7 Soldiers Killed In Terror Attack On Army Unit In Nagrota Near Jammu
30 November, 2016 Tanya Nanda
In a major terror attack on an army artillery unit in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nagrota two officers and five soldiers have been killed on Tuesday morning. Heavily armed suicide attackers entered the unit at 5.30 am with grenades and forced their way in.
In a separate strike, another group of terrorists attacked a BSF patrol at Chamliyal in the Ramgarh sector of Samba district. A BSF DIG was among four injured in the incident. While three terrorists were killed in Nagrota, another three were gunned down at Chamliyal.
The terrorists – there were reportedly three – fired indiscriminately at the Officers’ Mess before storming the building.
Nagrota, which is around 20 km from Jammu, is the headquarters of the army’s 16 Corps, a massive military formation that defends the borders and fights terrorists in the greater Jammu region. The army camp is surrounded by thick forests and a river flows just behind it.
The unit is highly fortified, said officers, but the terrorists were from the fidayeen or suicide squad and were “determined to get in”.
Nagrota, 20 km from Jammu, is the headquarters of the army’s 16 Corps.
The army has cordoned off the area and all schools have been shut down. Traffic has been stopped on the highway, which is very close to the camp.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said: “Statistics have shown the attack is on military installations. Civilians not being targeted.”
In a second incident, the Border Security Force intercepted a group of terrorists and killed three of them while they were attempting to cross over at the International Border at the Samba sector.
There has been a spurt in attacks and infiltration attempts by terrorists from across the border over the past few weeks.
In September, 19 soldiers were killed when terrorists from Pakistan attacked an army base in Uri. A few days later, the army carried out surgical strikes across the Line of Control targeting staging areas for terrorists planning to attack Indian cities.


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How Blair Spins His Magic
British PM Tony Blair is a master spinner and Crikey's correspondent at Westminster, writing under the name of Martin Suiteach, tells exactly how he does it.
British PM Tony Blair is a master spinner and Crikey’s correspondent at Westminster, writing under the name of Martin Suiteach, tells exactly how he does it.
It’s 10:45 AM and a group of hacks shuffle their way along London’s Whitehall, past the grey edifices of the Treasury and Foreign Office. They present their special parliamentary passes to police at the iron gates that guard Downing Street, a monument to Margaret Thatcher’s fear of the IRA, and make their way, appropriately, to the tradesman’s entrance of Number 10.
They are members of the “Lobby”, a small group of parliamentary journalists who enjoy privileged access to certain parts of Parliament, and are there for their morning briefing from Alastair Campbell, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman.
Campbell, a former political editor of the Mirror newspaper, joined the team in the run-up to the 1997 General Election. He is tough, abrasive, and seen by many as the real power behind No 10 Downing Street.
Campbell’s briefings are on the record, can be audio taped, but not filmed. The contents can be used in copy, but the recording can’t be used for broadcast. Downing Street takes its own recording and produces a read-out which is faxed to all ministerial departments to keep them up to speed on what the main running stories are for the day. A second briefing is held at 4pm in the House of Commons.
As the journalists leave their briefing, a few may stay behind to share a joke with Campbell, or try to tease a few more facts out of him. Others, from the news agencies or afternoon papers will make their way back to King George Street, between the government departments and away from Whitehall’s traffic and tourists to file copy via mobile phone.
Campbell insists on being referred to as the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (there’s no unofficial post, so what’s the point?), his deputy is a mere “Downing Street spokesman”.
His morning Lobby briefings are generally jovial, but he is not above seeking out the author of an offending article and referring to it as “garbage” or a “poisonous piece of propaganda” as he did on a BBC piece last week.
Campbell changed the previous reporting rules on Lobby briefings, when he placed them on the record. Now you can even get a summary of these on the internet, which did cause some concern among hacks here that their news desks would have access to this “privileged” information.
The rules on reporting these briefings have changed over the years. Joe Haines, working for Harold Wilson’s Labour administration in the mid-1970’s, made them on the record. However, when the questions got awkward, he banned them altogether.
Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath, who preceded Wilson, went for presidential-style press conferences with cameras allowed in, but made sure he was only questioned by a chosen few who wouldn’t rock the boat. This group of senior Lobby correspondents became known as “the White Commonwealth”.
Under Margaret Thatcher’s spokesman Bernard Ingham, lobby briefings took place, but were entirely off the record, to the point that officially, they didn’t happen. Journalists couldn’t even refer to Downing Street, instead the phrase “Whitehall sources” was used.
Back in the mother of parliaments, the reporters that hold such high office within their profession are forced to work together in the cramped conditions of the press gallery. Spread over three floors, journalists sit cheek-by-jowl, with little privacy in rooms that are cold in the winter and roasting in the summer.
News organisations share facilities that test temperaments and political affiliation. For example, journalists from the right-wing Daily Mail share an office with the left-leaning Sunday broadsheet The Observer.
However, they do have a silver service restaurant, a typically ropey canteen, and that haven of all havens, a press bar offering booze at subsidised prices. Here, information is passed happily between hacks. When a few too many have been imbibed, invitations are issued to settle differences “outside”.
The place does reek of the past, of an old mens’ club. It is one of the last workplaces in town where smoking is allowed. There are dress rules. Men can take off their jackets in the House of Commons reporters’ gallery in the summer only. Every year two reporters are elected as chairman of the gallery and Lobby respectively.
In the lower gallery there is a row of telephone booths with sliding doors that you will only see now in old 1950s movies. They used to be wired to a red light on the outside to show copy was being filed and the occupant shouldn’t be disturbed.
Now, these are used by hacks who need to make calls that can’t be overheard by competitors, or, in some cases, as offices by new entrants to the Lobby who can’t be given a desk due to lack of space.
In the bar, a straw poll of Campbell’s decision to place his comments on the record shows some journalists welcome the move, but others believe it is a smoke and mirrors trick. It is easy to say “no comment” on the record. In other words, it looks open, but very little useful information is being passed on compared with an off-the-record chat.
One of Campbell’s favourite phrases is: “I’m not going to go beyond what I’ve already said”, even when what he’s already said is bugger all. Another, particularly in relation to questions on the Northern Ireland peace process is “we are where we are”. When a story is published that is accurate and has got behind the government’s defences he says it is “unhelpful”.
Experienced hacks in the gallery are also concerned that the medium becomes the message. They told me last week that even with this attempt at open government, Campbell still does a ring around anyway to the chosen few who are regarded as “on message”.
The role of the spin doctor is obviously not a foreign concept to Australian journalists. A good scan of the Crikey register will tell you that. It should be familiar to Melbourne journalists working in the early 1980s under the Cain administration when the Media Unit was established.
This group of press spokesmen and women developed the art of keeping the media pack at arms’ length from their minister – unless they had good news or something to sell, of course. One hack who dared to use his contact book and contact a minister directly was told all future access would be refused unless he went through the media minder first. No wonder it became known as the “Ministry of Truth”.
The operation in the UK follows similar lines with a few modifications. Each minister has at least one “special adviser”; they are well-paid and loyal. Their arrival following Labour’s crushing election win in 1997 also put the noses of several established press officers well and truly out of joint after they found themselves “outside the loop”.
The pre-1997 structure was fairly straightforward. Each department had a press office, staffed by public servants. These were led by a “head of news”, a public servant with (theoretically) no political leanings.
The biggest ructions were caused at the Treasury within Labour’s first two months in power, when the established head of news resigned in disgust at being kept in the dark on the new government’s policy by the two spin doctors working for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
These advisers, Charlie Whelan and the absurdly young 31-year-old Ed Balls, helped Brown to design his five year plan to redistribute the nation’s wealth without saying as much.
Whelan, a former trades union press officer, liked to brief journalists in the pub opposite the Treasury. He was overheard on his mobile phone feeding the UK line to the Times that the government wouldn’t join the first wave of the European single currency by two researchers from the Liberal Democrat Party who promptly leaked the information.
This led to mass confusion within Labour ranks. Campbell was away, Blair couldn’t find anyone to help and ended up calling Whelan, not a fan of the Blair faction within the Labour Party, to find out his own government’s position on the single currency.
The story caused a huge media feeding frenzy, which put the role of the Lobby and its relations with the new administration under the spotlight for the first time in decades. Now the press advisers were becoming as well known as Cabinet ministers (something that didn’t please always their masters).
Whelan, who has admitted bending the truth to get a policy a good run in the news, was forced to quit after his alleged involvement in the resignation of Trade Secretary Peter Mandelson over an undeclared home loan. The lobby network has secured him a radio show, newspaper column on sport (why?) and a script for a fictional political mini-series involving a minister who is, you guessed it, forced to resign.
There is also a pecking order. Information is handed out to those outlets who have the largest audience, so the BBC, ITV and national newspapers are given a good steer in policy and announcements. This has led to complaints that parliament is being sidelined as most announcements meant to be given to the House first are trailed in the papers and radio bulletins beforehand.
Blair has a well worked routine at press conferences, the TV reporters get first crack (whether they’ve got a question or not), then a couple of newspaper guys. If he’s got an international audience, some lucky foreigner will get to quiz the prime minister.
During the ’97 campaign, Blair was in Nottingham at a press conference on a video link back to Labour’s London HQ where more hacks were assembled. After his opening remarks Blair called for questions and pointed to Ian Austin of The Australian who identified himself as such, only to find Blair looking confused and mumbling something along the lines of “I thought you were a local reporter”. Austin looked suitably unimpressed and fired back: “Does it make a difference? I can still ask a question, can’t I?”
The foreign press, or “planet no vote” as they were labeled by Campbell in 1997, got little change out of Labour during the campaign. This soon changed after the victory when the new administration, which now needed to show its pro-European credentials as centre-left parties started to dominate the European political scene, was accused of arrogance over refusing to speak to the Continental media.
Now the European media, which gives Blair a fairly good ride, is held up as a paragon of balanced journalism by Campbell and Blair, who will tell the Germans, French, Italians and others that the UK media is “self-obsessed”.
Three years into Labour’s first term in office since 1979, Campbell is as recognised a figure as his “boss”. Journalists in Scotland and Wales, however, have emphatically rejected the Lobby system as a model for reporting in their newly devolved legislatures. They feel the whole system is out of date for the 21st century. For them a national press pass is sufficient for entry and they feel the right to approach ministers directly.
Meanwhile, In London, the House of Commons has welcomed the 21st century by allowing reporters to use a 20th century invention to help them cover debates in the chamber – the tape recorder.
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Finance Committee hears review of city’s health care plan, options for change
Posted byvermilionphotojournalonline April 20, 2018 Posted inCity UpdatesTags:employee health insurance, health insurance, Vermilion city council, Vermilion finances, Vermilion health insurance, Vermilion Ohio
By Karen Cornelius
The Finance Committee of city council met on Monday, April 9, and listened to a review of the city’s self-insurance plan for city employees. Council called for the review due to concerns health care costs were out of control. The representative from the health plan, BAC, Tom Forrester was present with some suggestions to curb costs that have escalated year after year to what he estimated in 2017 as $1,145,984.10. A possible cost of even $1.6 million was mentioned for 2018.
Forrester told the committee that mayor Jim Forthofer has started a new committee on health care to go forward into union negotiations and to bring in attorney Susan Anderson for the city to review the structure of the plan. He said currently an individual’s deduction is $2,000 for single and $4,000 for family. Then, if they meet those deductibles they have a 100 percent free layout. There is also a Wellness Program where employees can buy down their deductibles to where they could be “zero” out of pocket. “That’s a wealthy plan,” he said. “That’s one you don’t see any longer so we have to re-think this.” He said the city’s increases year after year are due to the claims. He said in the self-insured plan they buy a specific deductible which is a $50,000 obligation per individual per claim. The city is responsible for this, but he advised this could be changed. There is also another layer he called an aggregate for claims that never reach the $50,000 but the city is responsible for the whole host of aggregated claims. He said this is due to an aging work force. He said looking forward to today and the future he doesn’t see any serious large claims coming up.
Forrester said they could make some changes in the basic benefit plan such as what they are buying, make a change in the deductible to add out-of-pocket costs. “We cannot continue on with “zero” deductible plans, we need greater participation.” He suggested looking at other plans, but said Vermilion has too many claims and no other insurance would cover them. He suggested seeing where they are heading with claims in the next two to three months and get attorney Anderson involved to help with negotiations giving her the data to where she can go. He thought this would be on ongoing process for the next few years.
Councilman John Gabriel pointed out that he had questions related to how the city pays versus BAC’s book and figures. He said this is at least the third or fourth set of numbers that he has been given concerning budget figures from 2015, 2016, and 2017. Now that councilwoman Barb Brady and he are on the new health committee, he hopes to bring back a set of numbers that are more accurate. “Our growth doesn’t match the expenses,” said Gabriel. Forrester and Gabriel agreed the self-insurance plan is a moving target. Forrester added that Vermilion was hit hard the last few years with large claims.
Law director requests changes in compensation for rates, prosecutor, paralegal


Meet Vera Stark – A Maid's Tale
It’s been a season of Black maids from “reel to real”. There are entertainment showcases with a glimpse at Black maids in 20th century America. Like the film The Help, set in 1963 Jim Crow Mississippi and the Off-Broadway comedy By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, a fictional exploration of a 1930’s Hollywood maid who becomes a scene-stealing movie actress playing maids. Then there’s the recent real-life 21st century victimization of two Black maids from African nations who bravely filed charges of being sexually attacked by wealthy businessmen while working in New York City’s elite hotels.
It’s interesting that Black women doing “days work” is getting a close-up view in pop culture and global news. I am the daughter of a housekeeper. In fact, although my mother had many jobs throughout her life—from being one of the first Black telephone operators at Western Electric to co-founding the first daycare center in our New Jersey town, during the 1970’s and 1980’s she worked as a housekeeper doing “days work” to help pay the family bills. Some of her friends still dabbled in “days work” even in their seventies, making extra money washing floors and dusting furniture.
In the Off-Broadway comedy By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, Brooklyn’s Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage turns the spotlight on Black actresses from the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s who were segregated to the roles of the maid. Now playing at the Second Stage Theater until June 12, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, stars glamorous Sanaa Lathan (Love & Basketball, Alien vs Predator and Something New) in a story inspired by the glamorous Black actress Theresa Harris.
Nottage, a MacArthur “genius” fellow, is renowned for her work on Black women from her critically acclaimed turn-of-the-century Off Broadway drama Intimate Apparel, which starred Viola Davis to her Pulitzer prizewinning Broadway drama Ruined, about women in war-torn Congo. Mesmerized by Harris’ performance as Barbara Stanwyck’s maid and friend in the 1933 film Baby Face, Nottage amassed a collection and study of this forgotten supporting star whose spotlighted roles were mostly maids. Harris’ films ranged from Professional Sweetheart where her character Vera teaches Ginger Rogers how to be sexy to classics like Jezebel, The Women, Cat People and Miracle on 34th Street. “As an actress, she was progressive,” Nottage told the New York Times. “She was asserting her presence in the films. I wouldn’t argue that it’s entirely directors. I would argue that there’s something this woman did that was unique — that demanded directors pay attention.” By the mid-1950s, Harris married a doctor and retired from the movies.
By The Way, Meet Vera Stark is the creative collaboration of two very smart Black women. Both are Ivy Leaguers. Nottage holds a bachelor’s from Brown University and a master’s in drama from Yale. Lathan earned a bachelor’s from Berkeley and a master’s in drama from Yale. Together, they take the audience on a 70-year journey through the life of the fictional Vera Stark, an out-of-work Black actress who takes a job as a maid for a Hollywood star. Then uses her theatrical talents to quit her day job as a maid to perform as a maid on the big screen.
This is Lathan’s first star turn on the New York stage. She earned a Tony nomination for the Broadway run of A Raisin in the Sun with Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad, then co-starred in the London stage production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad.
“There are so many amazing Black actresses out there who are so talented, and they’re just kind of, I can’t say forgotten, but they’re kind of in the shadows,” Lathan told Broadway.com. “The roles out there for women of color are few and far between, and it’s really wonderful to not only be playing a Black actress but, in a weird way, to bring a Black actress’ journey to life.”
Over the years, I’ve interviewed veteran Black actresses dating back to Theresa Harris’ era, who had roles as Hollywood and Broadway maids. The late great actress and theatre producer Rosetta LeNoire worked with her godfather Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and even Orson Welles, but gained TV fame as the grandmother in Family Matters. LeNoire would remark that during her early career, “I always knew my costume would be a maid’s uniform.” Butterfly McQueen appeared on WLIB talk several times and would tell us about her college degrees and memories of Gone With The Wind. Actress and Negro Ensemble Company co-founder Clarice Taylor, who recently passed away at 93, was renowned as Dr. Huxtable’s mother in The Cosby Show, but thriller fans knew her as Clint Eastwood’s ill-fated maid in the 1970’s hit Play Misty for Me. Broadway star and TV pioneer Gertrude Jeannette, founder of Harlem’s HADLEY Players, befriended playwright Tennessee Williams who expanded her role as a maid in the Broadway drama Vieux Carre.These women gave a voice and dignity to the Black women that did “days work.”
“Even though she’s a fictional character, she is representing all of the Black actresses through the ages and their struggle,” Lathan explained to Broadway.com about Vera Stark. “The struggle is different today, obviously, than it was for someone like Vera Stark in the 1930’s, but there is still a long way to go in terms of opportunity.”


9/23/00 remarks By the President at DNC Lunch, Palo Alto, CA
(San Jose, California)
For Immediate Release                             September 23, 2000
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT DNC LUNCH
1:36 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT:  First of all, thank you for talking a few seconds
longer so I could -- (laughter) -- could almost finish my Indian meal.  I
want to thank the Doctors Mahal and their children for opening their home.
Thank you, Vish.  Thank you, Dinesh.  Thank you, Joel Hyatt.
You know for a long time, Joel Hyatt was the first legal entrepreneur
in America.  He had this sort of legal services for the masses.  He was
advertising before it was fashionable.  Hillary and I used to look at
Joel's ad on television.  She said, you know, he was behind us at Yale Law
School, but he's way ahead of us in income.  (Laughter.)  So I'm very proud
of him and grateful for his service to the party.
I would also like to thank all of those who provided this wonderful
meal and the people who served it today.  It's really quite a wonderful
occasion for me.  Back when I was a civilian and had a private life, I used
to spend a lot of time in Indian restaurants, starting from -- I fell in
love with them when I was in England living for two years, where most of
the impoverished college students like me ate Indian food at least four
times a week.  (Laughter.)  We figured if we couldn't be full, at least we
would be warm, and we loved it.  (Laughter.)
I want to thank you for supporting our party, and I want to make just
a few brief observations, if I might.  First of all, the primary thing I
have tried to do as President is to turn the country around and make the
systems of our country work so that Americans have the tools and the
conditions to make the most of their own lives.
If you look at the Indian-American community in this country, if you
look at the phenomenal success just here in Northern California, the
industry and enterprise and imagination of people will carry communities
and countries a long way if governments aren't getting in the way, but
instead are offering a hand up.  And that's basically what we've tried to
I'm very grateful for the partnership that I formed way back in late
1991 with a number of people in Silicon Valley who helped me to adopt good
both macroeconomic policies and to do better by the high tech community and
the information technology revolution in general.  And I am very grateful
for that.
I also appreciate the kind words many of you said about the opening
that my administration and I have made to India and the restoration of
harmonious and good relationships which were, as I said at our table,
understandably a little out of kilter during the Cold War when India had to
relate to the Soviet Union because of the tensions between India and China;
but for more than a decade now have made absolutely no sense at all.  So we
are working hard on a partnership that I believe will be one of the most
important relationships that the United States has for many, many decades
to come.
In a larger sense, your presence here -- I met one person who came
through the line and said, I can't believe it, I've been here one month and
I'm meeting the President.  (Laughter.)  And I think that is adequate
testimony to the increasing importance of mobility and openness in our
global society, increasing interconnectedness and, therefore, increasing
the importance of networks.  Now, some people believe that networks will
replace nation states.  I don't believe that, because there will still be
plenty of work to be done by both.  But I do believe that global networks
will become more and more important.
There is a book I've been talking quite a bit about lately that -- the
author actually wrote me a letter last week and thanked me.  But I haven't
asked for any royalties or anything.  (Laughter.)  The title of the book is
"Nonzero," written by a man named Robert Wright, who wrote a fine earlier
book called, "The Moral Animal."
But the argument of "Nonzero" is that even when human history seems to
be regressing -- in the Dark Ages, for example, in the early part of the
last millennium -- basically, there is a long process of increasing
interdependence which has reached its apotheosis in our time.  And that the
more interdependent people become, the more they are compelled to treat
each other in better and better ways, because the more you are
interdependent with others, the more your victories require other people to
have victories as well.
So the title is a reference to game theory, but that -- in a zero-sum
game, in order for one person to win, someone else has to lose.  In a
nonzero sum game, in order for one person to win, you have to find a way
for others to win as well.  And he basically argues that the present stage
of economic, political and social development is the latest and by far the
most advanced example of the growth of interdependence.
And that's also, by the way, been at the heart of a lot of what I've
tried to do in racial, religious and ethnic reconciliation.  I think the
trick is not to get people to give up their identities, but to take great
pride in their identities, their ethnic and their religious convictions,
but to recognize, at least in this lifetime, the ultimate primacy of our
common humanity and a way of reaching across divides so -- not so that we
can give up our differences, but so that we can celebrate them and still
find a way to work together and move forward.
That's another reason I think that it's very important that you be
involved in the political life of your nation.  When Secretary and Mrs.
Mineta and I were riding over here, I told him that I believed that it was
imperative for the next administration to do more to get Indian-Americans
and others who come here from other countries involved not just in the
political process but in the governmental process in appointed positions at
high levels, in more boards and commissions and more advisory committees,
working on more projects because you really are making the world of the new
millennium.
One of the things that I used to say earlier in the year, when our
electoral prospects didn't look as good as they do now, when I would assure
people that I thought that the Vice President would prevail is that the
question is not whether we're going to change.  Anybody in a governmental
position who advanced the proposition that things are going so well we
shouldn't change, I wouldn't vote for that person.
If there had been a candidate this year running, saying, vote for me,
Bill Clinton's a great President and we don't need to change anything, I
would vote against that person, because the underlying circumstances of
life are changing so much that's not an option.
The real issue is not whether, but how.  Are we going to change in a
way that enables us to take advantage of a unique moment in human history.
Are we going to meet the big challenges this country faces.  Are we going
to continue to successfully integrate all the different groups of
immigrants that are coming into our country.  Are we going to have a policy
with regard to other nations that recognizes that their challenges are our
We actually had -- Vice President Gore and I had some people in the
other party making fun of us not very long ago when we said that AIDS was a
security challenge.  But it is.  When you look at democratic African
countries with infection rates hovering around 40 percent in their
military, when you look at countries we've worked hard to stabilize as free
societies that within just a few years will have more people in their '60s
than in their '30s, when you look at wars that have been propagated and the
children that have been turned into soldiers and what that's doing to the
fabric of society and how the epidemic feeds that, we have to have a
broader notion of what is in our security interests.
First, it's about more than military, it's about nonmilitary causes as
well.  And, secondly, it's about a lot of things that have to do with
health and education and well-being.
Climate change, if we don't do something about it, will become a
national security concern because more and more land will become unarable,
and people will fight more and more over that which is.  More and more
countries will have water supply problems.
We're working very hard to finish up the peace agreement in the Middle
East, and one of the things you never hear anybody talk about is the
importance of these nations reconciling so that we can meet the coming
water challenge in what is perhaps the second most arid part of the world.
So I wanted to be here not only to thank you for what you have done
and thank you for what you are doing, but to tell you that to me, your
support for our administration and for what we're doing in this election
season is a stellar example of what I think America needs to be doing more
When I ran for president in 1992, I had a more systematic outreach to
all sorts of immigrant groups than anyone ever had.  And I did it because I
believed that you were important to America's place in the world as well as
to America's economic growth and social health.  I still believe that more
strongly.
So I would just like to leave you with this.  There are huge
differences between the two parties in America.  There are some
similarities and that's good.  We've stabilized our country over many years
because we've managed to have two parties that could be broadly
representative.  But in the last decade, as you know, we had a much more
stark ideological difference and a challenge that had to be met.
And essentially, our party is -- now is a modern political party with
a modern economic philosophy that is pro-growth, pro-high tech,
pro-immigration, pro-education, but believes that the most important
solutions are community-oriented solutions, the ones where everybody wins.
We believe that everyone deserves a chance, that everyone counts and
that we all do better when we help each other.  And when you strip it all
away, that really is the fundamental difference here.  That explains the
difference in our position on a patient's bill of rights, and theirs.  Our
position on a drug benefit for seniors who don't have it now, and theirs.
Our position on raising the minimum wage, and theirs.  Our position on tax
cuts so that everybody can afford four years of college for their children,
and theirs; a whole range of issues.  And thank goodness, the last eight
years have given us some evidence that if you do all this within the
framework of fiscal prudence and a sensitivity to the economic opportunity
areas of American society, it turns out that good social policy is good
economic policy as well.
So I came here, I guess, finally more than anything else, just to say
thank you.  This is an interesting election for me.  It's the first time in
26 years I haven't been a candidate.  (Laughter.)  My party has a new
leader, my family has a new candidate.  (Laughter.)  And I tell everyone
who will listen, my new official title is not Commander-In-Chief but
Cheerleader-In-Chief.  (Laughter.)  And I'm enjoying it immensely.
I think that Hillary will be elected in New York if we can keep
getting -- building her support, and I think that we're going to do very
well in these Senate races.  I think we'll do very well in the House races.
But we have to win the White House, because of the stark differences on
economics, the environment, crime, education, health care.  On all these
issues, there are real differences.
And I hope that if we do win, and I believe we will, that you will
intensify your involvement.  I hope you'll continue to support the
fundraisers, but I want to see more Indian Americans in the government, on
the boards, on the commissions, coming to us with specific ideas that ought
to be broadly spread.  Because we have only scratched the surface of the
public benefits of the information revolution.  And I'll just close with
I went to Flint, Michigan a couple of days ago, which was the home of
a lot of the early automobile factories.  They still have seven, but they
only have 35,000 people working in the car plants there as opposed to
90,000 people at their height.
After the Second World War, an enormous number of people, both African
Americans and European Americans from my home state couldn't make a living
on the farm anymore, and they moved to Flint or to Detroit or to other
towns in Michigan where they got jobs in the auto industry and they became
good, middle-class citizens.
So when I ran for president, everybody from my home state, it seemed
like, moved to Chicago or Michigan.  I won big victories in Illinois and
Michigan and the gentlemen who were running against me never did figure out
why.  It's because half the people who live there were born in Arkansas.
(Laughter.)  Because they literally couldn't make a living, so they went up
Now, Flint's gone through this enormous economic restructuring, but I
went there because they have one of these community computer centers we're
setting up, like the ones I saw in the little village of Nyla, for example,
in Rajasthan when I was in India.  But they have -- in Flint -- I went
there for a specific reason.  They had a particular emphasis on the power
of the Internet and new software technology to empower the disabled.  And
we had this great disability rally.
But before, I went through and I looked at the technology there and
saw how people who were deaf could use it, people who were blind could use
it, and I also used this laser technology that is fully activated and
operated by one's eyes.  And it's very important for people who are
completely paralyzed or for people who are suffering from Lou Gehrig's
disease, where eventually, you lose all momentum, movement in your body
except for your eyes.
The people there in Flint, Michigan every week get an e-mail from a
guy with Lou Gehrig's disease in North Carolina who is a friend of mine.
And we were friends in the 1980s and he was a young, handsome, vigorous
man, and we worked on education and economic development in the South, and
he was tragically stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease.  He's had no movement
for some time now.
In the next month or two, he will publish a book that he wrote with
his eyes, thanks to the Internet.  (Applause.)  Maybe even more important,
he can talk with his wife and children.  And I've mastered the technology
enough so that I've turned on lights and turned them off, I turned on the
tape deck to listen to music and turn it off.  And I finally got "good
morning" down.  (Laughter.)  But I could see how, with a couple of days'
effort, particularly if you couldn't move your head, which is the primary
thing that throws it out of whack.  It was an amazing thing.
Stephen Hawking, the famous British physicist -- and a lot of you may
have read his books -- is a friend of mine.  And he has lived longer with
Lou Gehrig's disease than any person ever recorded, as far as we know, any
person in history.  And he has lived longer because he has just this
movement in two fingers.  But he can operate a machine that has thousands
and thousands of words in it and he's memorized the order of all of them.
And he came to the White House and delivered a speech on the future of time
and space for Hillary in one of our Millennial Evenings that he wrote
himself, put into his machine and then pulled out with a voice box.  And he
is alive today because he can share what he can think and feel and know
with other people.
So that is the other thing I would like to say about this.  I'm glad
all this money has been made here.  I'm glad that our country has added all
this wealth.  I hope we can do a better job by bringing these kinds of
opportunities to poor areas and poor people who have been left behind in
our country and in other countries.
But fundamentally, the wealth itself is not an end; it's a means to an
end.  And what really matters to people is their life story.  Norm and
Danny and I were talking about that on the way in.  That's one thing I
learned as a young boy from my relatives who had no money but were very
wise.  They said, just remember there is not much difference separating the
very successful from people that have had a lot of bad breaks in life.  And
everybody's got a story.  And people should be able to live their story,
they should be able to dream and live their story.
And one of the things that I am thrilled about is that this
information revolution and what's happening with the Internet has the
potential to lift more people more quickly out of poverty, adversity and
disability than any development in all of human history by a good long
stretch.
But it will be very important for the United States to lead the way
and very important -- this is another big difference between the two
parties.  One of my greatest regrets is that the United States is -- we
have never succeeded in winning a big debate about what our
responsibilities are in the rest of the world and how fulfilling them helps
us.  If we help a poor country become a middle class country and a trading
partner, it helps us.  It's also the morally right thing to do.
So that is another argument, I would hope, for all of you staying very
actively involved.  We need to imagine what all these technologies can do
and all of these new ideas that you're coming up with and all of these new
companies you start, what it can do not simply to pile wealth upon wealth,
but to do it by continuing to advance society, by continuing to find those
nonzero sum solutions so that we all win.
If we become what we ought to become, if we make the most of this
truly magic moment, I'm convinced that it will be in no small measure
because people like you played a full part in it.
END  1:58 P.M. PDT


'Like watching a train wreck': Experts say America is behind on COVID-19 vaccine messaging, call for honest, straight talk
Elizabeth Weise
The U.S. government has spent more than $10 billion creating vaccines to protect against COVID-19 but so far little encouraging Americans to take them.
Public health officials say that's a mistake.
“This needed to happen yesterday. It’s like watching a train wreck happen,” said Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Now, even before any vaccines are approved, is the time to start telling America straight-up what to expect, more than a dozen public health and medical experts told USA TODAY.
That includes warning that a COVID-19 vaccine likely won't be 100% effective, getting it will make a substantial number of people "feel like crud" for a day or two,and two shots will be required, not just one.
And they question if the best messenger is a brand-new entity called Operation Warp Speed, which they fear screams: "We're cutting corners."
Part of the concern is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been sidelined by the Trump administration when it comes to communicating with and educating the public about the importance of receiving a coronavirus vaccine.
In almost every other major public health emergency since World War II, the agency, long touted as the world's premier public health agency, has taken the communications lead.
in this pandemic, however, that crucial work is being spearheaded by Operation Warp Speed, a Trump-administration-created and -appointed task force, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
That puzzles public health experts.
“The CDC should be leading the charge and coordinating, as they always have in the past," said Anne Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Public Health. "Instead, what’s happened is most people are getting their public health messages from CNN and MSNBC.”
During COVID-19, the CDC has been diminished by the White House, which makes its ability to get clear messages out more difficult.
Thus far the largest Health and Human Services expenditure on communication has been a $40 million Office of Minority Health partnership initiative with Morehouse School of Medicine to deliver education and information on resources to help fight the pandemic, including vaccines, in racial and ethnic minority and vulnerable communities.
According to an HHS spokesperson, various agencies and offices at the Department of Health and Human Services are working with Operation Warp Speed and other groups on a robust public health information campaign that focuses on vaccine safety, efficacy and hesitancy.Specifics, however were not provided.
Briefings to the point of boredom
Experts ticked off specific actions health officials should be taking now, well ahead of when an actual COVID-19 vaccine is authorized. Top among them: public briefings.
There has been confused, chaotic and intermittent communication to the public about the pandemic and what it will take to end it. Daily briefings should immediately start, led by the same person every day, so the public has a face they can get to know and trust, experts say.
"This is textbook crisis communications. Pull out the rulebook and follow it," said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of immunization education at the Immunization Action Coalition, a national vaccine education and advocacy nonprofit.
Early on in the pandemic, the CDC held several briefings. These were ended and the White House Coronavirus Task Force began daily public updates in March, often led by President Donald Trump. These ended in late April, and public briefings have been only held sporadically since then.
For COVID-19 vaccines, public health leaders should go into excruciating detail about how they're developed, how they are tested for safety and efficacy and how the review process works, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The information needs to be repeated so often the public could almost give the briefings themselves, Moore said. "There should be documentaries on television about this stuff."
Your arm will hurt, you'll feel like crud
Even without an FDA approved vaccine, anecdotal information from the five Phase 3 clinical trials now underway for COVID-19 vaccines indicates this is not a painless vaccine.
“This is a nasty vaccine to get," said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccine expert and professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. "It really makes your arm sore. It can make you feel crummy for 24 hours. And remember, it’s a two-dose vaccine. Well, guess what – the second dose is worse than the first.”
The last thing the vaccination campaign needs is the first groups of people who get the shots to show up on TV saying they felt like "crud" for a day or two, said Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“That would really impact others further down the list,” he said. People need to know what is expected and that it means the vaccine is working.
Ditch the nod-to-Star-Trek monicker
One of the first things many of the experts interviewed suggested was backing off the name Operation Warp Speed because it sends the wrong message.
“Just choosing the name Operation Warp Speed has set people’s teeth on edge," Schaffner said.
While it was named with all good intentions to communicate hard work and speed, "what people heard was 'They’re cutting corners,'" he said.
It’s a bad name for what is actually a good process, said Marla Dalton, CEO of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
“What we’re doing is compressing the timeline; we’re not skipping steps,” she said. “Unfortunately, Operation Compressed Timeline isn’t as catchy.”
It hasn't helped that Operation Warp Speed has been largely silent on how it functions and what it's doing, not just in terms of talking to the public but also the medical community, Schaffner said.
“They’ve been given no insight into this newly created government entity that’s been given billions in taxpayer dollars," he said. "The public health community has been in the dark about exactly how they function.”
Invite the news media to play a role
News stories about how vaccines work, how they’re made and the hurdles they must pass to be approved should be everywhere now, experts said.
“The first thing would be to really open up the process. Have news cameras following the researchers and the regulators. Interview the scientists, look at the labs,” said UCLA's Rimoin who worked on polio eradication and Ebola vaccination campaigns.
“I don’t see anyone talking to the media right now to walk them through the steps of the process and why they should trust it at all,” said Tony Fratto, deputy press secretary for the administration of George W. Bush from 2006 to 2009.
Be brutally honest about expectations
News Monday that the candidate vaccine from Pfizer and its collaborator BioNTech prevented more than 90% of infections with the virus that causes COVID-19 was very positive.
Even so, expectations need to be managed, experts say. The public needs to remember the vaccine will not be immediately available and even when it is it will take months, if not a year, to immunize the entire nation.
A vaccine is not an magic bullet, said Monica Schoch-Spana, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It may not be equally effective for all ages and some people can't, or won't, get vaccinated.
“Just because a vaccine shows up doesn’t mean we can throw our masks away and stop washing our hands and social distancing," she said. There's a tremendous amount of work that must happen before that day comes. "It was a mistake by the (Trump) administration to suggest that a vaccine was going to be a be-all and end-all.”
Communicate the potential risks
The first impulse of many governments is to downplay bad news out of concern the public will react negatively. Trump told journalist Bob Woodward he was playing down the risk of coronavirus because he didn’t want to create panic.
But lying always goes badly, said Maya Goldenberg, a professor at the University of Guelph in Canada and author of the forthcoming book, “Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science.”
She pointed to United Kingdom in the 1990s, when the government played down the risk of getting mad cow disease from beef. More than 170 people died and 4.4 million cattle were slaughtered, leading to decades-long distrust of government scientists in Britain.
For a vaccine to succeed, officials need to be crystal-clear about the risks and the benefits, and what they know and don’t know.
Address people’s fears up front, Rimoin said. “You can’t go wrong with more public health messaging," she said. "Explain what the public health risks are. Explain what the side effects might be.”
Honesty about potential bad side effects from a vaccine also is important.
Dr. Richard Jackson, an emeritus professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, worked on the swine flu vaccination campaign in 1976. He spent hundreds of hours talking with the public, elected officials and reporters about what could happen when people got the shots.
“We knew some people would literally pass out because of the shot and smash their face on the floor,” he said, not because of the vaccine itself, but because of a fear of needles.Because of the time he had spent with reporters, they were able to make the distinction clearly, he said.
Embrace independent review
So far five states and aBlack doctors' group have announced they will conduct independent reviews of any COVID-19 vaccines approved by the FDA. The moves came in response to perceived political interference in the vaccine approval process but have shifted more toward adding another set of eyes on a complex system and communicating that to the public.
That is excellent, Goldenberg said. Having independent reviews of decisions made by the FDA and CDC will only increase public trust.
“The public wants to hear an honest and transparent account, even if the message isn’t as delightful as we want it to be. These review groups can help provide another voice,” she said.
Have trust in the public
The American public doesn't want to be preached to, talked down to or persuaded to be vaccinated, said Salmon of Johns Hopkins. The goal is to understand people's values and concerns and honestly address them.
The truth doesn't need to be sugarcoated, Goldenberg said.
"It turns out the public can handle uncertainty," she said. "We can manage ambiguity.”
Decades of public health work has shown experts the right communication strategies are not marketing or sales pitches, Moore said.
"It's about getting people good information they can relate to so they can make up their own minds," she said.


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2010 State Profile — Missouri
Report Type: State Report
This state profile includes data from facilities in Missouri that reported to N-SSATS for the survey reference date March 31, 2010. Data were collected on the location, characteristics, services offered, and number of clients in treatment at alcohol and drug abuse treatment facilities (both public and private) in Missouri. In...
Part of the 2010 NSSATS State Profiles Collection
2010 State Profile — United States
This state profile includes data from facilities in the United States that reported to N-SSATS for the survey reference date March 31, 2010. Data were collected on the location, characteristics, services offered, and number of clients in treatment at alcohol and drug abuse treatment facilities (both public and private) in...
Behavioral Health Equity Barometer
The Behavioral Health Equity Barometer, United States, 2014 provides a snapshot of substance use and mental health indicators by selected determinants of health: race and ethnicity, income level, geographic location, and health insurance status in the United States as measured through the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)...


Home / Software & Gaming / Blizzard to expand on Heroes of the Storm until it ‘gets sick of it’
Blizzard to expand on Heroes of the Storm until it ‘gets sick of it’
Matthew Wilson January 31, 2015 Software & Gaming
Blizzard has plans to continue to expand on the Heroes of the Storm character roster, map selection and game modes in order to prevent the game from becoming “stale”, until the studio gets “sick of it”, according to the game’s director.
Heroes of the Storm game director, Dustin Browder, recently had an interview with PCGamer, in which he discussed plans for the game and its future: “We’re just going to keep adding heroes forever until we get sick of it and stop at this point,” Browder said. “There’s no secret number, and there’s no number that determines when we launch.”
A similar strategy will be applied to the game’s list of maps:
“We’re gonna keep adding more, definitely the rate of growth on maps is not gonna slow or stop until we say so,” he said. “Until somebody tells us, ‘Dude, too many maps’ or whatever. We’re adding them as frequently as we can, and we’re going to keep adding them as frequently as we can, even after launch.”
The Director went on to say that Blizzard is hoping to continue expanding at its current pace in order to keep the game relevant and keep players coming back with new maps, characters and game modes to try out.
You can read the full interview, HERE.
KitGuru Says: Heroes of the Storm is currently in an invite only beta, although you can buy in with the founders pack, which gives you access to three heroes and three skins. However, it isn’t a particularly good deal for the price. Have any of you guys tried out Heroes of the Storm? What do you think of it?
Source: PCGamer
Tags blizzard Development Heroes of the Storm MOBA news
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Public keys
Amateur radio, or ham radio, is a technical, explorative and contact-seeking hobby practiced by some three million people worldwide. In one sense it is similar to the various walkie-talkies that are freely available; in another, it is very different. In order to operate an amateur radio transceiver (that's shorthand for a combined transmitter and receiver) you are required to have a license, but that license gives you the right to do a lot more than just talk on the radio to your next-door neighbor or friend across town. The choice is up to you whether you want to talk to them using radiotelephony, or if you prefer to chat with someone on the other side of the world using for example Morse code or digital transmissions, which looks and acts similar to chatting over the Internet except that everything goes over a radio link.
While it is very free-form, amateur radio is also regulated. There are both international regulations, such as the ITU Radio Regulations, as well as national regulations. By and large, however, the regulations are the same throughout the world: radio amateurs enjoy access to mostly the same frequency bands, call signs are made up in a similar way, and the purpose of amateur radio regardless of which country one is in. Regardless of where you are, amateur radio transmissions have to be identified using a uniquely assigned call sign. For example, my call sign is SM6YBY (the series SA-SM, 7S, 8S is assigned to Sweden; I am in district 6; and YBY is simply a sequentially assigned identifier); this uniquely identifies me in the world of radio amateurs.
Yes, I did say frequency bands above. Most radio services are allocated as specific frequencies for a given purpose, most often referred to as channels, but radio amateurs have large bands within which many governing bodies place no technical restrictions on what kind of transmissions can be made. This has led to the adoption of so-called band plans, which are recommendations for where in each frequency band to use which transmission mode. This is done both to reduce conflict, as well as to help two people using the same transmission mode (Morse code telegraphy, single sideband radiotelephony, frequency modulated telephony, PSK31 digital transmission, and so on) find each other.
Radio amateurs talk of channels, too; but in our case, it is just a convenient way to express a frequency or frequency pair possibly combined with an implicit or explicit transmission mode. It is much easier to say "let's switch to R1" than "let's switch to the 12.5 kHz-wide frequency modulation repeater with input frequency 145.025 MHz and output frequency 145.625 MHz", but to a European radio amateur the meaning is the same. The channel "3750 kHz", likewise, is a convenient way to express the lower sideband 3 kHz frequency space with a suppressed carrier at 3750 kHz. If someone is using, say, 3752 kHz already, you can just as easily move down slightly to 3749.5 kHz to reduce interference.
Besides being a fun hobby, radio amateurs are also often called upon to provide various forms of disaster relief and other public service communications. This is more often done within the amateur radio service in for example the United States, but even in countries where emergency communications is handled by other means from a legal point of view, because radio amateurs continually practice and hone their radio communication skills, those providing the service to the community are often radio amateurs as well as whatever other certifications they might have.
SKØTM
All original content on this site © Michael Kjörling unless otherwise explicitly noted.


San Diego Zoo successfully clones an endangered Przewalski’s horse
Written by Bonface Landi
News Animals Endangered & Extinct
Kurt, a baby Przewalski’s horse, looks and plays like any other baby horse. But the now two-month-old colt is unique in that he is a clone. The endangered Przewalski’s horse colt was created from stallion cells that had been frozen at the San Diego Zoo in 1980. The frozen cells were recently collected and fused with an egg from a domestic horse to create the world’s first cloned Przewalski’s horse.
The process of cloning started several decades ago. In 1980, cells from a 5-year-old stallion were collected and stored at the San Diego Frozen Zoo facility. According to officials at the San Diego Zoo, the cells were merged with an egg after removing the nucleus. The egg was then implanted in a mare, who became the mother to Kurt two months ago.
Related: Scientists in China have successfully cloned monkeys
The San Diego Zoo now sees the birth of the cloned horse as a huge step forward in the efforts to restore the population of Przewalski’s horses. Also known as the Asiatic Wild Horse or Mongolian Wild Horse, this species was formerly extinct in the wild and only about 2,000 are left, mostly residing in zoos. Intensive breeding programs have aided in conservation efforts but have also limited the gene pool. Zoo officials say that it is necessary to take measures that will help repopulate the endangered species. Cloning, depending on cells available in the Frozen Zoo, can help prevent genetic diversity losses.
“This colt is expected to be one of the most genetically important individuals of his species,” Bob Wiese, chief life sciences officer at San Diego Zoo Global, said in a statement. “We are hopeful that he will bring back genetic variation important for the future of the Przewalski’s horse population.”
The baby horse has been named after Kurt Benirschke, who was instrumental in founding the Frozen Zoo facility.
“A central tenet of the Frozen Zoo, when it was established by Dr. Benirschke, was that it would be used for purposes not possible at the time,” said Oliver Ryder of San Diego Zoo Global.
The cloning was made possible through a partnership among the San Diego Zoo, conservation organization Revive & Restore and genetic preservation company ViaGen Equine.
Przewalski’s horses are said to be the only truly wild horses in the world today. Although there are some horses in the wild in the U.S. and Australia, most are actually the ancestors of escaped domesticated horses. This species is named for Nikolai Przewalski, a Russian geographer who came across a horse skull and hide, then donated his findings to a museum.
+ San Diego Zoo
Via Huffington Post
Photography by Scott Stine via San Diego Zoo
Przewalski’s horse
Kurt, a baby Przewalski's horse, looks and plays like any other baby horse. But the now two-month-old colt is unique in that he is a clone. The endangered Przewalski's horse colt was created from stallion cells that had been frozen at the San Diego Zoo in 1980. The frozen cells were recently collected and fused with an egg from a domestic horse to create the world's first cloned Przewalski's horse.


Mary APParitions
Canada >
Our Lady of the Cape
Notre Dame du Cap, Marian holy cards collection,
ML.031 Box 22, circa 1675-2018. Marian Library,
University of Dayton Libraries, Dayton, Ohio.
Also known as Notre Dame du Cap, Our Lady of the Cape is located in the former city of Cap de la Madeleine which has been absorbed into the city Les Trois Rivières, or Three Rivers. In reality, there are only two rivers, the St. Maurice River and the St. Lawrence but the existence of two long and narrow islands gave it the appearance of branching off into three separate rivers when it was discovered and settled by the French in the 1500s. Dedicated to the Rosary, the area was consecrated to the Immaculate Conception by Jesuit missionaries around 1634. Small shrines began popping up along the St. Maurice River, and it became a tradition to travel to these different shrines by families or groups to pray to the Virgin Mary. This devotion led to one of Canada’s first Confraternities of the Holy Rosary in 1694, one that is still present in the shrine.
As the region was settled, a small wooden church was built and dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, hence the name of the city Cap de la Madeleine. After the Jesuits left, Fr. Paul Vachon took charge and built the shrine chapel in 1714 which still stands today. Unfortunately, Canada fell upon hard times as control of the country was handed over from the Catholic French to Protestant England. In a time where the faith was extremely low, a statue was donated by Mr. Zephirin Dorval in 1854 as he was leaving to participate in the gold rush. Designed by an Italian sculptor, the statue was one of eleven made in Canada and depicted Our Lady as she appeared to Catherine Labouré in Paris in the apparition of the Miraculous Medal. The statue replaced an older one referred to as “The Golden Virgin”, but that one was lost and has not been seen since.
Fr. Luc Desilets was given the task in 1864 to revive the parish, of which there were only 10 active parishioners. It wasn’t until 2 years later that he was able to make a change. One day, after waiting in vain for hours to hear a confession, he went to the chapel and lament in front of the tabernacle in frustration. When he entered the church though, he saw a pig next to the Lady Alter, grinding its teeth on a rosary that had fallen to the floor. Blaming himself for the desecration, he vowed to devote his life to the Rosary. The next day, Fr. Desilets told the story to the congregation and, holding up the rosary, said, “The people drop the Rosary and the pigs pick it up”. His zeal enlivened the church which also instilled a devotion to the Rosary in the city.
A couple of miracles are attributed to Our Lady of the Cape. When it became necessary to build a larger church because the rise in active Catholics, the plan was to tear down the old church and use its stone in the larger one. When all the stone was ready on the opposite shore, the people waited for the St. Lawrence to freeze over so they could transport it to the new location for construction. That winter of 1878-79 was a particularly mild one though and by the time March came around, any hope for a freeze was virtually non-existent. Fr. Desilets prayed fervently to Our Lady, asking that if she produced a path across the river to carry enough stone so they could build the new church up to the windowsills, the old church would remain standing and be dedicated to her as a shrine of the Holy Rosary. Miraculously, on March 15th, a strong gale picked up and broke up the ice floes against the shore, pushing them together to form a bridge. A few men braved the bridge, often walking only on frozen snow in between the floes. It has become known as the Bridge of Rosaries due to the rosaries said by Fr. Desilets and the men as they worked.
True to his promise, Fr. Desilets renovated the old chapel and the statue of Our Lady of the Cape was enshrined in a formal dedication on June 22nd, 1888. On the evening of the dedication, Fr. Desilets, Fr. Frederick, who was a visiting priest, and Pierre Lacrroix, a sick man the former were assisting, looked upon the statue of Our Lady of the Cape. Her eyes were open, looking westward with sorrow. All three men saw it but guarded against it in case it was an illusion. When looking again, her eyes remained open “with a living glance of sweetness and sorrow that impressed itself indelibly on each of their hearts”. The statue was crowned by Pope St. Pius X in 1904 and the Plenary Council of Quebec made Cap de la Madeleine a national shrine. Many people pilgrimage to the shrine for Our Lady of the Cape’s blessings.
Shaw, James G. Canada's Shrine to Mary: the Story of Our Lady of the Cape. Editions Notre Dame Du Cap, 1984.
Marian Library
Researched by Jillian E. Foster
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Je vous salue, Marie pleine de grâce
le Seigneur est avec vous.
Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes et Jésus,
le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni.
Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu,
priez pour nous pauvres pécheurs,
maintenant et à l’heure de notre mort.
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This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2014)
Elle Girl was the largest older-teen fashion and beauty magazine brand in the world with twelve editions . Launched in August 2001,[1] it was the younger sister version of Elle magazine, and similarly focused on beauty, health, entertainment and trendsetting bold fashion—its slogan: "Dare to be different".[2] The magazine was published monthly and was based in New York City.[2]
Its staffers were informed in early April 2006 that Elle Girl (USA)'s final issue would be its June/July 2006 Summer Issue, while they were recently in the middle of working on the August 2006 issue, which is traditionally the largest issue of the year-covering fall fashion and back-to-school topics. The company intended to continue updating the Elle Girl website, and create new media in conjunction with Alloy.com, as well as publishing bi-annual special issues.
Hachette Filipacchi CEO Jack Kliger, who was also responsible for closing three other Hachette magazines—George, Mirabella, and Travel Holiday,[3] commented on Elle Girl's future on the Internet and explained, "When teen girls are not on the Web, they are on their cells. The company will keep the website and work on Elle Girl ringtones, wallpaper mobile pages and projects in the mobile blogging area."
ELLEgirl.com relaunched in early 2008 after parting ways with Alloy. The new version included a blog, more simple navigation, and a strengthened association with ELLE.com under Executive Editor Keith Pollock. Hearst Magazines bought the website in 2011. As of May 2014, the ELLEgirl website redirects to the main Elle website.
International editions[edit]
The UK edition of Elle Girl magazine closed for business shortly before the American version. As of August 2005, international editions continued to be published in South Korea, the Netherlands, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Russia, France, Germany, and China.[4] Elle Girl USA offers most foreign editions 60% of their content, yet it was not announced whether all of the foreign editions would also fold.[5] Sarra Manning, author of YA novels Guitar Girl and Let's Get Lost, was on the launch team of Elle Girl UK and edited the magazine for a short period.
^ Casey Lewis (August 1, 2014). "The Tragic History of Fallen Teen Magazines". The Hairpin. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
^ a b "Elle Girl". Fashion Model Directory. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
^ "Celeb Weeklies Still Sell". Reporter. April 6, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
^ "Christina Kelly to Replace Brandon Holley at 'ELLEgirl'". Gawker. August 19, 2005. Archived from the original on May 18, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
^ "Floating in ElleGirl's Wake". Mediabistro.com. April 5, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
Official website (defunct – redirects to elle.com)
Hachette Folds Elle Girl Mag
ELLEgirl-In-Chief
R.I.P. ELLEgirl
Like, see ya: Elle Girl shuttered after five years
ellegirl.jp
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elle_Girl&oldid=997559103"
Fashion magazines published in the United States
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Defunct women's magazines published in the United States
Magazines disestablished in 2006
Magazines published in New York City
Women's fashion magazines
Wikipedia articles in need of updating from May 2014


Ancient rocks show high oxygen levels on Earth 2 billion years ago
Research on Russian drill core challenges long-standing models of oxygenation on Earth
Credit: K. Paiste.
Earth may have been far more oxygen-rich early in its history than previously thought, setting the stage for the evolution of complex life, according to new research by scientists at the University of Alberta and the University of Tartu in Estonia. The study provides evidence for elevated oxygen levels 2 billion years ago and flies in the face of previously accepted models.
The international team of researchers, led by UAlberta scientists, studied a Russian drill core containing shungite–a unique carbon-rich sedimentary rock deposited 2 billion years ago. The material provides several clues about oxygen concentrations on Earth’s surface at that time, including strikingly high levels of molybdenum, uranium, and rhenium, as well as elevated uranium isotope ratios.
“These trace metals are only thought to be common in Earth’s oceans and sediments when oxygen is abundant,” explained Kaarel Mänd, a PhD candidate in the University of Alberta’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and lead author of the study. “These trace metal concentrations are unrivaled in early Earth’s history, suggesting elevated levels of oxygen at the time when the shungite was deposited.”
What’s puzzling, Mänd explained, is that many widely accepted models of Earth’s carbon and oxygen cycles predict that shungite should have been deposited at a time of rapid decrease in oxygen levels.
“What we found contradicts the prevailing view,” says Mänd, who is completing his PhD under the supervision of Professor Kurt Konhauser. “This will force the Earth science community to rethink what drove the carbon and oxygen cycles on the early Earth.”
The new findings also provide insight into the evolution of complex life. Earth’s “middle age” represents the backdrop for the appearance of eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are the precursors to all complex life, and require high oxygen levels in their environment to thrive. This study strengthens the idea that suitable conditions for the evolution of complex life on early Earth began much earlier than previously thought.
Future research will examine the delay between the initial rise of oxygen and the appearance and spread of eukaryotes, remaining an area of active research, one that University of Alberta and University of Tartu researchers are well positioned to help answer.
This research was funded by the Archimedes Foundation, the Estonian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Research Council of Norway.
This paper, “Paleoproterozoic oxygenated oceans following the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event,” was published in the journal Nature Geoscience (doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-0558-5).
Katie Willis
https://www.ualberta.ca/science/news/2020/april/rocks-oxygen-earth.html
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10 Songs About Divorced Parents & Broken Homes
Julian PLAYLIST
(Last Updated On: January 4, 2021)
Not all marriages are bound to last till death. Unfortunately, some of these marriages that do end have kids involved in the whole process. They will definitely be affected psychologically by the proceeding and their way of life may change to something completely new. Here is a list of songs about parents who are getting a divorce or have been through a divorce.
1. RaeLynn – Love Triangle
In the song, a ‘Love Triangle’ refers to the aspect of co-parenting whereby the child is at the center of the triangle. RaeLynn sings about how separated parents share custody of their child.
2. James TW – When You Love Someone
James explores the topic of divorce in the song. He was inspired by a young boy to whom he was teaching drums. He ended finding out that the boy’s parents were getting a divorce so he wrote the song in order to tell the boy in a way he can understand.
3. Sasha Sloan – Older
The track is about the hardships of growing up with parents who fought and realizing that sometimes love isn’t always perfect. Since Sasha is now older, she never wants to be like her parents who fought a lot. She has learned that it is necessary to accept the pain that comes with love and heartbreak.
4. Papa Roach – Broken Home
This is a personal song for the band since three-quarters of the original band members came from broken homes. The song is about a broken home and being torn between your parents.
5. Blink 182 – Stay Together For The Kids
The song is written from the point of view of a child with divorced parents. Both singers come from homes with divorced parents. Their intended message was that when you growing up you think that your parents are more powerful than they are but as you get older you start to learn that they are human too and vulnerable just like you.
6. Pink – Family Portrait
This is a track about a broken home. When Pink was a young girl at around the age of nine, her parents got a divorce. She decided to write about what she experienced as a child.
7. Tammy Wynette – Divorce
This is a country music song written by Bobby Braddock.
8. Stephen Lynch – Lullaby
In the song, Stephen tries to explain to his daughter why her mother left them.
9. Zac Brown Band – Highway 20 Ride
This is an upbeat track with a much deeper meaning. He sings about how every other Friday he heads east on Highway 20. The reason for this trip is to go see his son who is in full custody of his ex-wife.
10. Dolly Parton – Starting Over Again
The song was able to peak at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was able to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
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Fabrice Delannon Has Sights On New Goal In ONE Super Series
ONE Championship - June 18, 2018
Muay Thai star Fabrice Fairtex Delannon has plied his trade across the globe in his bid to become the best, and that journey will pass through ONE Championship on Saturday, 23 June.
Delannon will face two-weight Lumpinee Stadium Muay Thai World Champion Petchmorrakot Wor. Sangprapai in a ONE Super Series Muay Thai bout at ONE: PINNACLE OF POWER in Macau.
The French-Guyanese striker will be looking to claim one of the biggest scalps of his career as he bids to make an impact and add more honours to the three MAX Muay Thai World Championships already in his trophy cabinet.
Delannon was born and raised in French Guiana, before moving to Paris, France, with his mother and sister, where he initially struggled to deal with the cosmopolitan Parisian culture.
However, he adapted, and ended up with a group of friends from a variety of different backgrounds.
“I had all types of friends – poor friends, rich friends, friends from bad neighbourhoods and good neighbourhoods,” he says.
“There was everything – all types of influences on me.”
Things could have been tricky for Delannon, with the family moving back and forth between Guiana and Paris, but he took it all in his stride.
He was a good student at school, but his passion was away from his books. He wanted to compete.
He started boxing training as a 12-year-old, inspired by his heroes Roy Jones Jr and Mike Tyson. When he made his competitive debut, he was only 14, and it came in front of a huge crowd.
“It was in [French] Guiana, in front of two or three thousand people,” he recalls.
“I faced a guy much bigger than me. I finished with a draw, but everybody told me, ‘Wow, you had a great contest with him.’
“I was happy. To have the support of my team, my friends, and my neighbourhood – that was good.”
Health issues curtailed his boxing career and, while he tried other sports, he could not replace the sensation of competing against another athlete in hand-to-hand combat.
But that all changed when, aged 22, he discovered Muay Thai and threw himself into learning the “art of eight limbs”. He had found his new passion, and it is one he continued to pursue today.
“Since I was young, I always loved martial arts. It excited me,” he explains.
“I always dreamed about going to Asia and practising, like the warriors I admired in my head.”
He chased that dream, as he moved to Thailand in 2007 and spent two years there perfecting his art. He returned in 2013 and now trains out of Pattaya’s Fairtex Gym.
Hopes were high for a stellar career, but Delannon had to deal with more health issues that threatened to hold him back.
“I had a very bad respiratory problem – an infection in my lung, and a problem with my stomach, too,” he says.
“Despite all that, I took some fights when I was literally sick. The doctor told me I was crazy to fight through it.
“I suffered in the ring and pushed my limits. There was a time in the final of the French Championships where I had one or two breaths, max, and I was just happy to survive. It was impossible to breathe, but I made it to the end.”
Delannon’s ability to battle through adversity and his determination to succeed has taken him through more than 60 professional bouts.
He believes he could have topped 100 by now, and perhaps would have had a better win-loss ratio, had he not had to deal with his health issues.
“I am not a bad loser. If I lose, I am happy to take it, but now I know I should not have taken those bouts, for sure,” he says.
He has shown his quality throughout his career, picking up three MAX Muay Thai World Titles in two different weight classes.
And now he is looking to prove his worth as one of the best strikers on the planet with success in the ONE Super Series.
“I left everything to live my dream. I am living it, and I am happy,” he says.
“Now I just want to take on the top fighters in the world in ONE Championship and do my best.”
Paired with Petchmorrakot in his ONE Super Series debut, Delannon says he is ready to make a statement with a spectacular victory.
“I will knock him out and win the fight,” he says.
“It will take me one step closer to becoming the ONE World Champion.”
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T.K. Kirkland
Helium Comedy Club - St. Louis
1151 St Louis Galleria Street
DAVE FOLEY
https://www.kirklandreporter.com/life/comedy-icon-and-coffee-addict-dave-foley-to-play-kirklands-laughs-comedy-spot/ "Yes Man". The Vault - Fallout WikiDavid Scott Foley (born January 4, 1963) is a Canadian actor, stand-up comedian, director, producer and writer. He is known as a co-founder of the comedy group The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of television, stage and film productions, most notably the 1988-1995 TV sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall, as well as the 1996 film Brain Candy. He also starred as Dave Nelson in the sitcom NewsRadio, voiced the main character, Flik, in A Bug's Life and Terry in Monsters University, portrayed recurring character Bob Moore in the sitcom Hot in Cleveland, and hosted the game show Celebrity Poker Showdown.


The History of Democracy
Brian S Roper
Recent elections in Britain have been marked by extremely low voter turnout. Since such elections are supposed to be a cornerstone of modern society, we would be right to ask what this says about our democracy.
Socialists have long argued that under capitalism democracy is extremely limited. Unelected bankers and bosses make daily decisions affecting the lives of millions of people, while every few years we get to vote for politicians who probably won't stick to their pledges.
Despite these failings, millions of people around the world yearn for even this limited democracy. In Brian Roper's new book he points out that at the end of the 20th century less than half of the world's countries were such liberal democracies. It is no surprise then that the Arab Revolutions have shown that millions of people are prepared to take to the streets to win some democratic control over their lives.
Our limited democracy is often portrayed as the pinnacle of achievement. Yet in reality throughout human history democracy has taken widely different forms. In ancient Greece, for instance, with the exception of women and slaves, citizens "faced no major obstacles to significant involvement in public affairs based on social position or wealth", a situation that contrasts favourably to some modern democracies until the early 20th century. Indeed to be a citizen in ancient Athens was to take part in such democracy, even if 80 percent of the population was excluded.
Modern differences between state and society, people and government would not have been understood by those taking part in Athenian democracy. But this is because our electoral system is a result of a particular set of historical events, in particular the American and French Revolutions.
Modern democracy evolved out of the revolutionary struggles that ended feudalism and allowed capitalism to triumph. It is a reflection of the needs of the bourgeoisie, combined with the gains made by ordinary people for the extension of the democratic franchise. Frequently it has been working people who have been at the forefront of such demands, and key democratic reforms such as the 1867 Reform Act were responses to workers' militancy.
Yet such limited bourgeois democracy can be contrasted to the democracy that emerges from class struggle. Often these are related. Revolutionary movements demand the right to take part in elections but then begin to create their own participatory democracy. The 1871 Paris Commune and the Russian Revolution are two classic examples of this.
While this book might have benefited from further exploration of how revolutionary socialist democracy might function in a more technologically advanced era, it is an excellent exploration of the history of democracy and the struggle to extend it.
The History of Democracy is published by Pluto, £20


BMC polls 2017: Inside the BJP war room
Having retained some features of BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign and throwing in a few innovative new ideas, young professionals in the party’s war room are putting in long hours every day to ensure a repeat of the 2014 results
Written by Arita Sarkar | Mumbai | Updated: February 10, 2017 8:48:25 am
BMC polls 2017: The war room has been decentralised this time around to ensure maximum reach, says BJP spokesperson Shweta Shalini, who heads it. (Express photo)
In the BJP’s ‘war room’, hectic activity can be seen almost round the clock. For, that’s where the campaign strategies for the upcoming Mumbai civic polls are being firmed up. While much of the features of the party’s war room for 2014 Lok Sabha elections have been replicated, the difference this time is that the operations are being handled by a team of young professionals from varied fields who have brought some innovative ideas on the table too.
While the party had initially set up the war room in Walkeshwar in South Mumbai, much of the activities were later shifted to the Mumbai BJP’s head office in Dadar. Moving away from the earlier model for the civic elections, the war room this time around has been decentralised to ensure maximum reach, says BJP spokesperson Shweta Shalini, who heads the party’s war room. “We have adopted the German method of warfare called ‘Blitzkrieg’ and have mobilised our war forces. We have invested in training our party workers even at the taluka level,” she says, adding that apart from the party leaders, staff from Facebook and Twitter have provided training sessions on using social media tools.
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As part of the strategy, says Shalini, the BJP has come up with three aspects of the campaign — above the line (hoardings and radio broadcast), below the line (interactive street plays, LED vans) and one-on-one (calls, messages, emails and door-to-door campaigns). “We have listed out the wards based on the kind of support for the party. For instance, we are confident of winning in 100 wards who are listed in the A+ category and we will send a message to people living in those wards once in two weeks. For the wards where our presence is weak, candidates will do extensive door-to-door campaign,” she adds.
In keeping with the young mindset of the team, 36-year-old Shalini, who has been working with the party for over a decade, says several people apart from party workers have volunteered to work on the election campaign on a permanent or full-time basis, including artists, chartered accountants, doctors, lawyers and marketing agencies. Close to 3,000 party workers and 500 volunteers are involved with the campaign in Mumbai. Volunteers who work full time are given a stipend and the party would be open to absorb any of them after the election campaign, provided their views are in consonance with the party’ sensibilities.
The BJP’s campaign has laid a lot of emphasis on social media steered by 27-year-old Devang Dave, who has been working with the party since 2008. Considering the nature of his work, says the computer engineer, he and members of the social media team put in close to 18 hours daily, starting their day as early as 8 am.
The BJP had carried out a membership campaign last year after which it prepared a database of around 50 lakh supporters in Mumbai. Dave says real time feedback from local areas is integral to their planning. On an average, the social media team puts out around 10 posts on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
Apart from constant feedback, the war room has adopted a very data-oriented approach to strategies. Much of the data analysis is done by 33-year-old Praful Nikam, the party’s data mining expert who has taken a sabbatical from his job as an analyst with a Pune-based software company. While the party has set up a war room in various parts of the state, Nikam says the party’s focus is primarily on the elections in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Thane and Mumbai.
On a typical day, says Nikam, close to 20 volunteers and 30 party workers carry out the day’s activities at the war room in Dadar. “Our day begins with internal meetings on taking stock of the events lined up for the day, including interviews and rallies, and then we give our input to media management and social media teams. Every day, we have a two-hour meeting with party leaders to discuss any suggestion they may have for fine-tuning the campaign, after which we focus on the day’s events,” he adds.
Apart from new ideas, the party has retained two aspects of the Lok Sabha election war room, which had helped in ensuring a clean sweep for the BJP in 2014. “We have kept the tone of the campaign positive and its effect can be seen in all our messages and posts. The party promises development instead of focusing on communities or religions. The fight is now between the Shiv Sena and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and even though he is not a contesting candidate, pushing a credible party face energises the cadre and wins the support of people,” he says.
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Saturday's tee times at The Masters
All times Central
9:20 a.m. — Jason Day
9:30 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Branden Grace
9:40 a.m. — J.B. Holmes, Francesco Molinari
9:50 a.m. — a-Curtis Luck, Larry Mize
10 a.m. — James Hahn, Ross Fisher
10:10 a.m. — Matthew Fitzpatrick, Brandt Snedeker
10:20 a.m. — Kevin Kisner, Andy Sullivan
10:30 a.m. — Daniel Summerhays, Adam Hadwin
10:40 a.m. — Emiliano Grillo, Justin Thomas
11 a.m. — Byeong Hun An, Bernd Wiesberger
11:10 a.m. — Steve Stricker, Louis Oosthuizen
11:20 a.m. — Brooks Koepka, Pat Perez
11:30 a.m. — Kevin Chappell, Paul Casey
11:40 a.m. — Brian Stuard, a-Stewart Hagestad
11:50 a.m. — Russell Henley, Brendan Steele
Noon — Bill Haas, Jimmy Walker
12:10 p.m. — Lee Westwood, Marc Leishman
12:20 p.m. — Ernie Els, Jason Dufner
12:40 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Martin Kaymer
12:50 p.m. — Soren Kjeldsen, Charl Schwartzel
1 p.m. — Matt Kuchar, Rory McIlroy
1:10 p.m. — Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson
1:20 p.m. — Justin Rose, Adam Scott
1:30 p.m. — Jon Rahm, Fred Couples
1:40 p.m. — William McGirt, Ryan Moore
1:50 p.m. — Thomas Pieters, Rickie Fowler
2 p.m. — Charley Hoffman, Sergio Garcia


Major changes at Hermes after EU authorities give the green light
Advent International, a global private equity firm focused on buyouts of companies, has invested in two branches of the logistics and courier service provider Hermes. It bought 25% of the shares in Hermes Germany and as much as 75% in Hermes UK, which belongs to the Otto Group. The European Commission has just agreed to this consolidation of the companies.
Hermes insists that it is doing well, which was also influenced by the change in the situation of the CEP industry caused by the pandemic. In the financial year 2019/20, the two branches transported a total of over 760 million shipments. In the current one, the company say they are recording a high increase in volume due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s press release also provides assurances that Hermes shall experience further growth and is therefore employing more workers.
As we wrote in mid-August, the Otto Group is giving up its majority shareholding in Hermes UK, but it still holds the majority of shares in Hermes Germany, as it regards the German market as ‘the main one’.
The transaction was subject to approval by the boards of directors and relevant antitrust authorities. This week, it was approved by the European Commission as part of its control of the merger.
Photo credit @ Hermes
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Thomas Barclay Hennell (1903-1945)
George Large, Loading the boats - scroll down for more
Nicholas Holloway
Click on image to view larger version
Anne Louise Falkner (1862 -1933)
Working horses in an extensive landscape,
Oil on canvas laid on board,
9¼ x 24 inches
£1,500 (Free shipping)
Click here to enquire about this work
A striking image bringing to mind the work of Robert Polhill Bevan with the clear delineation of the picture space.
Anne Louise Falkner was the daughter of a Dorset vicar and the sister of the novelist and poet John Meade Falkner. After studying at the Slade, she became part of the first wave of St Ives artists that settled there in the early 20th Century. She exhibited throughout her life at the Royal Academy (1897, 1910, 1911), the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1908-1912) and the Royal Society of British Artists (1893). She also exhibited in Paris at the Salon D'Automne and through this connection was elected to the Women's International Art Club where she exhibited from 1913-1922, alongside contemporaries such as Gwen John and Dame Laura Knight. Additionally, she had shows at the Baillie Gallery (a joint exhibition with her life long companion Florence Leslie Hervey) and at the Beaux Art Gallery (1926). A critic reviewing the latter, described her work thus,
"Miss Falkner has a special turn for horses and cattle, and some of her best pictures, reminding one a little of the work of the late Mr Robert Bevan, are concerned with them. Noon, ploughing teams in repose, is an excellent example. In it we see Miss Falkner's power of reducing the complexities of nature to a few tones of colour, so nicely related in their values that the effect of solidity is maintained..." The Times, 19/3/1926
Her work is held in several public collections including the British Museum, The V & A, The Southampton City Art Gallery and the Dorset County Museum.
Source: Dr Pamela Gerrish Nunn, 'Anne Louise Falkner', johnmeadefalknersociety.co.uk, July 2012
Other work by the artist on this website:
© Nicholas Holloway 2021
Anne Falkner


EXCLUSIVE: Vin Diesel Says 'Fast 8' Might Get F. Gary Gray the Oscar Love that 'Straight Outta Compton' Didn't
By Raphael Chestang 6:06 PM PDT, October 17, 2016
The Fast and the Furious franchise has always been a crowd pleaser, but now Vin Diesel says the next installment might win over awards show voters as well.
Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray joined the Fast & Furious family by taking over the helm of Fast 8, and Diesel told ET that being snubbed by the Oscars for his music biopic last year lit a special fire under him that showed on set.
WATCH: 'The Fast and the Furious' Turns 15: ET's Top 4 Moments With the Cast
"I think he went into making this movie with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, going 'Oh, really? Ok. Now I'm going to take the biggest saga in the world, and I'm about to throw Oscars at you,'" Diesel told ET while promoting his next film, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, opening Nov. 11. "Wait till you see what he does!"
According to Diesel, Fast 8 makes a departure from the previous seven films, while building off the last installment, which was Paul Walker's last Furious movie.
"Fast 8 is different. It's very dark," Diesel explained. "My character is conflicted in a way that is really going to shock you. He's coming off of a lot of emotion from 7 and the loss that 7 represents."
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While the movie's release isn't until next year, fans in New York City will get an early Christmas gift when the trailer drops.
"December 11, every screen in Times Square will be playing the trailer, and it's going to hit you like a ton of bricks," Diesel promised. "Everything is going to make sense."
Fast 8 is due out April 14, 2017.
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