wanted to see - kids winning the cool holidays. All contestants, successful or otherwise, took away the (apparently much-coveted) 'Blockbusters' sweatshirt (or rugby shirt, depending on the year), dictionary and personal organiser. The latter item varied over the Holness-years (and possibly wasn't even part of the package in the early years), but there was certainly always an item of clothing and a dictionary for everyone to take away. Pictures of the previous contestants wearing the sweatshirt/rugby shirt were invariably shown when Bob referred to the prizes. There are a couple of features of the set that are worth mentioning. The first is the game board, which was quite a feat of engineering. It took up the entire height of the studio, and was powered using 38 slide projectors, each with their own set of slides for the different letters, colours and Gold Run questions. Slides used by the projectors of the original Blockbusters board The second is the giant figureheads that adorned the top of the studio. There was a whole set of them, featuring famous people from the past. They were all made out of polystyrene that had been modelled using a hot metal wire. The chief Greek god Zeus took pride of place. Zeus overlooks the proceedings on Blockbusters The show was dropped by ITV after ten years, only to be snapped up by Sky (with Holness still at the helm) shortly afterwards, though these episodes were also shown in some ITV regions. During this series, a new Bonus Question feature was introduced. The regular question was asked and if the person who picked the letter got it correct, they were asked a related question for them only for the chance to win an additional £5. This question didn't affect the board in any way and was simply a general knowledge question linked to the first one. A spin-off ITV series, Champion Blockbusters, invited former winners back to play again. BBC 2 experimented with a cheaper afternoon version for adults which did not have the charm of the original show. Michael Aspel tried his luck with a modern version of Blockbusters The students showing off their "lucky mascot" toys they had brought with them. When Bob once asked, "What 'L' is a sum of money you borrow from a bank?" a girl answered, "Can I have a loan, please, Bob?" Bob's response was to get his wallet out straightaway! The famous out-take (below) where a contestant answered a biology question with the response "Orgasm" instead of "Organism", and the lesser-known one where another student offered the answer "Kama Sutra" instead of "Kowtow". On another occasion, a highly unusual answer to a question relating to London was 'Prostitutes' when in fact the answer was 'Parks'. "How am I going to explain this to Mum...?" A lesser-known out-take goes as follows: Bob: What W are made from plastic or card for carrying papers, and from leather for... Contestant buzzes Bob: Yes, Wallet? Perhaps not an out-take as such, but two unusual answers were given when Bob asked the question, "What 'N' is meant by the phrase, 'Hit him on the Boko?'" One member of the double team buzzed and said, "Nob". The question was duly passed to the single player, who said' "Nag". The answer was in fact "Nose", so it could be argued that 'Nob' (not in the rude sense, obviously) was actually on the right lines. Probably the most unusual question, which the contestants (understandably) failed to answer on the night, was, "What 'C' has four stiff-standers, four dilly-danders, two lookers, two crookers and a wig-wag?" The answer was 'Cow' (four legs, four teats, two eyes, two horns and a tail). The oh-aren't-we-wacky-students (and Bob as well, of course!) always did the weird clappy-wavy dance thing (technical term: "hand jive") that ended each fifth programme. This is because five programmes were recorded during one day, and the producers let them do it as the final thing before they went home. After extensive analysis of the tapes, we bring you the dance in full: Knee-clap Hand-clap Hand-over-hand (x2) Potato-hands (x2) Elbow-point-twirl (x2) Repeat x3 Clap in the air. Catchphrases At the beginning of the show on the original version: "And here is the host of Blockbusters - Bob Holness!" which later became: "And now - please welcome the host of Blockbusters - Bob Holness!" "Put yourself on the Hot Spot, please!" (In earlier series, Bob used to either say that or, "Take your place on the Hot Spot, please!" but as time went on, the "Put yourself" version was the one that stuck). "Gold to gold in 60 seconds or less", followed by either, "Tell us where you want to start on the left and we'll start the clock" or, "We'll start the clock when you tell us where you want to start on the left". "£10 for every correct answer if you don't make it". "Congratulations, and this is your prize - take a look at this!" "Retake your seat and we'll carry on with the game - thank you very much!" This was often followed by, "Well, there we are!" "Let's play 'Blockbusters'!" After a winning correct answer in the main game: "....And that's Blockbusters!" Michael Aspel tried to do the same, but somehow his, "....And that is Blockbusters!" never had the same ring to it, but then neither did his version of the show. "Don't go away!" "He/she'll be doing that Gold Run - not right now, but in a couple of minutes' time - don't you dare go away!" There was a lot of joking around with the way in which contestants nominated the next hexagon to play for. It started with "Can I have a P please, Bob?" - the nation's favourite game show catchphrase, if a 2008 survey on behalf of Churchill Insurance is to be believed - and progressed to "I want U, Bob" (which only the girls said, strangely enough). The 80s druggies got their kicks with "I want an E, Bob." One enterprising "rave" group, Skin Up, actually released a single called "Blockbuster" which revolved around this phrase (plus someone impersonating Bob Holness incredibly badly). Bob apparently found this rather amusing but the bigwigs at Central didn't agree and got it withdrawn. Booo! Contestants also quite often asked for a "B for Bob", to which Bob usually responded, "If this is the answer to the question, you're in trouble, mate!" or words to that effect - but it never was! Blockbusters started life in the USA in 1980, one of the many Mark Goodson game-shows. The idea was spotted by a producer who piloted the show in the early 1980's in the UK. "Quiz Wizard" composed by Ed Welch. The 2000 Sky revival One of the contestants for the pilot show was David Elias, a quiz-setter by profession who won a series of Countdown. However, when the series was commissioned it was decided that teenagers at sixth form or in college should take part. Hence, he was the oldest ever contestant on Blockbusters - the Holness-version, anyway! Blockbusters was notable for being the first show on British TV to run five times a week. Many thought this was overkill, but this was subsequently shown to be wrong as the show ideally slotted into the invariably tricky 5.15pm slot. [This was in the days when Home and Away was a purely Australian institution.] Indeed, throughout most of the 1980's, the show ran for 6 days a week, being shown at 5.05pm on Saturdays in addition to the weekday broadcasts. However, in 1990, it was only shown 3 days a week and then at the rather less convenient time of 6.30pm, which clashed with the BBC's regional news programmes. Later still, it became a daytime show, which resulted in a considerable drop in ratings and the show was axed as a result. As with so many other shows, it was a shame they didn't adopt the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' rule, since it had worked so well in its original format and timeslot! Bob once revealed that the young man who had famously said 'Orgasm' instead of 'Organism' had not had such a rough deal as one might think. Of course, he would have been horribly embarrassed at the time, especially with the whole studio cracking up laughing - and no doubt he also took a lot of flak from his friends back at school - but apparently, every time the outtake is shown on 'Alright On The Night', 'TV Nightmares' or any other outtake show, he gets a small repeat fee. Not bad going really! Although the letter-sequences in Gold Runs usually made up phrases, a notable exception occurred in an early edition of the show when a contestant chose the combination 'ZZZ' and was asked to name 3 African countries. She managed to name two of them (Zimbabwe and Zambia), but was unable to get the third, which was Zaire. In addition to the main Zeus figurehead that was above Bob, there were many others which were displayed in the studio on a rotation basis. These included: Abraham Lincoln, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Tina Turner, Mother Teresa, George Bernard Shaw, Amy Johnston, John Wayne, Harold Macmillan, William Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Meryl Streep, Einstein, Lenin, Harrison Ford, Mao Tse Tung, Kenny Dalglish, Bob Geldof, Beethoven, Martina Natratilova, Hilga Ogden, Woody Allen, Toyah Willcox, Confucius, Queen Elizabeth I, a Punk Rocker, Moses, Daley Thompson, Marilyn Monroe, a Teacher, an Astronaut, a Diver, a Rastafarian and Tutankhamen. They were made out of polystyrene, and moulded by cutting out the relevant sections using a hot wire. Some of the polystyrene figures from Blockbusters being auctioned off The format was so successful in Dubai that shops and offices closed early so that everyone could rush home to see it. In the mid-90s, there were two editions of the show for kids in Israel - one in Hebrew, one in Arabic. Mathematically speaking, it doesn't make any difference which space a contestant picks at any point in a game. Since whoever selects a space, it is decided by an equal race to the buzzer (so that whenever in the game a space is chosen, the same team should theoretically win it), and because a completed game board can only have one winner on it, the process of playing can be thought of as uncovering the final grid to "see" who wins. Therefore, the best tactic is arguably to simply choose the spaces that will delay the ending of the game and hence accrue a player the most cash (or, of course, to choose the letters with the most potential for hilarious innuendo). Former contestant Stuart Langley writes: "Interested to read the point about the best tactic being to fill the board and take the money as that is exactly what Anita Garrad and I did when we were on the show (many years ago). We were apparently the first and only people to do this. However, at the next ad break we were taken to one side by the producer and told not to do it again. I guess they were worried it would catch on and bankrupt the show." Bob's trademark "sign off" of saluting his right hand into the air (usually accompanied with "Goodbye now!" or "Cheers!") was compained about by viewers who thought he was imitating the Nazi "Zeig heil" salute. In later series, a bell would ring indicating when an advertising break was about to talk place. Bob would read out one more question before going into the ads. What purpose this served is unknown. During the Sky/Holness era, the item of clothing given away was a t-shirt designed by a viewer. On it was the famous Zeus figurehead with a speech bubble saying "Can I Have A P Please, Bob?". The fan in question was interviewed by Bob in front of the gameboard after the first Gold Run of the series. During the rehersals of the first Sky One series, when someone did a test Gold Run they'd put up gag prizes; two of them included an old rusty lawnmower, and the contents of the producers' drinks cabinet (a couple of cracked tumblers and an almost-empty bottle of booze). The actions for the Blockbusters hand-jive are in fact the secret forbidden arm movements for Riverdance. Admittedly this may not be literally true, but wouldn't you love to see someone try it? Several Blockbusters quiz books were published by Sphere. A very successful board game was also made, and there was a "Gold Run" travel card game as well. In 1989, an annual was printed although this was the only one to be published to our knowledge. Thomas Scott's contestant diary Article about the US version Andy Walmsley's set design from the BBC/Sky versions. How it all began that fourth Monday of August in nineteen hundred and eighty three. That hand jive didn't make its televisual debut until three years later... A later version of the set - and yes, that infamous 'Orgasm' question was just about to be asked. Blockbusters Theme Retrieved from "http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Blockbusters" Categories: Academic Quiz | Long-Running | Central Productions To correct something on this page or post an addition, please complete this form and press "Send": If you are asking us a question, please read our contact us page and FAQ first.

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2013 – A Year of Collaboration, Success and Learning I was recently asked what the most memorable moment of 2013 was for me as President/CEO of UniteWomen.org. In contemplating my answer, I realized there were countless memorable moments this year. We’ve had some fantastic successes that brought us great joy, and we also made some mistakes that brought about some heartache, but lessons were learned throughout – and the good far outweighed the bad. Some highlights from 2013: • We conducted a twitter bomb directed at U.S. House members to pass the U.S. Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act, which was inclusive of all women. The House version would have eliminated LGBTQ, immigrant and Native American Women from protection. The twitter bomb was conducted in real time while members were speaking on the House floor. As each member spoke, we tweeted them either calling out their lies or cheering their support of the Senate bill. Within a few hours, we received tweets directly from many House members stating they would change their vote to the inclusive Senate version and VAWA passed that afternoon. • Who would have thought we would be working so closely with the National Women’s History Museum, Sewall Belmont House, Alice Paul Institute, AAUW, Smithsonian and many others in our first year of existence? We were honored and inspired to work alongside the many people involved with the Suffrage Centennial Celebration. • The launch of “Unite Against Rape” in answer to the Steubenville, Ohio verdict really hit a nerve with our followers. The messages we received were heart wrenching and sometimes made it difficult to work on this project. But we are reminded that ultimately this is why we do what we do. Helping just one person gain the confidence to share their story is rewarding. Then to see them in turn work to help others makes it that much better. We are so proud to continue our work in fighting the culture of rape in our society with RAINN.org and the NJ Human Trafficking Coalition. • The 55 “Organizing Against The War On Women” rallies held on April 28, 2012 in 45 states were the launch pad for the creation of UniteWomen.org. We celebrated our one-year anniversary with an event in Virginia, which was live-streamed on April 28, 2013. Protests against the trans-vaginal ultrasound legislation in VA and Sandra Fluke being denied testimony on contraception were key in inspiring our beginning. We were honored to have Sandra as our keynote speaker at the anniversary celebration, along with an incredibly diverse and prestigious lineup of speakers. • I was asked to speak at the Honoring Women’s Rights conference last year, which brought together artists, activists and educators. I left that conference with a desire to create a program to highlight and help female artists. Hence, UniteWomen.org’s first curated art show was launched: “Women’s Rights – An Artist’s Perspective.” We received hundreds of pieces from incredibly talented artists, which were featured in an online gallery, and we were excited to hold a live gallery showing of the work of the top rated artists in November at the Pam Foss Fine Arts Gallery in St. Michaels, Maryland. Check out the catalog • UniteWomen.org was a coalition partner for the 50th Anniversary March on Washington with the National Action Network. The speeches at the rally and the subsequent march were an amazing experience. It was an honor to join so many organizations, unions and individuals working to realize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of equality for all. • The ERA must finally become reality! We are proud to be part of the ERA Coalition, a group of organizations, legislators and legal teams to move this effort forward. • The incredible effort in Texas fighting against the all encompassing anti-women legislation was a true testament of organizations coming together for a common cause. We were happy to play a part in what was one of the most organized coalitions we’ve seen. • Our effort, along with so many organizations in Virginia, culminated in a sweep of pro-women candidates taking the Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General seats. This will give you a taste of what we’ll be doing across the country in preparation for the 2014 mid-term elections. • After so much work by individuals on our Board and Executive team, we obtained our 501(c)(3) non-profit designation in addition to launching UniteWomen.org ACTION as a 501(c)(4). While the April 28, 2012 rallies were the original goal, I recognized the need to build and create an organization very early on in the planning process and shifted that goal to create UniteWomen.org. I thank the many people along the way who helped to make this a reality. UniteWomen.org grew very quickly by uniting passionate women and men all over the country who were angry about the legislative attack on women’s rights. Building an organization on social media was uncharted territory. We very quickly reached success, along with some predictable growing pains that allowed us to reflect, learn and grow. We have been fortunate to attract some incredible talent to our team, and have created, built and developed many programs and campaigns together. The talent, passion and common goals of our team members have culminated in some amazing work, but we also occasionally encountered some “artistic differences” within our ranks. Not everyone agrees on tactics, strategies or goals – and there are many forms of activism. One only needs to read the history of women’s rights to know that this is not a new issue, but living it out in real time on social media sure changes the dynamic; information travels like wildfire, even when it has absolutely no truth or merit. We have learned the value of patience. Those who believe misinformation are going to believe it no matter what the facts are – whether it’s about the Affordable Care Act, birtherism, or various faux scandals pursued by Darryl Issa. We decided to look beyond the short term and ignore any negativity and misinformation directed our way. While it has been difficult not to respond to some fallacious accusations, we knew that keeping our focus on the overall goal and mission of UniteWomen.org is what would propel us forward through what has been a wonderful and rewarding year. Look for a piece next week describing our goals for 2014 and how you can get involved. Happy New Year! About Karen Teegarden Karen is the CEO of UniteWomen.org, founded in February, 2012. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and works in the marketing and advertising sales industry in Michigan. Her daughter was raised to believe in her core that she was created equal. Karen began this journey to assure that all women live in a country that protects their equality. Tags: ERA, Organizing Against The War on Women, Sandra Fluke, Suffrage Centennial Celebration, Unite Against Rape, UniteWomen.org, VAWA, Violence Against Women Act, Women's Rights: An Artist's Perspective

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Stripes Building – Art by G. Stolyarov II March 28, 2017 Gennady Stolyarov II Comments 0 Comment G. Stolyarov II The Stripes Building – a Minecraft creation by Mr. Stolyarov – is the next step in the beautification of the unfinished Aqueduct Plaza of the Minecraft Imperial City, a collaborative project coordinated by users Rigolo and Comeon, and freely downloadable here. The most current version of the Imperial City, as expanded by Mr. Stolyarov, is downloadable here. The Stripes Building replaces a former dark rectangular cavern. As its name suggests, this structure is characterized by distinctive striped motifs at various scales. It represents an attempt at a new esthetic in a new era – an era of great contrasts and the recurrence of both glorious and tragic developments both on an individual level and for the world at large. At the same time, this building endeavors to respect the architectural elements of great historical styles, while combining and illuminating them in a way that hints at a futuristic outlook. The Stripes Building is situated on the opposite side of the Aqueduct Compound – its taller, airier, more optimistic cousin, which represents the forward-looking spirit of an earlier era. The Stripes Building is more nuanced and suggests that the future might turn out in a variety of ways, but there is still value in a structured, rational way of contemplating it. Left-click for a full-image view of each screenshot. Right-click to download the image. Why Iceland Doesn’t Have an Alt-Right Problem – Article by Camilo Gómez March 27, 2017 Camilo Gómez Comments 0 Comment Camilo Gómez With the recent rise to prominence of right-wing populist parties across Europe, it’s refreshing that Iceland has remained largely immune to such nationalistic rhetoric. On the continent, figures like Marine Le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands are capitalizing on what political scientists are calling a third wave of European populism that began after the international financial crisis of 2008. These parties are characterized by their anti-immigrant, and specifically, anti-Muslim sentiments. They fashion themselves the “protectors” of their homelands’ traditional culture against cosmopolitan globalism. Yet, tiny Iceland has resisted this dirty brand of politics because of the rise of social movements that challenged the power structure of the Icelandic political establishment after the financial crisis of 2008. Unlike in other European countries, these social movements transformed themselves into a political movements, filling the vacuum of traditional center-right and center-left political parties, while also preventing far-right political projects from succeeding. For starters, Iceland is a relatively young country that only became independent in 1944. It is a parliamentary democracy, based on coalitions because the Althing (parliament) has 63 members but a single party rarely has a clear majority. Unlike other Nordic countries, Iceland has been governed by the right for most of its history, either from the liberal conservative Independence Party or the center-right agrarian Progressive Party. This changed after the international financial crisis of 2008, which led all three Icelandic commercial banks to default. The crisis generated massive anger as Icelanders didn’t know what was going to happen with their savings. This led to massive protests that culminated in the resignation of the Prime Minister who was a member of the Independence Party. Consequently, in April 2009, a left-wing coalition by the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement formed a government together for the first time in the country’s history. This grassroots activism led to the appearance of outsider political projects like the now defunct Best Party, which started as political satire but ended with its leader Jón Gnarr winning the mayoral election in Reykjavík in 2010. More importantly, grassroots activism was further encouraged by the Panama Papers, which revealed that the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson of the Progressive Party and his wife, had an undisclosed account in an offshore tax haven. The ensuing protests became the largest in Iceland’s history, and made the Prime Minister resign. This led the way for the Pirate Party — a loose collection of anarchists, hackers and libertarians — to rise in prominence. Because of the Pirates, the national discussion shifted to a more socially tolerant narrative of a society willing to be open to the world. Thus, Iceland’s 2016 elections presented very different options from the relatively traditional Independence Party and Progressive Party or the Social Democratic Alliance and Left-Green Movement. In addition to the Pirate Party, voters could also choose from the Bright Party, an eclectic socially liberal party, and the Reform Party, a new liberal party formed by defectors of the Independence Party. The elections led to a center-right coalition between the Independence Party, the Reform Party and the Bright Party. Rather than blaming immigrants for their problems, Icelanders confronted the political class and created new parties that didn’t resemble the wave of far-right populism. Now even the government realizes that Iceland needs immigrants, skilled and unskilled, to fulfill the demand in different aspects of the Icelandic economy. Contrary to other countries in Europe, and despite its size, Iceland had been willing to receive refugees, and the number of immigrants in Iceland keeps growing year by year. In times of demagoguery, Iceland remains friendly to foreigners. One can only hope that the world learn from this small country that foreigners bring prosperity. Camilo Gómez is a blogger at The Mitrailleuse and the host of Late Night Anarchy podcast. He can be found in Twitter at @camilomgn. He is a Young Voices Advocate. This article was published by The Foundation for Economic Education and may be freely distributed, subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which requires that credit be given to the author. Read the original article. The U.S. Transhumanist Party – Pursuing a Future of Extreme Progress – Presentation by G. Stolyarov II Listen to and download the audio recording of this presentation at http://rationalargumentator.com/USTP_Future_of_Extreme_Progress.mp3 (right-click to download). Download Mr. Stolyarov’s presentation slides at http://rationalargumentator.com/USTP_Future_of_Extreme_Progress.pdf (right-click to download). Gennady Stolyarov II, Chairman of the U.S. Transhumanist Party, delivered this presentation virtually at the Extreme Futures Technology and Forecasting (EFTF) Work Group on March 11, 2017. Mr. Stolyarov outlines the background and history of the Transhumanist Party, its Core Ideals, its unique approach to politics and member involvement, and the hopes for transforming politics into a constructive focus on solutions to the prevailing problems of our time. At the conclusion of the presentation Mr. Stolyarov answered a series of questions from futurists Mark Waser and Stuart Mason Dambrot. Visit the website of the U.S. Transhumanist Party here. Become a member of the U.S. Transhumanist Party for free here. Watch the U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Artificial Intelligence here. Watch the U.S. Transhumanist Party Discussion Panel on Life Extension here. Arizona Challenges the Fed’s Money Monopoly – Article by Ron Paul March 6, 2017 Ron Paul Comments 0 Comment History shows that, if individuals have the freedom to choose what to use as money, they will likely opt for gold or silver. Of course, modern politicians and their Keynesian enablers despise the gold or silver standard. This is because linking a currency to a precious metal limits the ability of central banks to finance the growth of the welfare-warfare state via the inflation tax. This forces politicians to finance big government much more with direct means of taxation. Despite the hostility toward gold from modern politicians, gold played a role in US monetary policy for sixty years after the creation of the Federal Reserve. Then, in 1971, as concerns over the US government’s increasing deficits led many foreign governments to convert their holdings of US dollars to gold, President Nixon closed the gold window, creating America’s first purely fiat currency. America’s 46-year experiment in fiat currency has gone exactly as followers of the Austrian school predicted: a continuing decline in the dollar’s purchasing power accompanied by a decline in the standard of living of middle- and working-class Americans, a series of Federal Reserve-created booms followed by increasingly severe busts, and an explosive growth in federal-government spending. Federal Reserve policies are also behind much of the increase in income inequality. Since the 2008 Fed-created economic meltdown, more Americans have become aware of the Federal Reserve’s responsibility for America’s economic problems. This growing anti-Fed sentiment is one of the key factors behind the liberty movement’s growth and represents the most serious challenge to the Fed’s legitimacy in its history. This movement has made “Audit the Fed” into a major national issue that is now closer than ever to being signed into law. Audit the Fed is not the only focus of the growing anti-Fed movement. For example, this Wednesday the Arizona Senate Finance and Rules Committees will consider legislation (HB 2014) officially defining gold, silver, and other precious metals as legal tender. The bill also exempts transactions in precious metals from state capital-gains taxes, thus ensuring that people are not punished by the taxman for rejecting Federal Reserve notes in favor of gold or silver. Since inflation increases the value of precious metals, these taxes give the federal government one more way to profit from the Federal Reserve’s currency debasement. HB 2014 is a very important and timely piece of legislation. The Federal Reserve’s failure to reignite the economy with record-low interest rates since the last crash is a sign that we may soon see the dollar’s collapse. It is therefore imperative that the law protect people’s right to use alternatives to what may soon be virtually worthless Federal Reserve notes. Passage of HB 2014 would also send a message to Congress and the Trump administration that the anti-Fed movement is growing in influence. Thus, passage of this bill will not just strengthen movements in other states to pass similar legislation; it will also help build support for the Audit the Fed bill and legislation repealing federal legal tender laws. This Wednesday I will be in Arizona to help rally support for HB 2014, speaking on behalf of the bill before the Arizona Senate Finance Committee at 9:00 a.m. I will also be speaking at a rally at noon at the Arizona state capitol. I hope every supporter of sound money in the Phoenix area joins me to show their support for ending the Fed’s money monopoly. Ron Paul, MD, is a former three-time Republican candidate for U. S. President and Congressman from Texas. This article is reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Why the Joint Session Standing Ovations Creeped Me Out – Article by Marianne March March 6, 2017 Marianne March Comments 0 Comment Marianne March On February 28, 2017, I tuned in for President Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress. What stood out to me most, besides VP Pence and Speaker Paul Ryan’s matching cobalt ties, was the way those two men and a portion of the audience kept popping up and down, out of their chairs like plastic rodents in a game of whack-a-mole. During the roughly hourlong speech, (some of) the audience rose out of their chairs, clapping, no less than twenty times. Clap Until Your Hands Are Raw There is something incredibly disingenuous about giving an enthusiastic standing ovation every three minutes. What inspires people to participate so eagerly in, what is clear to any outsider, an orchestrated scene? It calls to mind, Russian novelist, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book The Gulag Archipelago, in which he describes the following scene, At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaped to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name). … For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the stormy applause, rising to an ovation, continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin. However, who would dare to be the first to stop? … After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who would quit first! Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved! The squirrel had been smart enough to jump off his revolving wheel. That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they went about eliminating them. That same night the factory director was arrested. They easily pasted ten years on him on the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed Form 206, the final document of the interrogation, his interrogator reminded him: “Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding.” Some amount of applauding and even standing ovations are not out of place at a political event, especially a presidential speech, but audience reactions to Mr. Trump’s joint session address were borderline ridiculous. People in the gallery, and seated behind Trump, stood and applauded law enforcement, the First Lady, protectionist trade policies, “transitioning” out of Obamacare, and they clapped almost endlessly for Carryn Owens, the grieving widow of Navy Seal Ryan Owens who was killed during a raid in Yemen in late January. During the several minutes that they stood clapping for her, Carryn Owens sobbed, clenched her hands together and looked up to the ceiling, mouthed the words ‘thank you,’ and clearly struggled to keep her composure. It was difficult to watch. Glenn Greenwald described the moment perfectly in an Intercept article: Independent of the political intent behind it, any well-functioning human being would feel great empathy watching a grieving spouse mourning and struggling to emotionally cope with the recent, sudden death of her partner.” And it’s true. I imagine few could help feeling sympathy for this woman. Not only has she borne the loss of her husband, but she is now being used as a pawn to promote and glorify war and suffering. Using Women to Promote War And what a paltry recompense applause is. I’m sure that the widow Owens would much prefer that the men and women of Congress keep their hands in their pockets to losing her spouse. But this is a powerful tool for promoting war and it has been used for a long time. Exalting only a country’s own soldiers, without so much as a whispered reference to the other victims of war, the deaths of innocent civilians, and using women, particularly mothers and widows, to connect an audience with less negative perceptions of war is an old trick. This tactic is perhaps best explained in the 1964 film, The Americanization of Emily, And it’s always the widows who lead the Memorial Day parades…. We shall never end wars by blaming it on ministers and generals or warmongering imperialists or all the other banal bogies. It’s the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers; the rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widows’ weeds like nuns … and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.” What is amazing is that we’re still falling for these schemes. Again, I agree with Greenwald that, None of this is to say that the tribute to Owens and the sympathy for his wife are undeserved. Quite the contrary: when a country, decade after decade, keeps sending a small, largely disadvantaged portion of its citizenry to bear all the costs and risks of the wars it starts – while the nation’s elite and its families are largely immune – the least the immunized elites can do is pay symbolic tribute when they are killed.” In his address, President Trump called for “one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.” And then he proceeded to show us just how he’s going to get it. How many more widows and victims will be paraded out in front of us in the years to come? We must recognize that when we allow our emotions to be manipulated in this manner, we, too, become pawns of the powerful. Marianne March is a recent graduate of Georgia State University, where she majored in Public Policy, with a minor in Economics. Follow her on twitter @mari_tweets. Jews As the Enemies of the Enemies of Liberty – Article by Steven Horwitz March 2, 2017 Steven Horwitz Comments 0 Comment Anti-Semitism, it’s often said, is the oldest prejudice. The hatred of Jews has waxed and waned over the centuries, but appears to be back with something of a vengeance over the last few years, and especially the last few months. For example, on Monday, February 27, over two dozen Jewish institutions across the country received bomb threats by anonymous phone calls. These included Jewish Community Centers, synagogues, retirement homes, day care centers, and Jewish educational institutions. These threats are part of a pattern of such threats, including multiple cemetery desecrations, that has been ongoing over the last few months. There have been 100 such threats to Jewish institutions just since the beginning of 2017. Every time such a threat is called in, these institutions have to clear the building to determine if it is just a hoax. This means rounding up children, infants, the elderly, the infirm, and the developmentally disabled, getting them out of the building and, often, out in the cold, for the hour or two it takes to confirm all is clear. Although, thankfully, these have all turned out to be hoaxes, they still are taking a real toll on the Jewish community and the non-Jews who make use of these institutions. They are, I would argue, a form of terrorism. The Why of Anti-Semitism There has been much debate over why these threats have increased in recent months, and it seems plausible that the increased brazenness of the “politically incorrect,” including the rise of the alt-right, in the wake of the Trump campaign is probably one key factor. But anti-Semitism is not solely a problem on the Right. The political Left has had its own history of hatred for Jews, manifested in the present by the increased anti-Semitism of the radical Left in the context of criticism of Israel, especially through the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The sources of anti-Semitism on both Right and Left are complicated, but one element on both sides is that Jews have historically been associated with important liberal ideas such as capitalism, entrepreneurship, cosmopolitanism, and free migration. These institutions have enabled massive social, cultural, and economic change, empowering the previously powerless all over the world, and threatening the old order. The enemies of liberalism have problems with all of these, though the Right and Left differ on which bothers them the most. But for both, Jews can be easily seen as the enemies of those who find deep flaws with the classical liberal social order. When Jews are being threatened, it is usually a good sign that the foundations of liberalism are as well. Jewish Anti-Capitalism One point to note up front is that Jews themselves have a history of opposition to classical liberalism. Jewish intellectuals have had a long-standing attraction to socialism, starting of course with Marx himself. In particular, a number of the architects of the Russian Revolution were Jews or of Jewish heritage. I raise this because I am not arguing that Jews were somehow reliably classically liberal over the last few centuries. And the fact that a good number of Jews were socialist, or that a good number of socialists were Jews, certainly doesn’t justify anti-Semitism by critics of socialism. I do think that part of the attraction of socialism to Jews was its universalist aspiration in the form of the trans-national cosmopolitan vision of classical socialism along with its desire to “heal the world” and its strong ethic of concern for the least well-off. Those aspirations were shared by 19th-century classical liberals and were also part of Jewish practice. This universalism made Jews the target of the critics of classical liberalism from the Right, as well as the right-wing critics of socialism. Jewish Pro-Capitalism The association of Jews with capitalism, trade, and entrepreneurship is well known. The negative stereotypes of acquisitiveness, materialism, and selfishness that have long been part of anti-Semitism grew out of the truth that Jews were more likely to be traders and financiers than were other groups. Part of this was that as a nomadic people, Jews invested in their human capital rather than the physical capital they would have had to schlep around while getting kicked out of country after country. (This might also explain why Jews have also been disproportionately entertainers and intellectuals. The skills for telling jokes, writing stories, making music, or working in the realm of ideas are ones that don’t require much in the way of physical capital in order to be successful.) Jews were also often middlemen as a result of their nomadic existence and familiarity with so many parts of the world. Middlemen have always been suspect to the economically ignorant as far back as Aristotle, as they appear to profit by creating nothing tangible. This is particularly true when the middlemen are in financial markets, where they are not even trading something physical. It’s no surprise, therefore, that hatred of capitalism has been accompanied by hatred of the Jews Right-wing anti-Semitism, however, often draws upon these capitalist tropes as part of its hatred. But in this context, Jews are not so much seen as representative of capitalist exploitation that can be ended by socialism, but rather as an example of people who place love of money and their universalist aspirations above the love of their country and its citizens. German anti-Semitism in the 20th century had roots in the argument that Jews had been “war profiteers” in World War I and had benefitted from the economic destruction that characterized the Weimar Republic period leading up to Hitler’s ascension to power. The Nazis, and other fascist movements, saw the Jews as the sort of rootless cosmopolitans who were unable to grasp the importance of blood and soil. The modern version of this point, and one that is also found on the Left, is the “dual loyalty” charge laid upon pro-Israel Jews: they are beholden to Israel in ways that cause them to work against the interests of the United States. The Why of Nationalism One way to see the “national socialism” of various fascist movements is that they objected not to socialism per se, but to socialism’s attempt to put class ahead of race or ethnicity or nationality. To the fascists, German or Italian workers shared much more with German or Italian capitalists than they did with Russian or American workers. Marxian socialism drew the wrong battle lines. And so it is today, as “economic nationalism” is on the rise globally and Jews have again become the most obvious target for an invigorated Right. Jews have always been the symbol of the cosmopolitan, the migrant, and the “rootless” trader. If you reject market-driven globalization, whether because you dislike markets or because you are a nationalist, you are going to have reasons to see Jews as symbols of what you reject. That opposition to immigration and global trade, and the market system that is at the root of both, would go hand-in-hand with anti-Semitism is hardly surprising. The economic nationalism of Trump and a variety of European leaders is not inherently anti-Semitic, nor does it require that the leaders of such movements be anti-Semites, but the arguments of economic nationalism can easily empower the anti-Semitism of both the Right and Left. The leaders build in plausible deniability, knowing full well the nature of the forces they are unleashing but in ways that avoid direct responsibility. How could they not know? We have centuries of experience to draw on, back to the ancient world through the Middle Ages all the way to the ghastly slaughter of the 20th century during which anti-Semitism nearly destroyed the whole of Europe itself. The costs have been unspeakable, and hence the vow to never forget. And yet, despite this history, the tendency to forget remains. To remember would require that we think more clearly about ideology and philosophy, human rights and dignity. Many people do not want to do that. It remains easier to scapegoat than to remember. Admittedly, we liberals have a special grudge against anti-Semitism. It broke up the greatest intellectual society of the 20th century, shattering Viennese intellectual life, flinging even Ludwig von Mises out of his home and into the abyss. His books were banned, and those of many others too. He and so many fled for their lives but bravely rebuilt them in the new world that offered protection. A Warning Sign It has been said that Jews are the canaries in the coal mine of a liberal society: when they are under threat, it is a warning sign. The ongoing and increasing threats to Jewish communities here in the US, as well as similar trends across Europe, should have all of us worried. A world where Jews sing out in joy together and are unafraid to fly free is one far more safe from tyranny than one in which we Jews worry about dying in our own cages, as many of us are doing as the threats to our institutions have become more frequent and more brazen in recent months. Watch how a society treats Jews and you’ll have an indicator of its degree of openness and respect for liberty. When Jews are being threatened, so are the deepest of our liberal values. The poisonous air from coal mining that killed canaries was invisible. The threats to Jews and to liberalism are not. Citizens of liberal societies dismiss or downplay those threats at our own peril. Steven Horwitz is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University and the author of Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions. He is spending the 2016-17 academic year as a Visiting Scholar at the John H. Schnatter Institute for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise at Ball State University. He is a member of the FEE Faculty Network. Welcome Aboard, But First US Marshals Will Scan Your Retina – Article by Jeffrey A. Tucker March 1, 2017 Jeffrey A. Tucker Comments 0 Comment For some 15 years, airport security has become steadily more invasive. There are ever more checkpoints, ever more requests for documents as you make your way from the airport entrance to the airplane. Passengers adapt to the new changes as they come. But my latest flight to Mexico, originating in Atlanta, presented all passengers with something I had never seen before. We had already been through boarding pass checks, passport checks, scanners, and pat downs. At the gate, each passenger had already had their tickets scanned and we were all walking on the jet bridge to board. It’s at this point that most people assume that it is all done: finally we can enjoy some sense of normalcy. This time was different. Halfway down the jetbridge, there was a new layer of security. Two US Marshals, heavily armed and dressed in dystopian-style black regalia, stood next to an upright machine with a glowing green eye. Every passenger, one by one, was told to step on a mat and look into the green scanner. It was scanning our eyes and matching that scan with the passport, which was also scanned (yet again). Like everyone else, I complied. What was my choice? I guess I could have turned back at the point, decline to take the flight I had paid for, but it would be unclear what would then happen. After standing there for perhaps 8 seconds, the machine gave the go signal and I boarded. I talked to a few passengers about this and others were just as shaken by the experience. They were reticent even to talk about it, as people tend to be when confronted with something like this. I couldn’t find anyone who had ever seen something like this before. I wrote friends who travel internationally and none said they had ever seen anything like this. I will tell you how it made me feel: like a prisoner in my own country. It’s one thing to control who comes into a country. But surveilling and permissioning American citizens as they leave their own country, even as they are about to board, is something else. Where is the toggle switch that would have told the machine not to let me board, and who controls it? How prone is it to bureaucratic error? What happens to my scan now and who has access to it? The scene reminded me of movies I’ve seen, like The Hunger Games or 1984. It’s chilling and strange, even deeply alarming to anyone who has ever dreamed of what freedom might be like. It doesn’t look like this. I’ve searched the web for some evidence that this new practice has been going on for a while and I just didn’t notice. I find nothing about it. I’ve looked to find some new order, maybe leftover from the Obama administration, that is just now being implemented. But I find nothing. Update: a reader has pointed me to this page at Homeland Security: As part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) border security mission, the agency is deploying new technologies to verify travelers’ identities – both when they arrive and when they leave the United States – by matching a traveler to the document they are presenting. CBP’s goal is to enhance national security and protect a traveler’s identity against theft through the use of biometrics. Biometric information (such as finger, face, or iris) measures a person’s unique physical characteristics. CBP incorporated fingerprints for biometric identification and verification in 2004, and is now testing facial and iris imaging capabilities to help improve travelers’ identity protection, the integrity of our immigration system, and our national security. I happened to be on the “one daily flight” that gets exit scanned. Another change has to do with new rules for Homeland Security just imposed by the Trump administration. They make deportation vastly easier for the government. I have no idea if these rules are the culprit for intensified emigration checks. What people don’t often consider is that every rule that pertains to immigration ultimately applies to emigration as well. Every rule that government has to treat immigrants a certain way also necessarily applies to citizens as well. Chandran Kukathas is right when he says that “controlling immigration means controlling everyone.” Regulating immigration is not just about how people arrive, but about what they do once they have entered a country. It is about controlling how long people stay, where they travel, and what they do. Most of all, it means controlling whether or not and for whom they work (paid or unpaid), what they accept in financial remuneration, and what they must do to remain in employment, for as long as that is permitted. Yet this is not possible without controlling citizens and existing residents, who must be regulated, monitored and policed to make sure that they comply with immigration laws. To be sure, there might have been some tip off that security officials received that triggered these special measures for this flight only. Maybe they were looking for something, someone, in particular. Maybe this was a one-time thing and will not become routine. The point is that it happened without any change in the laws or regulations. Whatever the reason, it was some decision made by security. It can happen on any flight for any reason. And who is in charge of making that decision? On the plane, finally, my mind raced through the deeper history here. Passports as we know them are only a little over a century old. In the late 19th century, the apotheosis of the liberal age, there were no passports. You could travel anywhere in the world through whatever means you could find. Nationalism unleashed by World War I ended that. And here we are today, with ever more controls, seeming to follow Orwell’s blueprint for how to end whatever practical freedoms we have left. And we are going this way despite the absence of any real crisis, any imminent threat? The driving force seems to be this: our own federal government’s desire to control every aspect of our lives. Think of it: there might be no getting out of the country without subjecting yourself to this process. It’s a digital Berlin Wall. This is what it means to put “security” ahead of freedom: you get neither. Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also Chief Liberty Officer and founder of Liberty.me, Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil, research fellow at the Acton Institute, policy adviser of the Heartland Institute, founder of the CryptoCurrency Conference, member of the editorial board of the Molinari Review, an advisor to the blockchain application builder Factom, and author of five books. He has written 150 introductions to books and many thousands of articles appearing in the scholarly and popular press.

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Contact Red94 Houston Rockets Historical Oddities The Best of Red94 The Stats Say: Howard and Harden could make the Rockets contenders through the end of the decade Author: Justin Wehr Published: October 16, 2013 Categories: essays “It is a merciless system weighted toward the superstar,” concludes an article from RealGM analyzing what it takes to contend for an NBA title. Put less delicately, there are only about a dozen players in the NBA that even matter. A team without at least one of the best dozen players — even if that team has several All-Stars and a really good supporting cast (e.g., the Warriors, Nuggets, and Grizzlies) — has virtually zero chance of competing for an NBA title, let alone winning it. This is called the “Superstar Theory,” and its basic point is that the best players are ridiculously valuable and all the rest are merely large bodies occupying space. Endogeneity aside, there is some compelling evidence to support the theory. In the article referenced above, the author made a list of the 117 all-time greatest NBA players based on MVP votes and All-NBA votes and several other criteria, and then counted how often teams in the Finals or conference finals had one of these 117 players. Here I’m handpicking results: Every single NBA champion has been led by one of the 117 superstars on this list, and so has all but one of the losers in the NBA Finals. (The exception? The 2000 Pacers.) 107 of the 116 Finals teams had at least a qualifying silver medal superstar, i.e., basically an all-time top 60 player. Even eighty percent of the 116 teams that lost in the conference finals were led by one of the 117 superstars. If the Superstar Theory is true (and it appears to be), then there are only four to six current teams with realistic title hopes. That’s because, according to the author’s criteria, there are only 13 and a half active superstars in their prime (shown below; bold indicates under age 35; please note: I say 13.5 superstars rather than 14.5 because I refuse to count Amar’e). Platinum Medal: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan Gold Medal: Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki Silver Medal: Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Derrick Rose, Amar’e Stoudemire, Blake Griffin Bronze Medal: Rajon Rondo, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker, Kevin Love, Manu Ginobili, Chauncey Billups, Paul Pierce, Paul George Honorable Mention: James Harden (3.8 points, barely missing bronze status; seems likely by 2014 unless injured) These superstars are spread across 9 teams, with 4 of those teams having more than one superstar, with one of those teams being the Houston Rockets. So unless you have doubts as to the bona-fide-ness of Harden’s superstardom or the herniation of Dwight’s discs, then the Rockets can safely be declared contenders. But they have formidable competition in the Thunder, Clippers, and LeBrons (and maybe also the Spurs and Bulls). So the next logical question is how long their championship window might last. Barring catastrophic injuries or other McGrady/Yao-like events, I estimate that Howard and Harden should be “superstar” enough for the Rockets to be within title-sniffing distance for at least 5 years and maybe as many as 9. That’s based on the rate that the average Hall-of-Famer ages: Applying those age curves to Howard and Harden yields these projections: And then lining up those age projections with the corresponding year yields this: So if Harden and Howard age at a normal rate and continue producing at the supra-hall-of-fame level they have been, then the Rockets could be contenders through the end of the decade. But even though the window appears large-ish, Harden and Howard will likely never have a better chance than the one they have over the next couple of years. Their peak is, or should be, right now. It’s probably a good time to remind you that it’s very hard to predict the future and that these simple projections could be way off. For example, while my estimates assume that both players’ performance will decline at a normal rate, many people expect Dwight’s performance to decline faster than average due to his reliance on his athleticism (and his reliance on back surgeries) and Harden’s performance to decline slower than average due to what-he-must-be-tired-of-hearing-called his “craftiness.” I have reasons to believe that both assumptions are mostly wrong, but even if the Rockets get a Laker-quality, rapidly-declining version of Dwight, I’d estimate that the Rockets should still be good enough for several years of title sniffing. The critical question, I think, is not one of aging but rather one of competition. I’m confident that the Rockets can be top tier through the end of the decade, but I’m not confident that they can win four out of seven playoff games against the Thunder, Clippers, or LeBrons. At present, all of those teams appear to have more starmuscle than the Rockets, and, except for Miami, that starmuscle doesn’t appear to be significantly weakening anytime in the next few years. But that’s a topic to be continued in next Wednesday’s post. Next post: Houston Rockets 108, Orlando Magic 104: Offensive Philosophy Theft Alert! Previous post: The Rockets Daily – October 16, 2013 Follow Red94 for occasional rants, musings, and all new post updates

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jameson's Webbsleuths Forum jameson's Webbsleuths Forum > Ramsey Discussion > FBI involvement > Retired FBI John Douglas Full Version: Retired FBI John Douglas jameson245 John Douglas Interview on Time & Again in January 1997 Jane Pauley: JP: Former FBI agent with a reputation for Profiling - NBC's Cris Hanson talked to him for Dateline in Jan ‘97 just over a month after JonBenet's death. John Douglas JD: I've sat down across the table from some of the country's greatest liars, in the world really, and I can sense it. Things just did not fit, the crime scene - data -- just doesn't fit. Cris Hanson CH: Douglas was hired by Ramsey Attorneys and CH asks why they hired him. JD: They hired me to do an independent analysis in hopes of determining who was responsible for the death of the daughter. And I said, I will give you an independent analysis but you may not like what I have to say. CH: And that's because when he arrived here in Boulder, he immediately suspected the Ramseys. Douglas was limited by authorities on what evidence he could see but he was allowed in the house. He was briefed on the autopsy report and he saw a photo copy of the so called ransom note. Most importantly, he was given access to the Ramseys. His experience told him, look very closely at the parent. His 25 years of groundbreaking profiling research for the FBI led to important breaks in dozens of major cases. He had studied and interviewed scores of serial killers. He accurately profiled the unibomber years ago. And he was the inspiration for character Jack Crawford in the film, ‘Silence of the Lambs'. Although the BPD is releasing no information about the investigation, Douglas says it was clear to him that the Ramseys were the chief suspects when he arrived. For Douglas it was critically important to interview the parents. How much time did you spend talking to Mr. & Mrs. Ramsey? JD: About 4 or 5 hours. CH - For Douglas that interview two weeks after JonBenet was found murdered would be crucial in forming his opinions. To Douglas, whoever committed the crime had to have intimate knowledge with the Ramseys million dollar home. JD: What struck me as very unusual was the bedrooms - The mothers and fathers bedrooms were so far away on the third floor. Even if you weren't a sound sleeper, you'd have difficulty hearing any noise on the second floor because it was so far removed. CH: They told Douglas they all went to bed early Christmas night because they were planning to fly to their other home in Michigan the next morning. JD: Mr. Ramsey gets up, takes a shower. The mother gets up, goes downstairs to make some coffee - goes down the spiral staircase and the last step is three pages of the letter - starts reading it - doesn't know what it is - then she starts screaming. Mr. Ramsey comes down and it's instructions like don't contact the FBI, don't contact the police. CH: But the police were called. They search the house but don't check a small basement room. Hours later, a distraught John Ramsey goes to the basement and discovers his daughters body. JD: Everyone hears upstairs, ‘Oh God My Baby'. He grabs the child, removes the duct tape, carries the child upstairs and tries to resuscitate the child. CH: The crime scene and JonBenet's body were now contaminated because of the family's desperate efforts to help the little girl. But Douglas says the parents story contain important clues. JD: If a parent kills a child, they don't want to be the ones to find the child. If they do a search say, in the residence, they'll get someone else like ‘OK Frank you check this room, I'll be over here checking the other room. The other thing you look at is how the child is left. When parents kill, they usually place the child with a very very peaceful type of look to it - A staged crime scene. CH: Douglas says JonBenet was brutalized - she had duct tape on her mouth, she suffered severe head wounds and she was strangled and sexually assaulted. Douglas says the interview with the parents which lasted more than four hours was what ultimately turned him around. JD: I'm looking at this man, Mr. Ramsey and if you did it, you're one hell of a liar. You are one hell of a liar. If he did it, he put on a great production here but I just don't believe in my heart he did this. And not just from what's in my heart but from the analysis of the scene. CH: But, you're being paid by the Ramseys. JD: Right - You can pay me for my time, you're not going to pay for my opinion or jeopardize my reputation. CH: Are you convinced based upon your experience that the parents were not involved with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey? JD: What I've seen and experienced I'd say they were not involved. CH: The so-called ransom note that was left at the Ramseys home demands $118,000 and we now know that a $118,000 is the amount of the bonus JR was expecting that year. What does that say to you? Who has this knowledge? JD: The wife didn't have the knowledge, she doesn't know anything about that. It's money that's electronically placed in his 401K at the end of the year so to me it's kind of like the manifesto of the unibomber. If you knew more about the person who's responsible - this person has a very unique intimate knowledge about his financial workings therefore the person would have to be somehow related to his employment. CH: But Douglas remains focused on a piece of evidence that continues to haunt him, the three page ransom note apparently left by the killer. JD: Again, I am very prejudice by the amount of money, $118,000. Is that just luck that they picked that amount, I don't think so. Jane Pauley: John Douglas came to believe the Ramseys were not responsible for JonBenet's death. But neither he nor anyone else has ever identified any other credible suspect. Mindhunter Book written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker Reportedly found in Ramsey home 1997-01-18: Ramseys hire only 'the best' Ramseys hire only 'the best' By ELLIOT ZARET Camera Staff Writer When John and Patsy Ramsey appeared on national television New Year's Day, John Ramsey announced he wanted to hire "the best minds this country has to offer" to find his daughter's killer. Since then, the family has fulfilled that promise - assembling a team of lawyers, investigators, a former FBI agent, a media consultant and even a handwriting expert. The Ramseys' daughter, 6-year-old JonBenet, was found strangled in the basement of the family home Dec. 26, about eight hours after her mother reported her kidnapped. More than three weeks later, few new details are emerging in the investigation of her murder. The "Ramsey team" has attracted attention because of the number of high-profile experts on it. Karen Duffala, deputy director of the National Law Enforcement Center at the University of Denver Research Institute, said she has never seen a team like this, "not all joined together." "What's unusual is, these individuals are of national status - very well-known - and they're people that the Ramseys had access to," said Duffala, a former investigator at the Aurora Police Department. At the center of the Ramsey team is Pat Korten, a Washington, D.C., expert on "crisis management." Korten's company, Rowan & Blewitt Inc., addresses issues involving "litigation, public policy debate and scrutiny from the media, government, special interest and community organization(s)," according to company literature. Before joining Rowan & Blewitt about a year ago, Korten had been a journalist, talk-show host, spokesperson for a pharmaceutical trade association, and spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice during the Reagan administration. Korten, who now acts as the Ramseys' spokesperson, answers the flood of up to 200 media calls daily on behalf of the family. He also has set up a World Wide Web page for the family, with responses to coroner's photographs printed in the Globe tabloid and more. The Ramseys also hired a pair of powerful Denver attorneys to advise them in the case: G. Bryan Morgan and Patrick Burke. Morgan, 59, a founding partner of the high-powered criminal defense law firm Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, represents John Ramsey. Morgan, who teaches professional responsibility at the University of Colorado Law School, was a Colorado Supreme Court nominee and an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for CU regent. "He's a highly respected, extremely competent and wonderfully intelligent lawyer," said CU evidence and criminal law professor Mimi Wesson. "He's well regarded in all quarters as a highly ethical and responsible lawyer." Gene Nichol, former dean of the CU Law School, described Morgan, who was the finance chair for Nichol's unsuccessful Senate campaign, as "a real accomplished criminal lawyer" and "a very effective and passionate advocate." Morgan won a high-profile murder case in 1980 when he represented Lee Bobb Lindsley in the 1978 shooting death of her husband, Dr. Warren Felix B. Lindsley. Lindsley had been charged with first-degree murder. Lee Foreman, 51, another partner in the firm, also is working on the case. A former special prosecutor for the Colorado attorney general and president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, Foreman is playing more of a background role in the case. Burke, 47, who represents Patsy Ramsey, was formerly an assistant city attorney in Lakewood, assistant state attorney general and a federal public defender. Burke has been involved in a number of high-profile cases. In 1987, he successfully defended Richard Scutari, one of four white supremacists accused of violating the civil rights of Jewish talk-show host Alan Berg, who was murdered. Perhaps the most famous of all the Ramsey team members is former FBI criminal personality profiler John Douglas - the inspiration for special agent Jack Crawford in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs." In his 25-year career with the FBI, Douglas was a pioneer of modern criminal investigative analysis and became the leading expert on criminal personality profiling. He has studied and interviewed dozens of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, Richard Speck and John Wayne Gacy. Douglas has co-authored books on the killers and his profiling adventures, including "Mind Hunter" and "Unabomber." He's also been an expert witness for both prosecution and defense. Douglas has said he sometimes loses favor with those who hire him because he doesn't always tell them what they want to hear. "There are defense attorneys contacting me to look at their cases, and I tell them, "I don't know what I'm going to say on this, you might not like what I have to say,'" Douglas said in an interview with the American College of Forensic Examiners. Ironically, Douglas favors "proactive techniques" - or giving as much information out to the public as possible, something that appears contrary to the Boulder Police Department's tight-lipped policy on the Ramsey case. Boulder city spokesman Kelvin McNeill said Douglas will be given "an opportunity to provide insight" to police detectives investigating JonBenet's murder. But, he added, "we have said all along that outside investigators are not more or less entitled to information than the general public or media." The identity of one team member remains a mystery. Korten said the Ramseys hired a handwriting analyst - one that Newsweek magazine reported cleared the Ramseys of involvement in the ransom note. Korten would not comment on the report, nor would he divulge the identity of the analyst, saying only, "He's very well-known in the field." Rounding out the team are two private investigators: H. Ellis Armistead and David L. Williams. Armistead, 46, is a former Lakewood police officer and a special investigator for the Routt County district attorney's office. As a private investigator, Armistead is known for his ability "to get statements from witnesses that I didn't think would ever talk to us," said one defense attorney. Williams has been a private investigator for nearly 20 years. Prior to that he spent five years on the Colorado Organized Crime Strike Force. As a whole, the group may seem unusual, but "it is equally unusual for crime victims to be as wealthy as the Ramseys," said Wesson. "It sounds like an extraordinary assembly of talents. June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Regarding John Douglas book "Mindhunter") 6 LOU SMIT: Okay. Do you remember 7 what books your wife may have read around that 8 time or before? Was she a big reader? 9 JOHN RAMSEY: She wasn't really a 10 big reader. She would hit the bed, she would 11 fall asleep. I usually read in bed. She wasn't 12 a real big reader. 13 MIKE KANE: Did -- the occasions 14 that she did read books, what kinds? 15 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, you know, I 16 don't know if I could tell you one brook she's 17 read. 18 MIKE KANE: But was she a library 19 person, would she go to the library? 20 JOHN RAMSEY: Not much. We would 21 take the kids to the library but -- 22 MIKE KANE: She pick up a book when 23 she would take the kids? 24 JOHN RAMSEY: Um, no, probably 25 not. 1 MIKE KANE: Okay. What about "Mind 2 Hunter", John Douglas's book was there in the 3 house, had you purchased that? 4 JOHN RAMSEY: No. It was there in 5 '96? Interesting. 6 MIKE KANE: Was it interesting? 7 JOHN RAMSEY: I never never heard 8 of John Douglas or that book before. 9 MIKE KANE: So you never read that? 10 JOHN RAMSEY: No. I bought one of 11 his books the next summer, his newer book. June 1998 Patsy Ramsey Interrogation by Thomas Haney and Trip DeMuth (Mindhunter by John Douglas) 1 How about the book Mind? 2 PATSY RAMSEY: No. 3 TOM HANEY: Do you recall that? Do you 4 recall seeing it around the house? 5 PATSY RAMSEY: Huh-uh. 6 TOM HANEY: You were not reading. 8 TOM HANEY: It is a book by John Douglas. 9 PATSY RAMSEY: I don't know. 10 TOM HANEY: Do you know who he is? 11 PATSY RAMSEY: John Douglas I know. 12 TOM HANEY: Okay. How about everybody in 13 your room on your bedroom dresser there was a book by 14 David Pilgram (phonetic), a Danish book. 15 PATSY RAMSEY: Not good at remembering 16 authors. 17 TOM HANEY: I think this was in Danish. Do 18 you read different languages? 19 PATSY RAMSEY: No. 20 TOM HANEY: Would John, does he? 21 PATSY RAMSEY: No. It was written in Danish? 22 TOM HANEY: That is my understanding. 23 TRIP DEMUTH: Yeah. 24 PATSY RAMSEY: What kind of book? 25 TOM HANEY: I don't read it. 1 PATSY RAMSEY: I don't know. Not familiar. Posted by jameson on Friday...July 17, 1998 Shhhh, it is a secret... Peter's big scoop on Monday is going to be about reading material found in the Ramsey home. Could be big. Bigger than the book on grieving for a lost child, bigger than the little book of inspirational bible verses, maybe bigger than the bible - at least this week, at least to Peter Boyles. A few of us own this book, may want to consider disposing of it as it could potentially be used to show us to be obsessed with or even studying crimes and - gulp - murder! Nah. I will keep it on my shelf. Owning a book does not a murderer make. However, this will provoke a LOT of talk..... maybe there was a conspiracy underfoot when the book was purchased!! (Written totally tongue-in-cheek) The book, BTW, is "The Mind Hunter" by John Douglas. 1998-07-21: Peter Boyles Radio Show 630KHOW Peter Boyles Radio Show - July 21, 1998 Linda Wilcox Interview PETER BOYLES: "We'll talk about the police interview and we'll talk about the books by the bed. One of the stories we broke was about John Douglas' book Mindhunter being seen in the crime scene photos. You know a little bit about books by the Ramseys beds..." LINDA WILCOX: "Well, they each had a pile of books in the corner by the bed. Even though they had nightstands. Originally the nightstands weren't there until they redid the upstairs. And even afterwards, they tended to just throw the books there. So, I kind of knew who read what. So, Patsy's side had things like, you know poems for women and not really what I would consider true trash-like Harlequin romances, but more like Mary Higgins Clark, woman novels. Some of them, I had even read. John's side of the bed was usually some kind of suspense-thriller. He tended to buy books by, what I call, by the numbers, I mean whatever's number 1 on the bestseller lists. Occasionally it would be something like the 7 habits of successful people, or financial things or even a (didn't hear) occasionally. But, generally it was some kind of suspense novel." Posted by maxi on August 03, 1998 at 19:58:25: In Reply to: Re: Mindhunter Book A Clue posted by I Ching on August 03, 1998 at 15:44:28: : : : : : : : : From the ABC/Denver site: : : : : : JONBENET RAMSEY CASE : : : : : Does Book Yield a Clue in the Case? : : : : : New information about the JonBenet Ramsey murder case today. 7NEWS has : : : : : confirmed it involves a book by a well-known FBI profiler John Douglas. : : : : : The book is called Mindhunter. 7NEWS has confirmed that investigators : : : : : discovered the book in the Ramsey's bedroom. Sources tell us one of the : : : : : parents was reading it, but we don't know which one. The Ramsey's have : : : : : been questioned about it. The book describes many of the cases Douglas : : : : : worked on while he was at the F.B.I. Investigators are particularly : : : : : interested in a chapter that explains how the FBI helped catch Larry : : : : : Gene Bell, who was convicted and sentenced to death for kidnapping and : : : : : killing two girls in South Carolina in 1985. Experts say there are : : : : : several similarities between the case described in that chapter and the : : : : : Ramsey case. While the book doesn't mean anything by itself, when you : : : : : put it together with all the other details of the murder, it's an : : : : : important piece of information. We tried to contact the Ramsey's lawyers : : : : : about this, but they did not return our call. John and Patsy Ramsey have : : : : : said repeatedly they did not have anything to do with the death of their : : : : : daughter. : : : : The book was read by Patsy. It was found on the floor on HER side of the bed. Late night reading entertainment? Don't think so. More like "how-to" type reading. What's so interesting about this revelation is that Patsy took the book with her when she and John permanently left the house the day of the murder. Now I ask you, if your child had been brutally murdered hours earlier in your own house and you had to move out of the house because it was a secured crime scene, and you had only a few minutes to grab some essentials to take with you, would you even consider grabbing a book????? And of all the books in the house, she only grabbed that one book!! Smoking gun? A jury sure might see it that way. : : : : I Ching : : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ : : : Who said she grabbed the book. If it was gone, who knew it was on the floor next to the bed. When were the crime photos taken? I heard that Patsy's sister was the one to come in and get things for the Ramseys. The scene is now a crime scene and I doubt if anyone got anything with out approval from PD Patsy's sister asked for the Bible. : : : To repeat: Can't have it both ways. The book was not listed as evidence, yet it shows in a crime photo? Yet Patsy's sister took it, but the statement given to the press at the time was that her sister asked the PD if she could take the Bible, meaning they were right there and she had to ask them to take it. Now since they were right there, why was there no mention of the Mindhunter book. I don't think anything got out of that house once they found JonBenet. I think it is false info, given out by a leak. Now why do that? Because you still have an Eller connection in the PD. One that leaked info to the Vanity Fair, which a lot of it has proven to be false. Another thing I heard awhile back, is that the tabs want nothing to do with info that leads away from the Ramseys as they have put to much into the parents being guilty and to backtrack now, would show them for what they are and without calling names, we know what that name is.---Afton : : ------------ : : Bravo Afton...for a point well made. : I Ching and Allison...where is your proof that Patsy took that book, or even read the book? PeterBoyles?Sleazy Seven? Tabloids? Second, third or fouth hands speculation? Give me a break. LOLOLOL : : Did Patsy and John Buy the Book? Was it on loan to them? Did they really have a crime photo with this book in it? Was it really found on Patsy's side of the bed? This book thing is weak tea...something to cause a little speculation...it's nothing, nada, zilch. Any discussions with the investigators with the Ramseys, have been nearly eight weeks ago...Burke nearly ten weeks ago...still no arrest. On the contrary, Hunter says they are talking to new witnesses and sending in new samples to CBI...they are also reinvestigating old witnesses...Why? Oooooh Yeah...I remember...the Ramseys WANT them too, and they ALWAYS do what the Ramseys want them to do. Yeah Right. : : I say if the Ramseys are guilty...the Police,DA, FBI, CBI and anyone else that could be dragged in to give an opinion...have had more then ample time to arrest the Ramseys...not happening...won't happen...give up. : : JMHO...Seal...PJAPOI : : -------------------- : Lou Smit was the one who saw the book in the photo with a magnifying glass. It was on the floor on Patsy's side of the massive double bed in the master bedroom. It was almost as if Patsy had just put it down that night. However, the book was not found anywhere in the house when the formal search was done. I think we all pretty much agree that books don't have legs and can't walk away on their own. The only conceivable explanation is that Patsy took it with her when she permamently left the house that day. Odd that she would think to take that one book with her under those tragic circumstances.....Anyway, it was reported that John and Patsy "squirmed" during the June interviews when they were asked about the book. Wonder why. : I Ching Peter Boyles seemed to have two sources for the info about the book: one who told him the book was beside the bed and one who told him that Patsy was the owner/reader of the book. The first source must be a leaker from within the police presentation or some such thing. Any guesses as to the second. I have one, but I'm not saying since I get in trouble on J-7 every time I mention this name. 1998-08-04: Enquirer (Week of August 4, 1998): Police reveal 'murder manual' found in mom & dad's bedroom In a dramatic development in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, police found a "hot-to murder manual" in the bedroom of the little beauty queen's parents! The true-crime book describes a 1985 murder with amazing similarities to the brutal killing of JonBenet, who would have turned 8 on August 6. And incredibly, it was written by John Douglas, former head of the FBI's behavioral science unit - and one of the first experts hired by JonBenet's father John after he and wife Patsy set up their own investigation team. "The book was among several found during a search of John and Patsy's bedroom after JohBenet's body was discovered in the basement," said a source close to the case. "One of the investigators recently read through it in detail and was stunned at what he saw in one chapter. "For someone planning a murder or staging its aftermath, it could amount to a how-to manual." The book "Mind Hunter," was published in 1995, the year before JonBenet was murdered. It describes the case of Larry Gene Bell, who abducted and murdered high school senior Shari Faye Smith and a 9-year-old girl near Columbia, S.C. And Douglas, who helped solve the killings, lists circumstances in the case that were later eerily echoed in the JonBenet murder: * After snatching Shari, the killer called her mother. His first words to her were, "Listen carefully." In the JonBenet case, the ransom note - which cops believe was written by Patsy Ramsey - starts with the words, "Listen carefully!" * Shari was suffocated with duct tape, which was later pulled from her mouth and nose. When John Ramsey found his daughter's body he ripped duct tape from her mouth. * Before she was killed Shari wrote a "last will and testament" to her family on a legal pad. The fake JonBenet ransom note was written on a yellow legal pad. * Shari's killer collected pornography featuring bondage. JonBenet's hands had been bound with cord before she was murdered. * Shari's sister Dawn later won the Miss South Carolina beauty title and went on to finish as a runner-up in the Miss America pageant. Patsy Ramsey is a former Miss West Virginia - and she also competed for the Miss America title. Both John and Patsy were questioned about the book in June, and they dismissed the similarities between the book and JonBenet's murder as sheer coincidence, The Enquirer has learned. But Gregg McCrary - Douglas' fellow FBI profiler who was also approached to work for the Ramseys and turned them down - declared: "The longer you are in my business, the less you believe in coincidences. "I believe the JonBenet crime scene was staged. Many times when people stage a crime scene it's based on their perception of what a real criminal would do - and they get that information from books or movies. "The grand jury will have to weight whether these are a series of coincidences - or something else. The JonBenet murder investigation has cost the city of Boulder, Colo., $432,180. The Ramseys have spent an estimated $3 million on attorneys and private investigators. 1998-08-04: Globe (Week of August 4, 1998): Ramseys used FBI Ace's Book to Plan Cover-Up JonBenet Ramsey's parents used a book by ace FBI profiler John Douglas as a blueprint for the cover-up after her death, say sources close to the investigation. The super-rich couple later spirited the book away - but they've been found out by police photographs of their home's contents, taken on December 26, 1996, after the 6-year-old's body was found, say sources. Eagle-eyed investigator Lou "The Fox" Smit recently spotted the book, Mind Hunter, while poring over pictures of the Ramseys' bedroom with a magnifying glass, say sources. It was on the floor on Patsy's side of the bed. Both John and Patsy "squirmed" say sources, when they were asked about the book. But they denied they had used it as a step-by-step guide, says a source close to the investigation. When investigators read Mind Hunter - which deals with Douglas' work inside the FBI's serial crimes unit - they found it was a treasure trove of clues to how John and Patsy could have planned the cover-up say sources. For instance: * Chapter 16 tells of the kidnapping and murder of Shari Faye Smith May 31, 1985. Link JonBenet, Shari was a pretty blonde youngster who loved to perform on stage. Her sister was a beauty queen who - like Patsy - appeared in the Miss American contest. When Shari's killer called her family, he twice warned them to "listen carefully." The phony ransom note, which cops believe Patsy Ramsey wrote, began with the words "listen carefully." Shari had duct tape stuck over her mouth. So did tragic JonBenet. "The investigators believe that Patsy was deeply moved by the story of Shari's murder because of the similarities to her own family," the insider explains. "She later used it to invent a bogus kidnapping and ransom demand." * On page 350, Douglas tells how perverts are sometimes first turned on by Barbie Dolls. A pink Barbie nightdress was placed close to JonBenet's body - planted, detectives believe, to reinforce the idea she was the victim of a perverted intruder. In April of 1997, GLOBE discovered that other books the Ramseys had in their home dealt with garrote murders and decapitation. JonBenet was garroted and the ransom note threatened to behead her. Investigators have long puzzled over how seemingly normal people like John and Patsy could devise such a twisted scenario, say sources. They now believe that the books in their home, including Mind Hunter, were the inspiration. After the murder, the Ramseys cunningly hired author Douglas to join their own investigation team. But when Boulder DA Alex Hunter convenes a grand jury toward the end of summer, he will be called. Says the source: "They plan to ask Douglas if he now believes Mind Hunter was used as a blueprint for a murder cover-up." 9/27/1998 20/20 - the FOSER show ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) Foster is bound by a confidentiality agreement with the Boulder Police Department. But sources tell us in his report, summarized by detectives in the June presentation of evidence, Foster identified the writer of the ransom note as Patsy Ramsey. Foster analyzed commonly used words and also found similarities between Patsy's letter format and that of the ransom note writer's. The indentations and punctuation, especially the repeated use of the exclamation point. We looked back through our own archives and found two samples of Patsy's writing—this 1996 Christmas letter peppered with exclamation points and this 1978 photo with a two—line note, each sentence ending in an exclamation point. Also, sources say as many as 250 books were cataloged and photographed from various rooms in the Ramsey house in the event they yielded possible clues. At least one book, found in the bedroom, did—"Mind Hunter," by FBI profiler John Douglas. In chapter 16, there is a case of a young girl who is kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and suffocated with duct tape. When the killer called the mother, he began with the words "listen carefully." The same two words begin the ransom note. Patsy Ramsey has said she found the note at the bottom of the back spiral staircase. She has said she read it, and then called for John. In an interview for A&E airing tomorrow night, John Ramsey recalled his reaction after he read the note

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« Youth and Anatomy | Main | YL Presentation at New Year's Party » Youth as Swing Voters I read an interesting New York Times editorial today: "In Search of the Swing Voter" by Chuck Todd (Dec 29). Todd suggests that because 9/11 has politicized this generation of young people, they will be a crucial demographic in the 2004 election. I'm thinking this will be of particular interest to Adam Fletcher of freechild.org. We've discussed previously his view that the point of YL is not YL, but rather Radical Democracy. I like this idea. While I'm not sure that I'm 100% on board yet, I think it's a good message, and it really does encapsulate most of what YL is supposed to be about. Here are some excerpts from the article: "The most accurate definition of a swing voter is a person who swings between voting and not voting. No matter how defined, however, swing voters remain the most coveted, and most influential, demographic in American politics. And this year's swing voter could very well be . . . Young People." "The demographic group that may fit this swing voter profile better than any Nascar fan or soccer parent is people under the age of 25. Many of these people didn't vote in 2000 because they weren't old enough or, worse, were disenchanted with the national political discourse. Four years later, the average 24-year-old has a far more serious set of concerns. Her seminal political memory is no longer Monica Lewinsky, it is 9/11. Like Pearl Harbor for an earlier generation, 9/11 is the kind of memory that re-emphasizes the need for civic duty � and it's likely that young folks are going to hear this call." Posted by Sven at December 29, 2003 09:58 PM Hey Sven, thanks for thinking of me! I've been seeing more of these types of articles coming down the pipes, and while they are good in terms of recognizing the "power" of young people, I am concerned about the real intention behind them. Let me explain. I'm finishing up the "Meaningful Student Involvement" series - I gave you the first one, right? There are 3 more - a resource guide, a story book, and a literature/research review. I've read a bit by this education professor named George Counts. Over sixty years ago he wrote about the tendency of so-called "progressive" teachers to romanticize the view of students in schools. These teachers would paint pictures of "democratic" classrooms, where students were busily engaged in inductive learning and intense intellectual exchanges. These teachers supposedly honored �student voice,� ownership, and meaning-making over rote memorization. Sounds good, right? Counts ripped this imaginary world apart, criticizing the teachers for their lack of interest in the actual realities many students face in their schools and communities. He said that what the teachers were doing was actually manipulating students into believing they had some measure of power; but because this existed nowhere else in these young people's worlds, it was a ruse, at best. At worst it perpetuated the oppression the students faced, further corraborating the inability of young people to participate in social change. Ah, voting. Who are young people going to vote for? Why should they vote for that person? How can young people, as an electorate body, hold politicians accountable? I'm afraid that by advocating young people to put their faith in democracy in voting, these kinds of articles will do nothing more than perpetuate the cynicism a lot of young people face towards democratic participation - particularly if another 2000-type voting fraud happens. There is a gaping wound in the face of democracy Sven, and without romanticizing reality, the hope of young people is leaking out. I don't think voting is the answer, and I'm a little leary of people who advocate it as such (the author of the article, not you!) But now what, my friend? Posted by: Adam at December 29, 2003 10:53 PM Oh, and one more thought: My work is brought to life by commitments to and hopes for radical democracy. By democracy, I mean what John Dewey called a way of life�a way of life that embodies a generous belief in the possibilities of human nature and that entails the obligation to work to create the conditions that would allow human capacities to develop and flourish. While it entails the polling place, hat obligation extends far beyond the voting booth. It extends into the heart of our everyday lives: transporation, education, health, community living, governance, and social interactions. I begin to hint at this in meaningful student involvement: instead of seeing the student as a mere "learner" in schools, I propose that students can be (and are already) planners, researchers, teachers, evaluators, decision-makers, and advocates in schools. In our communities? Young people have 100s of roles: family members, sisters, daughters, sons, brothers; neighbors, friends; democrats (in the active sense of the word), members, leaders, followers; and dozens more. Radical democracy is the intersection between activity and purpose; a juncture where either trains collide in the night, or friends meet during the day. The where and when are unclear, and that's why YL is squarely central to radical democracy: YL is an immediate, urgent struggle that demands collective action for the common good of all people. That's where I wanna be. In the immediate, urgent struggle for the common good of all people. I disagree with your first post, Adam. I fail to see the harm in having an enclave of democracy and rights in an otherwise autocratic world. I sure know I would have benefited greatly from being in such a school, and perhaps seeing the contrast between it and my life outside of the school would motivate me to go and do something about it. Most revolutions and reforms occur not simply because the oppressed just get fed up with their situation. If they expect to be treated like dirt, and they are, then they aren't upset. Change occurs when they expect something much more and don't get it. Giving youth a taste of freedom in a free school would raise their expectations to the point where they would no longer be content about the discrimination they face in the outside world, and they would organize to do something about it. I think this should be a source of hope. And if there is something wrong with voting, what do you suggest? (and why can't we have these discussions on the YR Leader List?) Posted by: KPalicz at February 21, 2004 08:03 AM

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Summer Special: Challenges continue at Council House 👤by Kevin Johnson 🕔23.Aug 2016 In the third of our special summer reports, the Chamberlain Files team examine a turbulent 12 months for Birmingham city council. The past year has been one of the most momentous in Birmingham city council’s recent history with a successful leadership coup, enough political intrigue to fill a book, and the Council House coming closer than anyone would ever wish to be to takeover by Government commissioners. Add to that a seemingly permanent financial crisis as civic leaders try to find ways to deliver the Government’s austerity programme while reinventing the concept of public services, all the time under the watchful eye of the Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel, and it would take a brave pundit indeed to predict where the city council might find itself by the summer of 2017. It became clear a year ago that a change of leadership at the top of the council was probably going to be necessary to convince the improvement panel that the Kerslake Review recommendations were being taken seriously and that Britain’s largest local authority would transform itself into an outward-looking organisation capable of forming meaningful partnerships with the private sector and community organisations. Improvement panel reports to the then Communities Secretary Greg Clark warned about the slow pace of change, while Mr Clark dropped heavy hints that further Government intervention might be necessary if the reform programme did not move up a gear. Matters came to a head in October 2015 when long-serving Labour council leader Sir Albert Bore was forced out after a majority of his cabinet lost faith in him. He was replaced on 1st December by backbencher John Clancy, who had never held a cabinet post and had been dismissed by Sir Albert’s supporters as “a novice” who was unfit to be tipped in at the deep end. Clancy won by a single vote, beating Penny Holbrook, and immediately embarked on a very public wooing of the improvement panel and Colmore Row in an attempt to convince the business community of his determination to deliver the Kerslake agenda and to reposition Birmingham as a united city where public, private and voluntary sectors work together for the good of all. On his first day in charge Cllr Clancy met Birmingham Chamber of Commerce boss Paul Faulkner to underline his commitment to wealth creation through private sector growth. He also pointedly told chief executive Mark Rogers to get on with the day-to-day task of running the council and to implement the Future Council plan setting out the changes to working practices that would have to be put in place by 2020. In doing so Cllr Clancy was upholding a key Kerslake criticism of the council: The clear boundaries that should exist between the roles of members, who should set the strategic direction of the authority and hold officers to account for delivery, and the operational role of officers, have become blurred. For the council to improve this must change. Cllr Clancy’s attempts to put a rocket under the reform process impressed the improvement panel, with chair John Crabtree announcing that his team would take an extended summer break to let the new council leader get on with the job unhindered. And at the May municipal elections, Cllr Clancy’s position as leader was strengthened after Labour made a net gain of three seats and took 51 per cent of the total vote. So far, so good. The improvement panel, though, will meet again in the autumn with a view to reporting to Communities Secretary Sajid Javid on the council’s progress and the first thing the panel will wish to do is be convinced that Cllr Clancy and his team can deliver a balanced budget over the next four years against a backdrop of continuing Government grant cuts. The outlook at the moment, putting it diplomatically, is uncertain. Just two months into the 2016-17 financial year the council’s finances were projected to be £68 million in the red with officials struggling to deliver last year’s budget cuts as well as this year’s savings, and failing to cope with increasing demand for costly adults and children’s social care. The difficulties facing the council in delivering a workable long-term financial strategy were highlighted by the improvement panel in a letter to the Communities Secretary: The council has recently published a consultation document about the council business plan and budget for 2016 and beyond, which identifies proposals to achieve savings of around £216 million over the next four years out of the approximately £250 million total savings required over the period. It is difficult to overstate the extent of the challenge facing the council in achieving reductions of this scale to the timescales required. This is an extremely demanding timetable given the nature of the proposed changes. Other major budget reduction proposals, especially in relation to adult social care, will require really effective partnership arrangements with a range of key partners to be in place. The letter noted that two of the biggest cost-cutting proposals – changing the terms and conditions of the council workforce to save £34 million, and reaching an agreement with the NHS to merge council and health budgets – would be difficult to deliver within the timescale envisaged. Problems have been made worse by a failure to deliver £35 million of planned cross-departmental savings in 2015-16, before Cllr Clancy became leader, on top of £52 million outstanding for this year, leaving a total of £123 million in savings to be found during the rest of 2016-17. The bulk of £45 million of savings where actions are not yet in place to realise them lies with the People directorate which provides social care for adults and children. Fortnightly meetings are being held between Cllr Clancy, his deputy Ian Ward, and senior officials in an attempt to put the finances back on course. Inevitably, some tough decisions are around the corner for Labour councillors and these include approving a new ‘operating model’ for community libraries to save £1.8 million a year, and scaling back the home to school transport service to save £2.5 million. Both of these initiatives defeated the 2004-2012 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that ran the council and will require very careful handling if rebellions are to be avoided from backbencher Labour councillors fighting to save local libraries or attempting to preserve free school transport for children with learning difficulties. If the past year has been momentous for Birmingham city council, the next year seems certain to be just as lively. Kevin Johnson and Paul Dale Birmingham City CouncilBirmingham independent improvement panelCllr John ClancyCllr Sir Albert BoreJohn CrabtreeKerslake ReviewMark RogersSajid JavidSummerSpecial16

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'My Name Is Earl' and 'The Office' Score Their Highest 18-49 Ratings and Total Viewership of the Season, with Both Comedies Winning Their Slots in Adults 18-49 and Other Key Demos NBC spins the numbers for the week of January 8-14. 'LAW & ORDER: SVU' DOMINATES ITS TIME PERIOD, WINNING IN ADULTS 18-49, TOTAL VIEWERS AND ALL KEY MEASURES NBC IS UP 16 PERCENT IN BOTH 18-49 AND 18-34 THROUGH THE FIRST 17 WEEKS OF THE 2006-07 SEASON, THE BIGGEST GAINS AMONG THE MAJOR NETWORKS BURBANK, Calif. � January 17, 2007 � NBC averaged a 2.9 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 8.4 million viewers overall for the week of January 8-14, according to "live plus same day" in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research. For the first 17 weeks of the 2006-07 television season, NBC and Fox are the only networks showing year-to-year gains in primetime's key demographic of adults 18-49. NBC is up 16 percent versus the same period last year (3.6 rating versus 3.1). In that same comparison, Fox is up 3 percent, ABC is down 10 percent, CBS is down 8 percent. Season-to-date in total viewers, only NBC and Fox are showing gains year-to-year. NBC is up 9 percent versus the opening 17 weeks of the last season (9.9 million vs. 9.1 million). Fox is up 7 percent by that measure, while CBS is down 6 percent and ABC is down 6 percent. Additionally, NBC is the only network showing growth season-to-date among adults 18-34, up 16 percent versus the first 17 weeks of last season (2.9 vs. 2.5). Primetime averages for the week of January 8-14 in adults 18-49 were Fox (5.8/15), CBS (3.9/10), ABC (3.1/8), NBC (2.9/7), Univision (1.6/4), CW (1.2/3) and Telemundo (0.4/1). In overall total viewers the weekly averages were Fox (15.3 million), CBS (12.8 million), ABC (8.7 million), NBC (8.4 million), Univision (3.9 million), CW (2.9 million) and Telemundo (0.8 million). NBC highlights for the week of January 8-14: * On Sunday, versus extraordinary competition, "Grease: You're the One That I Want" lifted NBC 75 percent in 18-49 versus NBC's performance in this slot on the same night last year, also against an NFL playoff game and the season debut of Fox's "24." In total viewers, "Grease" was up by 30 percent or 1.9 million viewers versus the year-ago result. * On Thursday, "My Name is Earl" scored new season-high numbers, hitting its highest 18-49 rating since last April and its biggest overall viewership since last March. "Earl" ranked #1 in the time period adults 18-49, adults 18-34 and adults 25-54 versus competition that included an original "Ugly Betty" and the time-period debut of CBS' "Armed & Famous." * Also on Thursday, "The Office" delivered its highest 18-49 rating and total viewership in more than a year and its second-highest results ever by both measures. "The Office" also set new series-high ratings in adults 18-34 and in key adult male demographics. "The Office" won its time period in adults 18-49, adults 18-34 and all key adult male demos. * Also on Thursday, "Scrubs," despite facing competition from an original "Grey's Anatomy," was up 8 percent in 18-49 and 7 percent in total viewers versus the prior week. "Scrubs" ranked #2 in the time slot in adults 18-49 and other key demos. And "ER" won its hour in adults 18-49, total viewers and other key measures. * On Tuesday, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" dominated its time period, winning in all key ratings categories including adults 18-49 and total viewers. * Also on Tuesday, "Dateline" delivered NBC's highest 18-49 rating and biggest overall viewership in that 8 p.m. hour since September 19. Ratings reflect "live plus same day" data unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of "live plus seven day" data except for the two most recent weeks, which are "live plus same day." Additional NBC highlights for the week of January 8-14: On Monday, Jan. 8, "Deal or No Deal" (3.9 rating, 10 share in 18-49, 14.1 million viewers overall) was the time period's #1 non-sports choice in adults 18-49, total viewers and other key measures. "Deal" was up 44 percent in 18-49 rating versus NBC's performance in this hour on the same night last year. From 9-10 p.m. ET, an encore "Heroes" averaged a 2.0/5 in 18-49 and 5.7 million viewers overall. And from 10-11 p.m., a second encore "Heroes" delivered a 1.8/4 in 18-49 and 4.4 million viewers overall. On Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. ET, "Dateline NBC" (3.0/8 in adults 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall) delivered NBC's highest 18-49 rating and largest overall viewership in the time period since September 19. "Dateline" ranked #2 in the hour in adults 18-49 and total viewers. Tuesday at 9 p.m., "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (3.4/9 in 18-49, 11.8 million viewers overall) built on its 18-49 lead-in by 13 percent. Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (5.0/13 in adults 18-49, 14.4 million viewers overall) dominated its time period, winning in all key ratings categories, including adults 18-49 and total viewers. On Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. ET, "Friday Night Lights" (2.4/6 in 18-49, 6.4 million viewers overall) matched its highest 18-49 rating and delivered its largest overall viewership since a special Monday telecast on October 30 (live plus same day). On Wednesday from 9:24-10 p.m. ET, an abbreviated edition of "Deal or No Deal" (3.5/9 in 18-49, 10.4 million viewers overall) won the time period in all key ratings categories, including adults 18-49 and total viewers. At 10 p.m., an encore "Medium" (2.6/7 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall) summoned up that series' highest 18-49 rating for a rebroadcast since Monday, March 2, 2006 and its biggest overall viewership for an encore episode since Monday, Dec. 26, 2005. "Medium" ranked #2 in the time period in adults 18-49, total viewers and other key measures. (Note: Coverage of President Bush's address to the nation Wednesday from 9-9:24 p.m. ET was sustaining and is not included in the nightly or weekly averages.) On Thursday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. ET, "My Name is Earl" (4.6/13 in 18-49, 10.9 million viewers overall) delivered its highest 18-49 rating since April 6, 2006 and its biggest overall viewership since March 23, 2006. "Earl" ranked #1 in the time period in adults 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54 versus all-first-run competition, including "Ugly Betty" on ABC, the time period debut of "Armed & Dangerous" on CBS and original episodes of the CW's "Smallville" and the Fox comedies "Til Death" and "The War at Home." Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET, "The Office" (5.0/13 in 18-49, 10.1 million viewers overall) delivered its highest 18-49 rating and overall viewership since January 12, 2006 and its second highest numbers ever by both measures (live plus same day). "The Office" was up 22 percent in adults 18-49 versus its current season-to-date average for original episodes. It built by 8 percent in 18-49 on its "Earl" lead-in to win its time period in primetime's key demographic against all-original competition on the other broadcast networks. "The Office" set new series ratings records in adults 18-34 (5.3/15), men 18-34 (5.7/18) and men 18-49 (5.1/14) and also won its time period in these demos Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, "Scrubs" (3.9/9 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall) ranked #2 in the time period adults 18-49 and adults 18-34. Despite competition from an original "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC this week, "Scrubs" was up 8 percent in 18-49 and 7 percent in total viewers versus the prior week, when "Grey's" was in rebroadcast. "Scrubs" was up 15 percent in 18-49 versus NBC's average in this time period this season prior to "Scrubs." At 9:31 p.m., "30 Rock" (2.9/7 in 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall) ranked #2 in the time slot in adults 18-34. Thursday from 10:01-11 p.m., "ER" (5.1/14 in 18-49, 12.2 million viewers overall) was #1 in the time period in adults 18-49, total viewers and other key ratings measures. On Friday, Jan. 12 from 8-9 p.m. ET, "1 vs 100" (2.8/9 in 18-49, 9.3 million viewers overall) matched its highest Friday 18-49 rating since November 3 and delivered its highest Friday viewership since November 10 (live plus same day). "1 vs 100" ranked #2 in the time period in adults 18-49 and total viewers. At 9 p.m., "Las Vegas" (2.7/8 in 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall) ranked #1 in the time slot in adults 18-49. At 10 p.m. ET, "Law & Order" (2.7/8 in 18-49, 9.0 million viewers overall) ranked #2 in the time period in adults 18-49 and #1 among adults 18-34 (tie). Versus the same night last year, "Law & Order" improved the time period by 23 percent in 18-49 (2.7 vs. 2.3). On Saturday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m. ET, "Dateline NBC" (1.7/5 in 18-49, 5.6 million viewers overall) reported NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 and total viewers results in this time period since December 2. At 9 p.m., a special broadcast of the USA Network series "Psych" averaged a 1.1/3 in 18-49 and 3.4 million viewers overall. At 10 p.m., an encore "Law & Order: SVU" delivered a 1.4/4 in 18-49 and 5.2 million viewers overall. On Sunday, Jan. 14, from 7-8 p.m. ET, a Sunday edition of "Deal or No Deal" (2.4/6 in 18-49, 9.2 million viewers overall) was the #1 non-sports choice in the hour in adults 18-49, total viewers and other key measures. "Deal" was up 85 percent in 18-49 versus NBC's results in this time period on the same night last year (which also faced competition from a highly rated NFL playoff game). Sunday from 8-9 p.m. ET, "Grease: You're the One That I Want" (2.8/6 in 18-49, 8.2 million viewers overall) lifted NBC 75 percent in 18-49 versus the network's performance in this slot on the same night last year (2.8 vs. 1.6), also against an NFL playoff game and the season debut of Fox's "24." In total viewers, "Grease" was up by 30 percent or 1.9 million viewers versus the year-ago results (8.3 million vs. 6.4 million). Sunday from 9-10 p.m. ET, "The Apprentice 6" (2.8/6 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall) built in both 18-49 rating and overall viewership from its first half-hour to its second, despite extraordinary competition from ABC's "Desperate Housewives," the second hour of Fox's season debut of "24" and original programming on CBS boosted by a huge primetime NFL playoff overrun. "Apprentice" retained 100 percent of its 18-49 lead-in from "Grease: You're the One That I Want." At 10 p.m. ET, the season debut of "Crossing Jordan" averaged a 2.2/5 in 18-49 and 6.7 million viewers overall. · 1 VS. 100 (GSN) · 24 (FOX) · 30 ROCK (NBC) · APPRENTICE, THE (NBC) · ARMED & FAMOUS (CBS) · CROSSING JORDAN (NBC) · DATELINE NBC (NBC) · DEAL OR NO DEAL (CNBC) · DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC) · ER (NBC) · FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (DIRECTV) · GREASE: YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT (NBC) · GREY'S ANATOMY (ABC) · HEROES (NBC) · LAS VEGAS (NBC) · LAW & ORDER (NBC) · LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT (USA) · LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (NBC) · MEDIUM (CBS) · MY NAME IS EARL (NBC) · OFFICE, THE (NBC) · PSYCH (PEACOCK) · SCRUBS (ABC) · SMALLVILLE (CW) · 'TIL DEATH (FOX) · UGLY BETTY (ABC) · WAR AT HOME, THE (FOX)

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State Voting Restrictions Brennan Center For Justice: 19 States With New Voting Restrictions Since 2016 October 14, 2018 Ronald Leave a comment The William Brennan Center For Justice, named after the great former Supreme Court Justice, tracks violations of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and has exposed the reality that 19 states, since the Supreme Court backtracked on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in a decision in 2013, have made the right to vote much more difficult, and affecting election results. In 2016, 14 states had new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election, with these states including Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. In 2017, Arkansas, North Dakota, Missouri, Georgia, and Iowa added new laws. So 8 Southern states of the old Confederacy (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia) are back where they were before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it harder for blacks and other people of color, and poor people in general, to be able to have the chance to vote. But also, the 8 Midwestern states of Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas have gown down the same road. And Arizona in the West and New Hampshire and Rhode Island on the Atlantic Coast also have made it more difficult to vote. Look at this list of states, and notice almost all of them, except Virginia, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island voted for Donald Trump. So we have the possibility that despite public opinion polls that indicate a “Blue Wave”, the restrictions on voting rights could impact election result in November. News and Politics "Blue" Wave, African Americans, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Brennan Center For Justice, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Donald Trump, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Midterm Elections Of 2018, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, People Of Color, Poor People, Public Opinion Polls, Rhode Island, South Carolina, State Voting Restrictions, Tennessee, Texas, US Supreme Court, Virginia, Voting Rights Act Of 1965, William Brennan, Wisconsin

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Postdoc Position In Japan 2019 One or two from the bottom-five countries might get replaced with a different country. Whilst you're searching for employment opportunities, why not visit our Careers Advice section for targeted advice on CVs, job application forms, career profiles and even job listings and vacancy descriptions to help you in your postdoc career. It should be noted that the (ISC)2 survey — which underreports the number of cybersecurity job openings compared to ISACA’s estimate of 2 million openings by 2019, and Cybersecurity Ventures’ estimate of 3. Post Resumes. uk Skip to Job Postings , Search Close. Browse through our website to see jobs in Nigeria and career information in any location within Nigeria today. 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One qualification position is also available via the European Road to the Kentucky Derby, and another via the Japan Road. We’re enlivened and compelled to spread the word about jobs in great places, because they’ve changed our lives! LEARN MORE. Eligible students can go through Postdoctoral Fellowship 2019 at Jiangnan University, China, apply for the scholarship on or before deadline. Post-docs are common in Japan though at universities perhaps less so than other countries as the system is slightly different with assistant and associate professors working in a lab under a full professor rather than being independent as in the the US for example. Technology Data Science, UI/UX, Development, Product and more. If you’re one of the millions of people working in a remote job or pursuing a career as a digital nomad, then internet speed is one of the important. Love your job. The nuclear energy industry creates lasting, high-paying jobs for people from a wide range of fields and educational backgrounds. One qualification position is also available via the European Road to the Kentucky Derby, and another via the Japan Road. The reason I created Onlinejobs. It should be noted that the (ISC)2 survey — which underreports the number of cybersecurity job openings compared to ISACA’s estimate of 2 million openings by 2019, and Cybersecurity Ventures’ estimate of 3. November 13, 2019 63 Postdoctoral and Researcher Positions at RIKEN Institute, Japan November 12, 2019 26 PhD, Postdoctoral and Academic Positions at The University of Helsinki, Finland November 11, 2019 18 PhD, Postdoctoral and Academic Positions at The University of Oulu, Finland. Search and browse the latest job listings posted by nearby businesses in your area. com 09 Jun 2019. 3500-3800yen/hour. We also integrate a state-of-the-art application tracking system that will help your recruitment team work more efficiently. Professional resources, conferences, and links to grants and funding opportunities. 1 site for jobseekers looking to secure their dream job. Integration, Multiple vendors, unity development, building integrations, end to end service Our client is urgently searching for a strong API Solutions Architect with Telecoms & TMForum open API standards experience to work on a critical project in Denmark as a contractor. Posted: 18 September 2019 (3m) Postdoctoral Position in Medical Imaging University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States Posted: 18 September 2019 (3m) Postdoctoral Fellow for Brain MRI of Neurodegenerative Disease University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada Posted: 18 September 2019 (3m) Postdoctoral Scholar: Biomedical Imaging and. At CoolWorks, we believe that life is made of moments, and the best moments are when we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. Post-doctoral Fellowships 2019 Grants & Fellowships > Post-doctoral Fellowships. All services free to potential employers and job seekers. PostdocJobs. Sikhs from across Thailand gather at Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha on Chak Phet Road in Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon district on. Social media is always evolving, and users’ behavior changes with it. "JAPAN Forward" is a new English-language news and opinion website created by the Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan's leading newspapers, to deliver sensible Japanese voices to the world. Find a job, post a job in Santa Cruz CA. Attachment Title: 【Name of Applicant/Referee*】Applications for NIG Postdoctoral Fellows 2019 *Please put the name of referee on the file of reference letter. The field was open to 20 horses, who qualified for the race by earning points on the 2019 Road to the Kentucky Derby. This contrast can also be seen in the country’s higher education institutions as they develop their research output and international outreach while preserving Japan’s cultures and values. International British Schools, of which there are over 30 in the emirate, are the most popular choice as they teach in English and deliver a curriculum that British teachers can easily adapt to. NET Job Offered list is a place to look for and to post open position in the field of computer applications in chemistry, materials research and life sciences. Searching for jobs in Vancouver? BCjobs. We’re looking for passionate people, like you, who are dedicated to service, innovation and growth to play an important role in our transformation. Seattle local news, traffic, weather, business news, sports, real estate, photos and events. Japan's Emperor Akihito has declared his abdication in a historic ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Free Higher Education News, Jobs, Career Advice and Events for college and university faculty, adjuncts, graduate students, and administrators. Teaching certification, such as TEFL, is preferred but not required. Aalto University, Dept. Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of Nov. Latest Career Opportunities at 54 Capital, Ethio Chicken, Pharo Foundation & Shint ETP Garment (November, 2019 Jobs) Full-Time (A). A postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Want to find jobs in Sri Lanka? Give your career a jumpstart. Search millions of jobs, find local career events, and read valuable employment advice. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is flanked by United States President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. Browse through our website to see jobs in Nigeria and career information in any location within Nigeria today. August 2, 2019 FY2020 Application Guideline for Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan (Short-term) was updated. The POST Program exists under the authority of, and in compliance with, California Penal Code Sections 13503, 13506, and 13510 Monthly Reports Progress on projects and programs, and other important updates. 09 JRA Race Programme [Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) day races - November 10] 2019. com is the world's leading site for economics jobs, economist jobs and econometrics jobs. The primary work location is the Safford lab on the UC Davis campus, but some work can be performed remotely if desired. Career tips and advice, teacher training database, newsletters, health insurance available for purchase and, member discounts. Our constantly updated job search guides are filled with all you need to know about living and working in major markets throughout the United States. 127 jobs to view and apply for now with Mendeley Careers. Doctoral degree from famous universities at home and abroad, interest in public management and political science (especially urban governance), and excellent empirical research method. It's free!. Employment Guide. Working independently but in close cooperation with the Principal Investigator and other Research Scientists, you will perform routine and complex laboratory procedures throughout the training period, and may develop, adapt, and implement new research techniques and protocols and analyze and interpret data. Agriculture and forestry are among New Zealand's powerhouse industries. May 21, 2019, Postdoc Positions in Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia May 21, 2019, Post-Doctoral Research Associate position in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. Tulsa Community College, Assistant Professor - Humanities, posted 9 days ago; Pennsylvania State University - Abington, Diversity Predoctoral Fellow, posted 9 days ago; New York University Arts and Science, Tenure Track (Open Rank) Position in Japanese Studies, Department of East Asian Studies, posted 9 days ago. Post Resumes. Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of Nov. OverseasJobs. Diplomatic Mission to Jordan is seeking the highest caliber staff. Department of Medical Sciences Last application date: 2019-11-25. Mission & Culture Dedicated to developing the whole person. The post Nalanda University Recruitment 2019-20 Non-teaching Engineering Positions appeared first on Adsnity. In order to apply for vacancies, you will need to log in/register your details on the site. Post-docs are common in Japan though at universities perhaps less so than other countries as the system is slightly different with assistant and associate professors working in a lab under a full professor rather than being independent as in the the US for example. Faculty Positions in Advanced Technologies for Molecular Profiling… Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), MSHS. Careers Advice at jobs. A Masters in Japan can be an excellent choice for postgraduates seeking a high-quality study abroad experience with unique opportunities. Browse jobs with jobsDB. JSPS–UNU Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme in Japan, 2019 United Nations University and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) are jointly offering fellowship. The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio is currently taking applications with a fast approaching deadline of Nov 1, 2019. Find virtually any New York job available anywhere on the web at New York Jobs — or post your resume in complete privacy and let employers pitch job offers to you!. Register for upcoming webcasts or view past webcasts hosted by HigherEdJobs. Search and apply to open positions or post jobs on Automotive News Jobs Board now. Promote your PhD Positions without any cost. November 13, 2019 63 Postdoctoral and Researcher Positions at RIKEN Institute, Japan November 12, 2019 26 PhD, Postdoctoral and Academic Positions at The University of Helsinki, Finland November 11, 2019 18 PhD, Postdoctoral and Academic Positions at The University of Oulu, Finland. Positions in Cell & Developmental Biology and/or Bioinformatics Postdoctoral and/or PhD positions are available at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, in the laboratory of Dr. com's suite of practice briefings. Post or find jobs in Davao. University of Tokyo Postdoctoral Positions for International Researchers in Japan are open apply now. Top Jobs in Japan You Can Apply to From Overseas - Week 45, 2019 It's translator jobs galore with our picks for this week, including project work translating anime news. Department of Health and Human Services. Postdoctoral Scholar Position in the Molecular Neuroscience Unit Onna, Okinawa JAPAN Compensation in accordance with the OIST Employee Compensation Regulations. Teach English in Japan Gaba is Japan's leading provider of 1-to-1 English Language lessons. Again, English is in high demand as it is the international business language. What Does an Animator Do? Animators create animation and visual effects for everything from films and video games to television, mobile devices and other forms of media using illustrations and software programs. Apply for Latest India Post Recruitment 2019: Here you can find all Latest India Post Jobs alert. At least 1 year(s) of working experience in the related field is required for this position. See which jobs have the best salaries and which jobs have the most job security in this list of Best Jobs for 2019. Review teaching job requirements and benefits and apply easily for teaching jobs abroad. Postdoctoral position at FREIA 2019-10-21. Profile sought Candidates should have a PhD in Biochemistry, Structural Biology or related discipline, or should expect to receive such a degree in the near future. PostdocJobs. jobs from Working In New Zealand. Department of Health and Human Services. Korea Research Fellowship (KRF) invites outstanding postdoctoral researchers in order to achieve an excellent performance in their early stages of their professional careers. 747 jobs to view and apply for now with Mendeley Careers. Job growth is expected to be lower than average from 2016-2026, at only 2%. Top 13623 Career Opportunities 2019/2020 | INOMICS Skip to main content. 29 new jobs posted now. The fellowship is open for Applicants who must be citizens of countries that have diplomatic relations with Japan. OUTLINE OF FELLOWSHIP The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) carries out programs that provide overseas researchers. Diplomatic Mission to Jordan is seeking the highest caliber staff. Post Resumes. Search Postdoctoral fellow jobs in Saudi Arabia with Glassdoor. At CoolWorks, we believe that life is made of moments, and the best moments are when we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. Look in the classifieds for positions available and post an ad with your details. Employment Guide. If you have any questions as to vacancy announcements you may have received, please refer to this website. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join the group of Dr. Description:Instructor positions available for winter 2019/20 at Club Med Japan & Club Med China! Desired Skills: Must hold a valid ski instructor qualification or ski and snowboarder qualification and the right to work in Japan / China. >> JOBSEEKERS: Searching International Development, UN, Non Profit Jobs? GET HEADHUNTED IN 2019: Feature and broadcast your resume to 23,000 International Recruiters. Search and apply to open positions or post jobs on Automotive News Jobs Board now. 54 Capital is an Africa-focused asset. 09 Nominated Horses from Overseas - Japan Cup (G1) 2019. In fields such as biological science, physics, and chemistry, some postsecondary teachers have postdoctoral research experience. The Hcareers team would like to thank you for your continued patience as we work to improve our site speed and performance. Welder is new on the list of top 15 jobs for 2019, but if you've been paying attention to Canada's shortage of skilled trades workers, it should come as no surprise. Browse jobs with jobsDB. Posted November 11, 2019. 65 positions at signhealth, people profilers and search network including Senior Physiotherapist, Therapy Assistant, Business Manager related to physiot. The position is for at least two years and focuses on studying a new protein complex that regulates expression of viral structural proteins encoded by oncogenic gamma herpesviruses. We’re enlivened and compelled to spread the word about jobs in great places, because they’ve changed our lives! LEARN MORE. Search 225 Postdoctoral Position jobs now available on Indeed. If Game Winner and Roadster get off to strong starts, they should be able to work their way into. Whether you’re a cook or cellular biologist, project manager or postdoc, admissions associate or accountant, there’s a place for you in higher education. Postdoc Jobs. 'I can do it in robes': Japanese monks post videos in protest at driving fine This article is more than 9 months old Videos showing monks skateboarding and skipping were posted after monk fined. 12 noon November 8th 2019. Jobs in Ireland - Best jobs Ireland has to offer | IrishJobs. Searching for jobs in Vancouver? BCjobs. In fact, when we think about the future of work, we know we have to get it right to serve our changing customers and provide great jobs for…. Find primary, secondary and further education teaching roles across a wide range of institutions. A Research Associate is an employee who is continuing training after the receipt of the doctorate and is funded from a principal investigator's grant funds or other sources rather than from fellowship funds. All jobs at the University of Edinburgh are advertised online, via our eRecruitment system. 127 jobs to view and apply for now with Mendeley Careers. Japan is a country rooted in history, tradition, and religion, yet has distinctly placed itself as a leader in modern-day technology. This information can also be downloaded as a Programme Brochure. Promote your PhD Positions without any cost. Cagayan de Oro City Nov 07, 2019 WE ARE HIRING LIMKETKAI LUXE HOTEL IS IN NEED OF SR. The teaching fellow will teach a half-time course load, attend departmental and college faculty meetings, keep office hours, mentor students, and continue to pursue research and/or other scholarly projects. Our salaries are competitive and we offer an attractive benefits package. Japan news and Japanese national, crime, entertainment, politics, business, technology, sports stories in English. Jobs In Swaziland - [email protected] Dubai, UAE, October 2019: Ireland is known to have every shade of green in its sweeping landscapes, but there’s more to the island than meets the eye. Browse available job openings at Turner Broadcasting. REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:Terminal degree in a related field from an accredited institution of higher learningMinimum of three (3) years managerial / professional experience in a related. Scott played in the Japan Open Golf Championship the week ahead of the Zozo. During this period junior researchers are expected to meet the requirements for appointment to a professorship or gain the qualifications for a position in (academic) administration. Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top. The list includes job roles, description, location, and more information to help job seekers find the right one. £32,150 per annum (salary rate for 2019/20) Nuffield College and the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford intend to appoint jointly, with effect from 1 September 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter, up to three Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellows (PPRFs) in Politics, broadly. Work Top Jobs in Japan With No Japanese Required – Week 43, 2019 Bartender/DJ in Tokyo, marketing team leader in Osaka and English instructor in Fukui among our top picks for jobs that don't need Japanese ability. We are socialized as guys and gals to behave in certain ways and often don't realize it. Workers in private industry incurred 2. News, stories and information updated daily from a Christian worldview. Tracking the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda. No job for you? Browse jobs by your profession in the category section below. It was one of three Lakefront brews to medal at the event, which included breweries from all over the world. The Derby is held annually on the first Saturday in May, at the end of the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The Ultimate Online Resource for Pilots. Newest Jobs Job alerts Forums Recruiters Post a Job Find your dream cabin crew job Whether you are looking for cabin crew jobs or have a vacancy to fill, we are here for you. In the #MeToo era, Hooters might seem like a prime target for derision. Korea Research Fellowship (KRF) invites outstanding postdoctoral researchers in order to achieve an excellent performance in their early stages of their professional careers. Jobs in Ireland - Best jobs Ireland has to offer | IrishJobs. 5M monthly visitors, WWR is the #1 destination to find and list incredible remote jobs. MES is the abbreviation of Military Engineering Services working under Pakistan Army and look after the different development projects as per the rules of Pak Army. the overall top prize went to Hull (left) while the best design went to Eco Laundry (right) Around this time of year, a coveted prize is awarded within a niche industry in Japan: the Laundromat-of-the-Year-Award (pdf). 10 Lucky Lilac Returns to Winning Ways with Queen Elizabeth II Cup Victory. MPIA Fellowship and Postdoctoral Research Positions in Germany, 2019 is available. Japan has a 40 hour working week, but overtime happens rather often in many economic sectors. Join AWID now Remember and Honour: WHRD Tribute. May 21, 2019, Postdoc Positions in Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia May 21, 2019, Post-Doctoral Research Associate position in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. 8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers in 2018. 94% of Work in Sports members would recommend our service to a friend! Bottom Line: No one can match the quality or quantity of our sports jobs, the ease of our job search tools or the depth of our insider content. Society for Neuroscience (SfN) - Find your next career at NeuroJobs Career Center. 17 13 Year Old jobs hiring in 23917. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) offers scholarships to international students who wish to study at Japanese universities as undergraduate students under the Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship Program for 2019 as follows. Government of Japan and Universities in Japan offer scholarships to international students and local citizens every year and we have listed here some best PhD Scholarships in Japan, Masters Scholarships in Japan, and undergraduate level scholarships. Last year, Justify won the Preakness out of post seven. Lecturer, Associate Professor, Post-doctoral Fellow and more on Indeed. Japanese women continue to struggle against misogyny and objectification. Occupational Health and Safety Jobs in Australia - Results 1 - 12 of 12 Find Occupational Health and Safety Jobs in Environmental Health, Injury Management/ Rehabilitation, Management/ Supervisory, Risk Assessment and Workers Compensation in Australia and New Zealand. Applicants must be over 20 years old and be eligible for a working holiday visa or a sponsored visa. International Postdoctoral Fellowships for Developing Countries 2019-2020. Postdoctoral position 2019-10-22. Outlook: Hachimura is considered a likely top 10 pick and possible top 5 pick for the 2019 NBA draft by NBA scouts A bright kid who has picked up the English language and adapted to American culture quickly. These pages provide information about recent developments at or relevant to the ILLC. Browse thousands of law vacancies via the UK's dedicated jobs board for legal professionals. About The Economist jobs board. For Developing Countries UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowships 2019. More than 900,000 people, including 490,000 children, need urgent assistance. US Job Seekers: If you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position you may contact us by clicking here or call our US Toll-free number at 1-855-297-7327. Posting a Job vs Searching Resumes – Practical Advice. SPIE is dedicated to advancing the scientific research and engineering applications of optics, optical, photonic, imaging and optoelectronic technologies through international conferences, education programs and publications. POSTDOCTORAL POSITION to Study Inter-tissue Signaling During Aging in Drosophila. GaijinPot Job Fair 2019 in Shinjuku. Even if You Cannot Speak Japanese, We Have a Job for You. The 2019 Kentucky Derby was the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby, and took place on Saturday, May 4, 2019, in Louisville, Kentucky. We are more than just a job board. These jobs have been sourced from a website, company or service that identifies roles that can be performed by people with certain types of disabilities. Our job guide provides information about salaries, contracts and working conditions. Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics x 3 posts Academic. USA City Career Guides. work abroad, poea, ofw, poea jobs, ofw jobs, Philippine recruitment agency, jobs abroad Post your success story Read more. Team Leader, Rice Mill Financial Management, Agricultural Engineer, Modern Rice Mill Operator, Deputy Team Leader, and Business and Finance The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) 2019-12-06 17:00 Community health worker, Early stimulation therapist, and Cashier The Center for Child and Adolescent. Explore current openings in Textile industry opening in your desired location. 2018 applicants' online instructions. For research position updates on your mobile via broadcast, contact whatsapp @ +91-9709886840. 8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers in 2018. 28-11-2019: Postdoc in the Protein Signaling Program, in the Duxin group: Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences: Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research: 30-11-2019: Coordinator for the EastGRIP project: Faculty of Science: Niels Bohr Institutet: 30-11-2019: Post Doc position at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen. Delivering the very best economists to academia, government, international organizations and private companies. com brings you the latest employment/jobs news, get the latest updates & notifications for Government, bank, and other jobs in India. Please let us know if you have material that you would like to be added to the news pages, by using the online submission form. Salary estimates are based on 6 salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by Postdoctoral Fellow employees. Kavli IPMU Postdoctoral Positions for International Researchers in Japan, 2019 The "Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe" (Kavli IPMU) at the University of Tokyo is awarding postdoctoral fellowship program for the year 2019. Find your dream job now!. Louis sports, news, breaking news, lifestyle, parenting, business, entertainment, weather, jobs, autos and real estate listings from the St. Search Night Shift to find your next Night Shift job in 23917. November 07, 2019 : United States MD Baltimore: Postdoctoral Position in Complex Disease Genetics : Full Time: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: View: November 07, 2019 : United States Michigan : Bioinformatics / Computational Biology Position in Stem Cell and Cancer Epigenetics: Full Time: Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State. It's presented at an industry fair in Tokyo known as the International Coin. Browse Night Shift jobs and apply online. Post or find jobs in Metro Manila. Latest news and in-depth analyses on Japanese politics, business, crime,technology, society and culture from Okinawa to Fukushima to Tokyo,translated into English from the oldest daily newspaper. GaijinPot Job Fair 2019 in Shinjuku. In 2014, a subculture emerged in Japan called jimi halloween (地味ハロウィン), or "mundane Halloween. Free and with no obligations for job seekers. Postdoctoral position in skin imaging, modelling and rendering - Institutt for datateknologi og informatikk Published: 10/14/2019. Increase your chances of being seen! Employers on public job boards get flooded with. This contrast can also be seen in the country’s higher education institutions as they develop their research output and international outreach while preserving Japan’s cultures and values. Admissions Program 2019 The Smart College Qasimabad, Hyderabad. Read more: Kentucky Derby 2019: A beginner's guide to betting the biggest horse race of the year On Tuesday, post positions for the race were drawn. More than 250,000 jobs, all on one job search site. Welcome to Government Jobs for Diploma Holders 2019 Section. Recently, the relationship between these two neighbors has deteriorated to its lowest point since the end of World War II. There are 10 Postdoctoral fellow job openings in South Korea. Teach 2nd grade junior high school students: Classroom English, Home Stay English, and Immersion. 20 post position. 30, 2019 By Drew Holler, Senior Vice President, Associate Experience The future of work and the impact of technology on how we work is a hot topic around the world, and at Walmart, we are no exception. The University of Minnesota is an equal. Over seventy percent of Japan is covered by towering volcanic peaks and snow-capped summits, and these mountains, which still hold important religious and cultural significance, provide nothing short of a paradise for budding adventure junkies. Please be aware when submitting contact information such as your current work phone number or email address that it may be used for automated email communications or for interview follow-up. Looking for Postdoctoral Fellow Jobs? Apply to 9828 vacancies for Postdoctoral Fellow Jobs, 3783 in UAE, 2632 in Saudi Arabia, 930 in Others. Pilot Career Centre provides current Aviation News, Air Carrier Updates, Pilot Jobs, Pilot Career Insight, Flight Schools and Pilot Training Options, CV/Resume Design, Interview Preparation Services, and much more. 6 in the University salary band plus superannuation. Post Doctoral jobs now available. Japan offers a variety of options for the gap year traveler, from ancient ruins of the Shinto areas to awe-inspiring temples in the rural tropics to the bustling chaos of the Tokyo street life. Careers Advice at jobs. No job for you? Browse jobs by your profession in the category section below. English teaching jobs in Japan, IT jobs in Japan, finance jobs in Japan and more! Nov 11, 2019 Company japan-guide. 09 Nominated Horses from Overseas - Japan Cup (G1) 2019. Postdoctoral Positions in Improving Land-Atmosphere Interactions in the GFDL climate and Earth System models: Princeton, NJ, USA: 15/08/19: Research Assistant. Japan is a country that successfully maintains ancient traditions alongside its identity as a nation of technological innovation. Post or find jobs in Davao. In over 100 countries that I’ve visited, I have found that Japan has the most fascinating juxtaposition between the new and the old, the modern and the traditional. AfDB Japan Africa Dream Scholarship (JADS) Program 2020 for young Africans to study in Japan (Fully Funded) Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2019 for young Entrepreneurs Worldwide (€50,000+ Prize & Fully Funded to Accelerator Programme at University of Cambridge, London). Maharashtra Post Office GDS Online Application Form 2019 Maharashtra GDS BPM Jobs. “2020 Research Fellowship Program” has been officially released. On Wednesday, post positions for the race were drawn. 3500-3800yen/hour. 2 years Postdoc position in biochemistry and structural biology -Grenoble - France. 12 noon November 8th 2019. The countries with the fastest internet in the world have been re-assessed in 2019. Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology Last application date: 2019-11-20. Postdoctoral position in skin imaging, modelling and rendering - Søknadsfrist: 25. Filter by location to see Postdoctoral Fellow salaries in your area. Search 225 Postdoctoral Position jobs now available on Indeed.

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Judgment in Well Drilling Lawsuit Did natural gas drilling contaminate water in New York’s Chemung County? It doesn’t seem so, according to a late December ruling by US District Judge Charles Siragusa of Rochester. The federal judge ruled in favor of the Defendants in this case, closing the lawsuits filed by nine homeowners who said their well/drinking water became contaminated after a local natural gas well was drilled by Anschutz Exploration Co. of Denver. In the end, Judge Siragusa said that since the homeowners hadn’t shown that methane and silt had actually made its way into their wells, thanks to the gas drilling back in 2010, there really wasn’t a case to consider. However, one of the Plaintiffs from Horsehead, Bonnie Todd, said she didn’t even know the judge had made a decision. Along with the other homeowners, her case was being managed by Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik, a New York personal injury firm, but the law firm declined any comments to the press. However, it is known that the natural gas drilling in Trenton Black River was not fracked (hydraulically fractured). According to reports, the drilling was completed successfully. Industries Speak Up Following the judgment, a number of businesses and niche media in the industry covered the story, including Marcellus Drilling News. This media entity says that the law firm acted “erroneously” by suggesting fracking to begin with, especially considering that it’s not legal in the state of New York. For the homeowners living in the Big Flats region, that could have started their lawsuit off on the wrong foot with no chance to fix it. The niche outlet also says there were two wells drilled, but only one was involved in the lawsuit (Dow No. 1). According to the lawsuit, Anschutz drilled it about two miles by two miles horizontally and vertically, as was planned. However, two months after the project was complete, there were two homeowners half a mile from the site who began complaining of methane and well water turbidity to the Chemung County Health Department. According to reports, there was an investigation by the State Department of Environmental Conservation, but they found that the gas in the private wells were on par with “normal” findings. The court decision included a citation from DEC, saying that the drilling was “unlikely” to have caused any problems, and the offender was probably simply low on water levels for the season. Gas can happen naturally in shallow areas, especially in personal wells that aren’t well maintained. If you have questions about the health of your well, contact Mike Zimmerman Well Services today. They have some of the most experienced staff in the western United States on hand to address any well-related questions or concerns. This entry was posted in Blog on February 17, 2015 by admin.

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Turning a Business Trip into a Solo Mama Retreat Life is Good! So, I have this “real job.” It’s actually a pretty cool one and it came to me in a pretty amazing way. But that story is for another time. For now, the point is just that I’m super happy to be able to support myself and my kids with a pretty flexible schedule and to do it mostly from home. I’m blessed beyond measure and I know this, but just to clarify, it’s not all sunshine and roses. It takes some creative arranging and discipline (which has not always been my strongest gift) to manage getting the job done and dealing with kids, homeschooling and single mamahood / rural farm girl living with a petting zoo full of animals. I’m not complaining~ I’m just saying… Anyhoo~ one of the things that my job requires is monthly trips to the office, which is 175 miles over a winding mountain road to the small coastal town where the company is located. At first, I found myself whining, which was lame, I know, but still I was thinking... “Oh my gosh~ I have to drive over to the coast every month. How am I gonna figure out what to do with the kids and their transportation and activities and the animals? Waaaahhh, blah, blah, blah." In the midst of my complaining (side note: I almost referred to my complaining as wanking, because for years, that’s what I thought it meant. But, I was informed by my teens that it has a very different meaning. Oops….That explains the strange looks I’ve gotten when using that term in public. Learning all the time indeed…..) So, I was inspired by something the lovely and wise Marie Forleo said about re-framing our thinking. I realized “What the heck am I talking about? I get to go to the coast every month....” Weekly Wrap Up~ Lenten Edition: 40 Days of Stretching Back when I was a cynical teenager, a friend from a Catholic family introduced me to the concept of Lent. I had no interest in the rules of her religion (and neither did she, although she still wore the title) but I did like the idea of the ritual. Giving up something for 40 days NOT because I was being told to or coerced into it, but because I WANTED TO as part of a spiritual quest and out of respect and honor for something that was bigger than anything I knew....Yep, I wanted in. (.....) Plumbing Problems~ Be Careful What You Wish For I love the crazy things my offspring have come up with~ wishes, plans, and hare brained schemes. A lot of them just fall into the category of "Kids Say the Funniest Things" and others are more along the lines of "I can't friggen believe you just said that." But once in a while, even kids realize that one really should be careful what they say, let alone what they wish for. For example, when a little boy wishes that his mom would just lighten up and let him poop in a hole in the back yard, he may years later find himself without a flushing toilet, and realize that his dream no longer sounds as fun as he had once thought it would be. You see, we live in the woods. The back woods you might even say. My kids have grown up very familiar with nature and natural functions and life processes and all that. When my kids were little, and would play for hours outside, they thought I was quite unreasonable for requesting that they actually come inside to use the bathroom. By their reasoning, there were acres of perfectly poopable land around them. Besides, the cats, dogs, goats, ducks and chickens all pooped out there. (Moms can be so stifling, I know) For the record, I can completely understand exceptions when back country camping with no facilities available, but if there's an indoor bathroom around, I just think that's where humans should do their business. I have a sneaking suspicion that there were occasions when I had my head buried in a book, or was gabbing on the phone, and the ground I was attempting to hold was fertilized by humanure though. Crazy kids. (....)

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What is gravitation? The Cambridge educated Chemist who has obtained a Ph. D. in experimental Chemistry from that University, there being not many Theoretical Chemists in the country, has managed to feel gravitation without any extraordinary sense organ. How did and how does he feel gravitation? It is not only him who feels gravitation, as I have found many students at least in the Faculty of Science of the University of Kelaniya accept gravitation as they believe in say experiencing a flower. In fact one of the students told me that he is able to stand up because of gravitation without realizing that many people would claim that they fall because of gravitation. The student concerned is not a moron but probably he thought that he could feel gravitation while he stood up and walked, and if not for the floor he would have been dragged towards the centre of the earth by gravitation. I must say a few words on western Experimental Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry and in general western Experimental Science and Theoretical Science before we analyze gravitation in detail. According to a Professor who happens to be an Experimental Chemist in Sri Lanka trained in USA, who did not know of the existence of Theoretical Chemistry until recently, at present Experimental Chemistry is more advanced than Theoretical Chemistry. It may be so but it implies that western Chemistry consists of some experimental facts that cannot be explained satisfactorily. Western Theoretical Science tries to explain by means of theorizing, the knowledge acquired by Experimental Science which of course is based on some basic theory. In the branch of western science I am a little familiar with, namely western Physics, it happens both ways. For example in String Theory there is so much knowledge created in the past few decades without being validated by experiments. Then in Cosmology, western scientists talk of multiverse (many universes) theoretically without any observational knowledge, while they have gathered information of what they call dark energy (the energy due to which the universe has been expanding with an acceleration for the last seven billion years or so as against with deceleration in the previous seven billion years according to western Cosmologists) without being able to explain theoretically for almost fifteen years. In other words western Cosmologists and Astrophysicists do not know what dark energy is. They know that the universe has been expanding with acceleration without knowing what made it to accelerate about seven billion years ago. It appears that a similar situation exists in western Chemistry if we are to believe the learned Professor in Experimental Chemistry. As I have mentioned previously Galileo and Newton formed a good pair in western Physics combining experiments (observations) and theory. What Galileo had observed/preached in Pisa as well as in Padua in Italy were mainly that what are known as freely falling bodies come down to earth with the same acceleration near the surface of the earth, and that the earth went round the sun without an iota of experimental or observational evidence. The latter information had been obtained from Copernicus who in turn had heard it from Arabs who had been to Bharath. The Astronomers and Mathematicians such as Aryabhatta in Bharath had knowledge of earth going round the sun many centuries before Galileo. It was Newton’s greatness that he was able to combine both these phenomena, if one may call them so, with his theory of gravitation (it is said that the Bharath Mathematicians had speculated on gravitation) and what are known as laws of motion. Now that they have been elevated to theories and laws and no wonder that our Chemist and students feel gravitation through normal sense organs though many people in the world would not have any knowledge of gravitation. The former have been conditioned to think that there is gravitation and they are now being able to “feel” gravitation as their minds have got used to the idea of gravitation. As far as many of the latter are concerned there is no gravitation and they do not make a fuss about feeling gravitation through their senses. I think that those who do not have a sense of gravitation are more sensible than the educated who claim that they can feel gravitation. Unfortunately for Newton and his followers throughout the world there are many problems that the so called theory of gravitation and the laws of motion face. According to the theory of gravitation and the laws of motion, what a name the laws of motion, it only reflects the arrogance of the westerners, the planets should go round the sun in fixed ellipses but none of the planets obey Newton. They go round the sun dragging the perihelion or the point closest to the sun, and this phenomenon is called the advance of the perihelion. This was known especially in the case of Mercury but Newton or his followers could not explain this discrepancy. Of course the laws of motion had other problems, the most acute being the impossibility of observing the absolute space devoid of any matter or radiation or the first non inertial frame of reference. The moment one finds oneself in this absolute space it ceases to be an absolute space as now there is matter even if one does not consider the presence of mind. Laws of motion are said to be valid in a special type of frames of reference known as inertial frames of reference which are not observable! This speaks volumes for the so called empirical science and later on in the latter part of the nineteenth century the Austrian Physicist cum Philosopher Earnest Mach, one of the founders of positivism, was very critical about these non observables in western Physics. Now according to the old scientific method, meaning the pre Popperian scientific method - it is interesting to note that the so called scientific method has also changed over the years - a theory, deductions from which do not tally with observations, should be discarded. Though the deduction from Newtonian Gravitation Theory that tells the world that the planets move around the sun along fixed ellipses is in contradiction with observations, the theory was not discarded. In fact after more than three hundred years it is still taught in schools and universities around the world while it goes around the sun in a “moving” ellipse, and many educated people including the Cambridge educated western Chemist who can feel gravitation is under the impression that the Newtonian Theory of Gravitation is valid and that a gravitational force (field) exists independent of the observer as an objective reality. Contrary to the opinion of the Cambridge educated lecturer in western Chemistry, nobody can feel gravitation for the simple reason that there does not exist any gravitational force or field! Mach who was against using concepts of objects that cannot be observed was critical of the gravitational force as well as of the inertial frames of reference. In fact he objected to the concept of an atom being used in western Physics (or Chemistry) as atoms are not sensory perceptible. Thus he wanted to banish atoms as well as inertial frames of reference together with gravitation that could not be “grasped” through the five senses. His ideas influenced Einstein who formulated the Theory of General Relativity not only without inertial frames of reference but also without gravitation. Einstein said that coconuts or apples fall to the earth, not because of gravitation, but due to variations in what is known as the Riemann Curvature Tensor. Thus according to Einstein there is no universal gravitation and had banished inertial frames of reference. In spite of Einstein, inertial frames and gravitation are taught to the students and the question may be asked as to why the students have to go through the task of learning of objects that do not even exist in the sense that the flowers exit. We can also ask the question as to whether Newton’s theory of gravitation is a myth. Was it an illusion, delusion or hallucination? We continue to hear that gravitation exists when there is nothing called gravitation. Can those who talk of gravitation be called scientific hallucinates? Then what can be said of the western Chemist and others who can feel “gravitation”? (To be continued) Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva Labels: Aryabhatta, experimental, gravitation, NalinDeSilva, Newton, TheIsland, theoretical

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A New Spatial Synoptic Classification : Application to Air Mass Analysis International Journal of Climatology, vol. 16, 983-1004(1996) Laurence S. Kalkstein C. David Barthel J. Scott Greene Michael C. Nichols Synoptic Climatology Laboratory Center for Climatoc Research Figures and Tables not currently available for the Web. Despite recent advances in the classification of synoptic-scale events, there remains the need for development of a simple, automated, continental-scale air mass-based procedure. We present a new method of analysis to identify resident air masses at first-order weather stations to facilitate inter-site comparison of daily air masses across a very large region. The "spatial synoptic classification" (SSC) requires initial identification of the major air masses and their typical meteorological characteristics at each site. "Seed days", which exhibit these typical characteristics for each air mass, are used as input for a linear discriminant function analysis, which produces a daily categorization of air masses with spatially continuous results. A second discriminant function analysis is used to determine whether a day is to be considered transitional between air masses. Using the SSC, air mass frequencies were developed for winter across the United States east of the Rockies, and rates of modification were determined as each air mass traversed the region. The impact of snow cover on modification rates was determined by comparing two winter months with very different snow cover characteristics across the area. Keeping other factors constant, it appears that extended snow cover can reduce the temperature of a dry polar air mass by up to 11øC. Applied climatologists have benefitted significantly from progress made in the past 15 years in the development of synoptic climatological approaches to evaluate climate/environment problems. Many of these procedures are now readily available, and even physical scientists in non-climatological disciplines are incorporating them within their research designs. Synoptic approaches have unique appeal, as they permit evaluation of the synergistic impacts of an entire suite of weather elements by developing meteorologically homogeneous groupings (Barry and Perry, 1973). Thus, approaches such as the Temporal Synoptic Index, or TSI, (Kalkstein et al., 1987) have been used to evaluate air quality (Davis, 1991; Kalkstein and Corrigan, 1986), precipitation distribution (McCabe et al., 1989), human health problems (Kalkstein, 1993) long term climate change (Kalkstein et al., 1990; 1993), variations in agricultural yield (Dilley, 1992), and glacial accumulation and ablation (Brazel et al., 1992). Synoptic approaches can generally be subdivided by the type of climatological phenomena evaluated, as well as the spatial applicability of each approach (Table 1). "Weather typing" defines synoptic groups by pressure or wind fields (Davis and Walker, 1992); resulting categories represent distinct flow regimes which influence pollution concentration, oceanic wave patterns, and a multitude of other environmental factors. Weather type approaches are most useful when the evaluation requires detail pertaining to atmospheric transport mechanisms; thus, pesticide spray drift problems, pollution dispersal, and atmospherically-forced insect migration patterns are conveniently analyzed with the use of weather types. Although homogeneous from a hydrodynamic standpoint, weather types are less useful when the investigation dictates that synoptic groups should be thermodynamically homogeneous. Certainly, if surface and upper level flow patterns are similar on two particular days, it is likely that the thermal and moisture characteristics of those days would also be similar. However, there are numerous instances when this is not the case. For example, an anticyclone located to the west of Memphis, Tennessee in winter, supported by negative vorticity advection aloft, could result in various meteorological scenarios at the surface. First, cold, dry air could be transported to the region, and skies could be clear with afternoon temperatures hovering near freezing. Second, modified Pacific air, warmed adiabatically on the lee side of the Rockies, might be in place, and afternoon temperatures could approach 15øC. Finally, the rare intrusion of dry, warm air from the desert Southwest is possible, with associated afternoon temperatures well above 20øC. Thus, for bioclimatological applications where thermal and moisture characteristics of the air are of particular importance, weather typing may prove insufficient as the resulting synoptic categories are not necessarily homogeneous. Air mass-based approaches are designed to categorize days based on a variety of weather elements, and the resulting classification is less dependent on pressure patterns and wind fields. An air mass is a large volume of air which has acquired, "...characteristics of temperature and humidity related to the condition of the sea, land, or ice beneath it" (Crowe, 1971). Various thermal and moisture variables are commonly used to classify air masses, along with visibility, cloud cover, and sometimes precipitation. Thus, air masses can be defined by their distinctive thermodynamic character. Since the criteria for categorization is based on similarities in thermal and moisture characteristics, it is conceivable that pressure and wind could vary considerably among days within an air mass. This definition varies somewhat from the classic description put forth by Bergeron (1930), which defines polar, tropical, continental, and maritime air masses according to their source regions. A similar definition was adopted by Schwartz (1991; 1995), whose methodology followed a "numerical limits with transition zones" definition of air masses. Source region delineation is less important here; instead the concern is the identification of "umbrellas of air" which traverse a region and possess distinctive meteorological characteristics. Environmental responses to air masses are not based on source region; rather, response is most frequently dependent on the meteorological character of the air at a place in time. Periods of change in meteorological character which occur when one air mass supplants another are considered to be "transition situations". Much like weather typing, air mass-based approaches are used widely in environmental analysis. They are best-suited, but not limited to, bioclimatological problems such as phenological analyses (Schwartz and Marotz, 1986), as well as other instances where organisms respond to the character of the atmosphere rather than to pressure or wind patterns. Synoptic classifications can also be defined by their spatial applicability (Table 1). Some are generally used as point indices, such as Muller's (1977) weather types and the air mass-based temporal synoptic index (TSI). In both of these cases, it is possible, but unwieldy, to expand use to the larger scale. Muller's weather typing evaluates daily map patterns at each site, requiring considerable time and effort. TSI is virtually impossible to develop beyond single point analysis, as the statistical procedures are not sensitive to similar categorizations developed at adjacent locations. Several regional synoptic approaches have been successfully developed, and these are most useful when describing weather types or air masses within an area up to a few thousand kilometers squared. For example, Schwartz (1991) devised an approach to evaluate January, April, July and October air mass frequencies at 15 sites in the north central U.S from 1958-1981. He successfully identified five air masses using procedures similar to the "partial collective method" proposed by Bryson (1966), and calculated air mass frequencies for the region. Although useful at a regional level, many of these procedures are less efficient on a continental scale. Some progress has been achieved in the development of continental-scale weather typing schemes, but air mass-based procedures at this large scale have been an enigma to atmospheric scientists. Davis and Kalkstein (1990a), applying procedures similar to those of the TSI, developed a continental-scale spatial synoptic index using 1984 surface weather data for the United States. The resulting daily maps identified regions over which distinct air masses were present. This classification was used to analyze air quality variations; however, the procedure suffers from two important shortcomings. First, the technique must be developed on a day-to-day basis, which can be exceedingly time-consuming when treating a dataset of many years. Second, there were considerable problems tracking a given air mass across the country, especially if modification occurred during transport. Third, the procedure produced an unwieldy number of synoptic types which varied both seasonally and regionally. Thus, despite recent advances in the classification of synoptic-scale events, there remains the need for development of a simpler, automated, large-scale air mass-based procedure. We propose a new method of analysis to identify resident air masses at hundreds of weather stations on a national scale. The proposed "spatial synoptic classification", or SSC, is less complex than previous procedures of this type, yet permits inter-site comparison of daily air mass types across a very large region. The resulting spatial air mass inventory could have important environmental applications, such as the determination of climatic limiting factors for certain biota and biotic communities, the rate of air mass modification across large areas, the impact of temporary surface features, such as snow, on modification rates, a large scale evaluation of climatic change based on variations in air mass frequencies and character, and an evaluation of precipitation characteristics for individual air masses. This paper will describe results derived from the SSC for 126 first-order weather stations east of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S. during a 30-year period (1961 through 1990) for winter (December, January, and February). Stations west of the Rockies have also been evaluated using the SSC, but the complex terrain has rendered trends in air mass frequency and character more difficult to discern. Thus, this initial paper will be limited to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. Although discussion here is confined to winter, the procedure is designed to classify air masses year-round. a. Air mass identification Unlike many existing air mass-based classification techniques, the SSC requires initial identification of the major air masses which traverse the region as well as their typical meteorological characteristics. The SSC categorizes days within the following six air mass types: dry polar (DP), moist polar (MP), dry temperate (DM), moist temperate (MM), dry tropical (DT), and moist tropical (MT). The nomenclature is designed to identify the character, rather than source region, of the air mass. Dry polar air is synonymous to continental polar; it is the coldest, and sometimes the driest, air mass in a region. Cloud cover is most often minimal. Dry temperate air is typically an adiabatically-warmed Pacific air mass which has descended the lee side of the Rockies. The air mass is associated with mild, dry conditions in the eastern and midwestern U.S., and most frequently intrudes when strong zonal flow exists aloft. Dry tropical defines the hot and very dry air mass which most often originates from the Desert Southwest or northern Mexico. It is frequently associated with the hottest and driest conditions, especially in the Midwest. Moist polar air is cool and humid, with overcast conditions, and frequently, easterly winds. In the East, this air mass is synonymous to maritime polar conditions around the northern flank of a mid-latitude cyclone. However, it is also common that overrunning, associated with a slow-moving front sometimes hundreds of kilometers south, produces virtually identical surface conditions. Thus, the two synoptic situations are grouped together. Moist temperate is also associated with overcast, humid conditions, but temperatures and dew points are much higher owing to the close proximity of the responsible front. Moist polar and moist temperate air masses may persist for many days over a locale if frontal movement is particularly lethargic. Moist tropical air masses, commonly recognized as maritime tropical, represent warm, humid conditions found frequently in the warm sector of an open wave cyclone or the western flank of a subtropical anticyclone. Atmospheric instability and convective activity are common within the air mass. b. Selection of a classification procedure Using the spatial synoptic classification proposed here, all days can be placed within one of these predetermined, readily identifiable, air mass categories. There are numerous means to classify meteorologically homogeneous days in an automated manner, but three general approaches seem most efficient. First, hierarchical, agglomerative clustering procedures have been utilized successfully to categorize meteorologically homogeneous days (Sokal and Michener, 1958; Romesberg, 1984; Kalkstein et al., 1987; Schwartz and Skeeter, 1994). Clustering techniques, such as average linkage, are best-suited when the number of categories to be developed is not predetermined. Grouping is based on some measure of similarity between pairs of objects (days), and guidelines are provided to terminate clustering when dissimilar days are forced into the same group (Anderberg, 1973; Fovell and Fovell, 1993). As air mass categories are predetermined, hierarchical agglomerative procedures are not suitable here. Second, non-hierarchical iterative clustering procedures, such as the frequently-utilized convergent k-means method, allow for the rearrangement of objects (days) after they have been classified into a group, thereby optimizing the final classification (Davis and Walker, 1992). In addition, such procedures select initial starting values, or seeds, to represent mean conditions for each predetermined category (air mass). Each object (day) is then assigned to its nearest category, based on its distance from mean "seed day" values. The process is iterative and new seed day means are computed as category membership is updated. The procedure terminates after that iteration which produces no new reassignment (Davis and Kalkstein, 1990b). Although non-hierarchical procedures are advantageous because of their use of predetermined seed days, the recalculation of seed day means with each iteration represents a distinct shortcoming when it is desired that seeds be selected based on prior climatological knowledge about air masses. In the spatial synoptic classification described here, climatological expertise plays a significant role in determining air mass types and their typical representation at a particular locale through careful selection of seed days. Thus, the redevelopment of new group centroids in the k-means method as defined by the recalculation of seed day means within each iterative step creates an environment where the procedure is driven less on climatological expertise and more on mathematical rigor. Since the mathematical recalculation is performed on a site-by-site basis (totally independent of conditions at a neighboring locale), the resulting meteorological character of the seed days after the final iteration has lost a significant degree of spatial continuity. A third approach, discriminant function analysis, is appropriate when group structure is predetermined and recalculation of seed days is deemed undesirable (James, 1985). The term "discriminant analysis" refers to a wide range of statistical procedures which are designed to measure the differences between two or more groups of objects with respect to one or more variables simultaneously. The principal objective is the assignment of new objects to predetermined groups using developed classification rules. These rules, called discriminant functions, are calculated and used to identify the group to which an object belongs. Linear discriminant function analysis, used here, assumes multivariate normality and equal covariance matrices within and among groups (Klecka, 1980). Statistical evaluations of linear discriminant function analysis indicate that it is "quite satisfactory", even when the assumption of equal covariances is relaxed (Gilbert, 1969; Marks and Dunn, 1974). In addition, analyses which use bimodal variables (e.g., cloud cover) are more likely to violate the assumption of normality; however, this can occur without significantly affecting the results of the classification (Klecka, 1980). Thus, in the SSC, where groups (air masses) are predetermined and represented by seed days, linear discriminant analysis is a robust procedure which produces a daily categorization with spatially continuous results (refer to Miller, 1962 for a more complete description of the meteorological applications of discriminant analysis). This type of discriminant analysis is conceptually similar (but more mathematically rigorous) to the "partial collectives" approach devised by Bryson (1966). Using the covariance matrix and mean values of the variables selected, discriminant analysis develops classification functions, which in turn are used to identify which group best fits the characteristics of an individual day. The discriminant analysis is based upon the development of a set of linear equations described as follows (based on Lachenbruch, 1975 and Klecka, 1980): where hk is the value (score) of the discriminant function for group k, Xi is the value of the discriminating variable i (i.e., temperature, dew point, etc.) up to p number of variables, and bki represents coefficients which modify the function so that it closely resembles the true group variability. The functions are evaluated for each group for each case. These coefficients are derived so that the group scores are as different as possible. The coefficients for the discriminant classification functions are derived as follows: where bki is the coefficient for variable i in the equation corresponding to group k, Xjk is the value of the discriminating variable, a*ij is an element from the inverse of the covariance matrix (A), and nt is the total number of cases over all groups (g). The elements of A are defined as: where g is the number of groups, nk is the number of elements in group k, ik is the mean of values in the kth group, and Xikm is the value of variable i for case m in group k. The inverse of this matrix is then computed to determine the a*ij values. The constant term in equation (1), bk0, is defined as: A separate discriminant function is derived for each group and evaluated for each day. The day is then classified into the group with the highest score (i.e., the largest hk). c. Development of the procedure The foundation for the development of the SSC is the proper selection of seed days (Figure 1). These days represent the typical meteorological character of each air mass at a location and are used to classify all other days. A number of seed days are used to develop a more robust sample of the typical character of each air mass at each location. The seed day group for each air mass is selected by a specification of ranges in afternoon surface temperature, dew point, dew point depression, wind speed, wind direction, cloud cover, and diurnal temperature range. Afternoon observations are emphasized as it is during this time that air mass distinction is especially clear, particularly for surface temperature and dew point depression. In addition, four six-hourly dew point changes are evaluated for systematic trends to prevent those days which have undergone significant changes (such as frontal passages) from being selected as seed days. Initial estimates of criteria for seed day selection are specified for each air mass at each location. This is accomplished through careful evaluation of surface meteorological data and maps from 1961-90; days which meet these criteria are selected to represent that air mass. The criteria are developed so that all seeds selected comprise a homogeneous representation of the air mass. For example, to be included in the Cleveland DP seed day pool, a seed day must possess, among other attributes, a 3 PM air temperature below -1øC, a dew point below -8øC, an afternoon cloud cover of less than five-tenths, a diurnal temperature range of at least 7øC, and a dew point depression of at least 7øC (Table 2). Every effort is made to maximize the number of seed days for each air mass (in most cases, at least 30 seed days are selected) without jeopardizing group homogeneity. However, when an air mass is rare at a locale, a lesser number of days must be designated. An important aspect of the procedure is that the criteria for seed selection process can be changed if the resulting seed days for each air mass are deemed non-representative. For example, the maximum afternoon temperature can be raised if the days selected are too cold to represent the air mass at the particular location. This is determined by comparing seed days with those selected at adjacent locales and by adjusting for local climatic factors. Seed day attributes should not vary dramatically between adjacent sties, and criteria selection is based partially on the spatial consistency of seed days. Following seed day selection, discriminant function analysis is used to generate a linear function for each air mass from its group of seed days (Figure 2). Each day is subsequently evaluated using all air mass discriminant functions to determine which group it most closely resembles. The result of this evaluation is a calendar which lists the air mass to which each day has been assigned. The sensitivity of the procedure was tested by examining the effects of variations in the selection of seed days and in the choice of the variables used in the discrimination. Thus, variations in seed selection criteria, which resulted in different numbers of seed days, were analyzed at 15 sample cities. Two sets of seed days, one consisting of a narrow range of criteria with a set of only a few seed days ("A" seeds) and the other, a larger, less restrictive group with approximately double the number of seed days ("B" seeds), were compared. Results showed that the frequencies and character of the air masses varied little between the "A" seed and "B" seed discrimination (Table 3). For example, the overall frequency of winter DP varied by less than 1% in Bismarck. One of the largest differentials was at Bismarck for MP days; frequencies differed by 3.5% using the two different sets of seeds. However, this represented one of the largest differentials uncovered at all 15 tested cities. In almost all cases, variations using different combinations of seeds were less than 2 percent. Another important consideration is the selection of variables used in the final determination of the discriminant functions. Over a dozen combinations of meteorological elements were evaluated to determine which would be most effective in distinguishing between air masses. The number of variables studied ranged from 5 to 21 (Table 3). For example, the 5-variable procedure included daily means of temperature, dew point, sea level pressure, and cloud cover, along with diurnal temperature range, while the 21-variable procedure included four-times-daily values for temperature, dew point, sea level pressure, a north-south wind scalar, an east-west wind scalar, and mean cloud cover. While there are some changes in the final frequencies of the different air masses, the differences are negligible. For example, the frequencies at Bismarck for DP air vary by less than 1%, and the values for St. Louis vary by only 1.5% among the different procedures tested. The resulting change in character is less than 0.25øC for afternoon temperature and dew point at Bismarck. Similar results are found for the other air masses as well as other locations. Days which were assigned to different groups by the various element combinations were evaluated through surface weather map analysis. This evaluation indicated that a 12-variable procedure best represents the synoptic character of each day. The 12 variables are: six-hourly temperature and dew point, mean daily cloud cover and sea level pressure, and diurnal air temperature and dew point range. As thermal and moisture characteristics are important indicators for a particular air mass, the four-times-daily measurements of temperature and dew point are retained. However, cloud cover and sea level pressure are more conservative variables, so mean daily values are used for these variables. In addition, a significant component of the character of air masses is the diurnal nature of their temperature and moisture characteristics. Diurnal temperature range and dew point range are therefore included in the final set of variables. A significant number of days are initially incorrectly classified because they represent transition situations. To account for this, the SSC performs a second discriminant function analysis to determine whether or not a day represents a transition situation. Two groups of seed days are used for this analysis: a group representing transition situations, and a group containing the combined seed days of all air masses at the location. The former group is selected using processes similar to the original seed identification; however, the selection variables differ. Two particularly conservative elements, diurnal dew point change and sea level pressure change, are evaluated for systematic trends through the day. If a significant diurnal change is observed for either element (at least twice the average diurnal change of all days), the day is used as a transition seed day. This discriminant analysis produces a second calendar which designates each day as either transitional or non-transitional. All days classified as non-transitional retain their air mass designation assigned in the first discriminant analysis. All other days are classified as transitions from the air mass of the previous day to that of the present day, with two exceptions. If a transition day is assigned to the same air mass as that of the previous day in the first discriminant analysis, it is classified as a transition from the present day's air mass to that of the following day. When all three days (previous, present, and following) are classified as the same air mass in the first discriminant analysis, the present day is treated as non-transitional. Seed day selection Seed days were selected for all air masses at all locales based on predetermined criteria. Seed days are quite homogeneous within sites, but their meteorological character varies considerably among sites (Tables 4 and 5). For example, the 50 seed days from the 1961-90 time period selected for St. Louis DP air possess similar thermal and moisture characteristics, with minimal cloud cover and generally north winds. However, while early afternoon DP seed day temperatures at Bismarck average about -15øC, at St. Louis and New Orleans they are about 8 and 19øC higher, respectively. DP seed day mean afternoon dew points exhibit even more spatial variation; the St. Louis and New Orleans dew points are 18 and 28øC higher than those at Bismarck. Not all air masses demonstrate this magnitude of spatial variability in seed day meteorological character. For example, DT seed day temperature means are much more similar at St. Louis and New Orleans, although the air mass occurs very infrequently at St. Louis in winter. No seeds were determined for either DT or MT air at Bismarck; hence, it was concluded that neither of these air masses reached Bismarck during the evaluated winters. Air mass frequencies Air mass frequency maps illustrate spatial trends in the occurrence of each air mass (Figure 3). The winter frequency of MT air decreases rapidly moving northward from Florida. While approximately one-half of all days are categorized as MT at the southern tip of the state, this frequency diminishes to approximately one-third near Daytona Beach. The gradient becomes less steep to the north and west of Florida, and northern Gulf Coast cities such as New Orleans and Houston average about 18 percent MT days. North of a line from Washington to St. Louis, frequencies are below 5 percent, and almost no MT air intrudes as far north as Buffalo and Boston. During the period of record, MT air masses never occurred in Flint, Chicago, Des Moines, Lincoln, or any points north of these locations. The gradient of DP frequency is generally oriented in a north-south direction, but changes are less uniform than MT. DP frequencies range from less than 8 percent of winter days in southern Florida and Texas to greater than 26 percent in North Dakota and along the northeastern coast. Interestingly, DP frequency is higher in Norfolk, VA than in Minneapolis. However, a much larger proportion of days is classified as MP in Minneapolis, and if the DP and MP frequencies are combined to develop a "polar air mass index" (Figure 4), a more intuitive pattern becomes apparent. Cities within several hundred kilometers of the Great Lakes experience a reduced number of DP days and a comparatively high number of MP days. The greater cloud cover and concomitant low dew point depressions in this area increase the MP frequency at the expense of DP. However, along the mid-Atlantic coast, DP occurs with greater frequency as a consequence of downslope drying of polar air masses east of the Appalachians. The polar index demonstrates a steep latitudinal gradient across the country, and the 50 percent polar air mass line traverses southern Virginia, central Kentucky, and southern Illinois. It moves northwestward into southern Nebraska, due to an increase in DM air mass frequency toward the west. Downslope motion of air masses traversing the Rockies during zonal flow increases the frequency of DM air in the Great Plains. About a quarter of all days in central and western Nebraska are categorized as DM, while this number diminishes to less than 15 percent at the same latitude further east. A strong southwest-to-northeast frequency gradient is apparent, and maxima are noted in the southern Great Plains, where polar air is less likely to intrude when zonal flow predominates aloft. DM air masses are relatively common over the southeastern U.S., where the frequency gradient takes on a south-north orientation. A southwest-to-northeast gradient is noted for DT air mass frequencies as well, but magnitudes are much lower than DM in winter. However, in western Texas, almost half of all winter days experience one of these two air masses. The MM air mass demonstrates the most complex pattern, and a continuous gradient is less apparent. There is an increasing frequency toward the Gulf Coast, related to slow-moving fronts which often align themselves in the northern Gulf of Mexico during winter. This results in a pronounced overrunning situation with easterly surface flow, cloudiness, high precipitation probability, and comparatively mild temperatures along the Gulf Coast. The frequency of MM air diminishes in the western Great Plains. An axis of somewhat lower frequencies extends from Kansas to coastal Virginia and North Carolina, and an increase is noted toward the Canadian border. An intraseasonal frequency evaluation reveals that MM air is disproportionately common at the northern stations very early and very late in the winter season. Storm tracks are generally aligned further north at this time (as compared to their location during the middle of winter), permitting more frequent incursions of MM air near the Canadian border. Frequencies of transition situations are remarkable for their spatial consistency (Figure 4). Transition frequencies average about 15 percent, with slightly lower values across the western Great Plains and slightly higher values in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. However, there is no discernable spatial trend in transition frequencies. Air mass character Mean meteorological characteristics were evaluated for the six air masses, and the resulting spatial variations indicate rates of air mass modification (DP, MT, and DM are illustrated in Figures 5a, 5b, and 5c, respectively). Modification with increasing distance from the source region occurs most rapidly within the DP air mass. For example, mean 3PM DP temperatures exhibit a very steep north-south gradient, varying from over 10øC in southern Florida to about -16øC in northern Minnesota. The most rapid modification appears to occur in the Midwest, where the afternoon temperature increases by about 2øC for every 100 km distance from the source region. This modification rate is twice that noted in the southern and extreme northern U.S. The rapid modification of DP air in the Midwest may be associated with the reduced frequency of snow cover which occurs southward in winter across the region. North Dakota, Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan typically have continuous snow cover throughout much of the winter (Robinson and Hughes, 1991), and the homogeneous surface reduces DP air mass modification over this area. Conversely, continuous snow cover is a very rare event in the Southeast, which inhibits the modification rate there as well. However, the percentage of winter days with continuous snow cover decreases very rapidly southward from northern Nebraska and Iowa to northern Oklahoma and Arkansas (Leathers and Robinson, 1993), creating a non-homogeneous surface and potentially producing the greatest rate of modification. The rates of modification of MT and DM air masses are somewhat less than DP. This is especially true for MT air in the Southeast, where mean 3 PM temperatures change at about 0.5øC for each 100 km. Although modification rates increase farther north (about 1øC for every 100 km; possibly due to increasing snow cover frequency), the gradient for MT is about half that for DP. Spatial variations in dew points within the air masses are somewhat different than air temperature (Figure 6). For example, the DP dew point temperature gradient is less steep than that of air temperature; the range in the former from northern Minnesota to the Gulf Coast is about 17øC, while for the latter it is about 22øC. In addition, the DP dew point gradient is steeper in the northern U.S., especially in the Midwest, where snow cover is usually continuous in winter. This suggests that moisture ablates from snow-covered areas into the dry air, but as the air mass moves south over surfaces not covered with snow, less moisture is added from the surface. The MT dew point gradient is slightly greater than DP across the southern and central U.S., a pattern converse to the trend exhibited by air temperature. The gradient is steepest over Texas and Oklahoma, and this unstable air mass apparently loses moisture rapidly as it passes over a relatively dry surface. There is a pronounced southwest-northeast trend in the isodrosotherms; Oklahoma City and New York City possess similar mean MT dew point temperatures. The DM gradient in dew point temperature is weaker than that of the previous two air masses. The mean DM dew point temperature is only about 7øC lower in northern Minnesota than along the Gulf Coast. There is an interesting north-south orientation of isolines within the Great Plains, which probably represents the constant moisture characteristics of this air mass as it descends the lee side of the Rockies. Thus, modification in this region occurs as the air mass moves eastward. Another interesting feature is the consistency in DM dew point temperature from northern Illinois and Indiana to northern Mississippi and Alabama. Little modification in DM moisture content is apparent here as distance from the source region increases. In addition, the dew point temperature gradient is particularly weak from North Carolina to northern New England. The difference in mean DM dew point temperature from Boston to Wilmington, NC is only about 3øC. The mean diurnal temperature range of the air masses at selected East Coast locations (Portland, ME; New York, NY; Richmond, VA; Wilmington, NC; Charleston, SC; Jacksonville, FL; Miami, FL) is fairly consistent within air mass type (Figure 7). The greatest diurnal range is noted for DM air, and the mean minimum temperature for this air mass is less than 5øC for all the East Coast stations with the exception of Miami. For most of the locales, the diurnal temperature range is greater than 10øC. This is somewhat diminished at the two northernmost sites, where reduced insolation may be a contributing factor. The smallest diurnal ranges are noted for the two air masses most commonly associated with overcast conditions, MP and MM. New York City's diurnal range appears reduced for most of the air masses, especially the driest and clearest ones, possibly due to lowered atmospheric transparency related to urban impacts. Thus, it is possible that the SSC permits a quantitative evaluation of urban effects upon the thermal and moisture characteristics of each air mass type. A Potential Application: The Impact of Snow Cover In 1963, Namias pointed out that snow cover played, "...a vital role..." in affecting paths of cold polar anticyclones, as well as mid-latitude cyclones. Thus, a positive feedback mechanism existed where temperature distribution was significantly impacted by the extent of snow across the continent. The impact of snow cover on the differential modification rates of various air masses is of similar interest, and the SSC permits a detailed examination of modification, as well as the impact of different surfaces on such modification. Thus, two winter months with distinctly different snow cover extents were evaluated to determine how differential surface conditions might influence air mass characteristics. January, 1981 was noted for its general lack of snow cover across the central U.S., while January, 1979 was associated with virtually continuous snow cover north of Tennessee, central Arkansas and Oklahoma (Figure 8). Mean afternoon temperatures for each air mass were compared for these two months, and the largest differential was detected for DP air. During January, 1979, mean DP afternoon temperatures were considerably lower than those in January, 1981. However, the rate of DP modification for both months appeared to be closely related to snow cover extent. For example, the gradient of modification during January, 1981 was steepest through central North and South Dakota, northeastern Nebraska, and Iowa, which corresponds closely to the southern edge of snow cover for the month. During January, 1979, the steepest gradient was detected much further south (northern Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and eastern Pennsylvania), but remained near the southern edge of snow cover. An evaluation of DP mean afternoon temperature differences between the two months clearly indicates that the differential was greatest within the zone where snow cover occurred in 1979 but was absent in 1981. In central Minnesota, where snow cover was present during both months, the temperature differential averaged about 5øC. A similar difference is noted in the south central U.S., where snow cover was absent for both months. However, through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and eastern Wyoming, where snow cover was continuous in 1979 but absent in 1981, the DP afternoon temperature differential is about 6 to 15øC between the two months. Thus, although the air mass was generally colder by about 5øC due to factors other than surface characteristics, it appears that the extended snow cover in January, 1979 further reduced the temperature of DP air masses by at least several degrees and by up to 11øC in the region where snow cover was absent in 1981. A comparison of air mass frequencies during the two months helps to distinguish them even further (Figure 9). The largest disparities between the months were in DM and MP frequencies. In January 1979, when snow cover was present over Kansas, Missouri, and northern Oklahoma, MP frequencies varied from about 33 percent in western Kansas to 50 percent in eastern Missouri. During January, 1981, when snow was largely absent from these regions, MP frequencies were generally below 15 percent. The "polar index" was 70 to 85 percent over much of this region in 1979 and was less than half of this in 1981. The preponderance of the MP air mass in 1979 apparently contributed to the abundant snow cover in the area. The frequency of DM air was considerably higher in January, 1981. Over 50 percent of the days in western Kansas were classified as DM in 1981, as compared to 0 percent in 1979. In fact, no DM air intruded north of a line from central Kansas to Ohio in January, 1979, which corresponds closely to the southern snow boundary during that month. The zonal flow which permits intrusion of DM air inhibits precipitation development, and the mild temperatures associated with the air mass are more likely to be associated with a rain event. It is interesting to note that the MT frequency was only slightly higher during the warmer month of January, 1981 in the central U.S., although further east the frequency of MT air was considerably greater in January, 1979. Potential Environmental Applications The SSC has been designed to develop an improved continental-scale air mass climatology. However, the primary driving force behind development is to facilitate synoptic climatological impacts analysis. Although site-specific air mass-based indices such as the TSI are useful for synoptic climatological environmental analysis at a given locale, they are generally not designed for inter-site comparative analyses. The SSC retains the ability to distinguish air masses across a large area successfully, and it is relatively simple from a computational standpoint. There are a number of problems which lend themselves well to SSC impacts analysis, and the ability of SSC to compare similar air masses across very large areas allows for a detailed determination of interregional responses. Among the most intriguing applications is the evaluation of climate-health relationships, and the potential development of weather/health "watch-warning systems". Two of the significant assets of synoptic analysis in climate/health research are (1) the identification of those synoptic situations which are associated with deteriorating health, and (2) the ability to distinguish climate impacts from those of other environmental factors, such as air pollution (Kalkstein, 1991). For example, the SSC has recently been applied to an analysis of weather-related mortality across the United States (Kalkstein, et al., in press). Results showed that certain air masses at particular locations were highly correlated with increases in acute mortality, specifically during the summer months. That study also determined which air masses are associated with high concentrations of air pollutants, such as total suspended particulates and sulfates. With the availability of EPA-monitored air pollution data from numerous sites around the U.S. (the Aerometric Information Retrieval System, or AIRS, administered by the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards), the SSC will permit continental-scale analyses of air masses which are responsible for high concentrations of pollutants. A more detailed separation of the effects of pollutants and weather using the SSC is currently underway. A number of agencies, such as NOAA, EPA, and city Public Health Departments are emphasizing the need for weather/health watch-warning systems, especially as they relate to human health or air pollution (Scheraga and Sussman, in press; Haines et al., 1993). The SSC has been designed for integration within a watch/warning system, since air mass type can be predicted for up to 72 hours in advance based on available weather forecasts. For example, if a certain air mass has the propensity to be associated with high daily mortality totals, a "health watch" could be issued if this air mass is forecast within the next day or two. Such a program was recently adopted by the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Department of Public Health. Since June 21, 1995, the operational weather forecasts from the National Meteorological Center and the local National Weather Service office in Philadelphia are being used to forecast the occurrence of air masses which are associated with elevated mortality. Plans are underway to expand this system to other locales, and a national EPA/NOAA weather/health watch-warning system, based on the SSC, is presently in the planning stages. Acknowledgements. We would like to thank participants in a Seminar in Climatology conducted in 1992, who helped in the initial design of the procedure. Thanks are also extended to Professor Robert E. Davis, University of Virginia, and Professor David Gay, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for their assistance and critical reviews of our procedure. Finally, special thanks are expressed to Professor Daniel Leathers, University of Delaware, for his significant input and suggestions. This research was funded under contracts from the Southern and Southeast Regional Climate Centers (SRCC/SERCC - R191723) and the NASA Global Change Fellowship Program (1776-GC-93-0133). Anderberg, M. R. 1973. Cluster Analysis for Applications. New York: Academic Press. Barnston, A. G., and R. E. Livezey 1987. 'Classification, seasonality and persistence of low-frequency atmospheric circulation patterns', Monthly Weather Review, 1083-1126. Barry, R. G., and A. H. Perry 1973. Synoptic Climatology Methods and Applications, Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, p. 555. Bergeron, T. 1930. 'Richtlinien einer dynamischen klimatologie', Met. Zeit., 47, 246-262. Brazel, A. J., F. B. Chambers, and L. S. Kalkstein 1992. 'Summer energy balance on west Gulkana glacier, Alaska, and linkages to a temporal synoptic index', Z. Geomorph. N.F., Suppl.Bd. 86, 15-34. Bryson, R. A. 1966. 'Air masses, streamlines and the Boreal forest', Geographical Bulletin, 8, 228-269. Christensen, W. I., Jr., and R. A. Bryson 1966. 'An investigation of the potential of component analysis for weather classification', Monthly Weather Review, 94(12), 697-709. .Crowe, P. R. 1971. Concepts in Climatology. St. Martin's Press, New York, p. 589. Davis, R. E., and L. S. Kalkstein 1990a. 'Using a spatial synoptic climatological classification to assess changes in atmospheric pollution concentrations', Physical Geography, 11(4), 320-342. Davis, R. E., and L. S. Kalkstein 1990b 'Development of an automated spatial synoptic climatological classification', International Journal of Climatology, 10, 769-794. Davis, R. E., and D. R. Walker 1992. 'An upper air synoptic climatology of the western United States', Journal of Climate, 5, 1449-1467. Davis, R. E. 1991. 'A synoptic climatological analysis of winter visibility trends in the mideastern United States', Atmospheric Environment, 25B, 165-175. Dilley, F. B. 1992. 'The statistical relationship between weather-type frequencies and corn (maize) yields in southwestern Pennsylvania, USA', Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 59, 149-164. Dunne, P. C. 1991. 'Determination of Climatic Change in the Canadian North American Arctic Using a Synoptic Climatological Approach', Masters Thesis, University of Delaware, p. 132. Fovell, R. G., and Mei-Ying C. Fovell 1993. 'Climate zones of the conterminous United States defined using cluster analysis', Journal of Climate, 6(11), 2103-2135. Gilbert, E. S. 1969. 'The effect of unequal variance-covariance matrices on Fisher's linear discriminant function', Biometrics, 25, 505-516. Haines, A., P. R. Epstein, A. J. McMichael, L. S. Kalkstein (on behalf of an international panel) 1993. 'Global health watch: Monitoring impacts of environmental change', The Lancet, 342, 1464-1469. James, M. 1985. Classification Algorithms, John Wiley and Sons, N.Y., p. 210. Kalkstein, L. S., and P. Corrigan 1986. 'A synoptic climatological approach for geographical analysis: Assessment of sulfur dioxide concentrations', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 76(3), 381-395. Kalkstein, L. S., G. Tan, and J. Skindlov 1987. 'An evaluation of objective clustering procedures for use in Synoptic climatological classification', Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, 26(6), 717-730. Kalkstein, L. S., P. Dunne, and R. Vose 1990. 'Detection of climatic change in the western North American Arctic using a synoptic climatological approach', Journal of Climate, 3(10), 1153-1167. Kalkstein, L. S. 1991. 'A new approach to evaluate the impact of climate on human mortality', Environmental Health Perspectives, 96, 145-150. Kalkstein, L. S., P. Dunne, and H. Ye 1993. 'Climate change in the Arctic: The role of topographically-enhanced inversions: Response to Burn', Journal of Climate, 6(7), 1476-1478. Kalkstein, L. S. 1993. 'Health and climate change - direct impacts in cities', The Lancet, 342, 1397-1399. Kalkstein, L. S., C. D. Barthel, H. Ye, K. S. Smoyer, S. Cheng, J. S. Greene, and M. C. Nichols, 'The impacts of weather and pollution on human mortality', EPA Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Climate Change Division, Document #EPA 230-R-94-019, 145 pp (in press). Klecka, W. R. 1980. Discriminant Analysis. Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, Beverly Hills and London: Sage Pubs. p. 71. Kirchhofer, W. 1974. 'Classification of european 500 mb patterns', Schweizerische Meteorologische Anstalt, Institut Suisse de Meteorologie, Zurich, 43, 1-16. Lachenbruch, P. A. 1975: Discriminant Analysis, Hafner Press, New York, 128 pp. Leathers, D. J., and D. A. Robinson 1993. 'The association between extremes in North American snow cover extent and United States temperatures', Journal of Climate, 6(7), 1345-1355. Lund, I. A. 1963. 'Map-pattern classification by statistical methods', Journal of Applied Meteorology, 2, 56-65. Marks, S., and J. O. Dunn 1974. 'Discriminant function when covariance matrices are unequal', Journal of the American Statistical Association, 69, 555-559. McCabe, G. J., L. E. Hay, L. S. Kalkstein, M. A. Ayers, and D. M. Wolock 1989. 'Simulation of precipitation by weather-type analysis', Hydraulic Engineering '89 Proceedings National Conf. on Hydraulic Engineering/HY Div/ASCE), New Orleans, LA, 679-684. Miller, R. G. 1962. 'Statistical prediction by discriminant analysis'. Meteorol. Mono., 4, 54 pp. Muller, R. A. 1977. 'A synoptic climatology for environmental baseline analysis: New Orleans', Journal of Applied Meteorology, 16, 20-33. Namias, J. 1963. 'Surface-Atmosphere Interactions as Fundamental Causes of Drought and Other Climatic Fluctuations', Arid Zone Research XX, Changes of Climate, Proceedings of Rome Symposium, UNESCO and WMO, 345-359. Robinson, D. A., and M. G. Hughes 1991. 'Snow cover variability on the northern and central Great Plains', Great Plains Research, A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, 1(1), 93-113. Romesberg, H. C. 1984. Cluster Analysis for Researchers. Lifetime Learning Publications, Belmont, California, p. 334. Scheraga, J. S., and F. Sussman. 'Preliminary assessment of the benefits to the U.S. of avoiding, or adapting to climate change', Washington, DC: EPA Climate Change Division (in press). Schwartz, M. D. 1991. 'An integrated approach to air mass classification in the north central United States', The Professional Geographer, 43(1), 77-91. Schwartz, M. D., and G. A. Marotz 1986. 'An approach to examining regional atmosphere-plant interactions with phenological data', Journal of Biogeography, 13, 551-560. Schwartz, M. D., and B. R. Skeeter 1994. 'Linking air mass analysis to daily and monthly mid-tropospheric flow patterns', International Journal of Climatology, 14, 439-464. Schwartz, M. D. 1995. 'Detecting structual climate change: an air mass-based approach in the North Central United States, 1958-1992, Annals, Association of American Geographers, 85, 553-568. Sokal, R. R., and C. D. Michener 1958. 'A statistical method for evaluating systematic relationships', The University of Kansas Science Bulletin, 38, 1409-1438. Ye, H., D. J. Leathers, and L. S. Kalkstein 1994. 'Classification of upper level circulation patterns in the polar region and their relationship to surface air temperature', Middle States Geographer, 26, 1-6. FIGURE CAPTIONS Figure 1. Procedure to select seed days. Figure 2. Steps in the development of the SSC. Figure 3. Air mass frequencies (percent for 1961-90). a. dry polar; b. moist polar; c. dry temperate; d. moist temperate; e. dry tropical; f. moist tropical. Dots indicate all stations where a particular air mass was detected during the study period. Figure 4. a. polar index frequencies; b. transition frequencies. Figure 5. Mean 1500 LST temperatures (øC) for selected air masses. a. dry polar; b. moist tropical; c. dry temperate. Figure 6. Mean 1500 LST dew points (øC) for selected air masses. a. dry polar; b. moist Figure 7. Mean diurnal temperature ranges (øC) for the air masses. a. dry polar; b. moist polar; c. dry temperate; d. moist temperate; e. moist tropical. Figure 8. Mean 1500 LST dry polar temperatures (øC) for: a. January, 1979; b. January, 1981; c. temperature difference between the two months (1981 minus 1979). Shaded areas represent grid cells covered by snow for over two weeks during the month. For map c, shaded area represents region covered with snow during January, 1979 but free of snow during January, 1981. Figure 9. Frequencies of selected air masses (percent) during January, 1979 and January, 1981. January, 1979 moist polar; b. January, 1981 moist polar; c. January, 1979 polar index; d. January, 1981 polar index; e. January, 1979 moist tropical; f. January, 1981 moist tropical. Copyright © University of Delaware, 2003 December. Synoptic Climatology Lab Comments, suggestions, or questions may be sent here.

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Recommended Acupuncture and other Health Care & Health Sciences Practitioners Information Links McMaster University – Faculty of Health Sciences Together, Advancing Health Through Learning and Discovery McMaster University – Health Sciences Library Borrowing & Circulation, Reference & Research Support, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery, Library Computer Services (Laptop Lending, LibAccess, MacConnect) and more. McMaster University – Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine The School of Medicine, established in 1965 and renamed the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in 2004, offers major programs in undergraduate, postgraduate and graduate medical education. McMaster University – Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine Admissions McMaster University has always been an innovator in the field of medical education. The Multiple Mini-Interview, or MMI, is one example of how McMaster has approached an accepted process, like the traditional interview and revolutionalized it. For more info., contact Dr. Kien Trinh, Chair, Multiple Mini-Interviews, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. McMaster University – E-mail System UnivMail Server Acupuncture Council of Ontario (ACO) The Acupuncture Council of Ontario (ACO) is for primary contact regulated health professionals who have obtained certification to practice needle acupuncture. Its mission is to promote improved standards of education, practice, and research in the art and science of acupuncture. The American Medical Association helps doctors help patients by uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional and public health issues. British Medical Acupuncture Society The British Medical Acupuncture Society is a registered charity established to encourage the use and scientific understanding of acupuncture within medicine for the public benefit. The objectives of this organization is to promote the integration of research findings into clinical acupuncture practice, disseminate evidence-based findings to acupuncture practitioners to improve treatment outcomes for our patients and be involved in research of acupuncture therapy. Graduates of the McMaster Medical Acupuncture Program: EBA may join at the level of a certificant or fellow depending on training. Continuing education is required to maintain membership. The Canadian Chiropractic Association is a national, voluntary organization representing Canada’s licensed chiropractors. The CCA is committed to enhancing the health of Canadians by supporting clinical excellence, chiropractic research and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Canadian Physiotherapy Association The Canadian Physiotherapy Association provides leadership and direction to the physiotherapy profession, fosters excellence in practice, education and research and promotes high standards of health in Canada. College of Chiropractors of Ontario The College of Chiropractors of Ontario (CCO) is the governing body established by the provincial government to regulate chiropractors in Ontario. Every chiropractor practising in Ontario must be a registered member of the College. The College of Family Physicians of Canada is a national voluntary organization of family physicians that makes continuing medical education of its members mandatory. College of Massage Therapists of Ontario The College of Massage Therapists of Ontario is dedicated to excellence in protecting the public, serving its members, and promoting the highest possible quality of the practice of massage therapy in a safe and ethical manner. Please see this important bulletin: Important Information for Massage Therapists who provide Acupuncture within the Scope of Practice of Massage Therapy College of Physiotherapist of OntarioThe College of Physiotherapists of Ontario is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to regulating the practice of physiotherapists in the public interest. An organization of medical specialists dedicated to ensuring the highest standards and quality of health care for Canadians. The Canadian Cochrane Centre The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre is one of 12 independent, not-for-profit Cochrane Centres worldwide. Over 1 000 people in Canada are Cochrane members who contribute to systematic reviews of treatments used in health care. The Cochrane Collaboration The world’s leading international not-for-profit and independent organization, dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide. McMaster University Health Sciences Acupuncture Program Chair, Dr. Kien Trinh, is a Review Author for the Cochrane Collaboration. U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. Helping to lead the way toward important medical discoveries that improve people’s health and save lives, NIH scientists investigate ways to prevent disease as well as the causes, treatments, and even cures for common and rare diseases. Composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, the NIH provides leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world. Worker Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) promotes workplace health and safety, and provides a workers compensation system for the employers and workers of Ontario. British Medical Journal (BMJ) The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association. Health Behavior News Service Resource for the news media and public to find the best and most recent evidence-based scientific research to help people make decisions about their health and health care. News from well-regarded sources such as JAMA, BMJ, Lancet, BMA, plus original articles sourced and written by our own team, dedicated to providing up-to-the-minute health news.

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Interview in the Hungarian JOY Magazine November 2016 issue "I loved magic when I was a kid" Guaranteed, that the Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne has no need for introduction, and with his next film he will charm the Harry Potter generation completely. The actor gave an exclusive interview to our editor. I was waiting in an elegant luxury hotel, while my thoughts were racing in my mind about what will it be like to meet Eddie Redmayne. I don't deny, I'm very excited about the interview, because you cannot meet an Oscar-winner actor every day. I still remember the moment, when I noticed the then twenty-something actor in the Tess of the D'Urbervilles miniseries. I loved his accent and he had something plus as an actor as well and I wanted to see him again in more films. After Les Miserables I had no doubt he will be very successful - and he has. He won the Oscar for The Theory of Everything, and with The Danish Girl he proved, that there's no such role he's not perfect in. Surely he will blew our mind again from 17th November: he brings Newt Scamander to the big screen in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I'm also a member of the Harry Potter generation, so I can't wait to ask him a series of questions about his new role. And Eddie arrives with a big smile on his face, he apologises for being two-minute late, though he's really someone who's worth waiting for, "A walk on the banks of theThames always feels good"... JOY: First, tell me please: were you a big fan of the Harry Potter world earlier too? Eddie Redmayne: Yes! Me and my younger brother really loved the books, and later we particularly loved to watch the movies together too. JOY: What was your favorite Harry Potter film? E.R.: It's a difficult question, but I think the last one, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2. The film's mood and the huge amount of work was palpable on the big screen, and Daniel Radcliffe was also very good in it. JOY: If I know right, you were the fan of magic already as a child. E.R.: Of course, I think every child loves magic, this was the same with me. I had a few little tricks and my little brother proved to be a perfect audience. There's a very good little magic shop in central London, at the Charing Cross metro station, the Davenports - it's atmosphere is absolutely Harry Potter like - I went there to purchase my magic props. This is a professional shop, I could feel I'm a real wizard, I loved it! JOY: After such strong films like The Danish Girl and The Theory of Everything, what it feels like to prove yourself in fantasy, a completely different world? E.R.: Meeting David Yates, the director was super chilling, in the best sense of the term of course. We got into a bar in Soho, where he practically outlined the whole story. It was particularly interesting, so I became very excited, because I knew immadiately, that this film had many opportunities. JOY: And what was it like to work with Colin Farrell? E.R.: Amazing! He's a great actor. When we went to Comic-Con (San Diego Comic-Con International is a multi-genre entertainment and comic convention) to promote the film, he also was a great help to me. There was a huge crowd waiting for us, and we should have to go on stage. I became very nervous and just wanted to go home. (laugh) Then Colin stood behind me and he started to massage my shoulders, like a boxer before the match, and he said: go for it, you can do it! JOY: What was your worst fan experience so far? E.R.: We were in the middle of nowhere in Florence one minute after I proposed to my wife, and then two tourists appeared and they said:"Oh My God! Can we take a selfie?" And I just thought to myself, please, not now, this is the big moment of my life. So somewhere there's a selfie taken moments after our engagement. (laugh) (My post about the engagement weekend - I wonder if Eddie talked about the first pic?) JOY: How much pressure do you feel because of the film? Obviously the Harry Potter fans have huge expectations for the film and characters... E.R.: I felt the pressure of each movie I made so far. Let's see The Theory of Everything, when Stephen Hawking came to see the film, or The Danish Girl, where Lily had an extraordinary character. She was an icon. I had to portray her a way that is not too much, yet depicts her life. Every film is challenging, so I always feel the responsibility. JOY: What was it like to work with the creator of the Harry Potter World, J. K. Rowling? E.R.: Very good! She treats the characters with such determination and passion, it's fun to watch. She's completely dedicated to her job and to the world she created. When we first met, before we started filming, I was very excited, I had hundreds of questions, and I wanted to ask her right away. JOY: And what was the best part of the filming? E.R.: The best part was, that I could work with such great guys like Dan (Dan Fogler) and Alison (Alison Sudol) They were genius, but we can say this about the whole crew. JOY: Could you keep any little props, relics from the set? E.R.: Sadly, no. Though I would have loved to, but due to Comic-Con we had to give everything for the sake of the fans. JOY: What music do you listen to? E.R.: I'm a true omnivore, but pop music is closest to my heart. And worst of all, I love to sing, but hardly ever remember the lyrics properly - this is a real ordeal of my marriage. (laugh) JOY: And James corden, the creator of Carpool Karaoke have contacted you already? E.R.: Oh, of course! (laugh) I know James for a long time. As adolescents we went to stage school together. But to be honest, I don't feel ready for the task. JOY: You work a lot. What is the perfect day off for you? E.R.: Oh, a perfect day off... (big sigh) I start it on the market, then I would go for a big walk along the Thames, then I'd go to the National Theatre and finnaly to the teeming Soho. I love London, and a walk on the banks of theThames always feels good. JOY: I think after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them it will be harder for you to move around London. E.R.: I don't care about this just now, I only wish the film to be successful, as much as it was a great pleasure to make it. Spectacular scenes and crazy adventures are waiting for you at the cinema from 17th November. (x) (my translation of the Hungarian article by Dalma Tarapcsák Editor of @joymagazin Posted by Jutka at 9:21 AM Labels: Fantastic Beasts, interview

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8,000 students on wait lists at De Anza MOST POPULAR: Video, stories and more SIGN-UP: Get breaking news sent to you from ABC7 Monday was the first day of classes at De Anza College in Cupertino and there are 8,000 students there on the waiting list for classes. According to the president of De Anza, they now have twice as many students on that waiting list than they did last year. Students may have gotten into one or two classes, but they did not get all their choices, so that means many do not have a full load "Five classes total and I have gone to only one and that's not even the important one," student Fatima Nguien said. Signs were posted reminding students the cuts in funding are the reason for this year's problems. "We had to cut 100 sections out of our course offerings, that's about a 5 percent in our course offerings and yet despite that cut we have the same number of students this year," De Anza College President Brian Murphy said. The classes are packed. Students are sitting on the floor where there are not enough desks. "I spent like an hour looking for parking; I have one class right now and I can't find some units and I need to be a full-time student," student Patrick Abogado said. Only full-time students get financial aid; others need a full load to remain on their parent's health insurance plan. Other community colleges are also experiencing this kind of demand as families are priced out of four-year universities and people who recently lost their jobs are coming back to school. "I wanted to get into a career where I wouldn't be laid off," student Sabrina Culberson said. Culberson is now majoring in health services. Even online classes are not an option this time. "If I am teaching an internet class with 40 students, I can't suddenly increase it to 80, I still have to grade the papers, I still have to give the assignment and I still have to have all the online interaction that students expect," one instructor said. Every year enrollment at community colleges goes up. Last year, nearly 3 million students attended one of California's 110 community colleges -- the highest enrollment figure in the history of the system. Today's latest headlines | ABC7 News on your phone Follow us on Twitter | Fan us on Facebook | Get our free widget

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Gov. Brown talks income inequality, climate change at SF conference "They're both big problems," Brown said. "It's going to take a long period of counterforce action against the status quo." He said, "Capital is moving up to fewer and fewer, and it's disrupting all of our institutions" since many people in the lower and middle classes "are seeing their purchasing power going down." He also said action needs to be taken immediately on climate change because "if we don't do something, it's going to get out of hand and we won't be able to stop it." Brown encouraged the crowd of nurses, mostly clad in their union's red shirts, to help move that agenda forward in the country's more conservative-leaning areas. "Can you red shirts move the red states?" he asked. The union planned a noon rally and march across the Golden Gate Bridge today to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from tar sands in Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. National Nurses United spokesman Charles Idelson said nurses are concerned about the pipeline and the "health consequences of climate change." Idelson said the extraction of oil from the tar sands, its transport across the U.S. and eventual refining in the Gulf would harm people's health in ways that nurses would have to treat. He said the union would like to see the government invest in a green economy, which he said would create more jobs than one based on fossil fuels. Idelson said buses were taking union members from Thursday's conference to the Golden Gate Bridge, where a noon rally was scheduled, followed by a 12:30 p.m. march across the bridge.

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EERE » AFDC » Fuels & Vehicles » Natural Gas Natural Gas Basics Benefits & Considerations Natural Gas Laws and Incentives in Virginia The list below contains summaries of all Virginia laws and incentives related to natural gas. Alternative Fuel Provider License Alternative fuel providers, bulk users, and retailers, or any person who fuels an alternative fuel vehicle from a private source that does not pay the alternative fuels tax must obtain an alternative fuel license from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). For more information, see the DMV Fuels Tax Licensing website. (Reference Virginia Code 58.1-2244) Alternative Fuel School Bus Regulations The Virginia Board of Education may not unreasonably limit the authority of any local school division to purchase and use school buses powered by or converted to compressed natural gas or other alternative fuels. The Virginia Board of Education may provide for the display of signs or other markings on school buses using alternative fuels to identify the vehicle as an alternative fuel vehicle and indicate the type of alternative fuel used. (Reference Virginia Code 22.1-177 and 46.2-1089.1) Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Tax Reduction Authorization Local governments may reduce personal property taxes paid on AFVs. AFVs include vehicles that operate using natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas or propane, hydrogen, or electricity, including low-speed vehicles. (Reference Virginia Code 58.1-3506) Alternative Fuel and Vehicle Tax Alternative fuels used to operate on-road vehicles are taxed at a rate of $0.162 per gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE). Alternative fuels are taxed at the same rate as gasoline and gasohol (5.1% of the statewide average wholesale price of a gallon of self-serve unleaded regular gasoline). Refer to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Fuels Tax Rates and Alternative Fuels Conversion website for fuel-specific GGE calculations. All-electric vehicles (EVs) registered in Virginia are subject to a $64.00 annual license tax at time of registration. For more information, see the Virginia DMV Electric Vehicles website. (Reference Virginia Code 58.1-2217 and 58.1-2249) Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Deregulation The Virginia State Corporation Commission may refrain from regulating and setting rates, charges, and fees for retail CNG service provided by corporations other than public service corporations. (Reference Virginia Code 56-232.2) Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) Technician Certification The Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) administers a program to certify NGV mechanics and technicians. For application and certification information, see the DPOR Natural Gas Automobile Mechanics and Technicians Advisory Board website. (Reference Virginia Code 54.1-2355 through 54.1-2358 and Virginia Administrative Code 18-120-50) State Energy Plan The Virginia Energy Plan (Plan) assesses the commonwealth's primary energy sources and recommends actions to meet the following goals: make Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast by expanding traditional and alternative energy production, jobs, and investment, and increasing energy conservation and efficiency; expand public education about Virginia's energy production and consumption, its effect on the economy, and methods to increase energy efficiency; assess the impact of federal clean air standards; and maximize investment in clean energy research and development. The Plan includes policies to promote alternative fuel and efficient vehicle use, encourage efficient driving techniques, and reduce vehicle miles traveled. The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy must submit the Plan to the governor, the State Corporation Commission, and the General Assembly by October 1 of each year following the election of a new governor. For more information, see the Virginia Energy Plan website. (Reference Virginia Code 67-101 and 67-102) Alternative Fuel School Bus and Fueling Infrastructure Loans The Virginia Board of Education may use funding from the Literary Fund to provide loans to school boards that convert school buses to operate on alternative fuels or construct alternative fueling stations. (Reference Virginia Code 22.1-146) Alternative Fuel Tax Exemption Alternative fuel is exempt from taxes if it is sold to a government entity for its exclusive use, sold to a non-profit charitable organization for the purpose of providing charitable services for low-income medical patients, or produced by an agricultural operator and used exclusively for farm use or vehicles of that operator. (Reference Virginia Code 58.1-2250) Alternative Fuel and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Emissions Testing Exemption Vehicles powered exclusively by natural gas, propane, hydrogen, a combination of compressed natural gas and hydrogen, or electricity are exempt from the Virginia emissions inspection program. Qualified HEVs with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fuel economy ratings of at least 50 miles per gallon (city) are also exempt from the emissions inspection program unless remote sensing devices indicate the HEV may not meet current emissions standards. For more information, including a list of HEVs that qualify, see the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Emissions Inspections website. (Reference Virginia Code 46.2-1177 through 46.2-1178) Government Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Incentive The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Transportation, offers up to $10,000 to state agencies and local governments for the incremental cost of new or converted AFVs. To be eligible, vehicles must comply with Buy America provisions or qualify for a waiver from the Federal Highway Administration, and must be garaged in areas of air quality nonattainment, as recognized by the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program. Funding is currently on hold for this program (verified February 2019). For more information, see the Virginia CMAQ Incentive Program website. Robin Jones Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy robin.jones@dmme.virginia.gov Green Jobs Tax Credit Qualified employers are eligible for a $500 tax credit for each new green job created that offers a salary of at least $50,000, for up to 350 jobs per employer. The credit is allowed for the first five years that the job is continuously filled. For the purposes of this tax credit, a green job is defined as employment in industries relating to renewable or alternative energy, including hydrogen and fuel cell technology, landfill gas, and biofuels. The tax credit expires on January 1, 2021. For more information, see the Virginia Department of Taxation website. (Reference Virginia Code 58.1-439.12:05) High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane Exemption Alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) displaying the Virginia Clean Special Fuel license plate may use Virginia HOV lanes on specified areas of I-64, I-264, the Dulles Toll Road, and in the City of Alexandria, regardless of the number of occupants. For HOV lanes serving the I-66 corridor, only registered vehicles displaying Clean Special Fuel license plates issued before July 1, 2011, are exempt from HOV lane requirements. Eligible vehicles include dedicated AFVs; see the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles website for a complete list of qualifying vehicles. The annual fee for Clean Special Fuel license plates is $25 in addition to the prescribed fee for commonwealth license plates. This exemption expires September 30, 2025. For more information, see the Virginia Department of Transportation HOV Lanes website. (Reference Virginia Code 33.2-501 and 46.2-749.3) Idle Reduction and Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) Weight Exemption Any motor vehicle equipped with an auxiliary power unit or other idle reduction technology may exceed the gross, single axle, tandem axle, or bridge formula weight limits by up to 550 pounds (lbs.) to compensate for the added weight of the idle reduction technology. Furthermore, any NGV may exceed the limits by up to 2,000 lbs. To be eligible for the weight exemption, the vehicle operator must be able to provide written proof idle reduction technology weight and demonstrate or certify that it is fully functional at all times. (Reference Virginia Code 46.2-1129.1 and 46.2-1129.2) select a state Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Federal More Laws and Incentives To find laws and incentives for other alternative fuels and advanced vehicles, search all laws and incentives.

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August 11, 2019 August 11, 2019 alasdairstuart Mib 123 (4): Men in Black International After a close encounter changes her life for ever, Molly Wright dedicates herself to discovering the truth not just about aliens but the Men in Black. It takes her twenty three years but she finds them, finds proof. Impressed by the young woman’s drive, and perhaps desperate to change things up a bit, O offers her a job. Newly qualified, Agent M is seconded to London and gets herself assigned as H’s partner. H is a brilliant, heroic agent who…well…something is a little off about. And M is about to find out just what H’s problem is as it returns to Earth, bent on conquest… I genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw a movie that was so passively entertaining and that missed every single target it aimed for. MiB International is a great idea, almost the perfect legacy sequel and it spends it’s entire first half walking up to some fascinating and timely issues. The evolution of the MiB from a police force to a diplomatic organisation, the collision between their reality and our reality, the idea that a field agent can make a mistake. All of these things are massively fertile ground for an entire movie’s worth of plot. The script, by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, is to be commended for getting M inside the building as fast as it does but honestly not terribly much else. Her training is reduced down to a montage, there’s no indication of any change whatsoever in the New York office since we were last there a decade ago and J and K are conspicuous by their absence. Seriously, while it makes sense to hang the movie off a different agent, the total lack of discussion of New York’s heroes plays as more than a little odd. Why is there a painting of their battle with Edgar in the London office but not the New York one? Are they both still active service? Is it, as heavily implied, the case that Molly is the first woman the MiB have recruited in DECADES? All these issues are perfect for a script to explore. Here, they’re postcards we glimpse on our way to the next set piece. The same is true throughout. An intriguing conspiracy is quickly rendered down into a chase across the world to whichever location offered the best tax break. M gains a follower in Pawny, a minuscule alien warrior who is the only survivor of a massacre tied to their case. He’s voiced by Kumail Nanjani, he’s great and…he gets about six minutes of screen time, a worrying amount of which seems to have been added later and very little of which directly informs the plot. There’s a genuinely interesting sub plot involving C, the endlessly competent MiB London agent who is sick of H being covered for and is the notional bad guy for the first couple of acts. His disgust at H’s incompetence is really interesting and he’s played by Rafe Spall who has no idea how to do bad work. Of all the characters, he and M are the two that have an actual arc you can hang onto and like every other part of the movie that works there just isn’t enough of it. Likewise Rebecca Ferguson’s brief appearance as an alien arms dealer. It’s fun stuff but it feels like marking time rather than moving the story forward. That’s what you get, again and again. A movie that feels like it has good ideas trapped behind glass, a movie whose edges are blunted but that thinks they’re razor sharp. This is never truer than of H, played by Chris Hemsworth. Sometimes he’s a mostly-competent Bond analogue. Sometimes he’s a not especially competent MiB. He’s never quite Anything, especially the burnt out danger to himself and others we keep being told he is. A lot of the time people are angry at him for not being as good as he used to be. That would be both funny and plot driving if at any point he was allowed believable extremes of behavior. One of the first times we see this ‘burnout’ he dismantles a room full of alien criminals with ease. At another we see him suave his way into a nightclub and be greeted like a hero. It’s like the movie wants us to believe he’s off but doesn’t quite trust Hemsworth to play that. Which, after Endgame especially, just makes no sense. Worst of all, this is a movie that lacks every conviction to deal with it’s core issue; immigration. The previous films have gone out of their way to show the beauty and complexity of diverse cultures This one throws some effects into a white room at Elstree and waits for applause. There’s no sense of nuance, no exploration beyond the surface of these vital, timely issues. Like the MiB it depicts, this is a film adrift, content to do whatever’s in front of it until it’s time to come home. This is a series that opens with a very unusual border crossing incident. It’s a series where an entire movie is powered by the past’s inability to take a black man seriously as an authority figure. It’s a series which embraces wonder and horror in equal portion, rendering them down into monochromatic cultural armor. It’s a series most of all, that deserves much, much better than this movie. Check out Simon Brews’ excellent Film Stories for a look at just what went wrong. MiB123(4) Previous The Walking Dead 193 Next Mib 123 (4): Men in Black 3

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5 Reasons Maria Mitchell Was A Total Bad Ass By Julia Day "We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry.” - Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell was America’s first recognized female astronomer Source: Canada.com Maria Mitchell is best known for her discovery of “Miss Mitchell’s Comet” in 1847. She was twenty-nine at the time, but that wasn’t her first contribution to the astronomical community. When we were learning one-variable equations, Maria Mitchell was calculating the exact times that an annular eclipse would occur. Source: Blogspot At age twelve—when most of us are just cracking open our pre-algebra textbooks—Mitchell helped her father calculate the exact time of the annular eclipse, and she would later invent an apparatus used to photograph the sun. One of the reasons Mitchell, unlike many of her female contemporaries, was able to pursue her academic and scientific interests was due to her family’s Quaker faith. Quakers believe in intellectual equality between the sexes, therefore she received the same level of education as her brothers. She was a feminist before it was cool Not only was Mitchell raised Quaker, but she was also brought up on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The island’s main industry in the 19th century was whaling, and men would often spend months or years away at sea. Out of sheer necessity, women were given the right to vote and own property long before their sisters on the mainland. PicrylNantucket Island This put Mitchell in a uniquely powerful social position, and doubtless encouraged her to fight for women’s rights and universal suffrage. As a seventeen-year-old Mitchell founded a school for girls, and later she founded the American Association for the Advancement of Women with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Mitchell acted as president of the association from 1874 until 1876. She also believed in equal pay for equal work before the term had even been coined. When she discovered that her male colleagues at Vassar College were receiving higher salaries, Mitchell demanded, and was given, a raise. She only wore silk Mitchell refused to wear cotton as a protest against slavery. Instead, Mitchell dressed exclusively in silk. Additionally, while working at the Nantucket Atheneum, Mitchell invited Frederick Douglass–famed abolitionist, orator, statesman, and author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave to speak. Frederick Douglass Source: Wikimedia On August 11th, 1841 Douglass delivered his first of many speeches before a large, public, integrated audience at the Nantucket Atheneum. She inspired not one, but two American literary giants Mitchell was a pen pal of Herman Melville, author of the classic novel, Moby Dick. Melville relied on Mitchell when it came time to describe Nantucket, the setting that served as the backbone of his famous novel, Moby Dick. Source: Great What’s It When the book was first published Melville had never set foot on Nantucket, where parts of the story take place. Through written correspondence, Mitchell allegedly provided Melville with many of the details he included in the novel. Years later, Melville would use Mitchell as his inspiration for the character, Urania, in his poem, “After the Pleasure Party.” Urania is an astronomer torn between her love for science and her love for a man she met along the Mediterranean. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Maria Mitchell spent part of the year 1858 traveling through Italy with Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter and the man to whom Melville chose to dedicate Moby Dick. Hawthorne would later allude to Mitchell in his novel, The Marble Faun. Nathaniel Hawthorne Source: WordPress In a journal entry written during her travels, Mitchell describes Hawthorne as “not handsome, but he looks as the author of his works should look; a little strange and odd, as if not quite of the earth.” Although rumors of a relationship between Mitchell and Hawthorne circulated, they have never been substantiated. Maria Mitchell once saved a church from a fire As The Great Fire of 1846 raged through the streets of Nantucket and burned one-third of it, the townspeople decided that they would blow up the Methodist church in order to stop the fire from spreading. They filled the building with kegs of gunpowder and prepared to light them. Were it not for Mitchell’s scientific savvy, Nantucket’s Methodist church would have been one of the many buildings lost in the 1846 fire. Source: Yesterday’s Island According to local legend, Maria Mitchell, whose sharp scientific background helped her sense a change in wind direction, stood on the steps of the church and claimed that if they blew up the church they’d have to blow her up, too. She was correct, and the wind did shift. The church was saved and Mitchell was considered to be a heroine. Julia Day Julia Day is a New York based writer and illustrator. She attended Colby College where she studied 17th Century Poetry, Environmental Science, and Philosophy. 100-Year Old Photos Reveal The Dark Side Of Antarctic Exploration What We Love This Week, Volume LXXI

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HomeArchiveAre You a Mind-Controlled CIA Stooge? Are You a Mind-Controlled CIA Stooge? September 2, 2016 AFP Editor Archive 5 Do you smirk when you hear someone question the official stories of San Bernardino, Paris, or Nice? Do you feel superior to 2,500 architects and engineers, commercial and military pilots, physicists and chemists, and former high government officials who raise doubts about 9-11? If so, you reflect the profile of a mind-controlled CIA stooge. By Paul Craig Roberts The term “conspiracy theory” was invented and put into public discourse by the CIA in 1964 in order to discredit the many skeptics who challenged the Warren Commission’s conclusion that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was assassinated while in police custody before he could be questioned. The CIA used its friends in the media to launch a campaign to make suspicion of the Warren Commission report a target of ridicule and hostility. This campaign was “one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.” So writes political science professor Lance deHaven-Smith, who in his peer-reviewed book, Conspiracy Theory in America, published by the University of Texas Press, tells the story of how the CIA succeeded in creating in the public mind reflexive, automatic, stigmatization of those who challenge government explanations. This is an extremely important and readable book, one of those rare books with the power to break you out of the Matrix. DeHaven-Smith is able to write this book because the original CIA Dispatch #1035-960, which sets out the CIA plot, was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Apparently, the bureaucracy did not regard a document this old as being of any importance. The document is marked “Destroy when no longer needed,” but somehow wasn’t. CIA Dispatch #1035-960 is reproduced in the book. The success that the CIA has had in stigmatizing skepticism of government explanations has made it difficult to investigate state crimes against democracy (SCAD) such as 9-11. With the public mind programmed to ridicule “conspiracy kooks,” even in the case of suspicious events such as 9-11 the government can destroy evidence, ignore prescribed procedures, delay an investigation, and then form a political committee to put its imprimatur on the official story. DeHaven-Smith notes that in such events as Kennedy’s assassination and 9-11 official police and prosecutorial investigations are never employed. The event is handed off to a political commission. DeHaven-Smith’s book supports what I have told my readers: the government controls the story from the beginning by having the official explanation ready the moment a SCAD occurs. This makes any other explanation a “conspiracy theory.” This is the way deHaven-Smith puts it: “A SCAD approach to memes assumes further that the CIA and other possibly participating agencies are formulating memes well in advance of operations, and therefore SCAD memes appear and are popularized very quickly before any competing concepts are on the scene.” The CIA’s success in controlling public perception of what our founding fathers would have regarded as suspicious events involving the government enables those in power positions within government to orchestrate events that serve hidden agendas. The events of Sept. 11 created the new paradigm of endless war in behalf of a Washington-dominated world. The CIA’s success in controlling public perceptions has made it impossible to investigate elite political crimes. Consequently, it is now possible for treason to be official U.S. government policy. DeHaven-Smith’s book will tell you the story of the assassination of President Kennedy by elements of the U.S. military, CIA, and Secret Service. Just as the Warren Commission covered up SCAD, deHaven-Smith shows why we should doubt the official 9-11 story. And anything else that the government tells us. Read this book. It is short. It is affordable. It is reality preparation. It will inoculate you against being a dumbshit, insouciant, brainwashed American. I am surprised that the CIA has not purchased the entire print run and burned the books. Perhaps the CIA feels secure from its success in brainwashing the public and does not believe that American democracy and accountable government can be restored. Paul Craig Roberts was assistant secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of The Wall Street Journal. He was columnist forBusinessWeek, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are How AMERICA Was LOST: From 9/11 to the Police/Warfare State and The NEOCONSERVATIVE THREAT to WORLD ORDER: Washington’s Perilous War for Hegemony. 4 Comments on Are You a Mind-Controlled CIA Stooge? tenzeroone September 14, 2016 at 11:27 2antipsychiatry “Psychiatry is a fraud … Can you write articles against psychiatry?” Hypnosis and everything related is still taboo to speak in open. I also can provide with lots of very deep and related materials, will answer to another comments. p.s. my name not police code, they don’t even have it here antipsychiatry September 11, 2016 at 08:44 Psychiatry is a fraud and MUST be abolished!!!!!!!! Can you write articles against psychiatry??????? I wait u answer on my emails, pls. Rebecca September 6, 2016 at 01:11 1) Why isn’t American Free Press distributed everywhere? Can’t you find a donor? Imagine what good would come out of it! 2) Pray the following prayer: Mary, Refuge of Holy Love, Pray for us, and, Mary, Protectress of the Faith, Come to my aid. She will protect you in these perilous times. For hope, healing, and true stories of the greatest healing miracles of our time, go to http://www.holylove.org 3) I hope American Free Press has excellent website security. 4) Come on everyone, there is not much time left before the election! Spread the truth like wildfire and pray very hard for this country! This month and the next are the most critical in our history! Everyone can spread the truth and pray to God! Even if you are an agnostic, what have you got to lose… except your country… if you don’t? Err on the side of faith, because it’s now or never for real Americans! I pray for all Americans, that we feel the hope in our hearts that our noble beginnings will remind us that we have what it takes to get to our noble destiny, if we don’t give up now! GreatScott September 2, 2016 at 18:41 I completely agree with this conclusion that the CIA-NWO Government completely controls a Conspiracy from start to finish. Never mind that there was never an FBI investigation into 9-11, never mind that there was never an NTSB investigation, never mind that all of the evidence was carted away as fast as mechanically possible. APPAF Newsletter 09-03-2016 | APPAF

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University of Miami University Archives, 15 results 15 University of Miami Special Collections, 9 results 9 University of Miami. School of Music, 11 results 11 Drew, Lucas, 1 results 1 Frost Symphony Orchestra, 1 results 1 Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, 1 results 1 Reed, Alfred, 1921-2005, 1 results 1 Bauer, Harold, 1873-1951, 1 results 1 Paul Nagel, 1 results 1 Lee, William F., 1929-, 1 results 1 Bitter, John, 1909-, 1 results 1 Austin Weeks, Una, 1 results 1 Villa Lobos, Heitor, 1 results 1 University of Miami. Wind Ensemble, 1 results 1 Surinach, Carlos, 1 results 1 Kjelson, Lee, 1 results 1 Coconut Grove (Miami, Fla.) -- History, 1 results 1 Miami (Florida), 1 results 1 Music -- Manuscripts, 1 results 1 Music Scores, 1 results 1 Sheet Music, 8 results 8 Programs (documents), 4 results 4 Audiotapes, 1 results 1 University of Miami. School of Music Only top-level descriptions School of Music photograph collection The collection contains miscellaneous photographs of the University of Miami School of Music's buildings, people, and performances. University of Miami. School of Music Una Austin Weeks Collection Una Austin Week, whose maiden name was Una Austin, was a professional concert mezzo-soprano singer peformed in London, England in the 1910s. The collection contains professional portrait photographs, concert programs, and press clippings of her p... Austin Weeks, Una Frederic H. Ashe papers Frederic H. Ashe was the nephew of the first University of Miami President Bowman Foster Ashe. Frederic H. Ashe was a composer and student of the school of music at the University of Miami. The Frederic H. Ashe collection consists of sheet music w... Lucas Drew Collection of School of Music publications The Lucas Drew Collection contains a varied selection of programs, news clippings, schedules, brochures, newsletters, and other miscellaneous papers, mainly from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music Celebration scrapbook The Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music Celebration Scrapbook contains photographs, press clippings, and correspondence from the event held on October 30, 2003 at Maurice Gusman Concert Hall of the University of Miami. The scrapbook was do... Dr. John Bitter collection The Dr. John Bitter collection contains materials documenting Bitter's career as a conductor and composer. The collection includes sheet music for several compositions by Bitter, as well as publications about the Frost School of Music at the ... Bitter, John, 1909- Paul Nagel collection Paul Nagel was a professor at the School of Communication at the University of Miami, as well as a writer, producer, director, and actor in non-theatrical "sponsored films."The collection includes University of Miami radio tapes and vide... Harold Bauer papers The Harold Bauer Papers consist primarily of correspondence between the University of Miami School of Music and Bauer regarding his master piano classes. The letters are primarily between Bauer and Bertha Foster, Dean of the School of Music until ... Bauer, Harold, 1873-1951 School of Music oral history collection This collection consists of interviews with School of Music faculty members and others recorded on cassettes. It also includes miscellaneous videotapes and a CD of the 2003 groundbreaking and celebration ceremony for the new School of Music building. William F. Lee papers Dr. William F. Lee was Dean of the School of Music at the University of Miami. The William F. Lee papers consists manuscripts of sheet music by Dean Lee. Lee, William F., 1929- Carlos Surinach Collection The Carlos Surinach Collection contains a bound, autographed photocopy of the score to Symphonic Melismas by composer Carlos Surinach. Symphonic Melismas had its world premiere at the Festival Miami of 1993, sponsored by the University of Miami Sc... School of Music scrapbooks This scrapbook collection contains miscellaneous clippings, programs, and papers by and about the School of Music between 1925 and 1959. George Gershwin Festival scrapbooks The George Gershwin Festival was sponsored and presented by the University of Miami's School of Music on October 27, 28, and 29, 1970. The scrapbooks contain concert programs, promotional materials, press articles, correspondence, and photogr... Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library and Technology Center Dedication Ceremony photograph album This photograph album contains programs, photographs, and press clippings of the dedication ceremony which took place on January 30, 2005. The building is located on the Coral Gables campus.A DVD recording of the event was donated by J. William Hi... Sally and Joseph Handleman Institute of Recorded Sound Dedication Ceremony photograph album This album contains programs, invitation, photographs, and press coverage articles of the dedication ceremony which took place on March 26, 1970 at the University of Miami School of Music on the Coral Gables campus. Language of comercial music [faculty publication] The 32-page publication was written by Jim Progris who was a professor of the University of Miami's School of Music. The book contains over 400 terms that are used daily by persons in the music business.The Music Library holds two circulatin... Progris, Jim Twenty flam etudes for the snare drum [alumni publication] The 28-page book was written by Rex T. Hall and published in January 1959 by the Instrumental Music Center in Detroit, Michigan. The author is an alumnus (class of 1938) of the University of Miami. University of Miami Alumni Association Festival Miami Event Programs and Brochures The collection contains brochures and programs of the annual music event Festival Miami, which has been hosted by the University of Miami's Frost School of Music since 1984. The collection was donated by Dr. William Hipp, former Dean of the ... Arnold Volpe papers The Arnold Volpe Papers contains sheet music and scores composed by University of Miami professor Arnold Volpe. Lee Kjelson papers Dr. Lee Kjelson, a longtime Coral Gables resident, was director of choral activities at the University of Miami from 1967 until 1993, when he became professor emeritus. He also founded the Civic Chorale of Greater Miami in 1970, and served twice a...

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Posts Tagged ‘White Shirts’ Islam Uber Alles? :: Does Islam and Shariah Have More In Common With Nazi Ideology Than With Religion Islam Uber Alles? Does Islam and Shariah Have More In Common With Nazi Ideology Than With Religion? By Steven Simpson Monday, October 11, 2010 Since the atrocities committed on 9/11/01 by Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists in the name of Islam, people in the U.S. and West have debated whether Islam is “a religion of peace” or more of an all-encompassing totalitarian ideology cloaked in religious garb. Unfortunately, it appears that the Qur’an, Shariah, and the Islamic terrorist attacks of the last thirty years, indicate that Islam is indeed a totalitarian ideology engaged in an effort of world-wide conquest much like Nazism. The major difference being that Nazism was based on racial affiliation while Islam is based on religious affiliation. The word “Islam” – contrary to popular belief – means “submission” and not “peace.” When Islam was founded by Muhammad ibn Abdallah in the 7th century, it conquered the Arabian Peninsula through bloody wars and conquests against fellow Arabs, and Jewish tribes. After the consolidation of Islam in Arabia, the Arabs quickly moved out to conquer the Persian and Byzantine empires, as well as parts of India, and subsequently Spain. All was done under the sword or through discrimination. It was not done by peacefully proselytizing the indigenous populations. A Brief Overview of Shariah: The holy book of Islam – the Qur’an – contains laws and commandments for the believing Muslim. It is also a book that is replete with references to war, conquest, and the treatment of non-Muslims. From the Qur’an (primarily), and the Sunnah and Hadith (secondarily) came – amongst other principles – the exegesis (tafsir) and jurisprudence (fiqh) of how the laws, sayings, customs, and traditions of Muhammad were to be interpreted. Thus was born Shariah (meaning the “path”). Shariah is not a simple concept to explain (even by and for Muslims), but it can simply be equated with “Islamic law.” Shariah dictates every aspect of a Muslim’s life – both private and public. It is a total system that not only encompasses the individual, but how the government should rule as well. Islam is therefore a religio-political entity and ideally guided by a caliph (“successor”) to Muhammad. However, the Caliph came to be something of a “supreme leader” as both the head of government and the head of religion. In short, there is no separation of “mosque and state” in an ideal Islamic setting. While different schools of Shariah exist with various interpretations of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and Hadith, all see Islam and Muslims as superior to every other religion, and view non-Muslims as “dhimmi” (plural, “dhimma”) who are regarded as inferior to Muslims under Islamic law. It is the dhimma (namely Jews, Christians, and other monotheistic religions) who must pay the jizya and kharaj (poll and land taxes) because they do not recognize the Qur’an. They must also wear distinctive clothing (usually yellow for Jews, and blue for Christians.) The Nazi-Islamic Alliance: During the 1930’s Muslims of all different nationalities (most notably Arabs and Persians) were very sympathetic to Adolph Hitler and Nazism. The reverse was also true. Hitler and Heinrich Himmler only had respectful things to say of Islam, and Hitler himself had said that it would have been better if Germany had possessed the “Mohammedan religion” rather than the “meekness and flabbiness” of Christianity. At the same time, in the Arab world, Nazi-like movements began to spring up. There were the “Nazi Scouts” of Arab youth in British mandated Palestine (based on the Hitler Youth) the “Green Shirts” of Egypt, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Even the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt was influenced by the Nazis in its political ideology, and many fleeing Nazis were warmly welcomed in Arab countries after World War II. But Nazi ideology also had an effect in non-Arab Muslim countries, such as Iran. In 1935, Persia was renamed Iran (Land of the Aryans) and Reza Shah Pahlavi, the ruler of Persia/Iran had an open admiration for Hitler. There was also an Iranian Nazi party known as SUMKA with its own Nazi-like symbol. However, fears among the allies were so great that the British had Reza Shah deposed because of perceived German influence in Iran. Indeed, Churchill had at least on one occasion compared the Qur’an to Mein Kampf. It was during this period, that the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini sought out Adolph Hitler and other top Nazis in order to apply the Arab/Muslim “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” in the Middle East. Hitler and Himmler were very receptive, and with the help of the Mufti, Himmler raised two Muslim Waffen SS divisions; one from Bosnia (Handschar, meaning “scimitar”), and one from Albania. There were also lesser known Waffen SS divisions made up of Muslims from the Soviet Caucasus. Hitler promised Husseini that once the Germans penetrated through the Caucasus, the “hour of liberation” for the Arabs would come. How could devout Muslims ally themselves so willingly with a basically pagan, racist ideology like that of Nazism? The answer is simple. Nazism, like Islam, is driven by a dictatorial totalitarian system with a “leader principle” that divides the world into the “superior” and “inferior.” One can easily substitute the terms “Fuhrer, “Aryan,” “Ubermensch,” and “Untermensch,” for “Caliph,” “Muslim,” “dhimmi,” and “kafir”. And there is also the concept of “jihad” in Islam which divides the world into “dar al-Islam” (house of Islam, where Muslims rule) and “dar al harb” (house of war, where “infidels” rule). And like Islam, which seeks the total Islamization of the world, Nazism also sought the total domination of the “Aryan” over the “non-Aryan” and the total extermination of the Jews. As previously alluded to, the wearing of yellow clothing was a Muslim invention, not a Nazi one. And there is also a genocidal Hadith that exists from the 7th century which speaks of a final war between the Muslims and Jews, resulting in the latter’s total annihilation. This Hadith is quite openly spoken of in the Muslim world to this day, as is the boasting of Muhammad’s “ethnic cleansing” through murder and expulsion of the Jews living in Arabia. The Final Chapter? The Muslim attacks of 9/11 should have woken up America and the West to what Islam is – and isn’t. Instead, the masses received from world leaders nothing but platitudes and compliments for Islam which George W. Bush constantly referred to as a “religion of peace.” And, of course, the words “Islam” and “terrorism” could never be mentioned in the same sentence. Perhaps the real issue is not Shariah per se, but Islam and the Qur’an as a whole. While the world argues about “moderate” and “radical” Islam, fundamentalist Muslims plan the demise of the Western world and its Judeo-Christian concepts and values. Under the guise of “taqiyyah” (dissimulation), Muslims either seek the conversion of non-Muslims peacefully through “dawa” (the call), or more likely, through “jihad” (holy war). In the words of convicted failed Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, “Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun. Consider me only a first droplet of the blood that will follow me.” In the early 1930’s the free world made the mistake of dismissing Hitler’s words as mere threats and ravings. Will the West make the same mistake when continually confronted with Islamic terror? http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/28604 Tags:"palestine", 1921, 1929, 1939, 1941, 1943, Abdu al-Huda al-Yab, Abu Ali, Achcar, Adil Arslan, Adolf Hitler, Aflaq, Ahmed Hussein, al-Banna, al-futuwwa, al-Miqdadi, al-Muthanna, al-Muthanna Club, al-za'im, Albania, An-Nadi al-Arabi Club of Damascus, annihilation, anti semitism, Anton Saada, Arab anti-semitism, Arab Club, Arab High Committee, Arab Legion, Arab master race, Arab Nazi Parties, Arab Nazi Party, Arab nazis, Arab racism, Arab riots, Arab Rover Society, Arab Supremacy, Arabism, Arabism is racism, Arabs, Aryans, Ba'th, Baath, Baghdad, bigotry, Blue Shirts and Green Shirts in Egypt, Bonian Nazis, Bosnia, British, collaboration, Councils for the Defense of Arab Palestine, Croatia, Darwish al-Miqdadi, early Ba'ath movement, Egypt, Emil Ghouri, ex-Mufti, Fakhri al-Barudi, Farhud, fascism, Free Arabia, fuhrer of the Arab world, futuwwa, Futuwwah in Iraq, Genocide, Grand Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini, Haj Amin el Husseini, half-apes, Hanchar, handchar, Handschar, Hassan al-Banna, Hebron, Hebron massacre, Hebron massacre 1929, Himmler, History, hitler, Hitler in the Levant, Hitler jugend, Hitler-youth, Holocaust, holy war, Ibn Saud, inferior race, Intolerance, Iran, Iraq, Iron Shirts, Islam, Islamic anti-Semitism, Islamic Apartheid, Islamic Hatred, Islamic Jihad, Islamic Nazism, Islamism is bigotry, Islamofascism, Islamonazis, Israel, Istiqal, Istiqlal, Jamal Husseini, Jerusalem, Jew-hatred, Jews, Jihad, Jimmy Carter, Jordan, judaism, Kataeb, katd'ib, King Farouk, KKK, League for National Action, League of National Action, Lebanon, Levant, Lion Cubs of Arabism, Maktab al-di'aya wa-l-nashr wa-l-i'lam, middle east, Misr al-Fatdh, monkeys, Moslem Guidance Society, Mufti, Muhammad Haidar, Muslim brotherhood, Muslims, Mussolini, Muthana Club, Muthanna, Nabi al-Azmah, Nadil Arslan, Najadeh, Najjada, Najjadah, Nasser, National Bloc, Nazi Arab, Nazi Arab alliance, Nazi Arabs, Nazi Palestine, Nazi Scouts, Nazis, Nazism, occupation crap, occuptaion excuse, Palestine Defense Society, Pan-Arab, pan-Islamic, peace, political Islam, politics, Rachid Ali, Rachid Ali al-Gailani, Rachid Ali al-Gaylani, racism, Rasem Khalidi, Rashid Ali, Rashid Ali al-Gailani, religion, Reza Pahlevi, Saadat, Saddam Hussein, Saib Shawkat, Said Abd Al-Fattah al-Imam, Saudi Arabia, Shakib Arslan, SNNP, SSNP, Steel Shirts, Syria, Syrian People's Party, Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Tajaddad Club, The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, the Dagger, the Knife, Ummar, Waffen Muslim SS, war, war of extermination, Wasef Kamal, White Shirts, Wolf, WW2, WWII, Young Egypt, Zaki al-Jabi, Zionism ARAB MUSLIM NAZISM – DOCUMENTATION: Your Reference Guide ARAB MUSLIM NAZISM – DOCUMENTATION In General – Some of the groups – Pan-Arabism & Nazism – Irony of non-Aryan “inferior” Arabs’, Bosnians’ races – Arab Nazi Parties – Grand Mufti – Rashid Ali – Ummar – Al-Banna / Muslim Brotherhood – Reza Pahlevi – Iran – Ibn Saud / S. Arabia – King Farouk / Egypt – Shakib Arslan – Young Egypt – Baath – Khairallah Tuflah – al-Miqdadi – Al-Sabawi – al-Muthanna Club & al-Futuwwa – SSNP – Najjada – Handschar – Admiration & worshipping An Urgent Wakeup Call Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism, and the Roots of 9/11, by Matthias Küntzel, trans. Colin Meade, Telos Press, 2007, 180 pp. Reviewed by Amnon Lord [2008] “We were the first to think of translating Mein Kampf,” wrote Sami al-Jundi, a leader of the Syrian Ba’ath Party in the 1930s. “Whoever lived during this period in Damascus would appreciate the inclination of the Arab people to Nazism, for Nazism was the power which could serve as its champion” (26). Al-Jundi also confessed that “we were racist, admiring Nazism, reading its books and the sources of its thought, particularly Nietzsche, Fichte, and H. S. Chamberlain” (25). How many people know that Arab delegations and senior political figures were invited to the annual Nazi rallies in Nuremberg during the 1930s? Such details are not simply random anecdotes from the remote past. Indeed, in his new book Jihad and Jew-Hatred, German scholar Matthias Küntzel argues that the origins of the Islamist terror of recent years, which culminated in the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, and of the radical anti-Semitic ideologies of Hamas, Hizballah, Iran, the Palestine Covenant, and al-Qaeda, lie in the lethal link between Islamism and Nazism. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=253&PID=0&IID=2330&TTL=Amnon_Lord_on_Jihad_and_Jew-Hatred:__Islamism,_Nazism,_and_the_Roots_of_9/11,_by_Matthias_K%C3%BCntzel The Nazi-Islamist Connection – Herbert Eiteneier, JCPA Palestinian maps, including in textbooks, do not show Israel at all; Palestinian sources omit the Mufti’s role in Nazism and deny the Holocaust, … http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-eiteneier-s06.htm Der Spiegel, 05/23/2007 New Research Taints Image of Desert Fox Rommel By Jan Friedmann Arabs Shouted “Heil Rommel” Hitler was celebrated in large parts of the Arab world, and some newspapers even likened him to the Prophet. The Desert Fox was almost as popular as Hitler. “Heil Rommel” was a common greeting in Arab countries. Many Arabs thought the Germans would free them from the rule of the old colonial powers France and Britain. Hitler had shown how to burst the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles. After Germany defeated France in 1940, chants against the French and British echoed around the streets of Damascus: “No more Monsieur, no more Mister, Allah’s in Heaven and Hitler’s on earth.” Adolf Hitler assured the exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, at a meeting in Berlin in November 1941 that his goal was the “destruction of Jewry living in Arabia.” The Führer had racist objections to Arabs as well, though. He declined to shake the Mufti’s hand and refused to drink coffee with him. Hitler nevertheless provided the Mufti, who later sponsored Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, with a budget of 750,000 Reichsmark per month to foment Jihad in Palestine. In an example of ideological flexibility, the SS even recruited Muslim volunteers and declared that the Muslims living in the Balkans belonged to the “racially valuable” peoples of Europe. Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar, by Koenraad Elst, [Voice of India] 1993, 483 pages, Page 353 [8185990042, 9788185990040] Young Fidel Castro would imitate Mussolini in front of the mirror. The secularist Baath Party in Syria and Iraq was modelled on Mussolini’s Fascist Party. The Iranian Shah Reza Pahlevi was an open admirer of Hitler (for which he was forced by the British to abdicate in favour of his son). nbsp;The Muslims in particular were enthusiastic. …Muslim nations rallied to ally with Hitler: the Bosnian Muslims, the Kalmuks, the Chechen and Ingosh, the Balkans, the Meshkets, and the Krim Tatars. In West Asia, prominant leaders like the Druze leader Shakib Arslan (Walid Jumblatt’s father) and the Mufti of Jerusalem allied themselves with Hitler. http://books.google.com/books?id=exVuAAAAMAAJ&q=Muslims The war aims and strategies of Adolf Hitler – Page 161 – Oscar Pinkus – 2005 – 537 pages The sympathies for Hitler extended all the way from the Islamic Bosnians and Albanians in Europe to the Arab countries in Africa and… http://books.google.com/books?id=gPnjXC1lEJ8C&pg=PA161 Jihad and Jew-hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the roots of 9/11 – Pages 10-11 – Matthias Küntzel – 2007 – 180 pages Male supremacy, sexual repression, the celebration of jihad and the glorification of a martyr’s death in war with unbelievers (al-Banna celebrated “the art of death”) and hatred of the Jews all created points of commonality with fascism and Nazism… http://books.google.com/books?id=q9Y8E-AYVeoC&pg=PR10 Pan-Arabism & Nazism Arab-Jewish relations: from conflict to resolution? : essays in honour of Moshe Ma’oz, Elie Podeh, Asher Kaufman – [Sussex Academic Press] 2005 [ISBN 1903900689, 9781903900680] – Page 136 King Faysal I was far as can be imagined from anti-Semitism…. Faysal was highly popular with Jews, who saw in him their protector. But soon after King Ghazi (1933-39) took over things deteriorated. The young king, while not explicitly ant-Semitic, moved very close to radical pan-Arab and pro-Nazi circles. At least two of the royal family’s members outdid even the Nazi senior representative in Baghdad, … http://books.google.com/books?id=MOzJeyjF2_UC&pg=PA136 Independent Iraq, 1932-1958: a study in Iraqi politics – Majid Khadduri – 1960 – 388 pages – Page 240 They held a conference late in October in which it was decided that their struggle to achieve the pan-Arab mission should be continued in collaboration with the Axis Powers http://books.google.com/books?&id=uh4xAAAAIAAJ&dq=common+enemy The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini By Chuck Morse – Page 28 – 2003 – 186 pages The pan-Arabist seeks a world empire based on the Islamic faith with the Arab language and culture serving as the centerpiece. Likewise, the Nazi pan-Aryan sought a world empire with a mystical concept of the Germanic race serving as http://books.google.com/books?id=HGkthBwbNg8C&pg=PA16 Among the many various Arab pro-Nazi, fascist groups The Iron Shirts (led by Fakhri al-Barudi of the National Bloc). The League for National Action (headed by Abdu al-Huda al-Yab, Dr. Zaki al-Jabi and others). The An-Nadi al-Arabi Club of Damascus (headed by Dr. Said Abd Al-Fattah al-Imam). The Councils for the Defense of Arab Palestine (head by well known pro-Nazi leaders, such as Nabi al-Azmah, Adil Arslan and others) The Syrian People’s Party. The Istiqlal. The Muthana Club. Moslem Guidance Society. The Palestine Defense Society. The Tajaddad Club. The Arab Rover Society. Arab High Committee (Haj Amin el Husseini’s). Najjada [Najjadah] in Lebanon (pan-Islamic, pan-Arab). The Futuwwah in Iraq (Hitler-youth type). The Blue Shirts and Green Shirts in Egypt. League of National Action. The Lion Cubs of Arabism. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (led by Antun Sa’ada with Nazi imitated symbols and hymm of ‘Syria, Syria Uber alles). The Arab Club. The Steel Shirts. The early Ba’ath movement. The Kalmuks. The Chechens. The Ingosh. Balkans. The Meshkets. The Krim Tatars The White Shirts (in Lebanon). The Arab war effort: a documented account By American Christian Palestine Committee, 1946, p. 7 IN SYRIA AND THE LEBANON connections between certain groups of Syrian leaders and the Axis States were of long standing…. the Iron Shirts (led by Fakhri al-Barudi of the National Bloc, still a member of the Syrian parliament in 1946); the League for National Action (headed by Abdu al-Huda al-Yab, Dr. Zaki al-Jabi and others); the An-Nadi al-Arabi Club of Damascus (headed by Dr. Said Abd Al-Fattah al-Imam); the Councils for the Defense of Arab Palestine (head by well known pro-Nazi leaders, such as Nabi al-Azmah, Adil Arslan and others); the Syrian People’s Party… http://books.google.com/books?&id=fxzPAAAAMAAJ&dq=well+known+pro-Nazi With the stimulus that the ex-Mufti exerted and with the German armies sweeping victoriously over the Continent of Europe, the Muthana Club, Moslem Guidance Society, the Palestine Defense Society, the Tajaddad Club, and the Arab Rover Society, to quote the names of but a few bodies and societies, intensified their pro-Nazi subversive activities in the hopes that by so doing they would eventually, through enemy assistance, realize their Pan-Arab aspirations. http://books.google.com/books?id=KGMZAAAAIAAJ&dq=defense+of+palestine Die Welt des Islams, 1985, [Wild, Stefan. “National Socialism in the Arab near East between 1933 and 1939.”] p. 127 In the following section I shall describe five parties and movements in the Arab word which to a greater or lesser degree had taken over certain elements of National Socialism or Fascism, namely the Baath (Ba’th)- Party, the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, the Kataeb (katd’ib), Young Egypt (Misr al-Fatdh) and the Futuwwa. I shall then concentrate briefly on ideological factors like the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche, the concept of the “strong nation”, racialism and European antisemitism. http://books.google.com/books?&id=bQcsAAAAIAAJ&dq=five+parties [PDF] http://www.tcd.ie/history//undergraduate/pdf/bwwii/jstorarticles/Stefan%20Wild%20National%20Socialims%20in%20the%20Arab%20Middle%20East%201933%201939.pdf Letter to an Arab friend By André Chouraqui, Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1972 In 1936… That year an Arab High Committee was formed in the month of April and was presidedover by the mufti, Hadz Amin el Husseini. It included the most reactionary elements of the Arab world and enleashed a revolt which transformed Palestine into a stronghold occupied by more than twenty thousand British soldiers. These Arab elements had been inspired by Fascists and Nazis, a fact since established by the publication of the secret Wilhemstrasse Archives. The Arab High Committee had receieved the financial support of the Nazis and Fascists who financed the revolt, with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, acting as intermediary. Hitler and his police achieved in Palestine what they had attempted throughout the Arab world (against the Jews) http://books.google.com/books?id=l6FoAeIPcuEC&pg=PA108 Confronting fascism in Egypt: dictatorship versus democracy in the 1930s – Page 273 – I. Gershoni, James P. Jankowski – 2009 – 344 pages The activities of the radical youth organization al-Futuwwa are considered a a manifestation of Nazi youth indoctrination practices, and speeches supporting Nazism delivered in Baghdad’s Pan-Arab al- Muthanna Club perceived as reflecting popular support for Nazi Germany among the Iraqi effendiyya. In Syria, studies analyzing the process of radicalization in the 1930s often highlight pro-fascist tendencies among various newly created nationalist [p. 274] organizations. These tendencies are seen as having manifested themselves particularly in the mushrooming of new radical youth organizations such as the League of National Action, the Lion Cubs of Arabism, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party led ny Antun Sa’ada, the Arab Club, the Steel Shirts, the early Ba’ath movement, and various radical Islamic organizations. In Lebanon, the White Shirts, the najjada… http://books.google.com/books?id=Aukt0sWDJcsC&pg=PA273 Del fuego: Sephardim and the Holocaust – Solomon Gaon, M. Mitchell Serels – 1995 – 258 pages [Page 114] Publisher Sepher-Hermon Press, 1995 [ISBN 0872031438, 9780872031432 …in Syria and Lebanon, we found for example the Iron Shirts, the League of National Action, the Ah-Nadi al-Arabi Club of Damascus, the Councils for the Defense of Arab Palestine, headed at the time by the well known pro-Nazi leaders such as NabichAl-Azma and Adil Arslan. There was the Syrian Popular Party which was led at the time by a well known Fascist, Anton Saade. He escaped during the war to Germany, and from there with the help of …the principal party is Syria and more particularly the Istiqlal group headed by Shukri al… http://books.google.com/books?id=3rMWAQAAIAAJ&q=arslan Cuadernos de historia mundial: : Volume 5, Issue 1 – International Commission for a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind, 1959, p. 240 The years of the Second World War saw the struggle of democracy against Nazi-Fascist totalitarianism, with Arab sympathies tipped in favour of the latter, not because of any …The National Syrian Party in Syria and Lebanon, the Kata’ib al-Lubnaniyyah (The Lebanese Phalanges), and the Najjadah in Lebanon, the Futuwwah in Iraq, and the Blue Shirts and Green Shirts in Egypt, were among the most conspicuous of these organizations–all appeared in the fourth decade of the century. The peninsula continued to be isolated and immune to such currents, though enjoying its own theocratic totalitarianism, Islam. http://books.google.com/books?&id=BrcfAQAAIAAJ&dq=najjadah (Cahiers d’histoire mondiale: Journal of world history. Cuadernos de historia mundial. v.1-14; juil. 1953-1972, Volume 5, Author: Unesco Publisher: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1959, p. 240 http://books.google.com/books?&id=VvwIAQAAIAAJ&q=futuwwah Studies in Asian history: proceedings Author: Indian Council for Cultural Relations Publisher: Asia Pub. House [for] Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 1969, http://books.google.com/books?id=2lrRAAAAMAAJ&q=nazi) A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 – by Stanley G. Payne – 1996, p. The Fascist regime had him proclaimed a “hero of Islam” and “defender of Islam” in Italian Libya, where a parallel Libyan Arab Fascist Party was created. If Mussolini supported Zionists to some extent as a lever against the British Empire, both he and Hitler subsidized Haj Amin el Husseini, the violently anti-Jewish grand mufti of Jerusalem. Anti-Jewish feeling mounted in parts of the Middle East during the 1930s, as the Fascist and Nazi regimes and doctrines made increasing sense to many Arab nationalists. King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia sought German arms and contacts and was favorably received. Various delegations of Syrians and Iraqis attended the Niirnberg party congresses, and there were several different Arabic translations of Mein Kampf. Both the German and Italian regimes were active in propaganda in the Arab world, and there was much pro-German sentiment in Egypt. At least seven different Arab nationalist groups had developed shirt movements by 1939 (white, gray, and iron in Syria; blue and green in Egypt; … Syrian… Iraqi Futuwa… Young Egypt Movement … all three were territorially expansionist, with Sami Shawkat, the Futuwa ideologue, envisioning the “Arab nation” as eventually covering half the globe (though by vonversion… http://books.google.com/books?id=NLiFIEdI1V4C&pg=PA352 Ironically, Arabs, or even Slavic-Muslims were considered “inferior” to Nazi Aryans The Mufti of Jerusalem: Haj Amin al-Husseini and the Palestinian National Movement, by Philip Mattar, [Columbia University Press] 1992 …Nazis viewed the Arabs with contempt. Arabs in Germany received the discriminatory treatment consistent with Nazi racial theories… http://books.google.com/books?id=XH8qTS5xNUIC&pg=PA100 War aims in the second world war: the war aims of the major belligerents, 1939-45, by Victor Rothwell, Edinburgh University Press, 2005 [ISBN 0748615032, 9780748615032, 244 pages] p. 41 … However, the Nazis were clear in their minds that the Arabs were racially inferior, and there would, therefore, be no pleasure to be had from helping them in anything except for the extermination of Jews in their region. http://books.google.com/books?id=XfgLbSc94MEC&pg=PA41 SS: Hell on the Western Front – Page 70 – Chris Bishop, Michael Williams – 2003 – 192 pages On the face of it, Slavic Muslims from southern Europe did not fit too well into the Nazi racial ideology of the Master Race. However, as so often happened, Himmler came up with his own crackpot theories to make them acceptable. Bosnian … http://books.google.com/books?id=iqWZov065T4C&pg=PA70 Arafat: in the eyes of the beholder – Janet Wallach, John Wallach – [Carol Pub. Group] 1997 – 534 pages – Page 66 The Nazis showed great contempt for the dark-skinned Arabs, even calling them a lower form of life; Adolph Hitler had gone so far as to describe the Arabs as “half apes.” http://books.google.com/books?&id=_ZrtAAAAMAAJ&q=APES Arab Nazi Parties Jamal Husseini * Arab Nazi movements all over the Middle East. * Istiqlal movement pushing for Nazi style youth organizations. * Arab activists of Iraq (like: Abdul Ghaffur el-Bedri, publisher of the newspaper Istiqlal), Palestine (represented by Joseph Francis of the al-Ahram) attempt to found ‘Arab Nazi Parties’ – first rejected by the German Nazis. * Establishing of the Palestine ‘Arab Nazi Party.’ Jamal Husseini. The Nazi ‘Hitler youth’ modelled “Futuwwa” in Palestine ‘Nazi Scouts.’ Middle Eastern Myths – “The Myth of Yasser Arafat” by Dr. Richard Booker During the war, Arab Nazi parties were founded throughout the Middle East. http://www.rbooker.com/articles/TheMythofYasserArafat.PDF First things: Issues 154-158, Institute on Religion and Public Life – 2005 – [Page 14] Several of the Arab political parties founded during the 1930s were modeled after the Nazi party, including the Syrian Popular Party and the Young Egypt Society, which were explicitly anti-Semitic in their ideology and programs. … http://books.google.com/books?id=4-gnAAAAYAAJ&q=modeled The third Reich & the Palestine question,” Francis R. Nicosia, Transaction Publishers, 2000, pages 90-91 After 1933, there were attempts in the Arab world to establish political parties based on Fascist or Nationa Socialist principles and organization. Both [German representatives: Fritz] Grobba and [Heinrich] Wolf were approached in 1933 by individuals with plans to create National Socialist parties in Iraq and Palestine, respectively. The Palestine correspondent of the news-paper Al-Ahram, Joseph Francis, represented a group of Palestinian Arabs who were interested in establishing such a party. Francis wrote to Wolf in April, 1933, requesting the help of the Consulate-General in this endeavor. In Baghdad, a similar overture was made to Fritz Grobba by Abdul Ghaffur el-Bedri, publisher of the newspaper Istiqlal, and a group of his supporters, Wolf’s strong opposition to any sort of German encouragement or support for an Arab Nazi party in Palestine was conveyed in a note to the Foreign Office in Berlin in June, 1933,… In Berlin, the Foreign Office concurred with Wolf’s opposition to Arab efforts to involve Germany in the creation of an Arab National party in Palestine… provided the rationale behind the instructions issued to Wolf on the matter… The objections that Herr Wolf has raised against the promotion of an Arab National Socialist movement by official German representatives are fully supported here. Given the notorious political unreliablity of the Arabs” Wolf was instructed to discourage contact between pro-Nazi Arabs and the various Ortsgruppen [local branches] of the NSDAP in Palestine, to which many Palastinadeutche were beginning to flock… http://books.google.com/books?id=8X2G1G_jD-4C&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90 The PLO: the rise and fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Volume 1984, Part 2 Jillian Becker, [Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984] Page 19 In March 1935 the Husseinis also formed a party, called the Palestinian Arab Party. It was, as its president Jamal Husseini freely boasted, inspired by German Nazism. It included a ‘youth troop’, modelled on the Hitler Youth, for a while actually called the ‘Nazi Scouts‘. http://books.google.com/books?cd=1&id=H7BtAAAAMAAJ&dq=jamal+husseini http://books.google.com/books?cd=1&id=H7BtAAAAMAAJ&dq=Nazi+Scouts The case for Israel – Alan M. Dershowitz – [John Wiley and Sons] 2003 – Biography & Autobiography – 264 pages – Page 54 … Husseini organized the “Nazi Scouts,” based on the “Hitler Youth … http://books.google.com/books?id=Dunx_i1P6fMC&pg=PA54 Righteous victims: a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1999 – Page 124 – Benny Morris – [Random House, Inc] 1999 – 751 pages … the Husseinis in March 1935 formed the Palestinian Arab Party, whose platform for resistance to the establishment of a Jewish National Home. It set up its own youth corps. al-Futuwwa (the name of an association of Arab knights during the Middle Ages). which resembled Germany’s Hitler Youth and was officially designated the “Nazi Scouts.” At Ihe founding meeting 011 February 11, 1936, Jamal al- Husseini, a principal aide of Hajj Amin, declared that Hitler had stalled out with only six followers and now had sixty million. The fisrt seventy al-Futuwwa recruits took the following oath: “Life — my right: independence — my aspiration: Arabism — my principle: Palestine — my country, and there is no room in it for any but Arabs. In this I believe and Allah is my witness.” The Husseini-Nazi connection… through the 1930s and early 1940s. http://books.google.com/books?id=jGtVsBne7PgC&pg=PA124 Armies of the young: child soldiers in war and terrorism By David M. Rosen, page 106 …The shrill calls to take up extremist politics invoked a symbolism that glorified youth, violence, and death. By 1936 Al Difaa, the paper of the Istiqlal movement and the most widely read paper in the Arab community, proclaimed, in clearly fascist tones, that “youth must go out to the field of battle as soldiers of the Fatherland.” Others argued that the “Land is in need of a youth, healthy in body and soul like Nazi youth in Germany and the fascist youth in Italy which stands ready for the orders of its leaders and ready to sacrifice its life for the honor of its people and freedom of its fatherland.” …Nationalist rhetoric accompanied major efforts to build fascist-style youth organizations by recruiting young men to serve as the strike force of the nationalist movement. Throughout the 1930s the children of wealthy Palestinians returned home from European universities having witnessed the emergence of fascist paramilitary forces. Palestinian students educated in Germany returned to Palestine determined to found the Arab Nazi Party. The Husseinis used the Palestinian Arab Party to establish the al-Futuwwa youth corps, which was named after an association of Arab Nazi Scouts. By 1936 the Palestinian Arab Party was sponsoring the developments of storm troops patterned on the German model. These storm troops, all children and youth, were to be outfitted in black trousers and red shirts… The young recruits took the following oath: “Life — my right; independence — my aspiration; Arabism — my country, and there is no room in it for any but Arabs. In this I believe and Allah is my witness.” The al-Futuwwa youth groups connected Palestinian youth to fascist youth movements elsewhere in the Middle East. While the Mufti was establishing youth groups in Palestine, al-Futuwwa groups were established in Iraq. http://books.google.com/books?id=zQYQ0tho6mAC&pg=PA106 Jillian Becker, [Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984] Pages 29, 293 …movement in Palestine, the ‘Army of Salvation’ and a paramilitary youth organization, ostensibly a scout movement, called Futuwwah. Futuwwah (Mufti movement) http://books.google.com/books?cd=1&id=H7BtAAAAMAAJ&dq=futuwwah The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited, Benny Morris, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 28 More important in ‘militarization’ of Arab Palestine was the establishment by the Hussenis of the Futuwa (youth companies), in which youngsters were trained in military drill and the use of weapons. The movement, modelled after the Nazi youth organizations… http://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA28 A durable peace: Israel and its place among the nations, Binyamin Netanyahu, 2000, p. 209 during this period in Damascus would appreciate the inclination of the Arab people to Nazism, for Nazism was the power …In Palestine the Mufti’s clan founded the Palestinian Arab Party, which party leader Jamal Husseini asserted was based on the Nazi model.. http://books.google.com/books?id=sj5DqVLshOUC&pg=PA209 History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression, by David Meir-Levi, 2010 [ISBN 1458766667, 9781458766663], p. 8 In the early 1930s, as many Arabs in British Mandatory Palestine looked toward an alliance with Hitler as leverage against Britain, al-Husseini … The youth organization established by the mufti used Nazi emblems, names, and uniforms. Germany reciprocated by setting up scholarships for Arab students, hiring Arab apprentices at German firms, and inviting Arab political leaders to the Nuremberg party rallies and Arab military leaders to Wehrmacht maneuvers. http://books.google.com/books?id=nJSd7fZ-GhYC&pg=PA8 Al- Husseini’s own Palestine Arab Party stood for the expulsion of all Jewish settlers and an independent Arab … efforts to assist in the development of what would become distinctly Nazi-Arab style organizations and political parties… Grand Mufti – Hajj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini (Hajj Amin al-Husayni) * Meeting with Hitler (November 1941). * Main link between Nazis and the Arab world. * Attempted the fusion of ‘Islamism & Nazism.’ * The ‘Fuhrer of the Arab world.’ * Pushing for Genocide, even intervened to reroute children heading to Palestine, which were sent to the gas chambers instead. * Instigating anti-British violence in Palestine and anti-Jewish violence in: Palestine, Iraq. * His mixed Anti-Semitic Quran speeches made his: most popular radio station in the Arab world. * Set up the ‘Arab Legion.’ * Recruited SS Muslim-Nazi units. * Nazi aid to his activities in Palestine – close Palestinian-Arab Nazi ties. * His holy war, Jihad against: Great Britain, the United States, the Jews, and the West. * Proclaimed Iraq’s declaration of war in May 1941, a jihad. * An already de-facto pan-Arab, pan-Islamic leader & appointed by the Nazis the titular of Nazi pan-Arab leader. He aimes for an all out ‘pan-Arab empire’ under his leadership, leading to a future Caliphate. * Urged the Nazis to bomb Tel Aviv & Jerusalem (but was turned down). * Tighten ties with his Nazi allies even at the last months of the war, when these were already failing. * Among his Arab “partners in crime”: Emil Ghouri, Wasef Kamal, Rasem Khalidi, Jamal Husseini and Rashid Ali al-Gailani. * His immense influence even after the war, the ‘Arab Higher Committee.’ The ‘Arab League.’ * His radical Islamic hatred legacy till today & the foundation of the Middle East conflict. Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam, David Dalin, John Rothmann, Alan Dershowitz A chilling, fascinating, and nearly forgotten historical figure is resurrected in this riveting work that links the fascism of the last century with the terrorism of our own. Written with vigor and extraordinary access to primary sources in several languages, Icon of Evil is the definitive account of the man who, during World War II, was called “the fuhrer of the Arab world” and whose ugly legacy lives on today. With new and disturbing details, David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann show how al -Husseini ingratiated himself with his hero, Adolf Hitler, becoming, with his blond hair and blue eyes, an “honorary Aryan” while dreaming of being installed as Nazi leader of the Middle East. Al-Husseini would later recruit more than 100,000 Muslims in Europe to fight in divisions of the Waffen-SS, and obstruct negotiations with the Allies that might have allowed four thousand Jewish children to escape to Palestine. Some believe that al-Husseini even inspired Hitler to implement the Final Solution. At wars end, al-Husseini escaped indictment at Nuremberg and was harbored in France. Icon of Evil chronicles al-Husseinis postwar relationships with such influential Islamic figures as the radical theoretician Sayyid Qutb and Saddam Husseins powerful uncle General Khairallah Talfah and his crucial mentoring of the young Yasser Ararat. Finally, it provides compelling evidence that al-Husseinis actions and writings serve as inspirations today to the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations pledged to destroy Israel and the United States. http://books.google.com/books?id=QMts5Z36kjAC During the 1920 and 1930s. Haj Amin al-Husseini was one of the first radical Islamic leaders to issue fatwas, or religious rulings, calling for jihad, or holy war, against Great Britain, the United States, the Jews, and the West. Since Workd War I, during which al-Husseini served as an officer in the Ottoman Turkish army, the fatwa was served as a major instrument by which Islamic religious leaders have impelled their followers to engage in acts of jihad, which invariably involved acts of violence and terrorism. http://books.google.com/books?id=QMts5Z36kjAC&pg=PA131 Wolfgang G. Schwanitz on Nazism in Syria and Lebanon. The Ambivalence of the German Option, 1933-194 by Dr. Wolfgang G. Schwanitz [JCPA, December 2009] Amin al-Husaini tried to synthesize Nazism and Islamism. … http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&TMID=111&LNGID=1&FID=388&PID=0&IID=3235 “The Mufti of Berlin Arab-Nazi collaboration is a taboo topic in the West”, Daniel Schwammenthal, Wall Street Jounal, September 24, 2009 …the Palestinian wartime leader “was one of the worst and fanatical fascists and anti-Semites,” …. He intervened with the Nazis to prevent the escape to Palestine of thousands of European Jews, who were sent instead to the death camps. He also conspired with the Nazis to bring the Holocaust to Palestine. The mufti “invented a new form of Jew-hatred by recasting it in an Islamic mold,” according to German scholar Matthias Küntzel. The mufti’s fusion of European anti-Semtism—particularly the genocidal variety—with Koranic views of Jewish wickedness has become the hallmark of Islamists world-wide, from al Qaeda to Hamas and Hezbollah. During his time in Berlin, the mufti ran the Nazis’ Arab-language propaganda radio program, which incited Muslims in the Mideast to “kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history and religion.” Among the many listeners was also the man later known as Ayatollah Khomeini, who used to tune in to Radio Berlin every evening, according to Amir Taheri’s biography of the Iranian leader. Khomeini’s disciple Mahmoud Ahmadinejad still spews the same venom pioneered by the mufti as do Islamic hate preachers around the world. Muslim Judeophobia is not—as is commonly claimed—a reaction to the Mideast conflict but one of its main “root causes.” It has been fueling Arab rejection of a Jewish state long before Israel’s creation. Global Issues: Selections From CQ Researcher – Page 158 – CQ Researcher – [Pine Forge Press] 2009 [ISBN 1412980372, 9781412980371] – 368 pages The Mufti fled Palestine in 1938 to avoid arrest by the British for his part in the Arab revolt. He spent most of the war in Berlin, recruiting Bosnian Muslims for the SS, the semi-military Nazi organization that oversaw Hitler’s extermination of the Jews. From 1939 to 1945, the Mufti’s Arabic radio broadcasts, which mixed anti-Semitic propaganda with quotes from the Koran, made his station the most popular in the Arab world. In 1943, as a propaganda stunt, SS leader Heinrich Himmler wanted to permit 5,000 Jewish children to emigrate to Palestine, in exchange for 20,000 German prisoners. The mufti fought against the plan, and the children were sent to the gas chambers. The Nazis funded the burgeoning growth of Muslim fundamentalism, helping the radical Muslim Brotherhood distribute Arabic translations of Mein Kampf, … http://books.google.com/books?id=6HPB3DlB-m8C&pg=PA158 A history of the Middle East, Saul S. Friedman [McFarland] 2006 [ISBN 0786423560, 9780786423569] pp. 241-3 In January 1941, the mufti assured the “great Fuhrer” of the “friendship and admiration” of the Arab people. As he put it, Arab people everywhere were prepared to act as is proper against the common enemy… Haj Amin was receptive to Hitler’s offer in March 1941 of a German volunteer legion that would be parachuted into Iraq. He proclaimed Iraq’s declaration of war in May 1941, a jihad. And when that revolt was snuffed, the mufti incited a pogrom in Baghdad that left 110 Jews dead. After the failure of the Gailani coup, the Mufti fled to Iran, where he encouraged Reza Khan to oppose the British and Russians. When the allies jointly occupied Persia in August 1941, he fled to Italy, claiming that he had no place else to go. On November 20, the mufti was granted a 90-minute audience with Adolf Hitler at the latter’s Wilhelmstrasse residence. He sought a blessing from the Nazi leader for the creation of a proposed Arab state. Hitler replied it was premature… For the duration of the war, the mufti was housed in two elegant villas and subsidized to the sum of 75000 marks per month for heading a special Buro des Grosmufti. Its threefold function: (a) espionage (training of saboteurs), (b) propaganda (public broadcasts on Muslim holy days), and (c) recruitment of 500000 troops for the Waffen SS. Although the numbers never reached such size, dozens of his recruits were charged as war criminals in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Lithuania. Haj Amin told one Nazi official: “The Jewish national home must disappear and the Jews get out. They are free to go to Hell.” Whenever one of Hitler’s puppets contemplated negotiation with the Allies to rescue Jews, the Mufti presented a stumpling block… Thus, when King Boris indicated a willingness release 4000 Jewish children for Palestine in May 1943, the mufti protested that the children “present a degree of danger…” Later that month, the mufti reacted against a proposal… that would have permitted 80,000 Jews to flee Romania.. At a time when the Nazis were transporting Jews to killing centers in Poland, Haj Amin declared, “The Arab nation awaits the solution of the world Jewish problem by its friends, the Axis powers.” He knew what the Nazis mean by Endlosung. As Dieter von Wisliceny, one of Adolf Eichmann’s aides, reported: “The grand mufti has repeatedly suggested to the Nazi authorities, including Hitler, Ribbentrop, and Himmler the extermination of European Jewry… Even as the military situation deteriorated for Germany in the last 18 months of the war, the mufti found himself drawn closer to his Nazi associates… photographs with Himmler… pledged cooperation And he made it very clear that when the time was appropriate, he would call upon the “best saviour of the Arabs”—Adolph Eichmann—to apply his expertise in shuttling Jews to death camps. Eichmann had met the mufti in the Middle East in 1937 and later testified that he had instructed to open all field on Jewish Question to the affable Arabs…. http://books.google.com/books?id=LCNpmgDOYTwC&pg=PA241 A safe haven: Harry S. Truman and the founding of Israel – Page 213 – Allis Radosh, Ronald Radosh – [HarperCollins] 2009 [ISBN 0060594632, 9780060594633] – 428 pages When Kirchway learned that the U.S. delegation to the United Nations backed the British on giving a platform to the Arab Higher Committee, she immediately went into action. First, Kirchwey and the Nation Associates gave out a lengthy report on the pro- Axis activities of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to all fifty-five delegations to the United Nations. Most striking was the fact that it was based on classified U.S. government files… The Arab Higher Committee, the report charged, was the “creature of the Arab League” and was run from Egypt by the Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The committee’s members were not elected representatives but “nothing more . . . than a deal among leaders of the various Arab factions in Palestine—and the will of the grand Mufti.” Three members of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee who were delegates to the U.N. General Assemply, were called, in the Nation Associates report, men who ranked with the “worst of the Axis war criminals.” … The accounts of the Mufti, Kirchway explained, was documented from captured files belonging to the mufti and the German High Command, all found by American military authorities in Germany. Along with the report were documents and photos that substantiated the charge that the Mufti controlled and directed the Arab Higher Committee. Photos used showed the Mufti and the other Arab leaders with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Dino Alfieri… Emil Ghouri, the head of the Arab delegation to UNSCOP, and delegates Wasef Kamal and Rasem Khalidi as “notorious for … association with the Mufti and his Axis activities.” Mufti’s Jamal Husseini… had joined the Mufti in Iraq in 1939… organized a pro-Axis fifth column that led to the anti-British rebellion. […] In the Hague, Arab students were trained in explosives and parachuted into Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Captured records also revealed that the Mufti had accompanied Adolf Eichmann to visit the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Moreover, the Mufti had put an end to negotiations being carried out to ransom Jews in Bratislava, insisting that they all be liquidated. A letter the Mufti had written to Heinrich Heinrich Himmler revealed the Mufti complaining that Joachim Ribbentrop and Himmler had been too lenient, since the had let some Jews leave Germany. “If such practices continue,” the Mufti was quoted as saying, “it would be incomprehensible to Arabs and Moslems http://books.google.com/books?id=B3SmdKOSPQEC&pg=PA213 The record of collaboration of King Farouk of Egypt with the Nazis and their ally, the Mufti: the official Nazi records of the King’s alliance and of the Mufti’s plans for bombing Jerusalem and Tel Aviv ; memorandum submitted to the United Nations, June 1948 [Nation Associates (New York, N.Y.), United Nations, The Nation Associates, 1948] PLANS FOR BOMBING JERUSALEM AND TEL AVIV MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED NATIONS JUNE 1948 Mufti Urged Nazis to Bomb Jerusalem and Tel Aviv While the … revealed in a number of secret documents found by the Allies Armies in Germany… Thus, according to one of these documents, a secret report of the German Air Force Command, dated October 29, 1943, revealed that the Mufti for the past six months had been proposing an attack… “…any attack must be carried out with a very large force in order to have a lasting effect.” But Fieldmarshal Goering was obliged to turn down… Apparently the Mufti did not rest… http://books.google.com/books?&id=tdhmAAAAMAAJ&dq=TEL+AVIV http://books.google.com/books?&id=tdhmAAAAMAAJ&dq=Goering Icon of evil: Hitler’s mufti and the rise of radical Islam – David G. Dalin, John F. Rothmann, 2008, p. 170 http://books.google.com/books?id=_-IbsuxSQxcC&pg=PA170 A Diary of Four Years of Terrorism and Anti-Semitism [iUniverse ISBN 0595793002, 9780595793006] – Page 209 One of Mr. Arafat’s personal heroes, the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, visited Auschwitz and reproached the Germans for not being more determined in exterminating the Jews. In 1985, Mr. Arafat paid the mufti homage, saying he was ‘proud to no end’ to be walking in his footsteps. http://books.google.com/books?id=HSpmk7x0rbMC&pg=PA209 A history of the Holocaust – Saul S. Friedman – [Vallentine Mitchell] 2004 – 494 pages – Page 339 He considered this a comfortable solution to the Palestine problem. The Mufti was especially fond of Himmler, calling him ‘an understanding, great and energetic man’.50 In July 1944, when 400000 Hungarian Jews were being transported to Auschwitz, Haj Amin complained to Himmler that the Nazis were too lenient with the Jews. He asked that the German government make no more http://books.google.com/books?id=4fwhAQAAIAAJ&q=mufti+himmler Free Europe: Volume 6 – Free Europe, 1942 [Original from Indiana University] – Page 41 The Grand Mufti… He has met Hitler. Berlin nurses and spends lavishly on every kind of minority movement which can spread confusion and …the days of the Grand Mufti are not yet ended. he is cast for a leading role in the Nazi plans for the Middle East…. This is where the co-operation of Rashid Ali, ex-King Amanullah and the Mufti of Jerusalem is of vital importance … http://books.google.com/books?id=pEHTAAAAMAAJ&q=met+hitler Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini [Palestine Facts] I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz… http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php Antisemitism, a history portrayed, by Janrense Boonstra, Hans Jansen, Joke Kriesmeyer, Anne Frank Stichting [Anne Frank Foundation] 1989 [ISBN 9012062020, 9789012062022] p. 101 The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem In 1914, the periodical Falastin – with its extremist Arab nationalist slant – was abolished by the Ottoman authorities because of its racist hate propaganda. http://books.google.com/books?id=mMEsAQAAIAAJ&q=1914 LIFE – Nov 8, 1937 – Page 104 – Vol. 3, No. 19 – 136 pages – Magazine – Full view Chief Arab troublemaker (above, left) was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, who played a two faced game with the British. http://books.google.com/books?id=kD8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA104 Jihad and Jew-hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the roots of 9/11 – Page 11 – Matthias Küntzel – 2007 – 180 pages and weapons to assist the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin el- Husseini and the “Arab revolt” of 1936-1939 in Palestine … Nazis ‘shipped arms to Palestinians’ – Israel News, Ynetnews May 7, 2006 Nazis ‘shipped arms to Palestinian British National Archives unveil presence of Nazi S.S. agents in Mandatory Palestine, working closely with Palestinian leaders… The records also show that the news of increased Nazi-Arab cooperation panicked the British government, and caused it to cancel a plan in 1938 to bring to Palestine 20,000 German Jewish refugees, half of them children, facing danger from the Nazis. The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini, Chuck Morse iUniverse, 2003 – History – 186 pages This is the remarkable story of Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was in many ways as big a Nazi villain as Hitler himself, and to understand his influence on the Middle East is to understand the ongoing genocidal program against the Jews of Israel. Al-Husseini was a bridge figure in terms of transporting the Nazi genocide in Europe into the post-war Middle East. As the leader of Arab Palestine during the British Mandate period, al-Husseini introduced violence against moderate Arabs as well as against Jews. Al-Husseini met with Adolf Eichmann in Palestine in 1937 and subsequently went on the Nazi payroll as a Nazi agent. Al-Husseini played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in instigating a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941, in urging Nazi’s and pro-Nazi governments in Europe to transport Jews to death camps, in training pro-Nazi Bosnian brigades, and in funneling Nazi loot into post-war Arab countries. http://books.google.com/books?id=HGkthBwbNg8C The case for Israel – Alan M. Dershowitz – [John Wiley and Sons] 2003 – Biography & Autobiography – 264 pages In August 1929, leaflets prepared by the mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini instructed Muslims to attack the Jews Al-Husseini also helped incite the series of pogroms which lasted from 1936 to 1939, in which hundreds more Jews were killed http://tech.mit.edu/V123/N12/kraus12.12c.html The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement, Philip Mattar, Columbia University Press, 1992, p. 95 They were to go to Iraq, disguise themselves as Arabs, kidnap or kill the Mufti, and destroy oil installations. … Amir ‘Abdullah’s Arab Legion, and the Transjordanian Frontier Force (Arab troops recruited by the Palestine government ). In a desperate attempt, the Mufti issued a fatwa urging Arabs and Muslims to help Iraq free herself from British imperialism. The fatwa was the most anti- British statement he had ever made, http://books.google.com/books?id=XH8qTS5xNUIC&pg=PA95 The Mufti’s Conversation with Hitler [JVL] The Arab Legion would he quite easy to raise. An appeal by the Mufti to the Arab countries and the prisoners of Arab, Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan … http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/mufti2.html A durable peace: Israel and its place among the nations – Page 20 – Binyamin Netanyahu – 2000 – 482 pages Mufti… Husseini expressed his willingness to cooperate with Germany in every way, including the recruitment of an Arab Legion to fight for the Nazis. Hitler told the Mufti that the two of them shared the common goal of the destruction of Palestinian Jewry… Once the mufti relocated permanently to Berlin, where he established his own Reich-supported “bureau,” he was given airtime on Radio Berlin. From [[Berlin]] and other fascist capitals in Europe, the mufti continued to agitate for the destruction of international Jewry, as well as a pan-Arab and pan-Islamic alliance with the Nazi regime, he explained to the German ambassador, Ettel, his plan to bring all Arabs under the banner of Pan-Arabism over to the side of the Axis. (25 June 1942). Here he came out unconditionally for the “final solution” of the Jewish question,” calling on the Germans to wipe out all Jews, “not even sparing the children.” http://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C&pg=PA497 Al-Husseini was welcomed into Baghdad with cheering crowds and he was hailed as a pan-Arab hero and as a defender of the faith with the same zeal that Hitler was being hailed at Nazi rallies. Upon his arrival, he immediately launched into political intrigue by organizing and effectively gaining control of the secretive pan-Arab and pro-Nazi Iraqi Arab National Party. The agenda of this party was to link up with likeminded groups in Syria, Transjordan, and cis-Jordan (Palestine) for the purpose of throwing out the colonial powers and forming an independent and United Ummah. After instigating a pogrom against Jews in Palestine in 1920, the first such pogrom against Jews in the Arab world in hundreds of years, he went on to inspire the development of pro-Nazi parties throughout the Arab world including Young Egypt, led by [[Gamal Abdul Nasser]], and the Social Nationalist Party of Syria led by Anton Sa’ada. http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/20/145726.shtml Jihad and Jew-hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the roots of 9/11 – Page 31 – Matthias Küntzel – [Telos Press Publishing] 2007 – 180 pages [ISBN 0914386360, 9780914386360] – Preview “The Mufti himself,” wrote Klaus Gensicke in his seminal study, “acknowledged that at that time it was only due to the German funds he received that it had been possible to carry through the uprising in Palestine…” In addition, German weapons were sent through secret channels… In 1920, soon after his return to the mandate territory, he incited anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem… http://books.google.com/books?id=q9Y8E-AYVeoC&pg=PA31 Arab contemporaries: the role of personalities in politics Majid Khadduri – [Johns Hopkins University Press] 1973 – 255 pages – Page 78 Even before he set foot in Axis lands, the Mufti was determined to play the leading role as spokesman for the Arab people. Both as a religious and Pan-Arab leader, he was very widely known in Arab and Islamic lands and had carried on … http://books.google.com/books?&id=xIkLAAAAIAAJ&dq=set+foot The Gramsci Factor: 59 Socialists in Congress – Page 113 – Chuck Morse – 2002 – 172 pages The British backed a successful countercoup and the Mufti proceeded on to Berlin where he was appointed by the Nazi’s as titular head of a Nazi-pan Arab government in exile. http://books.google.com/books?id=OvV69F3yLukC&pg=PA113 Yad Vashem studies, Issue 35, Part 1 By Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah, p. 136 ..the Mufti stressed that, “Arab interests are completely identical in thrust with those of the Germans.” […] the Grand Mufti in exile in Germany was not satisfied with mere rhetoric and antisemitic tirades. Rather, he continued to pursue the vision of the destruction of the Jews and the simultaneous creation of a pan-Arab empire under his leadership. This was to culminate in a new Caliphate, yet to be established. http://books.google.com/books?id=JcDXaeukt4sC&pg=PA136 Hajj Amin al-Husayni: The Mufti of Jerusalem [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] Hajj Amin al-Husayni: The Mufti of Jerusalem Apr 1, 2010 … 1974) was the Mufti (chief Muslim Islamic legal religious authority) of … in Palestine; 3) promotion of himself as a pan-Arab and Muslim religious leader. … Hajj Amin al-Husayni: Arab Nationalist and Muslim Leader … Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against the West – Page 80 – Walid Phares – 2006 – 310 pages [isbn=1403975116] “Jihadists and World War II”… While Nazi infidels were ultimately anathema to jihadists, the alliance answered all their practical needs at the moment. http://books.google.com/books?id=VlUJdPp76dMC&pg=PA80 “the Third Reich’s leading Muslim ally” Jihad and international security – Page 31 – Jalīl Rawshandil, Sharon Chadha – [Publisher Macmillan] 2006 – 235 pages – [ISBN 1403971927] Jihad against Israel Perhaps the longest-running jihad in today’s world is the struggle to reclaim Israel for the Muslims. During World War II, the highest ranking Islamic cleric of Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti… Hajj Amin el-Husseini.. …He also helped recruit Bosnian Muslims for the German SS116 and worked to prevent further immigration to Palestine thus ensuring that many Jews would end up in death camps instead. In 1948, a month before the Arab states declared … http://books.google.com/books?id=J3jbvGFl39MC&pg=PA31 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war – Benny Morris – 2008 – pAGE 21 – 524 pages The exiled al-Husseini himself helped raise a brief anti-British revolt in Baghdad in spring 1941 and then fled to Berlin, where he served the Nazi regime for four years by broadcasting anti-British, jihadist propaganda to the Middle East and recruiting Bosnian Muslims for the Wehrmacht. http://books.google.com/books?id=CC7381HrLqcC&pg=RA21 Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam – Page 51 – David Dalin, John Rothmann, Alan Dershowitz – 2009 – 227 pages On this visit to Auschwitz, al-Husseini reportedly urged the guards in charge of the chambers to be more diligent and efficient in their efforts… http://books.google.com/books?id=QMts5Z36kjAC&pg=PA51 The legacy of Islamic antisemitism: from sacred texts to solemn history – Andrew G. Bostom – [Prometheus Books] 2008 – 766 pages – Page 94] From this sanctuary, he provided active support for the Germans by recruiting Bosnian Muslims, in addition to Muslim minorities from the Caucasus, for dedicated Nazi SS units. The mufti’s objectives for these recruits — and Muslims … http://books.google.com/books?&id=yIkQAQAAIAAJ&dq=sanctuary The Gramsci Factor: 59 Socialists in Congress – Page 72 – Chuck Morse – 2002 – 172 pages Adolf Eichmann actually visited Palestine and met Husseini at that time and subsequently maintained regular … Husseini recruited Bosnian Muslims in Nazi occupied Yugoslavia in his efforts to ethnically cleanse their country of Jews. … http://books.google.com/books?id=OvV69F3yLukC&pg=PA72 Palestine, 1948: war, escape and the emergence of the Palestinian refugee problem – Page 43 – Yoav Gelber – [Sussex Academic Press] 2006 – 436 pages … who had refused to return to communist Poland; Bosnians who had served in the Nazi Muslim legion; Croat Ustasha and Serb Chetniks who had fled from Yugoslavia to Italy; and British defectors from the army and the Palestine police. … http://books.google.com/books?id=UcSUgrDsD_sC&pg=PA43 Institute for Global Jewish Affairs – Global Antisemitism, Anti-Israelism, Jewish Studies The Mufti of Jerusalem Haj-Amin el-Husseini and National-Socialism, by Jennie Lebel, translated by Paul Münch from Serbian, Belgrade: Čigoja štampa, 2007, 374 pp. Reviewed by Wolfgang G. Schwanitz Amin al-Husaini mixed the old traditional and the new racial hatred of Jews into a new ideology which served the totalitarian cause quite willingly. For his part, the mufti said in 1961 that the Nazis needed no persuasion in their racism against Jews. But Hitler and the mufti influenced each other for the worse. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=2967 Genocide, critical issues of the Holocaust: a companion to the film, Genocide – Page 132 [ISBN 0940646048, 9780940646049] – Alex Grobman, Daniel Landes, Sybil Milton – [Behrman House, Inc] 1983 – 501 pages Only the turning tide on the North African front rescued Tunisian Jews from annihilation. … From the mufti of Jerusalem to Anwar Sadat (then merely a junior cadet in Egypt), Muslims in the East regarded Germany with approval. … http://books.google.com/books?id=8ppCqANI50UC&pg=PA132 The Holocaust conspiracy: an international policy of genocide – Page 235 – William R. Perl – [SP Books] 1989 [ISBN 0944007244, 9780944007242] – 261 pages With Saudi Arabia in the forefront, the Arabs have repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state. They have proclaimed the Jihad, Holy war, against Israel, the war which according to the Koran must end with the enemy’s total annihilation. In this endeavor the Arabs are making use of the methods applied by the Germans during the Holocaust as well as by directions resulting from their employment of former SS officials. As we have stated before in this chapter, history must be viewed as a continuum. Such an unfortunate continuum regarding the Holocaust exist in the continuing Nazi-Arab connection. The influence of these two groups upon each other is mutual. Too little attention is being paid to the way in which Arabs contributed to the effectiveness of the Final Solution program. Haj Amin el Husseini, head of the Supreme Muslim Council and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a venomous Jew-hater, had prior to the war organized Arab terrorism against the Jews in Palestine. From 1941 on, he spent much of his time shuttling between Berlin and Rome. He met in Berlin with Ernst von Weizsaecker, State Secretary in the German Foreign Office, with Himmler, and on November 28, 1941 with Hitler. In his meeting, the Mufti tried to strengthen the Fuehrer’s decision to ” exterminate” all Jews, and both agreed that the Germans would fight the Jews mercilessly, in all of Europe “and beyond.”[…] The Mufti had also met with Eichmann and visited Auschwitz. In Rome, he was received by the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Ciano, and by Mussolini himself. In his meetings with the German officials, the Mufti stressed the need to wipe out as many Jews as possible and to finally revoke the designation of Palestine as a Jewish National Home. He proposed that after the German victory,an Arab state –under his leadership– be created that would consist of Syria, Iraq, Transjordan and the Wesrern, Jewish part of Palestine. In return the Mufti promised Arab revolts against the British who were then predominant in these areas. One such serious revolt aganst the British occured in April 1941. http://books.google.com/books?id=SlSDYmjJNU0C&pg=PA235 LIFE – Oct 27, 1952 – Page 145 – Vol. 33, No. 17 – 156 pages – Magazine – Full viewMYSTERY MAN OF ISLAM SPEAKS In exclusive talk, mufti defends tie to Hitler and record on Jews by JAMES BELL The name of Haj Amin el Husseini, usually called the Mufti of Jerusalem, has been associated with assassination, riot, … During the Palestine war the Muft’s holy fighters terrorized Jews, blew up houses and killed many people… http://books.google.com/books?id=2lIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA145 [Rachid] Rashid Ali al-Gailani [Rashid Ali el Kailani] [Rashid ‘Ali al-Keilani] [Sayyad Rashid el Keilani] * Led pro-Nazi, fascist coup in Baghdad, 1941. * Met with Hitler in 1942. * Close ties with the Mufti. Nazi propaganda for the Arab world – Page 60 – Jeffrey Herf – [Yale University Press] 2009 [ISBN 0300145799, 9780300145793] – 335 pages – Preview … 1941, Rashid Ali Kilani led a pro-Axis coup that overthrew the Iraqi government of General Taha el-Hashimi. Haj Amin el-Husseini was deeply involved. The coup plotters included Yunis … http://books.google.com/books?id=YzQNSTvHv-sC&pg=PA60 The Iraq coup of Raschid Ali in 1941, the Mufti Husseini and the Farhud… The Coup – On April 1, 1941 the “Golden Square” and the chief of staff of the Iraqi army staged the coup, and appointed Rashid ‘Ali al-Keilani head of the government. Nuri as Said was forced to flee Iraq along with the regent and young king Faysal II. On April 3, a letter from the German Secretary of State Von Weizacker answered Haddad’s letter favorably, but the letter arrived after the coup. Rashid ‘Ali stated on April 10 that he would honor the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, apparently fearing British reprisals .On April 16, Rashid responded to a request for landing of British troops at Basra cautiously. He replied that they could land, but must embark immediately for Palestine or Egypt. The British began landing troops on April 16 or 18 at Basra, at first in compliance with Rashid Ali’s conditions, and later in violation of the conditions, since the troops did not leave. The British played for time and made pretences of accepting the new situation. However, reinforcements from India kept arriving at Basra. The Iraqi government was also trying to buy time, and entered into a pretence of Turkish mediation of the crisis. However, the Iraqi representative in Turkey, told the German Ambassador von Papen, that there would be no compromise with the British. Raschid Ali had already asked the Italians for military aid at the end of March, and likewise, Hitler decided on April 10 to send military aid to the Iraqis. However, the shipments took several weeks. The German foreign office got a report from General Keitel of a large shipment, including, for example, some 15,000 rifles and about 800 machine guns. Arms were shipped from Saloniki and through Turkey and Syria. The shipments from Syria were sent as a consequence of the agreement between the Vichy leader Darlan and Hitler as to general collaboration between Vichy and Germany. In the same agreement Vichy also agreed to allow German aircraft to base and stage through Syria on their way to Iraq, though there would be some pretence involved, so that the Vichy government could plausibly deny to Britain that it was assisting the German war effort. The French also rationed German fuel supplies, and as the Luftwaffe was unable to obtain fuel from Persia or elsewhere, this hampered their effectiveness. A second group of British troops landed at Basra on April 28, and the Iraqis protested. On the evening of April 29, about 9,000 troops of the Iraqi army surrounded the RAF air base at Habaniyeh and the next day the Iraqis ordered that no flights were to take off. However, the Iraqis had insufficient force. The move was instigated by the “Golden Square” officers. Rashid Ali himself apparently wanted to avoid antagonizing the British and wait for supplies from the Germans. The British strike back – The British struck to lift the siege of Habanniyeh, remove Rashid Ali from power and restore the pro-British government. Though they were initially unable to move from Basra overland, because of the weather and because Iraqis had cut lines of communication, the British were able to use the RAF at Habbaniyeh and Shaiba effectively, and began attacking on May 2. They had about 90 aircraft, mostly antiquated, but these included a number of Wellington bombers[8]. . The RAF struck the Iraqis surrounding Habbaniyeh The Iraqis used their air force [9], very sparingly and not very effectively. At the same time, relatively small numbers of British reinforcements were ferried by air from Basra. Iraqi anti-aircraft fire and artillery proved ineffective. By May 6 the Iraqi force was defeated and the siege of Habbaniyeh was abandoned, though the roads were still blocked. The RAF also destroyed most of the Iraqi air force on the ground by about May 8. German Aid – During this time, several German officers and diplomats were seconded to Iraq to oversee Luftwaffe operations and the arms supply. Dr Fritz Grobba, the former consul, now returned to oversee the arms shipments and a Major Hansen was sent to oversee the transfer of aircraft. Grobba allegedly distributed sums of money to both Rashid Ali and the Mufti. Raschid Ali got about 90,000 pounds, and the Mufti reportedly got about $10,000. http://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htm Reference Guide to the Nazis and Arabs During the Holocaust: A Concise Guide to the Relationship and Conspiracy of the Nazis and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in North Africa and the Middle East During the Era of the Holocaust – Pages 32-3 – Shelomo Alfassa – [Lulu.com] 2006 [ISBN 0976322633, 9780976322634] – 70 pages Working with an old ally, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, who became prime minister of Iraq in March 1940, the Mufti “obtained promises of Axis support, and in April 1941 carried out an anti-British and pro-Nazi coup” in Baghdad. http://books.google.com/books?id=T2g2XA53UOEC&pg=PA32 From Syria they extended their activities to Iraq, where they helped to establish a pro-Nazi regime headed by Rashid Ali al-Gailani. This was overthrown by the British, and Rashid Ali went to join his friend the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini – Page 50 – Chuck Morse – 2003 – 186 pages In June of 1941, the Nazis would launch Operation Barbarossa which involved a full frontal assault on their erstwhile ally the … On April 1, 1941, the well planned pro-Nazi coup d’etat was launched and it brought General Rashid Ali … Ummar Prevent World War III., Issues 53-57 Author Society for the Prevention of World War III (New York, N.Y.) Publisher Society for Prevention of World War III, 1959 Mr. Ummar was also a member of the Rashid Ali conspiracy. As early as 1936 he went to Germany and studied at the Nazi dominated universities in Berlin and Jena. Ummar too had to flee after the failure of the 1941 revolt and he wound up in Nazi Germany. As an avid admirer of Hitler’s “New Order” and http://books.google.com/books?id=ckHTAAAAMAAJ&q=pro+nazi British documents on foreign affairs: reports and papers from the foreign office confidential print. From 1940 through 1945. Near and the Middle-East. Eastern Affairs, january 1942-june 1942 – Malcolm Yapp, Paul Preston, Michael Patridge – 1997 – 357 pages – p. 308 Rashid Ali, however, flouted constitutional precedent by refusing to resign and coerced the Regent into signing decrees … In forming his Cabinet General Taha retained two members of Rashid Ali’s team, Umar Nadhmi, who took over the … http://books.google.com/books?&id=4jWQAAAAMAAJ&dq=Umar+Nadhmi Records of Iraq, 1914-1966: 1941-1945: Volume 9 – Alan de Lacy Rush, Jane Priestland – 2001 – 857 pages [Page 398] Rashid Ali, however, flouted constitutional precedent by refusing to resign and coerced the Regent into signing … Tahu retained two members of Rashid Ali’s team, Umar Nadhmi, who took over the Ministries of Interior and Justice, http://books.google.com/books?id=sWZtAAAAMAAJ&q=Umar+Nadhmi+rashid+ali Khairallah [Khayrallah] Tuflah (Iraq) [Tolfah] [Taflah] * Devout Sunni Muslim. * An army officer who Participant in the 1941 Rashid Ali al-Gailani pro-Nazi coup / Mufti‘s associate. * Professed an ardent admiration for Hitler. * Hatred for the British, racist views of Persians, Jews [author of infamous pamphlet “Three whom God should have created…” * Mentor to Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein, who admired him, adopted his bigoted teaching, he republished his uncle’s material & “practiced” it. A time of our choosing: America’s war in Iraq – Page 25 – Todd S. Purdum – 2003 – 319 pages Tulfah, an army officer, had supported a coup against the British- backed Iraqi monarchy in 1941 and spent five years in prison. He taught Saddam to distrust foreigners and filled him with admiration for the emerging pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. http://books.google.com/books?id=YFZSWh8pUWUC&pg=PA25 Middle Eastern leaders and Islam: a precarious equilibrium – Page 92 – Sonia Alianak – 2007 – 241 pages Accordingly, Khayrallah, an army officer, took part in the abortive uprising led by Rashid Ali al-Gailani against the British-controlled monarchy in 1941. Saddam would later say of his uncle’s influence, “My maternal uncle was a nationalist” and “He always inspired us with a great nationalistic feeling” (Matar, 1981, p. 22). http://books.google.com/books?id=IiV_q4CYXA0C&pg=PA92 Khairallah Talfah was an Iraqi army officer and passionate Arab nationalist who had been one of al-Husseini’s most trusted lieutenants in their short-lived pro -Nazi coup that had briefly returned Rashid Ali … Secrets of the Holy Lance: The Spear of Destiny in History & Legend – Page 317 – Jerry E. Smith, George Piccard – 2005 – 341 pages During the failed Iraqi coup of 1941, the task of assassinating the Iraqi leader , Karim Qassim, was given to one Khairallah Tulfah – – the uncle and guardian of Saddam Hussein… http://books.google.com/books?id=qGX3ZtD_UikC&pg=PA317 Iraq President Suddam Hussein Handbook – Page 7 – IBP USA, USA International Business Publications – 2003 – 380 pages At around ten, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle, Kharaillah Tulfah. Tulfah, the father of Saddam’s future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim and a veteran from the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War between Iraqi … http://books.google.com/books?id=OXsij4BGMmcC&pg=PA7 The complete idiot’s guide to understanding Iraq – Page 149 – Joseph Tragert – 2003 – 318 pages It was (and is) not uncommon for an elder in an Iraqi tribal group to take in a young child in need of direction. …Saddam’s uncle gave Saddam an early education in ethnic prejudice; Uncle Tulfah wrote a pamphlet titled: “Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies.” http://books.google.com/books?id=KonR1QVERaEC&pg=PA149 The Journal of psychohistory, Volume 34, Atcom, 2006, p. 122 He was then given away by her to be raised by a terrorist Uncle. His mother remarried. His earliest influence was with his Uncle Khagrallah Tulfah, an army officer stripped of rank by the British after he joined a failed 1941 coup… http://books.google.com/books?id=Et8nAAAAYAAJ&q=tulfah ..the older man became his guide through the political maelstrom of postwar Iraq… Tulfah had definite theories about Iraqi society. He made them part of the boy’s political education. Later, Tulfah expounded on them in a pamphlet, “Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews and Flies.” http://books.google.com/books?id=Et8nAAAAYAAJ&q=flies Gandhi & Churchill: the epic rivalry that destroyed an empire and rivalry that destroyed an empire and forged our age – Page 473 – Arthur Herman – 2008 – 721 pages The British took Baghdad right afterward, and on June 1, 1941, Rashid Ali fled first to Iran, then to Germany. His associate Yunis el-Sabawi, who had translated Mein Kampf into Arabic, was captured and hanged. Another young officer who fought for Rashid Ali was Khairallah Talfah. He escaped but would pass the lessons of the Iraq war. and of the Nazi cause, on to his four-year-old nephew, Saddam Hussein. http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA473 Saddam Hussein: a political biography – Page 15 – Efraim Karsh, Inari Rautsi – 2003 In a slim treatise entitled Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies, Khairallah defined Persians as “animals God created in the shape of humans.” Jews, in his view … To judge from saddam’s diatribes against Israel and Iran throughout his career, Khairallah’s ideas about Persians and Jews had fallen on fertile soil. http://books.google.com/books?id=pJcu5L72coUC&pg=PA15 My father’s paradise: a son’s search for his Jewish past in Kurdish Iraq – Page 300 – Ariel Sabar – 2008 – 332 pages As president, he republished a pamphlet written by his uncle and surrogate father titled “Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies .” http://books.google.com/books?id=BE89OJmsM4AC&pg=PA300 He dreamed of glory but dealt out only despair, David Blair charts the career of Saddam Hussein, from back-street assassin to Iraq’s vicious dictator, Mar 2003 – Telegraph The only sympathetic figure in his boyhood was an uncle, Khairallah Tulfah. He rescued Saddam from al-Ouja and took him to Baghdad when he was 10, ensuring the illiterate boy went to school. Saddam would later marry Khairallah’s daughter. Exactly how his kindly uncle influenced him can be judged by Khairallah’s political views. He nursed a passionate hatred of Britain, then Iraq’s colonial overlord, and a fervent admiration of Hitler. Khairallah spent six years in jail after joining a pro-Nazi uprising in Baghdad, which the British Army crushed in 1941. He later wrote a pamphlet entitled Three whom God should not have created – Persians, Jews and Flies. In this work, Khairallah described Jews as a “mixture of dirt and the leftovers of diverse people”. From Khairallah, Saddam imbibed this toxic mixture of nationalism and xenophobia. From his violent rural upbringing, he learned to distrust anyone, absolutely anyone, beyond his immediate family. Saddam the paranoid tyrant can be traced back to Saddam the persecuted village boy. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1424980/He-dreamed-of-glory-but-dealt-out-only-despair.html?pageNum=1 Saddam Hussein: the politics of revenge, Saïd K. Aburish, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2000 [ISBN 1582340501, 9781582340500], p. 123 …the government offered ‘pure Iraqis’ married to anyone with Iranian blood $2500 reward for divorcing them. http://books.google.com/books?id=7yAHjRJ3LkIC&pg=PA123 Yunis al-Sabawi [Yunis el-Sabawi] [Yunus Al-Sabawi] * Pro Nazi, translated Mein Kampf into Arabic, and published in the Iraqi paper. * Active in the pan-Arab ‘al-Muthanna Club.’ Headed the [Arabic] ‘Hitler Youth‘ type futuwwa (together with S. Shawkat). * Among the leaders of the (1941) Farhud pogrom – massacre. The British took Baghdad right afterward, and on June 1, 1941, Rashid Ali fled first to Iran, then to Germany. His associate Yunis el-Sabawi, who had translated Mein Kampf into Arabic, was captured and hanged… Holocaust Encyclopedia, The Farhud [United States Holocaust Museum] The rise of this pro-German government threatened the Jews in Iraq. Nazi influence and antisemitism already were widespread in Iraq, due in large part to the German legation’s presence in Baghdad as well as influential Nazi propaganda, which took the form of Arabic-language radio broadcasts from Berlin. Mein Kampf had been translated into Arabic by Yunis al-Sab’awi, and was published in a local newspaper, Al Alam al Arabi (The Arab World), in Baghdad during 1933-1934. Yunis al-Sab’awi also headed the Futtuwa, a pre-military youth movement influenced by the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) in Germany. After the coup d’etat, al-Sab’awi became a minister in the new Iraqi government. Indeed, it was the second translation of this book into Arabic. Yunus as-Sabawi of Bagdad, a Nazi follower, had completed the first in 1933 and published it in the Iraqi paper Al-Alam Al-Arabi, known for its hatred toward Jews. The complete idiot’s guide to understanding Iraq – Page 104 – Joseph Tragert – [Penguin] 2003 [ISBN 0028643984, 9780028643984] – 318 pages On June 1, 1941, in the aftermath of the British victory, a campaign of terror by Iraqi “soldiers and civilians” was unleashed… The violence followed an abortive attempt by one Yunis Al Sabawi, a Nazi sympathizer, to slaughter all Jews in central Iraq. (He was deported before he could carry out the plan.) The spasm of violence was part of a two-day descent into chaos now known in Iraq as the farhud [dangerous collapse of order]. Darwish al-Miqdadi * Arab writer, educator from Palestine. * Moved to Iraq and ‘educated’ there with his pro-Nazi line. * Associated with the 1941 Farhud pogrom. Iraq between the two world wars: the militarist origins of tyranny – Page 91 Reeva S. Simon – 2004 – History – 235 pages Al-Miqdadi accompanied Iraqi student missions to Germany in the 1930s. While there, the British report, he organized an Arab youth movement along Nazi lines … http://books.google.com/books?id=GgYyxWqtO3IC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91 Military preparations of the Arab community in Palestine, 1945-1948 – Page 149 – Haim Levenberg – [Psychology Press – ISBN 0714634395, 9780714634395] 1993 – 281 pages The other candidate was Darwish Miqdadi, born in Tul-Karem. In 1929 he was expelled to Iraq after taking part in the disturbances of that year. After a spell he returned to Palestine and was re-arrested during the Arab Rebellion. When released, he fled once more to Iraq. In Iraq he did not abandon his nationalist activity; while working as a teacher and education inspector, he published his ideas. He participated in a delegation to Nazi Germany and collaborated with Rashid Ali. He was allowed to return to Palestine in October 1945, and in the summer of 1946 he succeeded Ahmad Shuaqyri as the Director of the Arab Office in Jerusalem. http://books.google.com/books?id=sxvHK-Cq2RwC&pg=PA149 The Middle East: Abstracts and index: Volume 4 – Library Information and Research Service – 2000 – Snippet view [page 123] Arab Nationalist Party and the Young Egypt, whose mission became to ideologize this rejection. In 1931, Darwish al-Miqdadi, a Palestinian graduate of the AUB, a teacher in Iraq and an ardent associate to most, if not all pan-Arabist networking of the 1930’s, published his “History of the Arab Nation” which was subsequently adopted as a textbook for the Arab history curriculum in Iraqi intermediate schools. In this book, the Arab ideology and the pan-Arabist view of imperialism were so intractably intertwined that Arab nationalism seemed unimaginable without its opposition to the west. For al-Miqdadi, it was the Arabs’ destiny to occupy the most strategic crossroads of world trade http://books.google.com/books?id=m6JtAAAAMAAJ&q=Darwish+al-Miqdadi Politics in Palestine: Arab factionalism and social disintegration, 1939-1948 By Issa Khalaf Kamil Wafa al-Dajani… Mu’in al-Madi, and Darwish al-Miqdadi. Dajani, Madi, and Miqdadi were Mufti associates http://books.google.com/books?id=9pRvIDxE5jAC&pg=PA141 The Farhud, the Mufti inspired Krystallnacht in Iraq, 1941 [J. Katz] The entire Jewish world has heard of Krystallnacht. Yet very few have even heard of the Farhud, where Nazi sympathizers in Baghdad, killed… The Palestinians Fawzi Al-Qauqji Darwish Al Miqdadi, Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini … The Teaching of History in Iraq before the Rashid Ali Coup of 1941 by RS Simon – 1986 Husri had hired Darwish al-Miqdadi, a Palestinian graduate of the. American University in Beirut, in 1924-25 along with Anis al-Nasuli, whose … http://www.jstor.org/stable/4283095 Political trends in the Arab world: the role of ideas and ideals in politics – Majid Khadduri – [Johns Hopkins Press] 1970 – 298 pages – Page 183 The third wrote the history of Islam as the “History of the Arab Nation,” Darwish al-Miqdadi, Ta’rikh al-Umma al-‘Arabiya… Darwish al-Miqdadi, a Palestinian teacher who lived in “Iraq- http://books.google.com/books?&id=qvqBAAAAMAAJ&dq=al-Umma http://books.google.com/books?id=qvqBAAAAMAAJ&q=Darwish Palestinian Arab Nationalist and Historian Darwish al-Miqdadi (1898-1961) http://www.zmo.de/veranstaltungen/2010/Out_of_place_Programme_2010.pdf European Totalitarianism in the Mirrors of Contemporary Arab … From Ruz al-Yusuf after the so-called Hitler-Stalin pact was signed: “The Animals’ … of Palestinian Pan-Arab Historian Darwish al-Miqdadi (1897-1961). … Arabs and Nazism – Testing Paradigms of a Historical Encounter: Between Local … http://www.orient-institut.org/English/EventsDetails.aspx?pageid=1694 Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Oct., 1966), pp. 2-17, by H.J. Cohen The Anti – Jewish Farhud in baghdad, 1941… On June 1-2, 1941, thousands of Baghdad Moslems attacked the Jews of the town, murdering men and women, children and aged people, raping women and girls and plundering property… Al-Miqdadi was also active in another organisation. In 1931, he set up a scout group called ‘al-Jawwal …. Lebanon and Arabism: national identity and state formation – Raghīd Sulh – 2004 – Political Science – 382 pages [Page 121] (ISBN 1860640516) Sami Shawkat… radical Arab nationalists… The ANP consolidadted its influence further by infiltrating and virtually controlling a number of youth organizations, literary clubs and various political groupings. For example, Darwish al-Miqdadi (who was of Palestinian origin) was appointed head of the prestigous Teachers’ Training College (Baghdad) in 1939, a post thgrough which he was able to recruit new members to the party … al-Jawal, a youth organization established in 1934, came under ANP influence when two party members, Matta ‘Aqrawi and Darwish Miqdadi, assumed its chairmanship successively. Nadi al-Muthanna, similar to the Arab Club of Damascus, became ‘one of the many fronts or the cornerstone of this secret organization http://books.google.com/books?id=49z7AFqIE2IC&pg=PA121 Al-Banna – Muslim Brotherhood * Muslim Brotherhood’s founder al-Banna’s devout admiration for Hitler & Nazi regime. * His push to distribute the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf. The Muslim Brotherhood […] Al-Banna was a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. During the 1930s, the Brotherhood became more political in nature and an officially political group in 1939. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/muslimbrotherhood.html Al-Banna was a devout admirer of a young Austrian writer named Adolf Hitler. His letters to Hitler were so supportive that when Hitler came to power in the 1930s he had Nazi intelligence make contact with Al-Banna to see if they could work together. Hitler had Al-banna establish a spy network for Nazi Germany throughout Arabia. Al-Banna promised Hitler that when General Rommel’s Nazi tank division arrived in Cairo and Alexandria, the Muslim Brotherhood would ensure all of the British troops would be killed. http://www.shoaheducation.com/muslimnazi.html Jihad and Jew-hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the roots of 9/11 – Pages 10 – Matthias Küntzel – 2007 – 180 pages Muslim Brotherhood’s decision to distribute the Arabic translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the flow of German money… Reza Pahlevi * Great admirer of Hitler. * The ‘Mussolini of Islam.’ * Introduced racist laws. * Refused to allow the allies operating against the Nazis. World fascism: a historical encyclopedia: Volume 1 – Page 342 – Cyprian Blamires, Paul Jackson – 2006 – 750 pages Reza Shah Pahlavi, interwar ruler of Iran, sometimes referred to as ‘the Mussolini of Islam’. He was an admirer of Hitler and an anti-semite who strove to cleanse the language and culture of his ‘Aryan’ land from anything alien. … http://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C&pg=PA342 Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran – James D. Cockcroft – 1988 – 111 pages – Page 36 Mohammed Resa’s father became a great admirer of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader who rose to power as Germany’s dictator in 1933… http://books.google.com/books?&id=JiIEFLxZaJwC&dq=Hitler Genocide, critical issues of the Holocaust: a companion to the film, Genocide – Page 348 – Alex Grobman, Daniel Landes, Sybil Milton – [Behrman House, Inc] 1983 – 501 pages – [ISBN 0940646048, 9780940646049] In Iran, the nationalistic and pro-Nazi regime of Reza Shah introduced a host of anti-Jewish laws after 1936. So great was the attraction of nazism on the Iranian Shah that Arthur S. Millspaugh, the adminstrator general of Iran’s finances from 1922 to 1927 and from 1943 to 1945, testified “to all intents and purposes, Reza Shah handed over Persia to Hitler.” http://books.google.com/books?id=DcdiVs9lwvcC&pg=PA348 World and Its Peoples: The Middle East, Western Asia, and Northern Africa By Marshall Cavendish – Page 494 – Marshall Cavendish – [Marshall Cavendish] 2006 However. Iran’s declared neutrality in the war was complicated by Reza Shah’s pro-German sympathies. When he refused to allow the Soviets and British to use the Trans-Iranian railroad, under the pretext of Iran’s neutrality, the Allies ignored the declaration and invaded Iran in August 1941.. http://books.google.com/books?id=j894miuOqc4C&pg=PA494 Ibn Saud Of Saudi Arabia * Close [secret] ties with the Nazis. * Highly racist against Jews, through his ‘Koranic’ view. The secret war against the Jews: how western espionage betrayed the Jewish people, by John Loftus, Mark Aarons, [Macmillan] 1997 [ISBN 0312156480, 9780312156480] – Page 68 – John Loftus, Mark Aarons – 1997 – 658 pages – Preview Unlike his other activities, he tried to keep the Saudi-Nazi connection a deep secret. According to sources on both sides of the Atlantic, it was Philby who advised Ibn Saud energetically to court Nazi Germany in the months before the war. The relationship was mutually beneficial. As one US intelligence study found, the Nazis “recognized that King Ibn Saud’s help was essential for renewing the fight against the British and the Jews in Palestine.” The Germans proposed that a new government should be formed in Palestine, under the control of Jack’s old friend, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Further, “Jews who had settled in Palestine after the First World War would not be allowed to remain.” In January 1939 Saudi Arabia established diplomatic relations with the Third Reich, and Ibn Saud confided to the Germans that at heart he “hated the English. ” In the following months he concluded arms deals with Germany and signed a friendship and trade treaty with Japan. Philby was pleased, especially as Ibn Saud concealed his secret dealings with the Axis from both the British and Americans. The Nazis also were pleased with the progress they had made with the king. They sent their best Middle East agent, Fritz Grobba, to meet with Ibn Saud, and even promised to obtain for him the most prestigious position in the Moslem world, the caliphate. The Saudi-Third Reich connection flourished, with their main link being their mutual hatred for the Jews. The Nazis even promised to supply Ibn Saud with weapons, ammunition, and an armaments factory, and, according to some accounts, gave him bribes during most of World War II. The king had many reasons for his secret arms deals with Berlin. The primary purpose “was to increase the flow of weapons which [Ibn Saud] had secretly been sending to the Arabs fighting in Palestine,” in order to “check the Zionist influx that had followed the Balfour Declaration.” Although he later claimed to be genuinely horrified by the Nazis’ Final Solution , Ibn Saud’s attitude toward the Jews was extreme, even by Arab standards. They were “a race accursed by God http://books.google.com/books?id=trU7nY-T-4EC&pg=PA68 The Nazi Hydra in America: Suppressed History of a Century – Page 368 – Glen Yeadon, John Hawkins – 2008 – 700 pages Ibn Saud was pro-Nazi. To stay out of British prison as a Nazi sympathizer, Philby added another angle to the 1940 deal by keeping Saudi Arabia neutral during the war for a bribe. In effect, the Saudis were paid to not pump … http://books.google.com/books?id=vh7sx2xtjGEC&pg=PA368 Quicksand: America’s Pursuit of Power in the Middle East – Geoffrey Wawro – 2010 – 704 pages – Page 71 Saudi Arabia, the king protested, was in the same predicament as Nazi Germany: “ encircled” by hostile powers. … In 1941, Ibn Saud sent a royal envoy to Vichy to negotiate for the eventual cession—by the victorious Germans, … http://books.google.com/books?id=OiS9UVotQfUC&pg=PT71 F.D.R. meets Ibn Saud – William Alfred Eddy – 1954 – 45 pages – Page 34 … who had suffered indescribable horrors at the hands of the Nazis: eviction, destruction of their homes, torture and mass-murder. … He, Ibn Saud, could not conceive of leaving an enemy in a position to strike back after defeat. … http://books.google.com/books?id=jVUxAAAAIAAJ&q=nazis Nazi propaganda for the Arab world – Page 34 – Jeffrey Herf – 2009 – 335 pages – Preview Following a series of visits in 1938 to Germany by representatives of Saudi King Ibn Saud concerning arms purchases, the Nazi regime established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia in January 1939. In return for German political and … 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war Benny Morris [Yale University Press] 2008, p. 33 (1946) Before reaching Palestine, the members visited Arab capitals. At Riadh, King Ibn Sa’ud told them: “The Jews are our enemies everywhere. Wherever they are found… http://books.google.com/books?id=CC7381HrLqcC&pg=PA33 Shakib Arslan * pan-Arabist, pan-Islamist, Muslim cleric. * Pro Nazi. * In service of the Nazis – translated ‘Mein Kampf’ into Arabic (though that one -at the end- wasn’t published). Arabism, Islamism and the Palestine question, 1908-1941: a political history – Page 357 – Basheer M. Nafi – [ISBN 0863722350, 9780863722356] (Garnet & Ithaca Press) 1998 – 459 pages Amongst those who came to be known for their pro-German views were Shakib Arslan , who returned to exile in … it was the efficiency of the Nazi state, its ability to liberate Germany from the constraints of the Versailles Peace Treaty http://books.google.com/books?id=WhCjkcZZK1AC&pg=PA357 Nazi propaganda for the Arab world – Pages 25-26, 273 – Jeffrey Herf – 2009 – 335 pages Hentig… He thought that “a truly good Arabic translation of the Fuhrer’s work would have great propagandistic value.” [p. 26] and “would meet with extensive sympathy in the whole Arabicspeaking world from Morocco to India… in Arabic that had “the tone of the book that every Muslim understands: the Koran.. Hentig called on Shakib Arslan, a Geneva-based advocate of Muslim activism and Arab nationalism, confidant of Haj Amin el-Husseini, and editor of La Nation arabe, an influencial journal of Arab nationalist opinion, to do the translation. Hentig insisted that the completed text be read by a “scholar of the Koran who will give it the sacred tone which will be understood and valued in the whole Islamic world, a world that reads the Koran.” By November 1938, Arslan’s translation of Mein Kampf was almost done. Its 960 pages were to be published in an edition… On December 21, 1938, the project of an Arabic-language edition of Mein Kampf published by the Nazi regime ended. On Arslan, see William C. Cleveland, Islam against the West: Shakib Arslan and the Campaign for Islamic Nationalism (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985); and review essay by Martin Kramer, “The Natuon of Shakib Arslan,” Middle Eastern Studies, no. 24 (October 1987) 529-33. http://books.google.com/books?id=YzQNSTvHv-sC&pg=PA273 International politics and the Middle East: old rules, dangerous game By Leon Carl Brown – I. B. Tauris, 1984 – Page 154 …partitioning Palestine into seperate Jewish and Arab states, a large pan-Arab congress was held in Blutan, Syria… other notables included… and the well-known advocate of Arabism, Shakib Arslan, a Druze from Lebanon. http://books.google.com/books?id=opRRT_kW7hIC&pg=PA154 King Farouk Of Egypt * Colaboration with the Nazis. * Espionage. The record of collaboration of King Farouk of Egypt with the Nazis and their ally, the Mufti: the official Nazi records of the King’s alliance and of the Mufti’s plans for bombing Jerusalem and Tel Aviv ; memorandum submitted to the United Nations, June 1948.Authors: Nation Associates (New York, N.Y.), United Nations Publisher: The Nation Associates, 1948 http://books.google.com/books?id=tdhmAAAAMAAJ The beast reawakens – Martin A. Lee [Taylor & Francis] 1999 [ISBN 0415925460, 9780415925464] Page 122 King Farouk, who ruled Egypt during the Hitler era, was also a Nazi sympathizer. The king’s palace became a rendezvous point for Axis spies and couriers. Members of the royal family were involved in espionage for Fascist Italy, and many of the king’s mistresses did double duty as Nazi agents. http://books.google.com/books?id=SX4B7pNG3W8C&pg=PA122 Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam – David Dalin, John Rothmann, Alan Dershowitz – 2009 – 227 pages – Page 41 In a letter to Farouk, the mufti assured the king “that he would be received with all honors due a friendly reigning sovereign” and that he would be given every possible means by the Nazis for continuing the activities of his Egyptian … SSNP * Inspired by Hitler, Nazis. * Imitation of Nazi hymm, symbols, etc. * Supremacy. Lebanon: current issues and background – Page 192 – John C. Rolland – 2003 – 235 pages – Preview The Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) The SSNP was established in Lebanon in the 1930s by Antun Saadah who hoped … symbol was modeled after the Nazi swastika. The SSNP has a long history of terrorism and subversion in Lebanon. … http://books.google.com/books?id=-JVOKeNkllgC&pg=PA192 The Near East since the First World War: a history to 1995 – Malcolm Yapp – [Longman] 1996 – 597 pages – Page 113 Like many parties of the 1930s the SSNP adopted the styles of Fascism: Saada was known as al-za’im (the Führer) and the party anthem was “Syria, Syria, über alles” sung to the same tune as the German national anthem. http://books.google.com/books?&id=BextAAAAMAAJ&dq=ssnp Colonial citizens: republican rights, paternal privilege, and gender in French Syria and Lebanon, by Elizabeth Thompson, 2000, p. 192 At about the same time, the first Lebanese proto-fascist group emerged in public. The Syrian National Party (Hizb al-qawmi al-suri) was founded in secret in 1932 by a Lebanese emigrant returned from Brazil… Sa’ada used the title fuhrer and a swastika-style cross as an emblem, and adopted a party anthem entitled “Syria, Syria Above All,” set to the tune of “Deutchland Uber Alles.” http://books.google.com/books?id=B9fruGejwmUC&pg=PA192 All honorable men: the social origins of war in Lebanon – Page 150 – Michael Johnson – 2001 – 298 pages – Preview Saadeh, the party’s ‘leader for life’, was an admirer of Adolph Hitler and influenced by Nazi and fascist ideology. … http://books.google.com/books?id=Zydtz0dDntQC&pg=PA150 Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East [Volume 4 Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, ISBN 0028960114, 9780028960111, Macmillan Reference USA] – Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, Richard W. Bulliet – 1996 – 2182 pages [Page 1717] The Syrian Social Nationalist party (SSNP) was the brainchild of Antun SA’ADA, a Greek Orthodox Lebanese who was inspired by Nazi and fascist ideologies. Originally known as the PARTI POPULAIRE SYRIEN, the party operated in secret until… http://books.google.com/books?id=ZXltAAAAMAAJ&q=sa’ada Young Egypt (Misr al-Fatdh) [Ahmed Hussein] * Founded and was on Nazi, fascist elements, imitating Hitler Youth (“Egypt, Egypt, above all”). * Nazi – ideologically, very racist, even after “break up” with the Nazis. Egypt’s young rebels: “Young Egypt,” 1933-1952 – James P. Jankowski – 1975 – 176 pages Young Egypt became willing to admit influence and/or borrowings from European fascism, Husayn stating that Young … brothers cooperating together” ; and his final article from Germany, in the form of an open letter to Hitler, … http://books.google.com/books?id=8dFmAAAAMAAJ&q=young+egypt The Continuum political encyclopedia of the Middle East – Avraham Sela – [Continuum] 2002 – 944 pages – Page 273 Some groups displayed openly Fascist tendencies — such as the “Young Egypt” Party (Misr al- Fatah), founded in the mid- 1930s by Ahmad Hussein (1911-1982). In 1940 Britain forced the dismissal of Premier Maher and the Chief-of-Staff, … http://books.google.com/books?&id=YJwsAQAAIAAJ&dq=Ahmad+Hussein Islamism, fascism and terrorism (Part 3) – Asia Times Dec 4, 2002 [Marc Erikson] Islamism, or fascism with an Islamic face, was born with and of the Muslim Brotherhood. It proved (and improved) its fascist core convictions and practices through collaboration with the Nazis in the run-up to and during World War II. It proved it during the same period through its collaboration with the overtly fascist “Young Egypt” (Misr al-Fatah) movement, founded in October 1933 by lawyer Ahmed Hussein and modeled directly on the Hitler party, complete with paramilitary Green Shirts aping the Nazi Brown Shirts, Nazi salute and literal translations of Nazi slogans. Among its members, Young Egypt counted two promising youngsters and later presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DL04Ak01.html Semites and anti-Semites: an inquiry into conflict and prejudice – Page 148 – Bernard Lewis – [W. W. Norton & Company] 1999 – 295 pages [ISBN 0393318397, 9780393318395] – [pp. 148-9] Several of the political parties founded at this time reveal the influence of the Nazi model. In 1934, when the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws were promulgated, telegrams of congratulation were sent to the Fuhrer from all over the Arab and Islamic worlds, especially from Morocco and Palestine, where German propaganda had been most active. By September 1937, when a major pan-Arab congress was held at Blutan, with the struggle against Zionism as its main theme, the only European present was a German. Before long, political parties of the Nazi and fascist type began to appear, complete with paramilitary youth organizations, colored shirts, strict discipline, and more or less charismatic leaders. Even some of the older parties were affected by these trends. More obviously Nazi in form was the Young Egypt Society, formally established in October 1933. Popularly known as “the Green Shirts,” it consisted of a paramilitary hierarchy of sections … …Their ideology and form of organization and activity remained, however, thoroughly Nazi, including such devices as fascist salutes, torchlight parades, leader worship [ther slogan was “One party, one state, one leadership”] and, most characteristically, their use of gangs of toughs to terrorize and silence their political opponents. Not least among the borrowings of Young Egypt from Young Germany was its racism and anti-Semitism. This included support for Nazi philosophy, viciously anti-Jewish propaganda in the party press, and the organization of boycotts and harassment directed against the Jewish community in Egypt. Despite the public breach with the Germans after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the inner circle of pro-Axis politicians congregated around the king, and led … espionage… http://books.google.com/books?id=GteStbiDEjAC&pg=PA148 Minister, was to educate “Iraqi youth in the military spirit in the German fashion” and sent a delegation to march with the Hitler Youth at the 1938 Nuremberg Nazi party rally. Finally in 1933, in Egypt Ahmad Husayn created the “Young Egypt”… Teaching about the Middle East – Page 137 – Social Studies School Service – [Social Studies] 2002 – 330 pages – [ISBN 1560041005, 9781560041009] The Young Egyptians movement, popular in the 1930s, looked to the Hitler Youth as its model. At the same time, Egyptians recognized the importance of their own Muslim heritage. Perhaps Islam would provide the best ideological structure … http://books.google.com/books?id=bhPkkMIDdl8C&pg=PA137 Die Welt des Islams, 1985, p. 134 From its beginnings in the early Thirties the party shared many outward appearances with the European fascists: a uniform (green shirts), a salute (outstretched right arm, palm open and finger pointing to the sky), a flag, a paramilitary organization which demanded absolute obedience to a leader. Like the PPS in Syria, Young Egypt used ultra-nationalist slogans, based on “Deutschland, Deutschland iiber alles”: In the case of Young Egypt “Egypt, Egypt, above all…”. http://books.google.com/books?&id=bQcsAAAAIAAJ&dq=young+egypt FrontPage Magazine – Nazi Influence on the Middle East During WWII Jan 5, 2005 … In October 1933, pro-Axis Young Egypt Party was founded. … translator of Hitler’s Mein Kampf into Arabic, describing the Fascist despot in … http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16533 The Baa’th (B’ath, Baath) * Baath founders: S. al-Husri [the ‘Arab Fichte’] and M. Aflaq, both influnced by German Fascist, nazi writing. * Husri’s support for the pro-Nazi coup of Rachid ‘Ali. * Aflaq though Christian, admired Islam. (Some even say he converted). * Ideologically – Racist against: Persians, Jews, Kurds & other. * ‘Master Arab race’ of Baathism. The mood of the 1930s was vividly described by Syrian Sami al-Jundi, an early leader of the Ba’th party, in an autobiographical memoir: We were racists, admiting Nazism, reading its books and the source of its thought, particulary Nietzche. . . . Fichte, and H. S. Chamberlain’s Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, which revolves on race. We were the first to think of translating Mein Kampf. Whoever lived during this period in Damascus would appreciate the incliniation of the Arab people to Nazism, for Nazism was the power which serve as its chapion, and he who is defeated will by nature love the victor.” Later al-Jundi describes how in 1940 he was looking for a copy of Rosenberg’s Myth of the Twentieth Century in Damascus, and finally found a French abridgment of it belonging to Michel Aflaq, one of the two founders of the Ba’th. The United States and the Middle East: a search for new perspectives – Page 266 – Hooshang Amirahmadi – [SUNY Press] 1993 [ISBN 0791412253, 9780791412251] – 491 pages Founded in the Levant during the 1940s, the Baath party advocates Pan-Arabism ( ie, unity of the entire Arab world… the founders of the Baath party, Michel ‘Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, were influenced by fascist thought during their education in France during the 1930s… Itaqi Baathis ideology contains racist elements, especially against Persians, Jews, Kurds, and other minorities… http://books.google.com/books?id=AmSIOJ5ekIoC&pg=PA266 Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Index – Thomas M. Leonard – 2006 – Social Science – 1759 pages – Page 71 … Pan-Arabism with an emphasis on socialism incorporating ideas from Italian fascism. Ba’ath ideology… http://books.google.com/books?id=3mE04D9PMpAC&pg=PA71 Fascism: Past, Present, Future, by Walter Laqueur, [Oxford University Press US] 1997 [ISBN 019511793X, 9780195117936] – Page 162 At that time, fascism outside Europe has become a possiblity and, in some cases, a reality. The Iraqi & Syrian regimes have pronounced fascist features… both, the Iraqi & Syrian leadership belongs to the Ba’th Party, an elitist, pan-Arabist group that arose in the 1930s partly as a result of the rise of fascism in Europe. http://books.google.com/books?id=fWggQTqioXcC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162 America at war since 1945: politics and diplomacy in Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War, by Gary Donaldson [Greenwood Publishing Group] 1996 – Page 144 The Baath party had its origins in European fascism and Arab nationalism… http://books.google.com/books?id=1wOv3enW1ccC&pg=PA144 The politics of intelligence and American wars with Iraq – Page 21 – Ofira Seliktar – 2008 – 214 pages Drawing on a large volume of newly available research on “generic fascism,” a number of experts pointed out … Ba’ath Party of Syria and Iraq as conceived by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar combined both Nazi and communist elements. … http://books.google.com/books?id=vd54vdSGMMgC&pg=PA21 A Middle East reader, compiled by Irene L. Gendzier, Pegasus, 1969, page 161 Aflaq spent his holidays in France, with Salah al Bitar. He came back to Syria full of admiration for the works of Alfred Rosenberg, the theorist of Nazi racism, and in particular for “The Myth of the Twentieth Century, which he had read in Grosclaud’s translation. He thought at the time that Hitler’s Germany, by contrast with the communist countries, had succeeded in achieving the perfect synthesis of nationalism and socialism.” http://books.google.com/books?id=QsNAAAAAIAAJ&dq=rosenberg Eric Rouleau… Futhermore, when power in Iraq was seized by pro-German nationalists in the coup of Rashid ‘Ali al-Gilani, ‘Aflaq formed s committee which assured the new regime of its full support http://books.google.com/books?id=LzfSAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA166 The Ba’th and the creation of modern Syria‎ – Page 15 David Roberts – Political Science – [Croom Helm] 1987 – 182 pages The Birth of Ba’thist Ideology… The theory of ‘Greater Syria’… Sa’adeh visited Germany and certainly had contact with the National Socialist and Fascist regimes. The Ba’th, or at least ‘Aflaq, shared these ideas to some extent. It is not too long a step from ‘Gross-Deutchland’ to ‘Greater Syria.’ Since then, of course, the Ba’th has parted with the PPS and indeed banned it, but it has quietly absorbed its message… http://books.google.com/books?id=Ix2NAAAAMAAJ&dq=germany http://books.google.com/books?id=Ix2NAAAAMAAJ&dq=fascist CNN, March 21, 2003 Baath Party is a mishmash of socialism and Arabism. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/21/se.13.html Syria: Ballots Or Bullets?: Democracy, Islamism, and Secularism in the Levant, Carsten Wieland, 2006, pp. 102-3 Sati al-Husri (1882-1968), the most infuelncial pan-Arab ideologue… He admired Fichte, Hegel, and Herder, and his key ideological role in the Arab world earned him the nickname of “the Arab Fichte.” The strongest influence of pan-Arabists was first witnessed in Iraq in the 1920 and 1930 when Hitler rose to power in Germany. In 1941, Husri supported a fascist coup in Baghdad… The main ideologue of the subsequent Baath Party in Syria was himself a Christian (however, he reportedly converted to Islam shortly before his death… Michel Aflaq was born in 1910 in Damascus and went to Paris to study philosophy at the Sorbonne University. There he found the idea of Arabness in Western literature, as had many others before him. He viewed Islam as an essential part of the Arab socio-cultural heritage… http://books.google.com/books?id=uOMp58pfdkoC&pg=PA102 “Saddam’s Brain,” The Weekly Standard Nov 1, 2002, Vol. 8, No. 09 by David Brooks From the November 11, 2002 issue: The ideology behind the thuggery. MICHEL AFLAQ was born in Damascus in 1910, a Greek Orthodox Christian. He won a scholarship to study philosophy at the Sorbonne sometime between 1928 and 1930 (biographies differ), and there he studied Marx, Nietzsche, Lenin, Mazzini, and a range of German nationalists and proto-Nazis. Aflaq became active in Arab student politics with his countryman Salah Bitar, a Sunni Muslim. Together, they were thrilled by the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, but they also came to admire the organizational structure Lenin had created within the Russian Communist party. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/837uvzrs.asp American Government and Politics Today 2008: The Essentials, by Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley, Steffen W. Schmidt, [Cengage Learning] 2008, [ISBN 0495503258, 9780495503255], p. 18 Although Baathists are often referred to as Arab nationalists, Baath ideology goes beyond pan-Arab nationalism and Baath ideology actually views the Arabs as a kind of master race. Baathism glorifies constant struggle, the ideological similarity between Baathism and fascism is quite striking. http://books.google.com/books?id=NIrspBw3lNMC&pg=PA1 al-Muthanna Club & al-Futuwwa (in Iraq) (Saib [Sami] Shawkat & Al-Sabawi) ‘Farhud’ massacre – massgrave * Importance of education in the fascist interwar era. * ‘Hitler Youth’ type. * Participated in Nurmberg’s Nazi Youth march. * Relations with leadership of Hitler Youth. * al-Muthanna Club’s Sami Shawkat’s hateful [xenophobia and] Nazism. * S. Shawkat’s indoctrination of youth into ‘dying for Arabism.’ * (Sami’s brother) Naji Shawkat’s Nazism. * Participation in the Farhud pogrom (massacre) in 1941, Baghdad. Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East: Volume 2 – Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, Richard W. Bulliet – 1996 – 2182 pages … to paramilitary youth groups strongly reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany. In Ba’thist Iraq, the futuwwa is one of three paramilitary youth organizations that belong to the state-run General Federation of Iraqi Youth. http://books.google.com/books?id=KE8YAAAAIAAJ&q=futuwwa+hitler Independent Iraq, 1932-1958: a study in Iraqi politics, Majid Khadduri, [Oxford University Press] 1960, p. 173 He also invited the King to send a Futuwwa delegation to Nuremberg to attend the parade of the Nazi Party convention in September 1938. A delegation of thirty members of the Futuwwa was subsequently sent, received by the … http://books.google.com/books?id=uh4xAAAAIAAJ&q=futuwwa Moreover, when Baldur von Schirach, the Reich Youth Leader, stopped in Baghdad on his return flight from Tehran in the autumn of 1937, he had an audience with King Ghazi and suggested that he should pay attention to the Futuwwa movement … http://books.google.com/books?id=uh4xAAAAIAAJ&q=A+delegation Encyclopedia of the Holocaust: Volume 2 – Israel Gutman – 1990 – 1905 pages – Page 716 In 1938 the Al-Futuwwa youth organization sent a delegate to the Nuremberg Nazi party rally, and in turn hosted the Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach in Baghdad. In 1939 all students attending secondary schools, as well as their teachers, were obliged to join.. http://books.google.com/books?&id=1SoYAAAAIAAJ&dq=Al-Futuwwa Simon, Reeva. “The Teaching of History in Iraq Before the Rashid Ali Coup of 1941.” Middle Eastern Studies 22, no.1 (January 1986); 37-51 The Iraqis, like the French, the Germans, and the Japanese during the interwar period, used their schools to inculcate nationalism. The curriculum was published and instituted… emphasized Arab nationalism and Iraq’s important role in a pan-Arab union…. accelerated recruitment by the Iraqi ministry of Education of Syrian and Palestinian teachers… From 1920 until 1941, the three men instrumental in foreign educational policy and in impanting a nationalist ideology in the schools were Muhammad Fadhi al-Jamali, Sami Shawkat and, most important, Sati al-Husri. Sami Shawkat, a physician not a pedagogue, with little interest in Iraqi education beyond instilling the militarist sprit in the schools, is most noted for his lectures to students on the ‘Profession of Death’, telling them that the most important thing for them to learn was how to kill and how to die. He helped to institute military instruction in the schools and promoted an Iraqi Hitler Youth-type paramilitary youth organization, the Futuwwah, included German as the third language in the secondary schools, and sent student… http://www.jstor.org/pss/4283095 Republic of fear: the politics of modern Iraq – Page 179 – Kanan Makiya – 1998 – 323 pages The Muthanna Club, along with its affiliate the Palestine Defence League and the Futuwwa organization, … Shawkat carried a letter from the Mufti to von Papen congratulating Hitler and referring to the struggle against “the democracies … http://books.google.com/books?id=frDO73fi83IC&pg=PA179 Sovereign creations: pan-Arabism and political order in Syria and Iraq, Malik Mufti, 1996 [286 pages], pp. 28-29 The architect of Iraq’s education policy was Sati’ al-Husri… “German nationalism, with its emphasis upon language and history as unifying factors, was the perfect model for Arab nationalism… In accordance with this nationalist agenda, Husri’s educational policy sought to instill a sense of common identity in the Iraqi people by stressing Arab history and culture, promoting standard Arabic over regional dialects, and trying to suppress particularistic identities such as those of the Shi’is, Kurds, Christians, and Jews. After 1923… Husri, along with his successors Fadhil Jamail and Sami Shawkat pressed ahead with their militaristic brand of national education, importing in the process large numebers of foreigners (particularly Palestinians) to teach Arab history and culture. Despite some trepidation at the xenophobic extremes to which Husri and Sami Shawkat often went, Faisal and his advisers appreciated their efforts at laying the ideological foundations for Hashemite pan-Arabism. http://books.google.com/books?id=px20DEwGH6cC&pg=PA28 Pan-Arabism’s Legacy of Confrontation with Iran By: Dr. Kaveh Farrokh …Arab racism against Iranians… Satia Al-Husri spawned a whole generation of men who advocated violence. One example is Sami Shawkat who is famous for his 1933 speech “Sina’at al-Mawt” (manufacture of death) in which he rationalizes mass violence and war as the way to achieve Arab aspirations. Tragically, this speech was widely distributed in Arab schools and in Iraq in particular. It is interesting that Shawkat teaches that “force is the soil which sprouts the seeds of truth”. Although not widely known, Shawkat was a main force in the organization of the Futuwwa Youth Organization – a movement modeled directly after the Nazi Hitler Youth Movement. The Futuwwa set the pace for future Arab chauvinist movements, such as the B’aath party of Iraq and today’s followers of Bin Laden. It is interesting to note that Shawkat’s ideas became somewhat too hot to handle, even for the pan-Arabists – Satia Al-Husri later disowned Sami Shawkat. It is worth noting that Sami Shawkat’s brother, Naji, who by 1941 was a member of the Arab committee in Iraq (which had absorbed the Futuwwa), gave Franz von Papen (a high ranking German official of Nazi Germany in 1941) a letter which actually congratulated Hitler for the brutality that he inflicted upon the Jews. http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/history-article2.htm History Matters: Past as Prologue in Building Democracy in Iraq by E Davis – 2005 During the 1930s, Pan-Arabists developed proto-fascist organizations such as the al-Muthanna Club and its al-Futuwwa movement, and in June 1941 they participated in an attack on Baghdad’s Jewish community. http://www.fpri.org/orbis/4902/davis.historymattersiraq.pdf The Farhud [United States Holocaust Museum] The outbreak of mob violence against Baghdad Jewry known as the Farhud (Farhud is an Arabic term best translated as “pogrom” or “violent dispossession”) erupted on June 1, 1941. It was a turning point in the history of the Jews in Iraq. In Baghdad the results of this policy were much more severe. On the afternoon of June 1, 1941, when the Regent and his entourage returned to Baghdad and British troops surrounded the city, the Jews believed that the danger from the pro-Nazi regime had passed. They ventured out to celebrate the traditional Jewish harvest festival holiday of Shavuot. Riots broke out, targeting the Jews of Baghdad. These riots, known as the Farhud, lasted for two days, ending on June 2, 1941. Iraqi soldiers and policemen who had supported Rashid Ali al-Gailani’s coup d’etat in April and Futtuwa youths who were sympathetic to the Axis incited and led the riots. Unlike in previous incidents, rioters focused on killing. Many civilians in Baghdad and Bedouins from the city’s outskirts joined the rioters, taking part in the violence and helping themselves to a share in the booty. During the two days of violence, rioters murdered between 150 and 180 Jews, injured 600 others, and raped an undetermined number of women. They also looted some 1,500 stores and homes. The community leaders estimated that about 2,500 families — 15 percent of the Jewish community in Baghdad — suffered directly from the pogrom. According to the official report of the commission investigating the incident, 128 Jews were killed, 210 were injured, and over 1,500 businesses and homes were damaged. Rioting ended at midday on Monday, June 2, 1941, when Iraqi troops entered Baghdad, killed some hundreds of the mob in the streets and reestablished order in Baghdad. Iraq [Jewish Virtual Library Fascism and Antisemitism (1933–1941) Iraqi Jews did not know the kind of *antisemitism that prevailed in some Christian states of Europe. The first attempt to copy modern European antisemitic libels was made in 1924 by Sādiq Rasūl al-Qādirī, a former officer in the White Russian Army. He published his views, particularly that of worldwide conspiracy, in a Baghdadi newspaper. The Jewish response in its own weekly newspaper, al-Misbah, compelled al-Qādirī to apologize, although he later published his antisemitic memoirs. At that time the press drew a clear dividing line between Judaism and Zionism. This line became blurred in the 1930s, along with the demand to remove Jews from the genealogical tree of the Semitic peoples. This anti-Jewish trend coincided with Faysal’s death in 1933, which brought about a noticeable change for the Jewish community. His death also came at the same time as the Assyrian massacre, which created a climate of insecurity among the minorities. Iraqi Jewry at that time had been subject to threats and invectives emanating not only from extremist elements, but also from official state institutions as well. Dr. Sāmī Shawkat, a high official in the Ministry of Education in the pre-war years and for a while its director general, was the head of “al-Futuwwa,” an imitation of Hitler’s Youth. In one of his addresses, “The Profession of Death,” he called on Iraqi youth to adopt the way of life of Nazi Fascists. In another speech he branded the Jews as the enemy from within, who should be treated accordingly. In another, he praised Hitler and Mussolini for eradicating their internal enemies (the Jews). Syrian and Palestinian teachers often supported Shawkat in his preaching. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0010_0_09571.html Armies of the young: child soldiers in war and terrorism – Page 107 – David M. Rosen – 2005 – 199 pages for boys between the ages of fifteen and twenty, they were also modeled on Hitler Youth. … Iraq he helped set up an Arab Committee to promote collaboration between Iraq and the Nazis and brought the Iraqi al-Futuwwa under its control. Republic of fear: the politics of modern Iraq By Kanan Makiya, university of California press [page 178] The pan-Arab government also sponsored the Futuwwa Youth organization, modelled after the Hitler Youth movement. http://books.google.com/books?id=MBSNs4sIYn0C&pg=PA178 Learning Not to Love Saddam by Paul Berman, New York Times, March 31, 2003 Modern totalitarianism arose in Europe in the years after World War I. It took different forms — Fascist, Communist and Nazi. But the movements shared a number of traits: apocalyptic and paranoid ideologies, a total police state, a taste for murder. Other versions of that same totalitarianism arose in Arab and Muslim countries in precisely those years. One of the Muslim variations eventually emerged as the Islamist radicalism of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and other movements. A second version evolved into Saddam Hussein’s Baath dictatorship. The European inspiration for those movements is not too hard to detect, especially in the case of the Baath, which got started in 1943 in an atmosphere of ardent sympathy for the fascist Axis. Kanan Makiya, an expatriate Iraqi intellectual and a main author of the transition report, described in his book “Republic of Fear” how these European movements influenced Islamic radicalism philosophically and organizationally. There was, for instance, the model of the Hitler Youth for the pan-Arabist Futuwwa Youth of the 1930’s, which, Mr. Makiya pointed out, pioneered a paramilitary culture “as if presaging the Baath militas” in later years. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/opinion/31BERM.html?pagewanted=all Die Welt des Islams‎ – Page 136 – Religion – 1985 The Futuwwa-movement in Iraq was a youth-organization, not a political party. The Futuwwah was an official youth movement which comprised all students of the higher class of high school. http://books.google.com/books?id=bQcsAAAAIAAJ&dq=Futuwwah A delegation of the Futuwwah participated in the march of the Hitler-Jugend at the Parteitag in Nuremberg in September 1938. http://books.google.com/books?id=bQcsAAAAIAAJ&q=hitler-jugend Armies of the young: child soldiers in war and terrorism, by David M. Rosen, 2005, p. 106 The al-Futuwwa youth groups connected Palestinian youth to fascist youth movements elsewhere in the Middle East. Rethinking nationalism in the Arab Middle East by James P. Jankowski, I. Gershoni – 1997 – History – 372 pages, P. 18 Pan-Arab radicalism was expressed in diverse forms in 1930s Iraq. In 1935 the “Muthana Club” was established in Baghdad and rapidly became a forum for the educated from all parts of the Arab world and a center for the dissemination of Arab nationalist propaganda. Nationalist radicalization was also evident in the formation, in the late 1930s, of s paramilitary youth movement [al-futuwwa] modeled on fascist and Nazi youth organizations, sponsored by the government and officially instituted in Iraqi schools http://books.google.com/books?id=_a1NNyZUXAgC&pg=PA18 Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East, Volume 2, Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, Richard W. Bulliet, Macmillan Reference USA, 1996, pp. 686-882 In another context, the term has been used in Iraq, first in the 1930s and again since the Ba th party takeover in 1968, to refer to paramilitary youth groups strongly reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany. In Ba’thist Iraq, … http://books.google.com/books?id=KE8YAAAAIAAJ&dq=hitler+youth the schools by Sayi al-Husri, Muhammad… al-JAMAIL, and Sami SHAWKAT throught the 1920 and 1930s, was supported by Faisal’s heir, GHAZI IBN FAISAL, who ruled from 1933 until 1939. The creation of pan-Arab clubs, such as al-Muthanna and the FUTUWWA youth movement, made Baghdad a center for pan-Arabism and a haven for exiled Palestinians, led by Jerusalem mufti (Muslim religious.. http://books.google.com/books?id=KE8YAAAAIAAJ&dq=futuwwa Najjada [Najjada, Najjadeh] (Nasuli) * Admired Nazism/fascism. * “Arabism above all.” Nazism in Syria and Lebanon By Nordbruch Goetz, p. 54 Muslim schools that were directed by the Maqasid Islamic Charitable Association provided Najada a pool of potential members. As a Muslim ‘twin’ to the Phalangists, as the organization was often described, Najjada adopted a pan-Arab nationalist vision, calling for a suppression of all foreign influences. The ambivalent relation of such pan- Arab concepts to ethnocentric and racial nationalism became visible in its slogan ‘Arabism above all’ (al-‘uruba fawqa al-jami’). http://books.google.com/books?id=iAWBkDAv4TkC&pg=PA54 Colonial citizens: republican rights, paternal privilege, and gender in French Syria and Lebanon, by Elizabeth Thompson, [Columbia University Press] 2000 [ISBN 0231106610, 97802311066103] …admired the youth groups and physical discipline at the Berlin Olympics, and their Muslim counterparts, the Najjada (Helpers), promoted by Muhi al-Din Nasuli, a leader of the Muslim scouting movement and newspaper publisher… the pan-Arabism of the Najjada… of… Lebanese groups… Since at least 1933, newspapers had been printing Hitler’s speeches and excerpts from Mem Kampf. Hitler and Mussolini were viewed in both Syria and Lebanon as models of strong statebuilders… criticized “moral chaos” in public life and adopted the motto “Arabism Above All” on his newspaper’s masthead, which also printed glowing accounts of German youth’s support of Hitler… http://www.ciaonet.org/book/the01/the01_11.pdf [CIA document THE CURRENT SITUATION IN PALESTINE, ORE 49, 20 October 1947] There are two para-military Arab organizations, the Futuwwa and the Najjada, both of which are more or less controlled by the Arab higher Committe under the leadership of the Grand Mufti. http://www.foia.cia.gov/browse_docs_full.asp Handcshar SS Muslim Nazi units [Bosnians, Albanians] * Three divisions of Nazi Muslim socldiers: 1) The Waffen SS 13th Handschar (“Knife”). 2.) The 23rd Kama (“Dagger”). 3.) The 21st Skenderbeg. * Grand Mufti inspired the “holy warriors” [Jihad for Nazi victory]. * Some of these ex-Nazi soldiers came to fight with Arab Muslim “brethren” against Israel in 1948. Cairo to Damascus – Pages 419-420 – John Roy Carlson – [READ BOOK] 2007 – 520 pages The Mufti also organized an Arab Brigade and a Moslem Legion to fight side by side with the Nazis. An Arab leader accepted a commission as colonel in the Wehrmacht. Turning ing to large Moslem populations in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, the Mufti with the help of Pavelich, the Croatian quisling, recruited substantial numbers of Moslem Holy Warriors who fought as the Waffen SS, and the “Free Arabia” movement. the Mufti visited these troops frequently praying with them, exhorting them to fight for Allah. http://books.google.com/books?id=I-nzRJpb5CIC&pg=PA419 “FASCIST MUSLIM GROUP EXPECTED TO LOOT TEL AVIV IN 1948,” by Seth J. Frantzman [San Francisco Sentinal, 10 May, 2008] On a pleasant Thursday in December 1948, Emilio Traubner, a correspondent for The Palestine Post, found himself near Abu Kabir, not far from Jaffa. Trenches and expended cartridges were strewn about, reminders of the fighting between units of the Irgun and local Arab forces that had taken place there seven months previously. There was a large Arab villa from where Traubner recovered a diary. It turned out to be the daily record of Yusuf Begovic of Pale, a town near Sarajevo in modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. In it Begovic had described his activities as a cook for the “Arab Army of Liberation.” Traubner described who Begovic had been serving: “35 Yugoslav Muslims who had a good reason to expect to be among the first to occupy and loot Tel Aviv, were part of a group of some thousands who came to the Middle East to join the jihad against Israel.” What were Yugoslav Muslims doing in Jaffa in 1948? How had they managed to get themselves all the way to the Holy Land? What had motivated them? Who had recruited them? What was the Bosnian or Albanian connection to the Palestinians, if there was one? There was a Bosnian connection: Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, had been in Bosnia in the 1940s. Had he recruited these men? What had become of them? It turned out that in 2005 a Bosnian had given an interview in Lebanon to a Croatian newspaper and claimed to have fought in the 1948 war. The story began to crystallize. The Long Shadow of Haj Amin In October 1937, Haj Amin al-Husseini, mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Arab Higher Committee, was hiding from the British authorities in the Haram al-Sharif, the holy sanctuary atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. On October 13, disguised as a Beduin, he fled to Lebanon via Jaffa. In Lebanon he received sanctuary from the French mandatory authorities but he fled again with the outbreak of war in 1939. This time he made his way to Baghdad disguised as a woman. In Baghdad in 1940 and 1941 he increased his contacts with Germany, offering to aid the Nazis in return for their help in gaining independence for the Arab states. The Italians helped him enter Turkey, and then he made his way to Rome on October 11. He met with Mussolini and then with Hitler on November 28. After the failure of various schemes to create an Arab military unit he eventually settled for recruiting Muslim volunteers to aid the Nazis from the Balkans, Bosnia and eventually Kosovo. In speaking to potential recruits, Husseini stressed the connections they had to the Muslim nation fighting the British throughout the world: “The hearts of all Muslims must today go out to our Islamic brothers in Bosnia, who are forced to endure a tragic fate. They are being persecuted by the Serbian and communist bandits, who receive support from England and the Soviet Union… They are being murdered, their possessions are robbed and their villages are burned. England and its allies bear a great accountability before history for mishandling and murdering Europe’s Muslims, just as they have done in the Arabic lands and in India.” Three divisions of Muslim soldiers were recruited: The Waffen SS 13th Handschar (”Knife”) and the 23rd Kama (”Dagger”) and the 21st Skenderbeg. The Skenderbeg was an Albanian unit of around 4,000 men, and the Kama was composed of Muslims from Bosnia, containing 3,793 men at its peak. The Handschar was the largest unit, around 20,000 Bosnian Muslim volunteers. According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, “These Muslim volunteer units, called Handschar, were put in Waffen SS units, fought Yugoslav partisans in Bosnia and carried out police and security duties in Hungary. They participated in the massacre of civilians in Bosnia and volunteered to join in the hunt for Jews in Croatia.” Part of the division also escorted Hungarian Jews from the forced labor in mine in Bor on their way back to Hungary. The division was also employed against Serbs, who as Orthodox Christians were seen by the Bosnian Muslims as enemies. The Handschar division surrendered to the British army on May 8, 1945. As many as 70,000 Bosnian Muslim POWs and their families were moved by the British army to Taranto in Italy. The creation of Marshal Tito’s Yugoslavia at the end of the war meant that former Bosnian Muslim volunteers in the German SS units could not return home for fear of prosecution or internment. George Lepre, a scholar on the history of the Handschar and author of Himmler’s Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943-1945 describes their fate: “Those Bosnians who elected to remain in the camps eventually found asylum in countries throughout the Western and Arab worlds. Many of those who settled in the Middle East later fought in Palestine against the new Israeli state.” But first they had to get to the Middle East. The formation of the Bosnian unit in 1947 The Bosnian Muslims, usually referred to as “Yugoslavs” in period newspaper accounts as well as in intelligence reports, remained in DP camps in Italy until 1947, when it was reported in The Palestine Post on April 18 that there was a “request from the Syrian government for the transfer of 8,000 Bosnian Moslem refugees at present in Italy. Yugoslav quarters here say that the Arab League has written to all Arab states, urging them to assist these Moslem DPs, and that some financial help has already been received. Yugoslav officials say that they too want these 8,000 Moslems back, as they are the Handschar Division of the German Wehrmacht which surrendered to the British… The Yugoslavs state that they view with the gravest concern the possibility of the transfer of this group to the Middle East.” By December 1947 a nucleus of former Handschar officers had made their way to Syria and were beginning to reconstitute their unit in Damascus. A report by Israel Baer in the Post noted that “the latest recruits to the Syrian army are members of the Bosnian Waffen SS… It is reported that they are directing a school for commando tactics for the Syrian Army.” No doubt the fledgling Syrian army which had been born in 1946 was in need of officers and trainers with experience. Emilio Traubner, writing on December 3, 1947, noted that the International Refugee Organization (IRO) was even convinced to fund the travel of Bosnian Muslims from Italy to the Middle East so that they could find homes since they refused to be repatriated to Yugoslavia. In January 1948 Arab agents were working to recruit Bosnians for the fight in Palestine. On February 2, it was reported that 25 Bosnian Muslims had arrived in Beirut and were moving to Damascus to join 40 other Bosnians already there. A report by Jon Kimche on February 4 further noted that up to 3,500 were being transferred to Syria to fight alongside Fawzi Kaukji’s Arab Liberation Army (ALA) in its invasion of Palestine. On March 14 a party of 67 Albanians, 20 Yugoslavs and 21 Croats led by an Albanian named Derwish Bashaco arrived by boat in Beirut from Italy. They were hosted by the Palestine Arab Bureau and made their way to Damascus to join the ALA. In the first week of April another 200 Bosnians arrived in Beirut. A lengthy report by Claire Neikind on March 2 described the procedure by which Arab agents were recruiting volunteers among the DPs in Italy. Men between 22 and 32 were sought and in return they would receive free passage to Beirut and their families would receive maintenance. According to Neikind, 300 men had already arrived and 90 Croatian Ustashi were also making there way. Fifty-seven were sent to Amman. Between December 1 and February 20 a total of 106 were sent to Syria. Neikind noted that “as soon as their families are settled, they enter Arab military service.” If one accepts merely the low totals from newspaper accounts it appears that there were at least 520 Bosnians, 67 Albanians and 111 Croatians in Syria or Beirut, as well as 135 Bosnians on their way to Egypt and 57 Bosnians in Jordan. Thus 890 volunteers from Yugoslavia and Albania were in the Middle East by April 1948, before Israel’s declaration of independence on May 15, 1948. Upon arrival the volunteers found their way to a camp at Katana, a military base west of Damascus that the Syrian army had provided for use by the Arab Liberation Army being assembled to invade Palestine. Here they met their commander, Fawzi Kaukji for the first time. Kaukji, 58, was a former Ottoman soldier who had fought in the Arab Revolt. Hagana intelligence estimated as many as 4,000 volunteers had joined his army. In December of 2005, Hassan Haidar Diab, a journalist in Bosnia, was able to locate Kemal Rustomovic, a Bosnian who had served with the Yugoslav volunteers. He claimed to have been a member of the Arab Salvation Army where 150 of his fellow Bosnians served under a Bosnian officer named Fuad Sefkobegovic. The Role of the Bosnians in the War of Independence Since the fall of 1947 Arab forces under Abdel Khader Husseini and other locals had harassed Jewish traffic and supplies moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. A mixed Bosnian-Arab unit of the ALA had been dispatched to aid in the siege of Jerusalem and this unit found itself embroiled in the battle for Castel between April 3 and 8, 1948. This battle was part of the Hagana’s Operation Nahshon which was intended to relieve the siege of Jerusalem. It is not clear what became of the Bosnians who fought at Castel. Some may have retired to Ramallah, where it was reported on April 16 that Muslim foreigners including Yugoslavs had taken over the best hotels and “molested” the local population. The next battle that the Bosnian units participated in was at Jaffa between April 25 and May 5. Jaffa had been allotted to the Arab state in the UN partition plan, but it was surrounded by territory allotted to the Jewish state. The battle began when the Irgun launched an attack on the city. According to the Hagana, there were 400 “Yugoslavs” and 200 Iraqis defending Jaffa. On April 28, Michel Issa, the Christian Arab commander of the Ajnadin Battalion, received orders from Kaukji to move from the Jerusalem foothills to relieve the siege of Jaffa. On the same day, Hagana intelligence noted that there were 60 “Yugoslavs” among the defenders of Jaffa. Issa arrived in Jaffa on April 29 ; the commander of Jaffa, Maj. Adil Najmuddin, deserted the city on May 1, leaving Issa and his Yugoslavs. According to Issa’s telegram to Kaukji, “Adil left [the] city by sea with all [the] Iraqis and Yugoslavs.” Prior to their departure the Yugoslavs had been billeted at local homes and their unit even included a cook. Kemal Rustomovic recalled in his interview that he had first been at Nablus, then Jaffa and finally at Jenin. Between the evacuation of the Yugoslavs by sea from Jaffa and their reunion with the ALA, the State of Israel was born on May 15, 1948. On the same day five Arab armies invaded Israel and the war became much wider. The ALA became a disorganized and largely spent force by the time it saw fighting again around Nazareth again in July. During the fighting in the North, Kaukji’s army of 2,500 men was reduced to only 800 and it was driven from Nazareth into northern Galilee. Rustomovic was one of these men according to his interview. The Post reported that the ALA still included “Yugoslavs.” On July 18 the Post reported that the British government’s intelligence had acted to “systematically sabotage [the] Palestine partition scheme” and provided as evidence the fact that England was aware of the presence of Bosnian volunteers in Syria. During the fighting in October the IDF conquered the entire Galilee and parts of Southern Lebanon. A report on November 1, detailing the capture of the Galilee, noted that some “Yugoslavs” had been captured during the fighting that had driven the ALA and the Lebanese army from Palestine and actually found the IDF in Lebanon. The Bosnians and the 1948 war, strange bedfellows? It is not known what became of the Bosnians who served with the Arab forces in the 1948 war. Rustomovic, who was born in the village of Kuti in central Bosnia in 1928, joined the Lebanese army in 1950. He served his adopted country for 30 years, married a local woman and had seven daughters and five sons with her. He was granted Lebanese citizenship, unlike the Palestine refugees who fled to Lebanon, and retired from the army in 1980. According to him, none of the Bosnians who had served in the SS ever returned to Yugoslavia. Some ended up in the US, Australia and Canada. It is assumed that some also settled in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East. Today many would be in their 80s and 90s and it is doubtful that many of them survive. In the 1990s during the Balkan wars, Arabs would journey to the Balkans to participate in war between Bosnians and Serbs. In a strange twist they would be repaying the debt incurred when 900 or more Bosnian Muslims gave up their homes and past to come to the Middle East to serve the Muslim Arab cause. The involvement of these Bosnians may be seen as an early version of the linkage of Muslim conflicts throughout the world. This has gained increased exposure lately due to the involvement of foreign Muslim volunteers in the Algerian, Lebanese, Kashmiri, Sudanese and Afghani conflicts among others. The writer is in a doctoral program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his MA thesis was on the Christian Arabs in the 1948 war. http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=12613 Admiration & worshipping * Glorification. * “The whole Arab youth is enthused by Adolf Hitler.” * Islamicizing Adolf Hitler: ‘Abu Ali,’ ‘Muhammad Haidar.’ * Admirations till today. Nazism in Syria and Lebanon. The Ambivalence of the German Option, 1933-1945 by Götz Nordbruch, Routledge, 2009, 209 pp. Hitler in the Levant: How Arabs Reacted to the Third Reich in Syria and Lebanon The whole Arab youth is enthused by Adolf Hitler, wrote Kamil Muruwwa, the young editor of the Beirut paper An-Nida’, to the German Foreign Minister in Berlin. The year after Hitler came to power, Muruwwa translated Mein Kampf from English into Arabic and published it in daily installments in An-Nida’. Now he wants to edit the series as a book. But for this, he explains in his letter, he needs an additional 600 Marks. Therefore he is asking the German government for financial support in this endeavor. The beast reawakens – Page 122 – Martin A. Lee – Routledge, 1999 [ISBN:0-415-92546-0] – 560 pages Even though he loathed Arabs (he once described them as “lacquered half-apes who ought to be whipped”), Hitler was nonetheless the idol of the paramilitary Green Shirts, Egypt’s indigenous proto-fascist moevemnt, which referred to him as Abu Ali, the “good fighter.” The dream palace of the Arabs: a generation’s odyssey Fouad Ajami – [Random House, Inc.] 1999 – 344 pages p. 78 …a popular couplet at the time taunted the French about Hitler’s victory: Ya France, hiddi W’irhali Ijaki Hitler, Abu Ali, Oh France, dismantle and be gone After you is Hitler, Abu Ali “Abu Ali” was the popular name given to neighborhood toughs, an endearing nickname. The German wreaking havoc on Europe was doing to the colonial masters … http://books.google.com/books?id=z1Yf1rEwq28C&pg=PT78 The German legation acquired an Iraqi daily, Al-Alim al-Arabi, which, beginning in October 1933 , serialized Hitler’s MEIN KAMPF, and published propaganda pieces praising the fascist regimes. Members of the intelligentsia and army officers were invited to Germany as guests of the Nazi party. Radical nationalist organizations inspired by fascist ideology were established such as… … consul in Jerusalem that “the Muslims inside and outside Palestine welcome the new … The sawstika became a welcome symbol among many Palestinians. Prevent World War III. Society for the Prevention of World War III (New York, N.Y.) – 1959 – Page 41 Abu Ali, the affectionate name given to Adolf Hitler by his admirers in Iraq, has also returned to popularity. Incidentally, the name Abu Ali means “father of Ali,” ie, father of Rashid Ali. Photographs of Hitler are appearing again. http://books.google.com/books?&id=ckHTAAAAMAAJ&dq=father+of+ali Waiting for the dawn: an autobiography – Atallah Mansour – 1975 – 155 pages – Page 15 … and from time to time we began hearing unfavourable , comments on the British, predicting their defeat at the phands of ‘Abu Ali’ — Hitler. (The name Abu Ali normally I indicates admiration for a powerful leader. … http://books.google.com/books?&id=6IFtAAAAMAAJ&dq=Abu+Ali A Genealogy of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad – Page 97-98 – David Patterson – [Cambridge University Press] 2010 – 308 pages [ISBN 0521132614, 9780521132619] “The close and at times active relationship that developed between Nazi Germany and sections of the Arab leadership, in the years from 1933 to 1945,” writes Lewis, … Party. Its leader Antun Saadeh (1904–1949) called himself the Fuhrer of the [p. 98] Syrian nation, among them Hitler became known as Abu Ali (in Egypt he was called Muhammad Haidar). The banner of the PPS displayed a stastika on a black-and-white background. Timmerman notes that this Islamic admiration of the Nazis extended into later years, when Muslims throughout the Middle East were naming their children after Adolf Hitler… http://books.google.com/books?id=lMLmK-fmf8kC&pg=PA97 The closed circle: an interpretation of the Arabs – David Pryce-Jones – [Ivan R. Dee] 2002 [ISBN 1566634407, 9781566634403] – Page 201 Preposterously, Hitler himself was Islamicized on the radio and by word of mouth as “Abu Ali,” and in Egypt at least was referred to as “Muhammad Haidar.” As such, he was prayed for in every village, … http://books.google.com/books?&id=VCQXAQAAIAAJ&dq=muhammad+haidar The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini, by Chuck Morse – 2003 – Page 31 – 186 pages In Heaven Allah, on Earth Hitler.” Many Arab intellectuals and revisionists now explain this affinity the Arabs had for Hitler and Nazism with the … The Arabs would go so far as to Islamicize Hitler’s name rendering it as Abu Ali,… The closed circle: an interpretation of the Arabs – David Pryce-Jones – 2002 – Page 194 To this day no Arab has written anything like a scholary study of the Holocaust; and the Arab expression of admiration for it have been frequent… http://books.google.com/books?id=VCQXAQAAIAAJ&q=mein+kampf [pp. 199-200] Delegations of Syrian and Iraqis attended Nuremberg Party rallies. More than one Arab translated Hitler’s Mein Kampf into [p. 200] Arabic, and among them was Yunis el-Sabawi, an Iraqi and close associate of Rashid Ali and later to be hanged by the British. http://books.google.com/books?id=VCQXAQAAIAAJ&q=yunis “occupation” crap, “palestine”, 1921, 1929, 1939, 1941, 1943, Abdu al-Huda al-Yab, Abu Ali, Achcar, Adil Arslan, Adolf Hitler, Aflaq, Ahmed Hussein, al-Banna, al-Futuwwa, al-Miqdadi, al-Muthanna, al-Muthanna Club, Albania, al-za’im, An-Nadi al-Arabi Club of Damascus, annihilation, anti semitism, Anton Saada, Arab anti-Semitism, Arab Club, Arab High Committee, Arab Legion, Arab Master Race, Arab Nazi parties, Arab Nazi Party, Arab nazis, Arab racism, Arab riots, Arab Rover Society, Arab supremacy, Arabism, Arabism is racism, Arabs, Aryans, Ba’th, Baath, Baghdad, bigotry, Blue Shirts and Green Shirts in Egypt, Bonian Nazis, Bosnia, British, collaboration, Councils for the Defense of Arab Palestine, Croatia, Darwish al-Miqdadi, early Ba’ath movement, Egypt, Emil Ghouri , ex-Mufti, Fakhri al-Barudi, Farhud, fascism, Free Arabia, fuhrer of the Arab world, futuwwa, Futuwwah in Iraq, Genocide, Grand Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini, Haj Amin el Husseini, half-apes, Hanchar, handchar, Handschar, Hassan al-banna, Hebron, Hebron massacre, Hebron massacre 1929, Himmler, History, Hitler, Hitler in the Levant, Hitler jugend, Hitler-youth, Holocaust, holy war, Ibn Saud, inferior race, intolerance, Iran, Iraq, Iron Shirts, islam, Islamic anti-Semitism, Islamic apartheid, Islamic hatred, Islamic Jihad, Islamic Nazism, Islamism is bigotry, Islamofascism, Islamonazis, Israel, Istiqal, Istiqlal, Jamal Husseini, Jerusalem, Jew-hatred, Jews, Jihad, Jimmy Carter, Jordan, Judaism, Kataeb, katd’ib, King Farouk, KKK, League for National Action, League of National Action, Lebanon, Levant, Lion Cubs of Arabism, Maktab al-di’aya wa-l-nashr wa-l-i’lam, Middle east, Misr al-Fatdh, monkeys, Moslem Guidance Society, Mufti, Muhammad Haidar, Mufti, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslims, Mussolini, Muthana Club, Muthanna, Nabi al-Azmah, Nadil Arslan, Najadeh, Najjada, Najjadah, Nasser, National Bloc, Nazi Arab, Nazi Arab alliance, Nazi Arabs, Nazi Palestine, Nazi Scouts, Nazi Palestine, Nazis, Nazism, occuptaion excuse, Palestine Defense Society, pan-Arab, pan-Islamic, peace, political Islam, politics, Rachid Ali, Rachid Ali al-Gailani, Rachid Ali al-Gaylani, racism, Rasem Khalidi, Rashid Ali, Rashid Ali al-Gailani, Religion, Reza Pahlevi, Saadat, Saddam Hussein, Saib Shawkat, Said Abd Al-Fattah al-Imam, Saudi Arabia, Shakib Arslan, SNNP, SSNP, Steel Shirts, Syria, Syrian People’s Party, Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Tajaddad Club, The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, the Dagger, the Knife, Ummar, Waffen Muslim SS, war, war of extermination, White Shirts, Wolf, WW2, WWII, Young Egypt, Yunis Al-Sabawi, Yunis el-Sabawi, Wasef Kamal, Zaki al-Jabi, Zionism Tags:"palestine", 1921, 1929, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1948, Abdu al-Huda al-Yab, Abu Ali, Achcar, Adil Arslan, al-Banna, al-futuwwa, al-Husri, al-Jundi, al-Miqdadi, al-Muthanna, al-Muthanna Club, Albania, An-Nadi al-Arabi Club of Damascus, annihilation, anti semitism, Anton Saada, Apartheid, Arab anti-semitism, Arab Club, Arab Fichte, Arab High Committee, Arab Legion, Arab master race, Arab Nazi Parties, Arab Nazi Party, Arab nazis, Arab racism, Arab riots, Arab Rover Society, Arab Supremacy, Arabism, Arabism is racism, Arabs, Aryans, Ba'th, Baath, Baathism, Baghdad, Balkans, bigotry, Blue Shirts and Green Shirts in Egypt, Bonian Nazis, Bosnia, Bosnians, British, collaboration, Councils for the Defense of Arab Palestine, Croatia, Darwish al-Miqdadi, early Ba'ath movement, Egypt, ex-Mufti, Fakhri al-Barudi, Farhud, fascism, Fee Arabia, Free Arabia, fuhrer of the Arab world, futuwwa, Futuwwah in Iraq, Genocide, Grand Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini, Haj Amin el Husseini, half-apes, Hanchar, handchar, Handschar, Hassan al-Banna, Hebron, Hebron massacre, Hebron massacre 1929, Himmler, History, hitler, Hitler in the Levant, Hitler jugend, Hitler-youth, Holocaust, holy war, Ibn Saud, inferior race, Intolerance, Iran, Iraq, Iron Shirts, Islam, Islamic anti-Semitism, Islamic Apartheid, Islamic fascism, Islamic Hatred, Islamic Jihad, Islamism, Islamism is bigotry, Islamofascism, Islamonazis, Israel, Istiqal, Istiqlal, Jamal Husseini, Jerusalem, Jews, Jihad, Jimmy Carter, Jordan, judaism, Kataeb, katd'ib, King Farouk, KKK, League for National Action, League for National Action (headed by Abdu al-Huda al-Yab, League of National Action, Lebanon, Levant, Lion Cubs of Arabism, Maktab al-di'aya wa-l-nashr wa-l-i'lam, Michel Aflaq, middle east, Misr al-Fatdh, monkeys, Moslem Brotherhood, Moslem Guidance Society, Mufti, Muslim brotherhood, Muslims, Mussolini, Mussolini of Islam, Muthana Club, Muthanna, Nabi al-Azmah, Nadil Arslan, Najadeh, Najjada, Najjadah, Nasser, National Bloc, Nazi Arab, Nazi Arabs, Nazi Palestine, Nazis, Nazism, occupation crap, occuptaion excuse, Palestine Defense Society, pan Arabism, Pan Islamism, Pan-Arab, pan-Islamic, politics, Rachid Ali, Rachid Ali al-Geilani, racism, Rashid Ali, Rashid Ali al-Gailani, religion, Reza Pahlevi, Saadat, Saib Shawkat, Said Abd Al-Fattah al-Imam, Saudi Arabia, Shakib Arslan, Slavic Muslims, SNNP, SS, SSNP, Steel Shirts, Syria, Syrian People's Party, Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Tajaddad Club, The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, the Dagger, the Knife, Umma, Ummar, war of extermination, White Shirts, Wolf, WW2, WWII, Young Egypt, Zaki al-Jabi, Zionism

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École paroissiale / École Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Rosaire / École Saint-Wilfrid Institution founded in 1878, Victoriaville, Québec. In September 1949, thanks to the support of the minister, Wilfrid Labbé, Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Rosaire School (a branch of Sainte-Victoire Boarding School in Victoriaville) moved into a wing of the former Collège des Frères du Sacré-Cœur on Saint-Augustin Street. It was named Saint-Wilfrid School in appreciation for the minister’s support. It was a parishelementary and high school for girls. From October 1949, Sister Saint-Côme (Berthe-Marie Brosseau) was the director and Sister Sainte-Marie-Anna (Marguerite Durand), her assistant. In 1949, the school offered courses up to and including Grade 9; in 1951, Grade 10 was added; in 1952, Grade 11; in 1959, Grade 12. From November 1954, films were frequently shown for pedagogical purposes. The students enjoyed the monthly screenings of documentaries that were organized by the School Commission. From January 1955, students followed courses in cinema at Collège Sacré-Cœur and commented on the films that were presented. In May 1957, the first issue of the school’s monthly publication called Voix de l’école Saint-Wilfrid was published. In September 1957, because music auditions were part of the new high school curriculum, the school’s administration purchased a turntable and a number of records recommended by the Department of Public Instruction. The school also acquired twelve type writers and study cards for courses in botany, zoology and biology. In October 1957, influenza caused so many absences that the School Commission closed the school from October 16 to 18. On March 3, 1959, about ten years after the transfer to Saint-Augustin Street, a short-circuit fire ravaged the four floors of a section of the building. Fire and water damage interrupted courses. The School Commission promised the sisters a new school. Bois-Francs Regional High School for girls was completed three years later, in 1962. On June 22, 1962, Saint-Wilfrid School closed. The sisters who taught in the regional high school lived in Saint-David School and commuted to their new school. NB: This text was written using documents found in the archival holdings in our possession and does not constitute a complete administrative history of the teaching establishment. Exterior view - École paroissiale / École Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Rosaire / École Saint-Wilfrid, Victoriaville, Quebec, [before 1958]. Victoriaville, Quebec Adresse à déterminer

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Florence Kelley Lived: September 12, 1859—February 17, 1932 (aged 72) Career: Social and political reformer Education: Law degree, Northwestern University Website: http://florencekelley.northwestern.edu/ Florence Kelley was an American social and political reformer who fought for government regulation to protect working women and children. She was the first female factory inspector in the United States. Kelley was born on September 12, 1859. Her father was William D. Kelley, an abolitionist, founder of the Republican Party, judge and longtime U.S. Congressman. Her family were Philadelphia Quakers deeply committed to the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage and the education and literacy of women. She graduated from Cornell University in 1882 and studied law and government at the University of Zurich. As a student, she was a member of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, a member of the German Social Democratic party, and an activist for woman's suffrage and African-American civil rights. Her English translation of Friedrich Engels' book, "The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844," is still in print today. She earned her law degree from Northwestern University in 1895. From 1891 through 1899, Kelley lived at the Hull House settlement in Chicago. In 1892, the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics hired her to investigate the "sweating" system in the garment industry and the federal commissioner of labor asked her to survey Chicago's 19th ward. In 1983, she was appointed chief factory inspector, a newly created position, by Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld. From 1899 through 1926, she lived at the Henry Street settlement house in New York City. In 1899, she founded and served as the first general secretary of the National Consumers League (NCL), a position she held for 30 years. Through her work at the NCL, she helped prepare the Brandeis Brief, a defense of 10-hour workday legislation for women that set the precedent of the Supreme Court's recognition of sociological evidence, used later in Brown v. Board of Education. She also helped launch a minimum-wage campaign that eventually lead to the passage of 14 state laws for women, and then she later helped extend the legislation to male workers. In 1902, Kelley was a founder of the National Child Labor Committee. In 1909, she helped organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1919, she was a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She also served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for several years. She continued to advocate for working women and children until her death. Kelley died on February 17, 1932, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Child Labor & Women's Suffrage - July 22, 1905

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Located in the Webster Center, Staake Gymnasium is home to the Babson men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball programs. Named after Babson Athletics Hall of Fame member and former Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs Paul C. Staake, this beautiful facility features six baskets, bleacher seating for 650 people, and a traditional hardwood floor that can be divided into two full-sized basketball courts. A mezzanine area overlooking the court is available for filming and radio broadcasts, while a professional-style scorers' table seats up to 12 during basketball games. The facility also features a wireless internet connection. Staake Gymnasium is open during the Webster Center's general hours, although availability is subject to change. Staake Gymnasium is on the ground floor of the Webster Center, which is located near the northwest corner of the Babson campus. From the main entrance, follow College Drive to the second stop sign. Turn left at the stop sign and bear left toward the Webster Center when the road splits. Visitor and student parking is available on the garage roof on your right. More visitor parking is available beyond the Webster Center on your left. For directions to campus, click here. Seating & Tickets The bleachers at Staake Gymnasium seat up to 650 people, while additional standing room areas and alternate seating options can accommodate up to 1500 total spectators. Areas for handicap seating are also available near each entrance. There are no admission fees for Babson's regular season contests in Staake Gymnasium, although admission fees will apply for NEWMAC and NCAA Tournament games. Those fees will be advertised on the front page of the athletics site when applicable.

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HomeMinor Soul Album Review – Minor Soul, Tiger October 15, 2014 October 16, 2014 ajh0123 Album, Indie, Minor Soul, Pop, Review, Soft Rock AJR, Album, Indie, Minor Soul, Pop, Review, Soft Rock A few days earlier I wrote about Indie-Pop group Minor Soul, whose second album Tiger just released yesterday. The album is full of soothing melodies filled with acoustic sound. The brothers follow up their first album with some beautiful tracks in Tiger. Let’s break down the album track-by-track: 1. Nothing At All – One of the group’s singles for the album was Nothing At All, which ends up being my favorite of the album. It is upbeat and catchy, though it does not give a great idea of what the album will sound like. The song is pop-y and contradicts the calm sound of most of the other tracks. I still like the song a lot, just don’t expect the other songs to be similar. 9.5/10 2. Summer Nights – I am amazed by the vocals on this song, and would not be surprised if this became the most popular song on Tiger. While I like listening to Nothing At All the most because of its upbeat tone, this one is a beautiful acoustic masterpiece. Without a doubt the best song on the album. 9.75/10 3. Charlie Chaplin – Another single, and one of the most popular Minor Soul songs, is Charlie Chaplin. It’s a catchy track that picks up pace at the hook. The deep harmonies aren’t as impressive as the proceeding tracks, but it is an enjoyable song. 9/10 4. Running Home – I was truly impressed by the complexity of this song, and it was close to being my favorite on the album. The verses between the hook are not as exciting as the chorus though, except for the brothers’ harmonies together. I could see this also being a big hit song though. 9.5/10 5. Scissor Fingers – I can feel a change of pace for the LP in this song. The acoustic sound is more apparent and the vocals show heavy influence from Soft Rock. The pitch gets a bit too high sometimes in the verses, but the hook is smooth and cute. It is definitely one of the catchiest tracks on Tiger. 8.5/10 6. Old Shoes – Guitar dominates this song, similar to the rate of the previous song. There is a lot of passion before the hook, which is interesting to hear from the smooth vocals of Minor Soul. The bridge sounds a lot like Owl City, not sure why but it reminds me of them. It’s slow but very enjoyable. 9.25/10 7. Cards – From what I hear, this song is pretty popular already. It’s no surprise either. Despite the almost Country-sound of the first stanza, the song picks up pace and leads into an almost Alternative hook. It has a similar complex chorus to Running Home, but with a more consistent pace. 9.5/10 8. Walls and Ceillings – I was surprised by the beat to this song, which is much different from the rest of the album. It does prove, however, that this group knows how to change their sound up a bit every album. That says a lot about a group, and the Pop-sound of Walls and Ceillings, though not exactly my favorite, stands out as different and initiative. 9.25/10 9. High and Low – Right away this song leads to a slow love ballad. If you like a slower Indie sound, this track will be up there in your favorites. The long notes on the hook is incredibly soothing and the calm nature of this song is definitely achieved and consistently carried out. 9.25/10 10. Babylon – Similar to High and Low, Babylon first appears to be a slow ballad. However the hook picks up quickly and transitions into a passionate piece. The next stanza is a bit higher paced and the change is pulled off well to make the song still enjoyable without being too exciting or too calm. The music is similar to a Bastille or One Direction song, who I have praised since the beginning. I could see a track like this being a good model for newer songs from Minor Soul for its band-like sound. The bridge is fun and catchy and works well with the complex song. 9.5/10 11. Tiger – The final song is named after the album itself. The song is a slow and smooth track, explaining their inability to change a woman into what they want, just like they could not make a tiger change its stripes. I like the message, but the sound is basically just vocals with little instrumental. The voices sound great but just feels a bit like an empty shell. 8.25/10 So, that averages to about 9.25/10. The album has some very good songs on it and it is currently one of my favorites. Minor Soul deserves way more recognition and I think the top-rated songs in this review at least deserve a listen. No matter what music you like, it will be easy to find a song you like on here. You can buy their album on iTunes now, and find them on several social media outlets. So enjoy Tiger and if you like it, go back and listen to their debut album, Home Is Where You Are: EDIT: I had forgotten Cards was produced by Ajr, so I’m sure that has something to do with it being a good song. Artist Recommendation – Minor Soul October 9, 2014 October 15, 2014 ajh0123 Artist, Indie, Minor Soul, Music, Pop, Recommendation AJR, Aritst, Indie, Minor Soul, Music, Pop, Recommendation It’s time for another artist recommendation! Here we have Minor Soul, a duo of British brothers who make acoustic-pop Indie-type music. Jake and Max have a soothing sound working together, especially in their upcoming album, Tiger. This year they are even going on tour with I’m Ready creators AJR. The music features plenty of slow acoustic melodies, several of which are love songs. The tracks are very calm and pleasant to listen to. If you like Indie music this group will definitely be in your favorites soon. I really like their songs overall, but my favorites are definitely That’s Just Love and Ocean Eyes from their Home Is Where You Are album, along with Nothing At All (my favorite of the three). Their music reminds me an Indie Red Hot Chili Peppers in their prime. I’m not good at comparisons but you can make out of that what you want. Overall, if I had to give any feedback on their music or give you something to look out for, the albums have a similar sound in each song. If you like one of the songs, you will like them all, and vice-versa. With all of that said, my rating for the group is 9.5/10. They provide a great acoustic-pop/Indie sound that they seem to be going for, and the vocals are only improving through each album. I recommend at the very least a listen to my favorites, and if you like these you can find most of their music for cheap on iTunes, or on their official YouTube channel. And if you really like them you can see them in concert opening for AJR at a steal of a price (if you ask me, Silver Springs near me is only $16 per person!). I’m personally considering it for myself. So try out their music below and see what you think, this is only a sample of what they have to offer:

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Belarus ready to normalize relations with USA – FM Makey Belarus and the United States are ready to fully normalize their bilateral cooperation, Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey said Monday at the official ceremony to unveil a commemorative plaque for American Ruth Waller, an employee of the Belarus Mission of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), on Minsk secondary school No.130. Attending the event, U.S. Charge d’Affaires Scott Rauland expressed hope that the return of the U.S. Ambassador to Belarus would be a good step forward in the development of relations between the two countries,. In turn, Uladzimir Makey noted that the work is underway to help the countries conduct a full-fledged dialogue between the countries. Watch our video (English subtitles): “I do believe that such steps informatively and emotionally foster the rapprochement between the Belarusian and American nations. We should not look at each other through gun sights. We should talk to each other, have an open dialogue. Of course, sometimes it is really hard. But we should talk in order to find compromise deals to the issues that seem insolvable. Only through a dialogue and cooperation, through building positive atmosphere we will be able to gain understanding and establish close ties. At the moment, Belarus and the United States are just at the level of gradual expansion of positive atmosphere in our relations, and it is my strong conviction that the process will continue, because the both sides are ready to fully normalize our mutual relations. Belarus is a small country, we realize what role the USA plays and will be playing in the world. And we are interested in the full-scale restoration of our relations with the United States.” Read also: Hope for Belarus-USA new stage. Russia’s main ally meets with Pentagon rep Due to restrictions imposed unilaterally by the Belarusian Government in 2008 on the number of U.S. diplomats allowed in Minsk, the American Embassy was forced to reduce its staff from 35 to five diplomats as well as withdraw its Ambassador. The number of U.S. diplomats was later increased to six in July 2014. Belsat.eu Tags: Minsk, Uladzimir Makey

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Jill O'Rourke The ways we watch TV and movies have evolved, and it's time for the talent in front of and behind the camera to do the same. Film Forward speaks on the initiatives to diversify the film industry and the stories it tells. New articles premiere every second Thursday of — and throughout — the month. The importance of an open dialogue about mental health cannot be overstated, and one avenue for encouraging such a conversation is through popular culture. As a number of celebrities speak candidly about their own real-life experiences with mental health concerns, it's also vital to represent these types of experiences honestly and respectfully on screen. This is the goal of the Community Access NYC Mental Health Film Festival, which has been screening films and fighting stigma since 2005. Described as "the oldest and largest mental health film festival in the United States," the event is hosted by Community Access, which advocates for people with mental health concerns in New York City by providing housing, education, and other services. "The NYC Mental Health Film Festival is about building community and showing the lives and humanity of people living with mental health concerns," Community Access Development Associate Billy Glidden tells A Plus. "In this way, we hope to change the harmful, stigmatizing narratives associated with mental health issues in our society." Unfortunately, popular media often perpetuates these harmful stereotypes. Those who enjoy horror movies or even superhero franchises such as Batman have likely noticed how frequently mental health issues are associated with villainy. In such instances, real-life conditions are often misrepresented. M. Night Shyamalan's 2017 movie Split, for example, was criticized for its depiction of a man with dissociative identity disorder as a kidnapper. Dr. Garrett Marie Deckel told CNN that the film could possibly "upset and potentially exacerbate symptoms" among people actually living with DID, adding that such individuals are rarely violent. "It sends a harmful, misleading message — one that reflects broader fears and misconceptions in our society," Glidden says of such depictions. "People living with mental health concerns are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it. Such portrayals erase that reality, and reinforce the stereotype that someone living with a mental health concerns should be shunned and avoided." Attendees sit in a theater at the Community Access NYC Mental Health Film Festival. Photo: Sean Sime The MHFF is working to challenge these inaccurate and unflattering onscreen portrayals by telling honest stories. As Glidden explains, "At our festival, we share the real stories of people living with mental health concerns — stories that remind us of the tremendous courage and resilience such people demonstrate each and every day." That representation is important behind-the-scenes as well. According to the festival website, mental health recipients are also involved in organizing the event, from selecting films to volunteering. Starting in 2016, the festival introduced the Changing Minds Young Filmmakers Competition, to give filmmakers aged 15 to 25 an opportunity to share stories about mental health. The winning short film earns a cash prize and is screened at the festival. Filmmakers are encouraged to submit films which "promote social justice," "combat stereotypes," and "convey a message of hope." "Most mental health concerns start at a young age — 14 years old, according to some studies. We believed that young people had stories to tell, and that by giving them the opportunity to share these stories, we could help work toward a world where honest, open conversations about mental health wouldn't be such an anomaly," Glidden says of the competition, adding that the organization received more than 800 film submissions this year alone. "Screening the winning young filmmaker film at the festival is invariably one of the day's highlights." The organization also welcomes speakers and panelists to share thoughts and lead discussions about mental health topics. Last year at the Community Access Gala, actor and film festival supporter John Turturro gave a speech about caring for his brother, who "lives with a serious mental health condition" and is a Community Access tenant. "Today, thanks to Community Access, life is different for me, and more importantly, for Ralph," the actor shared. A group stands outside the Village East Cinema with a marquee advertising the Community Access NYC Mental Health Film Festival. Photo: Sean Sime It's important for individuals to see people like them represented positively on screen, and that includes those with mental health concerns. The Community Access NYC Mental Health Film Festival has screened more than 50 films over the years, but it's only one source of such representation. As Glidden tells A Plus, you also have the power as a moviegoer to help change the conversations around mental health. "Viewers can do their part to spread the word about the truth about mental health concerns," he says. "The more that public understanding of mental health improves, the more accurate the onscreen representation of mental health concerns will be. It is part of an ongoing process of sharing stories, educating the public, and pushing to have people's basic humanity recognized." Tickets are now available for this year's festival, which will be held at the Village East Cinema in New York City on Saturday, October 13. "The festival is a great opportunity for audiences to see great films and learn from one another," Glidden says, encouraging people to attend. "In the process, we hope we're helping to make the world a gentler, more compassionate place." Cover image: Chaninny / Shutterstock.com Tags: mental health awareness, community access, mental health film festival, mental health in film, mental health in film, nyc film festivals, billy glidden News Jill O'Rourke She Lost Her Job For Flipping Off Trump's Motorcade. Now She's Running For Office. "We have a right to peacefully protest."

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