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DAMS signs Red Bull and Honda Junior Ayumu Iwasa for 2022 F2 season
Red Bull Junior and Honda Formula Dream Project driver Ayumu Iwasa has joined DAMS for the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship. The 20-year-old makes the step up to Formula 1’s main feeder series after successfully running with the team at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi.
Completing his inaugural season in single-seater racing in Japan in 2019, Iwasa dominated the French Formula 4 Championship the following year and quickly stepped up to the Formula 3 Asian Championship in early 2021. Racing alongside 2022 team-mate Roy Nissany, Iwasa took the series’ Rookie Cup.
Graduating to FIA Formula 3 last season, the Japanese driver enjoyed a strong maiden campaign which included victory at the Hungaroring.
Iwasa joins the likes of Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly as Red Bull Junior Team drivers to race for DAMS in the teams’s 30-year history. Sainz won the Formula Renault 3.5 title in 2014 before arriving in F1, while Gasly’s first full GP2 Series season was with the French outfit. Alongside Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi, four DAMS graduates take their places on the 2022 F1 grid.
F2 will revert to a two-race format for 2022, with one Sprint and Feature Race at each round. Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Red Bull Ring, Hungaroring and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps will all be making a return for the coming season, as Zandvoort and Imola become the newest additions to the calendar, which increases to 14 rounds.
Pre-Season Testing gets underway at the Bahrain International Circuit on 2-4 March, before the start of the 2022 F2 campaign at the same venue on 18-20 March.
Ayumu Iwasa: “I’m very excited to take on my first year of F2 with DAMS. We worked together at the test in December and I learnt a lot about the car and the team. We collected plenty of data, which will be useful ahead of the pre-season test. I’ll be taking on some new tracks this year, which will be a challenge but I’m looking forward to developing my skills throughout the season. I used to live in Le Mans when I was racing in French F4 so it’s great to be competing in F2 with a team based in the area. I can’t wait to arrive in Bahrain and get back on track with DAMS for testing on 2-4 March.”
Dr. Helmut Marko, Red Bull Motorsports Advisor: “We are very happy to work with DAMS again. Ayumu is a young and promising Japanese driver who we hope will be able to make his way to F1. He showed his talent in F3 last year, so we are confident he can have a successful F2 season. We’re excited to see Ayumu’s development in 2022 and looking forward to positive results on the track.”
Gregory and Olivier Driot, Co-Team Owners: “We are extremely happy to welcome Ayumu to the team. Ayumu started his single-seater career in Europe very successfully by winning the Formula 4 French Championship which is an impressive feat. He also had a strong first season in F3, managing to take victory in Hungary in front of some very experienced competitors last July. This year is going to be a whole new challenge for him in F2 but Ayumu showed during the Abu Dhabi test that he has the potential to perform at this level. For DAMS it’s also very exciting to work with Red Bull, who we have some great success with in the past, and we are proud to be starting a new partnership with Honda.”
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Prof. Dr. Alexander V. Kabanov , The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery
08.06.2015 (Monday) , 14:50 - 16:20
TU Dresden, Hempelbau, Room HEM 219 , Mommsenstraße 4 , 01069 Dresden
On Monday, the 6th of June, the first lecture of a new ABM Module is going to take place. Master and PhD students will have the possibility to gain 3 points upon successful attendance, but the lectures will be open for everybody who's interested. Future time slots still need to be specified, but in general students will need about 12-15 DS in total.
The module will give an overview of recent developments in drug delivery and nanomedicine using
polymer systems. The topics covered will include biocompatibe polymers, polymer conjugates, nanoparticles, liposomes, polymeric micelles, and nanogels. Their interactions, with cells and body systems will be discussed along with applications in treatment of cancer and nurogenerative/neurodevelopmental diseases.
Prof. Sasha Kabanov is currently guest at the TU Dresden as a Dresden Fellow. He is the Director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at UNC Chapel Hill and holds the Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Furthermore, he is Professor of Chemistry at Lomonosov State University Moscow, Russia. He is a elected member of the Academia Europaea and Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. He is a board member of numerous international journals and author of more than 250 articles in drug-delivery and nanomedicine. In 2014 he is named as a highly cited author by Thomson-Reuters. Prof. Kabanov is one of the most influential researchers in pharmaceutical sciences and especially nanomedicine.


20 questions: What's behind Ukraine's political crisis?
By Saeed Ahmed. Greg Botelho and Marie-Louise Gumuchian, CNN
Updated 2126 GMT (0526 HKT) February 20, 2014
Photos: Ukraine's 2014 revolution
Ukrainian demonstrators gather in Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square, on February 21, 2014, a day after the bloodiest day of revolution protests. Nearly 50 activists were killed and hundreds more injured in clashes in the square on February 20, 2014. The street protests soon led to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and triggered a chain of events that included Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fighting in Eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatist forces.
A protester aims a gun in the direction of suspected sniper fire in Kiev on Thursday, February 20. Thousands of demonstrators had packed Independence Square since November when President Viktor Yanukovych reversed a decision on a trade deal with the European Union and instead turned toward Russia.
Police use water cannons against protesters in Kiev on February 20.
An injured protester is carried away from Independence Square on a stretcher February 20.
Captured police officers are led away by protesters in Kiev on February 20.
A woman on February 20 mourns over protesters who were killed during clashes.
Protesters rebuild barricades in Independence Square on February 20.
Riot police face protesters in Kiev on February 20.
Protesters man a barricade on the outskirts of Independence Square on February 20.
An injured protester is evacuated from Independence Square on February 20.
A priest walks with a cross and shield during clashes in central Kiev on February 20.
Medics embrace in the lobby of the Hotel Ukraine on Fe


Alleged political manoeuvring in Parliament
Photo: Hilaire Bule
The Parliamentary opposition alleged the conspiracy has been involved in the decision by the speaker of Parliament not to accept its motion of no confidence against the Salwai led government, another attempt being made last week when the Parliament was ready to hold its last sitting for this year.
The opposition led by Port Vila UMP MP Ismael Kalsakau has formulated the conspiracy as one of the reasons outlined in the constitutional case it filled on Friday last week against the speaker of Parliament, Esmon Saemon.
Sources said the office of the leader of the opposition has been advised and notified that the speaker of Parliament has had discussion behind closed doors with some MPs from the government’s side before making his ruling on the motion of no confidence that was deposited in his office, one day before the filling of the constitutional case in Court.
The opposition claims that the decision to reject the motion of no confidence was not made independently by the speaker of Parliament “but by some individual MPs who have no specific functions in the office of the speaker,” sources said.
On Friday, the speaker of Parliament ruled that the motion of no confidence was not in order. He justified his decision saying the motion had an insufficient number of MPs for Parliament to debate it. The speaker said he had received advice from the State Law Office before he made his ruling.
A new political party launched on Unity Day
Supreme Court was told the compensation of Port Vila Land was political


What to do When Visiting Allentown, PA
Allentown is well-known for a number of things to include the Lehigh Valley IronPigs minor league baseball team, a nationally recognized park system, and a rich history around the Pennsylvania Dutch. When you visit Allentown, PA, consider seeing some of the attractions listed here.
Where is Allentown and What is the Lehigh Valley?
Located fifty miles to the northwest of Philadelphia and ninety miles west of NYC, Allentown is a popular business and tourist destination. Served by the Lehigh Valley International Airport, which is 3 miles to the northeast of the city, it has direct air service to Detriot, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadephia, Charlotte, and a few Florida cities.
Allentown is one of three cities located in the Lehigh Valley, which is named after the Lehigh River that flow through the region. Bethlehem and Easton are the two other cities within the Valley. Allentown is the most populous of the three cities and also the third largest in the state. Consider part of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey metropolitan area, the region has seen rapid growth. For tourists, there are many things to do and see for children and adults alike.
Allentown's Most Popular Attractions
Allentown, like most of the Lehigh Valley, was formerly a robust manufacturing town. However, it has evolved from its industrial legacy into a rich cultural destination. Further, the economy has equally transformed from manufacturing to service-based. Here are a number of attractions tourist should put on their to-do list.
Allentown Fair
Traditionally opening in late summer each year, the Fair is an educational and amusing experience for every age. The Fair dates back to 1852 when it was first held and continues to showcase agricultural these from which it originated from. The Fair provides entertain and amusement rides to thrill all ages.
Allentown Art Museum
The Museum provides unsurpassed quality and variety in its educational programs, exhibits, and public events. The Museum hosts over 100,000 visitors throughout the year. It is home to over 18,000 works and provides visitors the opportunity to enjoy almost two millennia of culture.
Allentown Parks
Allentown offers a nationally recognized park system, which includes the famous West Park. This marvelous park provides trails, flora, fauna, and an amphitheater where you can enjoy different musical acts during the Park's Summer Concert Series.
Lehigh Valley IronPigs Baseball
Allentown is the proud home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, which is the area's popular Triple-A affiliate minor league baseball team of the Philadephia Phillies. The team was first founded in the early 1990s, and it was named after the city's rich history in the steel industry. The name specifically comes from a type of iron, pig iron, which is used in the production of steel. The team plays in the equally famous Coca-Cola Park stadium.
Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market
A fun place to purchase handcrafted items and local produce, the Farmer's Market is located on the Allentown Fairgrounds. The market showcases wares from over 70 vendors. You can find produce, meats, seafood, baked goods, and fresh flowers.
For more information on what to do and see in Allentown, please click here.


On this day… June 8, 1905 CE (June 21, 1905)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | January 16, 2022 CE (January 29, 2022)
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January 2022 CE
-1 +1 | 2022 CE


Fed Vice Chair Clarida Abandons Ship Two Weeks Early
Monday, Jan 10, 2022 - 04:13 PM
Less than a week after the outgoing Fed vice-chair was publicly exposed for some suspicious trades surrounding the March 2020 market rout (and recovery), Richard Clarida has pulled the rip-cord on his golden parachute and left The Eccles Building.
The central bank announced on Monday that Clarida, whose four-year term was set to expire at the end of the month, would be departing his position on Friday.
The Fed issued the following statement:
Richard H. Clarida announced on Monday his intention to resign from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on January 14, 2022. He has been a member of the Board and Vice Chair since September 17, 2018.
"Rich's contributions to our monetary policy deliberations, and his leadership of the Fed's first-ever public review of our monetary policy framework, will leave a lasting impact in the field of central banking," said Chair Jerome H. Powell. "I will miss his wise counsel and vital insights."
During Dr. Clarida's time on the Board, he served as chair of the Board's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, which oversees the work of the divisions of Monetary Affairs, Research and Statistics, and International Finance. He also served as chair of the Federal Open Market Committee's communication subcommittee. In that role, he led the 2019 review of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy strategy, tools, and communication practices, and he oversaw the creation of the Fed Listens initiative. Dr. Clarida has also represented the Board internationally, including at the Bank for International Settlements, the Group of 20, the Group of Seven, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Prior to his appointment to the Board, Dr. Clarida served as the C. Lowell Harriss Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University, where he taught from 1988 to 2018. From 1997 until 2001, Clarida served as chairman of the Department of Economics at Columbia University. In addition to his academic experience, Dr. Clarida served as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury for Economic Policy from February 2002 to May 2003, where he was awarded the Treasury Medal in recognition of his service. He also served on the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan.
Dr. Clarida received a B.S. in economics from the University of Illinois with Bronze Tablet honors and a M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Dr. Clarida is married with two children.
Clarida's full resignation letter below, proudly proclaiming his ability to stave off a depression:
"Since then, the Covid pandemic has taken a tragic human toll measured in lives lost and suffering inflicted, and in 2020 triggered a catastrophic collapse in economic activity and a surge in unemployment. I am proud to have served with my Federal Reserve colleagues as we, in a matter of weeks, put in place historic policy measures that, in conjunction with fiscal policy, steered the economy away from depression and that have supported a robust recovery in economic activity and employment since. There is still road left to walk and damage to be repaired. But the American people and US economy have lime and again—both in this crisis and those that have come before it— demonstrated remarkable resilience, tenacity, and ingenuity, and I am confident that once the process of reopening is complete, a welcome return to maximum employment and price stability awaits."
Translated: "you're welcome America!"
His departure marks the third major resignation of a senior Fed official in recent months over trading activity. For now, Powell has survived, but his renomination hearing this week should be fun.


Stop the nationwide cull of Badgers
0 have signed. Let’s get to 500,000!
At 500,000 signatures, this petition becomes one of the top signed on Change.org!
lee jenkins started this petition to Boris Johnson (Conservative Party Leader) and
The government has expanded its badger culling program and offer farmers up to £50 bounty for each animal killed. The killing of these animals is wrong and has a disastrous impact on the ecosystem. That is why it must be stopped.
I’m an ecologist, a zoo keeper and a teacher of agriculture and environmental science - I know how important badgers are to our environment. They disperse seeds which help plants grow, and they build tunnels which end up being used by foxes, rabbits, otters and other animals.
Over 50,000 badgers were culled by farmers in the last 2 years and if we keep on going this way it will have a serious impact on our environment. In the past, wolves, lynxes and wild boars were hunted to extinction and are now having to be reintroduced - why are we repeating the same mistakes again with the badger?
The government says this is part of a program to stop the spread of bovine TB, but previous trials of culling badgers have not successfully stopped the disease. Vaccinations would be a far more ethical way of stopping TB, along with increased hygiene measures in farms.
Badgers are an iconic symbol of the British countryside, and killing them will leave a huge hole in the ecosystem and do long term damage to our environment.
Please sign now to stop the cull happening.


Match Report: West Indies Go Down By One Run...
WIPA Expresses Condolences at Passing of Gordon Brooks
30th June 2021 Comments Off on Fully Vaccinated Fans To Return In Antigua For WI Women’s Series Vs Pakistan Views: 384 News
Fully Vaccinated Fans To Return In Antigua For WI Women’s Series Vs Pakistan
Fully vaccinated fans to return in Antigua for West Indies Women vs Pakistan Women Series
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Fully vaccinated cricket fans in Antigua and Barbuda will get the chance to see the upcoming CG Insurance T20 International (T20I) and One Day International (ODI) Series between West Indies Women and Pakistan Women. This will be the first chance for Antiguans to see any West Indies side since 2019,with the opportunity to watch double header fixtures featuring both the historic first ever Women’s ‘A’ Team T20 fixtures and the senior Women’s team.
The Government of Antigua & Barbuda has granted permission to have fully vaccinated fans at all matches following co-ordination between the Ministry of Health, the Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) and Cricket West Indies (CWI). Fully vaccinated fans are those persons who have received their second vaccination dose at least two weeks prior to the match date that they are wanting to attend.
The series starts on Wednesday at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground when the West Indies Women “A” Team play the Pakistan Women “A” Team in the first of three CG Insurance T20s double headers with the first match starting at 09h00 local time (08h00 Jamaica time). This will be followed at 14h00 (13h00 Jamaica time) by the West Indies Women vs Pakistan Women.
The second and third double header fixtures are on Friday 2nd and Sunday 4th July at the Coolidge Cricket Ground and Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground respectively, followed by the CG Insurance ODI Series played across both venues.
Tickets are just EC$10 for these double header fixtures. Fans who purchase tickets will need to present their vaccination documentation and national ID to Ministry of Health representatives to validate their vaccination status and permit entry to the ground. Fans under the age of 18 years will not be allowed to purchase tickets or enter the venues.
Johnny Grave, CEO of CWI said:
“We are happy to see the return of international women’s cricket to the West Indies and it’s great to see our West Indies Women’s players back in action as they face Pakistan Women. It is also wonderful that the fans will be able to attend all the matches and offer their support to the players.”
“We give special thanks to the Government of Antigua & Barbuda who continue to work closely with CWI to ensure that we can host matches safely and for the first time since the start of the Pandemic see fans in the two stadiums.”
Fans will need to wear facemasks to gain entry to the venue and wearing masks throughout the match, remaining socially distanced at all times. Fans will also be able to bring in coolers, although glass bottles for soft or alcoholic drinks are not allowed. Vendors will be present in the stadia.
Fans in the Caribbean can watch live on Flow Sports or via the Flow Sports app. Live radio commentary is available on the Windies Cricket YouTube channel. Fans can also follow live ball-by-ball scoring in the www.windiescricket.com live match centre.
See HERE for full CG Insurance Series schedule


‘Treat Extremism Like It Is a Virus’
A conversation with Cynthia Miller-Idriss on inoculating students—and everyone—against hate and disinformation
Emily Schuster
Issue: Summer 2021
In a time of political polarization, a societal reckoning with systemic racism, and isolation and anxiety brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, far-right extremists in the United States and throughout the West are seeking to exploit these crises to radicalize people to extremist viewpoints, particularly through online channels. College students and youth are especially vulnerable—but educators can play a key role in building students’ resilience to extremist propaganda and disinformation.
An expert on extremism, far-right movements, and youth radicalization, Cynthia Miller-Idriss is the director of research at American University’s Center for University Excellence, where she runs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). PERIL addresses issues of youth polarization and extremist radicalization through scalable research, intervention, and public education. Miller-Idriss is also a professor in the university’s School of Public Affairs and School of Education and the author of Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right. She spoke with Liberal Education about national and global trends in extremism, how extremists target college students and campuses, and what educators can do to resist and respond to extremist threats.
What are some of the extremist threats that PERIL works against?
PERIL works against extremism across the ideological spectrum. Far-right extremism is currently the fastest-growing and most lethal form of extremism in the United States and throughout the West overall—that is, in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe. In 2019, far-right terror represented 46 percent of terror attacks in the West, causing 82 percent of terror-related deaths, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s 2020 Global Terrorism Index (GTI). In the United States, between 1994 and 2020, right-wing terrorists were responsible for the majority (57 percent) of all attacks and plots, with left-wing terrorists perpetrating 25 percent and religious terrorists 15 percent, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Since 1994, right-wing terrorists have caused 335 deaths in the United States, while left-wing terrorists have caused 22 deaths, and religious terrorists have caused 3,086 deaths (2,977 on September 11, 2001, and 109 in other attacks).
While we should be concerned about all forms of terrorism and efforts to recruit youth into extremist movements, the far right is a particular concern for college campuses right now because of repeated efforts to attack science, elites, and higher education more broadly. For example, the extreme right promotes a conspiracy theory that says higher education is part of a “cultural Marxist” plot in which faculty are trying to inculcate impressionable youth to further Marxist revolutions.
I use the terms “far right” and “far left” because they’re the best bad terms we have available, but I think they’re terrible terms. Some of the characteristic features of far-right extremism—like antisemitism or antigovernment extremism—also exist across the political spectrum. The massive rise in hate incidents have caused 22 deaths, and religious terrorists have caused 3,086 deaths (2,977 on September 11, 2001, and 109 in other attacks).
I use the terms “far right” and “far left” because they’re the best bad terms we have available, but I think they’re terrible terms. Some of the characteristic features of far-right extremism—like antisemitism or antigovernment extremism—also exist across the political spectrum. The massive rise in hate incidents against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community during the COVID-19 pandemic is a good example. Those hate attacks are not limited to white supremacists or to the far right but are perpetrated by a much wider range of individuals.
When you look at what the United States is now calling “domestic violent extremism,” you see four sometimes overlapping categories of threats. The first is supremacism, which creates false hierarchies of inferiority and superiority that dehumanize the “other.” The propaganda from supremacists says the people in the other group pose an existential threat, and you have to eliminate them to secure the safety of your family, your people, or your future. The largest and most historical form in this country is white supremacy, but male supremacy has also been on the rise, where you see extreme hatred and mass violence against women. We saw it in the Atlanta spa shootings in March, and we see it in incel (involuntary celibate) violence, like the deadly attacks at a sorority house in Isla Vista, California, in 2014 and a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2018 by men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic relationships. There’s also Western supremacy, which is usually anti-immigrant but sometimes anti-Muslim, and Christian supremacy.
The second category is anti-democratic and antigovernment. This includes proauthoritarian attacks on freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, or the protection of minority rights. Antigovernment extremism in the United States exists predominantly on the far right, but we see these movements across ideologies globally, including secessionist and anarchist movements.
In the third category are conspiracies and fantasies about restoration—myths that an apocalyptic storm or end time is coming. Depending on the group, what comes afterward might be a rebirth into a white civilization, ethno-state, post-capitalist society, or post-tyrannical government. It’s this idea of a utopian future paired with nostalgia for an imagined past, with a nation in its glory, made up of idealized communities of nuclear families headed by male breadwinners.
The fourth category is accelerationism, which cuts across all ideologies and says that things have gotten so bad that we need to bring down all social, political, and economic systems; collapse the government; and start something new. Accelerationism valorizes the use of violence not just as a means to an end but as a preferred path to faster chaos, disintegration, and rebirth. You hear about martyrs making sacrifices to accelerate something that is inevitable because there’s no more reform possible. We saw that in play during the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Only about 15 percent of people arrested for the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, were members of extremist groups. Image credit: Lev Radin/Shutterstock
Some people think only students who might be vulnerable to white supremacist extremism are at risk, but we need to understand that college students may be vulnerable to all these different kinds of extremism. While we need to acknowledge that white supremacy has historically posed the greatest extremist threat in this country, we must simultaneously address extremism and propaganda more broadly. If you see extremism, violence, disinformation, and propaganda—regardless of ideology—as threats to democracy in general and to the thriving, multi-cultural democracy that we could and should have, then you can start to approach extremism as something that everybody has to tackle together.
What are some of PERIL’s current projects?
Right now, our biggest set of projects is against antivaccine disinformation, and not just in the United States. We’re planning a Spanish-language codebook of antivaccine propaganda to help inform vaccine confidence efforts globally, and we just finished a French-language project for a group overseas. We’re also talking about projects to preemptively combat vaccine hesitancy and disinformation and boost vaccine confidence in sub-Saharan Africa.
We are working on a tool kit for higher education to help campus communities better recognize and respond to polarization and extremism on campuses. The tools will be empirically tested and will be available by late fall on our website at american.edu/centers/university- excellence/peril.cfm. In partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center, we have published a guide to online radicalization for parents and caregivers, as well as supplementary resources for educators, mentors, and counselors, available at splcenter.org/peril.
We’re hoping our tool kit will be a first step to help educators and parents find resources. Other countries—like Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom—have more local partnerships or advisory groups, with counselors trained to help people who are vulnerable to extremism, but in the United States, people (including faculty) are very much on their own. As a country, we’re moving in the direction of eventually having local resources to respond to extremism, the same way we have resources for addiction, sexual assault, and depression.
What recent trends have you seen in extremism and radicalization in the United States?
The biggest trend is that the modern far right is no longer best understood as a fringe group phenomenon but as a set of ideas that has spread into the mainstream, through the mass online dissemination of disinformation and propaganda. In the West over the past two decades, only about 13 percent of terrorist acts from the far right that resulted in at least one fatality could be attributed to extremist groups, according to the GTI. That’s similar to the percentage among people who were arrested for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol—about 15 percent were members of extremist groups.
It’s much more common today than in the past for people to be exposed to extremist ideas and then self-radicalize. It would have been much harder to self-radicalize prior to the age of the internet, when you had to go out to the backwoods, join a group, sign up for a mailing list, and become a part of something that had initiation rites and manifestos and clear boundaries around ideology. Now, it’s like a choose your own adventure, pulling together some conspiracy theories, some antigovernment ideas, some white supremacist ideas, some misogynist ideas, and all of that becomes a toxic mix that can spread in much wider ways.
On January 6, we saw a coming together of what used to be a disparate spectrum of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, antigovernment militias, so-called Western chauvinist groups like the Proud Boys, misogynist groups, and QAnon conspiracy theorists, plus ordinary Trump voters. We’ve never seen that before. At the 2017 Unite the Right rally at the University of Virginia, these groups tried to come together, but they failed. But they did come together in a more spontaneous way on January 6, which showed that they could overcome some of that prior fragmentation and infighting.
We don’t know if January 6 foreshadowed things to come or if it was just an unusual incident that will not be repeated. We all hope, of course, that the groups remain fragmented, because then they’re less likely to succeed in anything large.
Overall, the United States has been responsible for half of the incidents of far-right terrorism and about 40 percent of the deaths from far-right terrorism in the West over the past five years, according to the GTI. Our country has a history of racism, white supremacy, antigovernment extremism, and conspiracy theories. The lethality of the incidents is probably attributable to easy access to guns. We have a perfect storm in this country.
How are far-right extremist threats unfolding globally?
Far-right extremism in the West has gone up 250 percent over the past five years, according to the GTI. The United Nations has started looking more seriously at far-right extremism. For a long time, international organizations saw such extremism as the domestic problem of individual member states and not something that warranted international engagement, coordination, or collaboration. That has definitely changed. There is now clear evidence that far-right extremist groups are globally networked and inspire each other. In Germany, two recent extremist terrorist attacks were either livestreamed in English or had a manifesto written in English. Today’s extremists are performing for a global audience.
Where might college students encounter extremist messages?
We are in a moment where everybody—but especially young people, including traditional-age college students—spends more time online. That’s one of the reasons the past year’s social distancing and remote learning and work have been so dangerous in terms of radicalization, disinformation, and propaganda. It’s much easier to lose touch with reality when you’re isolated and staring at a screen all day. And you’re less likely to encounter the ideas of people who think differently than you do, which is one of the great benefits of being on a college campus.
Extremist groups and individuals are using online channels to share and communicate ideas. About 23 percent of online gamers, for example, encounter white supremacist propaganda while they’re gaming, according to a recent study by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). There is a rampant problem with extremist recruitment and exposure, radicalization, and sharing of extremist ideas during gaming chat conversations. We also see it in anime sharing sites and in all kinds of forums. There’s a neo-Nazi vegan cooking show in Germany. We had a colleague tell us that he started watching a YouTube series of ten videos to learn how to install drywall. The first video seemed totally normal, but by the time he got to video three, the guy hosting the videos was expressing anti-immigrant sentiments. Our friend was stuck in the sequence because he had already started the drywall project. He listened all the way through video ten, and by the end, the host was promoting extreme white supremacist ideas. It was a skillful, gradual grooming technique.
The important thing for parents, teachers, faculty, folks on campus, and anybody who works with young people to understand is that no one is immune. People aren’t always seeking this out. They may encounter it wherever they spend time online. Some people will recognize it for what it is, but others won’t. That’s where that idea of “pre-prevention,” or inoculation, comes in.
People mourn the victims of a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on August 3, 2019, considered the deadliest attack on Latinx people in modern US history. Image credit: Wang Ying/Xinhua/Alamy Live News
Can you explain the pre-preventative approach that PERIL uses to combat extremism?
Pre-prevention is the German, post–World War II view that extremism exists in every society and that the best way to thwart it is to strengthen the resistance of everyone in the mainstream. It’s called “defensive democracy.” We use public health language to refer to inoculation, which works best prior to exposure. Instead of trying to isolate and cut extremism out of society as if it’s a tumor, you recognize and treat extremism like it is a virus. You do early intervention and inoculate everyone to build their resistance to a virus of hate, disinformation, and propaganda. Preventative means you’ve identified a target group; pre-preventative means everybody’s in need of it, early and often.
How can faculty and educators apply this pre-preventative approach?
In a recent study of parents and caregivers, PERIL found that educational credentials don’t correlate automatically with the ability to recognize disinformation and propaganda. You need more specific targeted education, such as media literacy education geared toward teaching people to recognize techniques like scapegoating or fearmongering and to understand source integrity and what online manipulation looks like. Instructors can also teach how persuasive extremist techniques have successfully mobilized millions of people to violence in the past and how extremism has been overcome in places like Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa, and Germany.
Educators can do pre-preventative work to address specific propaganda during orientation or even before students arrive on campus. For example, propaganda is circulating online that targets White conservative students before they get to college, telling them that they’re going to be silenced and forced to hide their identities and apologize for being White. Educators can tell students: we’re not telling you what to think, but be aware that someone may be trying to manipulate you in a way that may not be in your own interest. Faculty haven’t been trained to know how to recognize what young people are encountering online and how to respond when students do encounter extremist propaganda.
What other tactics do extremists use to attempt to radicalize college students?
Over the past decade, the far right in particular has managed to present itself as the edgy counterculture to an overly serious and triggered mainstream that can’t take a joke. They use irony, humor, satire, and wit through memes, jokes, and emojis. Even on January 6, we saw “Boogaloo” flags, for example. The term Boogaloo started as an online joke from teenagers about a widely panned 1984 movie sequel, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. It came to refer to the second of anything and is now a code word for a coming second Civil War.
Using humor and memes gives people plausible deniability that it was just a joke but also creates the edgy countercultural feeling of flipping the middle finger to the mainstream and triggered snowflakes on liberal college campuses. It allows people to feel like the ones who are rebelling. That is a powerful emotion for young people in general, especially adolescent boys.
How might extremists target physical college campuses this fall?
It’s hard to know whether the tactics that were in play before the pandemic will continue. Prior to the pandemic, a lot of speakers that spread provocative, offensive, hateful rhetoric were targeting college campuses, trying to get student groups to invite them to campus as a strategy both for promoting themselves and for creating chaos. Speakers would provoke a reaction and counterprotests, often from the left on campus. In a couple of cases, outside antifascist groups that had nothing to do with the campus came to the counterprotests and engaged in violence and property damage. Colleges are often unprepared to understand that they’re a pawn in somebody else’s end game. They are essentially being used, and students are being manipulated.
In situations like the Unite the Right rally, the campus is literally a battleground. It’s a symbolic place that’s being attacked because of its connection to ideas, science, and facts and because of the positioning of college campuses as sites of the liberal left or cultural Marxism.
There have been cases of efforts to recruit young people into identitarian or anti-immigrant movements on college campuses. Prior to the pandemic, college campuses were the largest site for the old-school tactic of paper flyering. Interestingly, during the pandemic, when colleges weren’t that populated, paper flyering of white supremacist content doubled, but it moved into public spaces off campus. In 2020, the ADL recorded more than five thousand incidents of racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ flyers, stickers, and other propaganda. It remains to be seen, but I’m assuming that paper flyering will come back to college campuses as students return. College communities should be prepared for it.
What might make college students vulnerable to radicalization?
Traditional-age college students, and youth in general, are usually more vulnerable than everybody else because they’re in an identity-seeking phase. They’re trying on different political identities and figuring things out.
Transitioning to college can be a difficult time. People who feel isolated and lack a sense of belonging, control, purpose, and meaning in their lives can be more vulnerable to radicalization by groups that say they have their backs and that claim they are offering them a path to engaging with the world with meaning.
How should educators and administrators respond to hatred and support targeted students?
Campuses have been the sites of hate incidents that may or may not have been perpetrated by people on
campus. These incidents create an incredibly unsafe campus climate and a feeling of trauma for members of targeted groups.
Colleges and universities have been doing a better job of enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on campuses over the past decade, but those efforts can be so easily undermined by one hate incident, by a series of paper flyers, or by inadequately attending to the need to build resilience against rising extremism. The first step is recognizing the problem and changing campus climate and culture in a more inclusive way. The second step is responding. The worst kinds of responses are ones that narrowly tie themselves to policies without talking about values. For example, when extremist flyers were found at one college, the institution issued a statement that said these flyers were removed because they violated the campus policy about adhesives on buildings. There was some outcry from students, and the college eventually issued another statement that said, “Oh, and it goes against our values.” But the damage was done.
Institutions are often so worried about protecting free speech that they forget you can condemn hate speech and protect free speech at the same time. Colleges can acknowledge the law and also make sure responses to hate incidents are survivor centered in ways that show solidarity and reinforce the values of inclusion and diversity that the community stands for.
It’s a sobering thing to say, but as we return to campus, it’s important for folks to understand the threat of extremism—although I keep hoping that the things that I study will become irrelevant. The goal is to study myself out of existence. If there was no more need for PERIL or for my work, that would be ideal.
Lead image credit: Anna Moneymaker/New York Times/REDUX
Emily Schuster is co-editor-in-chief of Liberal Education and senior editor at AAC&U.
Tenure, Contracts, and Mentorship
How two universities reimagined support for contingent and adjunct faculty
Power Skills for Work and Life
General education faculty and career services staff partner to make liberal education visible and valued
Tom Schrand and
Meriel Tulante
Dare Them to Dream
Colleges can inspire rural high school students to pursue a liberal arts education
Robert L. Fried
Ethnic Identity in the Nuevo South
As demographics change, educators must act quickly to support Latinx students
Elsa Camargo,
Delma Ramos, and
Cathryn Bennett


Folk, Indie Rock, Jazz, Music is sport
As the Wind
George Alexander Aberle, known as eden ahbez (April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995), was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential in the hippie movement. He was known to friends simply as ahbe.
Ahbez composed the song “Nature Boy”, which became a No. 1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat “King” Cole. Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, he traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week.
Behind the Scenes of “As the Wind: The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbez”
1908 1995 As the Wind: Eden Ahbe George Alexander Aberle Nat "King" Cole Nature Boy The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbez
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RIP Joe Cocker
John Robert “Joe” Cocker OBE (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English rock and blues singer, who came to popularity in the 1960s...
Ambient Beat, House, Music is sport
Drinking in LA
Bran Van 3000 – Drinking in LA
Music is sport, Progressive Rock
Lateralus
Tool – Lateralus
Jazz, Music is sport, RIP
RIP Monica Zetterlund
Monica Zetterlund (born Eva Monica Nilsson; 20 September 1937 – 12 May 2005) was a Swedish singer and actress. She died on 12 May 2005 following an...
Ethno jazz, Jazz fusion, Jazztronica, Music is sport, New age, Qawwali, Sufi, World fusion
Jazz à Vienne 2018
Dhafer Youssef at the 2018 Jazz à Vienne Festival The mystic and oudist singer Dhafer Youssef spreads his hybrid jazz on the stage of the ancient...
Avant-garde Rock, Experimental Rock, Full Album, Music is sport
Moondog
Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), was a blind American composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical...
Full Album, Music is sport, Piano
Philip Glass – Solo Piano (1989) (Full Album) Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer. He is widely regarded as one of the...
Bizarre, Cover, Holy shit, Music is sport
Sunday Lunch – Toxic
Toyah & Robert hit it (baby) one more time with their Sunday Lunch outing which this weekend is a love letter to Britney Spears.
Full Album, Instrumental, Math rock, Music is sport, Post-rock, Progressive Rock
The book about my idle plot on a vague anxiety
toe – the book about my idle plot on a vague anxiety (full album) Toe, stylised as toe is a Japanese rock band from Tokyo. While mentioned in...


Reports of Legionnaires' disease at McLaren Macomb Hospital spurs investigation
Omar Abdel-Baqui
Two government health departments are investigating a Macomb County hospital after several cases of Legionnaires' disease were reported.
The Macomb County Health Department and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are probing McLaren Macomb Hospital in Mt. Clemens, seeking the source of the disease and determining if there are more infected people, according to a press release.
Six of the seven cases of Legionnaires' disease have been reported since the middle of September, the health departments say.
The hospital is cooperating with the investigation.
A McLaren Macomb official released a statement Wednesday night: "Though the investigation is ongoing and a definite source has not been identified, we are responding with an abundance of caution and partnering with the Macomb County Health Department to identify targeted areas in the hospital to implement additional precautions to our water management efforts."
Legionnaires' disease is a respiratory infection with symptoms that include cough, fever, shortness of breath, muscle aches and headaches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smokers, those with underlying illness and people over 50 are at higher risk for contracting the disease.
More:Legionella bacteria found in Wayne State University water cooler
More:State: McLaren Flint was primary source of Legionnaires' outbreak


Category: Regions
Region: Eurasia, European Countries, Iran, Latin America, Middle East, Turkey, United States
A new world is being established! Highlights from the ‘New International Order’ Symposium
The International Relations Office of the Vatan Party of Turkey, organized an international symposium via videoconference with the participation of 40 government-representatives and experts from 25 countries. Dr. Doğu Perinçek, Chairman of the Vatan Party, made the opening speech of the symposium held under the title of “New International Order” (NINTO) on Saturday, April 17.
United World International will in the coming days present speeches held in the symposium in full text in the coming days.
Zheng Dongchao from the International Bureau of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China; Russian expert Aleksandr Dugin, one of the prominent names of Eurasianism; Syrian Professor of International Relations Dr. Bessam Abu Abdullah; Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed; Rauf Denktaş’s ambassador at large Hüseyin Macit Yusuf; Abdullah Abdullah from the Palestinian National Assembly; Dr. Sadullah Zarei among others were present at the symposium. The last session of the event, which consisted of a total of five sessions, was reserved for youth speakers.
The “Asian Age” left its mark on the symposium, in which the institutions, mechanisms and foundations of the new international order were discussed. All the participants from China to Palestine, from Russia to Iran emphasized that the US hegemony collapsed and the unipolar order had no chance to win. The highlights and speeches of the symposium are as follows:
The Announcement of the Symposium
“The greatest revolutionary breakthrough in human history”
The opening speech of the conference was made by the leader of the Vatan Party, Dr. Doğu Perinçek. In his speech, Perinçek said, “A new world is being established and we are on the verge of the greatest revolutionary breakthrough in human history” and continued as follows:
“We have come to the end of the Atlantic Age in terms of the great adventure of humanity, we have entered the Asian Age. Africa and Latin America are the developing wings of Emerging Asia.
The scourge of COVID-19 suddenly confronted humanity with the great reality of our age: Society will either give up the private interest system or die!”
“Nobody believes in solution deceptions within the imperialist system anymore. It is the system itself currently in quarantine. Even presidents and prime ministers were quarantined. This incident, indeed, is the quarantine of the financial dictatorship and Liberalism.”
“We go from the dark world ruled by finance capital to the bright world of producers. This great leap forward of humanity will decidedly not happen spontaneously, we, vanguard parties, are not spectators but builders of this process. Humanity will solve its problems by the revolutions of the productive classes. These revolutions are national, but they will not be closed within national borders, the international solidarity of the Oppressed and the Emerging World is on the agenda.”
‘International cooperation in pandemic conditions’
Dr. Zheng Dongchao from the International Bureau of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China emphasized this in his speech:
“Under pandemic conditions, the world is undergoing extraordinary changes and challenges. Change is essential to the advancement of human history just as it is important for us to re-establish international cooperation under pandemic conditions, how we will respond to these challenges, and how we will come together on the basis of cooperation. Today, there are great advances in industrial production, internet and artificial intelligence development across the world. We will establish global governance not with unipolar and bullying policies, but with mutual benefit and multilateralism.”
“Syria resists for Eurasia”
Syrian Professor Bessam Abu Abdullah stated that “Syria resisted for Eurasia” and emphasized the following:
“In the war that has been going on for 10 years, the struggle of the Syrian people and the Syrian army has been very powerful. If the project against Syria were successful, the region would fall under the control of the US and the neoliberal system. Turkey and Syria also found out that they want to split the countries of the region into ethnic and religious groups in order to control resources and establish new political regimes in which they wanted to be in full control.”
“Russia’s involvement in the war in 2015 was the first sign of the New International Order. The Western media is trying to show that this is a civil war, but it is not. They are trying to show that this is a war of freedom, democracy and human rights, but it is not. When we look at the history of the USA, we see that in more than 82% of the conflicts in the world the US either is a side or behind it. The US had a hand in Latin America, Africa, Vietnam, the wars in Palestine, Yugoslavia’s division and all of incitement against Turkey. We can demolish US puppets such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS along with Russia’s increasing voice in the region, the growth of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and China’s escalated aggressive action to protect its own interests and to participate in the international game, Iran’s role in the region is growing. This is the indicator of a new unity in the fight against US imperialism.”
“I think that Syria is a model for all struggling countries. And our dream of the New International Order is no longer a dream. We ought to work with the parties in China, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Latin America.”
‘The unipolar order has no chance of winning”
“The unipolar system, and the structure and civilization it constituted, is collapsing,” said Aleksandr Dugin, Russian strategist and Head of the International Eurasian Movement. The highlights of Dugin’s speech are as follows:
“Trump’s presidency was a manifestation of the end of the unipolar world. Biden, on the other hand, is the slave of the Atlanticist, unipolar world. There are multiple stakeholders in a multipolar world and everyone will win. In the unipolar world, peace is impossible, and America is now going to war. The unipolar world order is losing its power to strike. The unipolar order has no chance of winning. Those who advocate for a unipolar order have no chance of finding new slaves for themselves. Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, or an emerging civilization, no one will allow it. There may be differences of opinion among our governments, but we have to strengthen the option of a multipolar world. We have to do this to avoid wars. The end of unipolarity will bring balance to the world. Because the unipolar world is a true liberal dictatorship. We must unite against the common enemy, regardless of whether we are Russian, Turkish, Chinese or Iranian. We must win peace.”
‘Venezuela is also in Eurasia!’
Participating in the symposium with a presentation titled “The Geopolitics of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Against the USA”, Political scientist Micaela Ovelar issued the following statements:
“My country, Venezuela, is surrounded by American bases. We advocate a united Bolivarian Latin America in a multipolar world against American imperialism. Venezuela is a Eurasian country, because Eurasia is not a geographical term. It is a multi-polar and very central world of which Latin America is a part. Venezuela is also part of a multi-polar and multi-centered world that develops by sharing.”
Pakistan: Mustafa Kemal is also our hero
Pakistani senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed began his speech with “Turkey and China, are the closest allies of Pakistan”. “M. Kemal Atatürk”, Senator Sayed said, “is also our hero,” and added:
“Today, the United States is in a declining position, just as it had happened to Western Europe before. Humanity is facing economic difficulties today. Information pollution and disinformation is another important problem as well as economic difficulties. Intentional misinformation and the use of media in this direction is one of the most dangerous weapons. Western propaganda and false information poison humanity today. With this, we see that there is a war of thoughts, false information is entirely based on ideological struggle. We must respond to systematically produced fake news, collectively and by bringing the truth to the fore.”
‘The future of youth in the new era of revolution’
Youths from Turkey, Bangladesh, Palestine, Russia, the US and Argentina talked about the future of the youth and youth struggle for the decline of US hegemony at the symposium. These young people emphasized the importance of youth struggle in Oppressed Nations against US imperialism.
NINTO
US imperialism


Indian Captive
I have decided to write about a book called the Indian captives written by Lios Lenski.I read this book few months ago during my leisure and I should say that it is one of the few books which really impressed and inspired me.Lios Lenski once again proved that she was the master in writing stories and it can be seen from the popularity of her book"The Strawberry girl" published in mid 1930's.The Indian Captives is related to the life of Mary Jemison also called as Molly and her struggle with the Seneca Red Indian tribes.Mary was a young girl(aged 15 yrs when she was captured)captured by Seneca Indians from her family’s farm in eastern Pennsylvania. After a long journey by foot with her kidnappers, Molly is sold to two sisters, Shining Star and Squirrel Woman, as a replacement for their brother who was killed in battle. The two women begin to introduce Seneca life to Molly, but she is broken-hearted in her new situation, and attempts to run away.
The two women begin to introduce Seneca life to Molly, but she is broken-hearted in her new situation, and attempts to run away. After a journey to Fort Duquesne in which Molly is almost reclaimed by the white settlers, Molly is taken on another long journey, this time to a Seneca village on the Genesee River. Molly is depressed and in ill health, so a kind Seneca woman named Earth Woman nurses her back to health and gives her hope for her future with the Senecas. Gradually Molly becomes friends with many of the Seneca and grows accustomed to their ways. After about two years with the Seneca, Molly learns that her family is dead, and she must make a choice to stay with the Indians or return to the world of white men. She chooses to stay with the Seneca, who have shown her much love and kindness, and whose ways she has grown to understand and respect.I really liked this story much as I was a bit emotional when I read the last part,where she expects her family to take her back .But unfotunately ,the seneca indians kill them when they captured Molly.Their culture used to be like they capture a white when any one in their community is killed or die so that the new captive will be a replacement for the person who died.I would like to appreciate the imagination of the author.She has done a perfect job here.Mary was captured by the seneca Indians in 1777.
About Writer:
Lois Lenski was born in 1893 in Springfield, Ohio, to a Lutheran minister and his wife.Though Lenski’s father wished for his daughter to become a teacher, Lenski instead moved to New York City to study art and soon began to make a living with her illustrations. In 1921, she married Arthur Covey, one of her former teachers. Lenski decided to write her own stories and illustrate them after several publishing companies told her that although they liked her drawings, they did not have suitable books for her to illustrate. In her long career, Lenski wrote and illustrated more than ninety books, including Strawberry Girl, a Newberry Medal winner, and Phebe
Fairchild: Her Book and Indian Captive, both of which were Newberry Honor books.Lenski died in 1974 at the age of eighty.


You are here: Platypus /Archive for tag international left
Arab Spring into Winter? Challenges to the Left One Year On
What began as an exhilarating dawn of possibility in the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt has turned, a year later, into a sobering revelation of limitations on change and deepening dangers ahead. How has the Left received the democratic upsurge in the Arab world, and how can greater progressive potential be realized? How does the Arab Spring fit into the rising uncertainty in global politics, and how can a conservative reaction be avoided? What are the needs to be met, and how is the Left able (or not) to provide a critical contribution to the course of unfolding events?
Siyaves Azeri is the spokesperson of the Committee of International Relations of the Worker-communist Party of Iran. He is also a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Philosophy, Queen's University, Kingston Canada. Azeri has taught as an assistant professor at Koc University in Istanbul; he has also taught at University of Ottawa and as a guest lecturer at Istanbul Technical University.
Maria Rohaly is a coordinator for Mission Free Iran, an international organization that emerged during the 2009 uprising in Iran to amplify the demands and struggle for the goals and objectives of the revolution: freedom, equality, and humane society. These objectives are the line that divides the revolution from the counter-revolution in Egypt, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and beyond. Mission Free Iran places special emphasis on the radical demands of students, workers, refugees, and fundamentally women. Mission Free Iran recently launched a special campaign to save Sakineh Ashtiani, the Iranian who was to be stoned to death on basis of allegations of adultery.


Bible > John > Chapter 9 > Verse 9
◄ John 9:9 ►
Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.
Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.”
Others said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he .
Some claimed that he was, but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” But the man kept saying, “I am the one.”
But others said: No, but he is like him. But he said: I am he.
Others said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he.
Others were saying, "It is he." Still others were saying, "He looks like him." He said, "I am he."
others said -- 'This is he;' and others -- 'He is like to him;' he himself said, -- 'I am he.'
John 9:9 Additional Translations ...
John 9:9 NIV
John 9:9 NLT
John 9:9 ESV
John 9:9 NASB
John 9:9 NKJV
John 9:9 KJV


PMI in the News
With former President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker at PMI Global Congress 2010 — North America, you had to know PMI was going to be in the news this week. “If you’re a project manager and you’re a professional, there’s always going to be something you can do for the next 50 years in the 21st century,” Mr. Clinton told the audience Sunday night. Also newsworthy:
Walden University announced on Monday that it has been designated as a Registered Education Provider by PMI.
PMI announced their slate of newly elected officers and board of directors for 2011. Congratulations to all!
National Ignition Facility (NIF), a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has been honored by PMI as the winner of its prestigious PMI Project of the Year Award.
PMI has announced the winners of its Component and Professional Awards for 2010, along with the 2010 winner of the PMI Educational Foundation Awards. The award winners were recognized at the PMI 2010 Awards Ceremony on 9 October 2010 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center near Washington, DC.
This entry was posted in PM In the News by Dave Gordon. Bookmark the permalink.


Decision clarifies rescission notice under AWA
A recent decision provides both franchisees and franchisors with some clarity on what constitutes notice of rescission under the Arthur Wishart Act (Franchise Disclosure), 2000 (AWA), says Toronto civil litigator Stephany Mandin, who acted for the successful plaintiffs in the case.
Mandin, principal of Mandin Law, and co-counsel Steven H. Goldman, a partner at Goldman Hine LLP, successfully convinced the judge that a claim in a pleading that was drafted by their clients’ previous counsel did not meet the threshold for statutory notice under the AWA.
“I think the decision was sound because it properly delineates the common law right of rescission from the much more sweeping and onerous statutory right of rescission,” she tells AdvocateDaily.com while noting that the ruling has been appealed.
“A claim of rescission in a pleading puts a franchisor defendant on notice that there is litigation, and it defines the causes of action, whereas a statutory notice of rescission is arguably intended to prevent litigation by putting the franchisor on formal notice that it has 60 days to compensate the franchisee in accordance with s. 6 of the AWA,” Mandin says. “Only after that 60-day period has elapsed does the legal cause of action crystallize.”
She explains that the AWA, like franchise legislation in other provinces, requires franchisors to deliver a disclosure document to potential franchisees at least 14 days before signing any binding agreement or payment of money.
Late or incomplete disclosure entitles franchisees to rescission within 60 days after receiving disclosure under s. 6(1) of the Act, but if the disclosure is “materially deficient,” as is alleged in this case, existing jurisprudence dictates that it will be treated as if no disclosure was made at all, giving franchisees a full two years from the date of the franchise agreement to seek rescission under s. 6(2) of the AWA, Mandin says.
Once notice of rescission is delivered, the clock begins ticking on the 60-day deadline under s. 6(2) of the AWA for franchisors to comply with their financial obligations under s. 6(6), which effectively put franchisees back in the position they were in before an agreement was signed.
“Franchisees are essentially fully compensated for any money paid to the franchisor and for all losses acquired in setting up and operating the franchise,” Mandin says.
Because of the extraordinary nature of the statutory right of rescission, fairness dictates that franchisors are given adequate time to respond and adhere to their statutory obligations, she adds.
The judge in the case agreed, using the “absurd result,” as he put it, of allowing a pleading to act as notice of statutory rescission, to illustrate the reason for his decision.
“A franchisee could sue the franchisor in a claim for rescission without the franchisor being given anytime to comply with what the legislature says it must do,” the judge wrote. “This would not be fair to the franchisor. This would also undermine the legislative framework set up under section 6 of the Wishart Act.”
The case has its roots in a burger restaurant franchise bought by the franchisee in late 2012. The franchise failed within months, and the franchisee was faced with a claim from the bank over a loan default.
As part of the franchisee’s defence to the bank’s claim, its previous counsel advanced a third-party claim against the franchisor, claiming a statutory right of rescission for inadequate disclosure — the only rescission notice ever delivered in the case, she says.
Mandin and Goldman were ultimately retained to pursue a solicitor’s negligence claim against the franchisee’s former lawyer, but she explains that each strand of the litigation was jammed up by the unresolved question of whether notice of rescission was ever provided pursuant to s. 6 of the AWA.
That resulted in the odd sight of the franchisee and franchisor taking the same position before a motion judge in opposition to the franchisee’s former counsel, who argued that the pleadings in his third-party claim met the notice requirements of the AWA, she says.
“Typically, franchisees and franchisors are on opposite sides, but in this motion, our interests were aligned,” Mandin says.
Ruling that the third-party claim did not constitute a proper notice of rescission under the AWA, the judge concluded that the franchisee’s former lawyer had tried to “repurpose” the pleadings he drafted into something they were never intended to be, “in a rather transparent attempt to avoid liability.”
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2nd Book Review: Clare McNally’s Ghost Light
By dark666angel on 5th Jan 2022 • ( 0 )
In this book review I take a look at Clare McNally’s novel Ghost Light which is one of my personal favourites.
The Ghostly Traveller’s Tale
Sir Edward Jamieson the squire
In this character profile I take a look at Sir Edward Jamieson the landowner and squire who plays a key role in my novel ‘Evil Deeds.’
17th Dec 2021 17th Dec 2021
My Life as a writer
A big warm welcome to all of those who are visiting my site for the first time. My name is Mark Campbell but I also go under the title of the ghostly traveller. For truly I have travelled a path in my writing life which has been fraught with danger and evil intent. I have gone back in time to experience the pleasures and the pain of souls who either instigated the evil of which I speak or were on the receiving end of it.
It has not been easy to face some of the scenes I have dredged up in my imagination but I had to do it. Otherwise I would not have been true to myself and if a writer cannot do this then he is merely an empty vessel existing in a vacuum. So I have surrounded myself with all manner of strange creatures each with an important story to tell.
I have many stories to tell and it will be my pleasure to share little samples of these tales with all of my fellow ghouls out there who like nothing more than a good scare. Because let’s face it a writer is only as good as his audience who want to be entertained. This is what I have in story for all of you fine people.
I wish to bring my fictional world into the public domain. It is my most fervent desire to gain a larger readership than I have enjoyed to date. To this end, I hope you will enjoy the cover design for my published horror novel The Lady in Red which can be found at the bottom of this home page together with the little description I provided of it. But this is merely the start. In my future blogs I plan to provide profiles on the main characters who go to make up the plot for this supernatural novel.
You will meet Jack Farley, the bodysnatcher from the 1830s who whilst possessing an evil mind is nonetheless an engaging fellow and one rather perversely you wouldn’t mind spending an evening with. He is an entertaining type but not as trustworthy as he might be. He is just as likely to do harm to you as he is to make you laugh. And Jack does have a winning sense of humour, but it is very much of a dark order.
You will also come across young Paul Stanley, a nine year old boy from the modern day who first comes across Jack in his dreams. This sparks off a series of events which no child should ever have to go through. He and his family go to hell and back thanks to the sinister actions of Jack in his ghostly guise. But Paul is made of stern stuff. He might be shy and of a reflective disposition but he nonetheless knows how to handle himself. It is just as well, too, as he has a lot on his plate once Jack really gets down to work.
This then is The Lady in Red, a ghostly tale set in the south east of England. But it is only one of a number of horror novels I have written. Others include Evil Deeds, The Cornwall Ghost Story and Retribution. I have been rewriting the last-named novel over the course of the last year or two. This is a book I originally wrote about 25 years ago. I decided to return to it with a fresh mind after all this time as I felt it had many great moments but a number of weaknesses which I wished to iron out. I loved returning to it and reacquainting myself with characters I had not spent any time with in such a long time. It was like meeting up with long-lost friends.
Another tale I have partly written is a witchcraft novella. This is untitled at present but again it is a story with a number of good moments. I have enjoyed writing it and look forward to returning to it in the future.
As with The Lady in Red I look forward to sharing excerpts from all of these works and to explore the characters which make up the different storylines. I can promise you a fun ride. So strap in tightly and be prepared for a rollercoaster of a journey through the crazy mind of a horror writer who truly likes nothing more than to give pleasure.
The Lady in Red is a horror novel which I published on http://www.amazon.com as a kindle. You can purchase it via my amazon author page which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B08XPRNCCK
A Brief Synopsis of The Lady in Red
In this novel I explore the world of bodysnatchers. I have always been fascinated by these somewhat shady characters who would steal out in the dead of night and dig up graves and make away with the corpses which lay underground. So I went back to the 1830s when this business was rife and brought in two such bodysnatchers or grave robbers.
At the beginning of the novel I have these men discussing their line of work in a tavern one night. Jack Farley suggests to his partner Will Dreghorn that it would be a good idea if they gave ‘a helping hand to death’ seeing as bodies were ‘thin on the ground.’ Will is horrified by this suggestion. He wants no part of Jack’s murderous intentions. But in the end he has to agree to the plan as Jack holds something over him. If he does not go along with Jack’s scheme he could find himself in prison. So that night they commit the first of many murders so they can accrue bodies which they can sell to a local surgeon. The doctor requires them for dissection purposes so he can uncover remedies for deadly diseases.
Later in the novel Jack returns in ghostly guise in the modern day and creates more mayhem. There is a battle between good and evil which runs through the rest of the novel which draws the reader through to the gripping conclusion.


29 Sep 2017 29 Sep 2017 educateempower.blog
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
I read my first real graphic novel in my twenties – Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi – it was amazing. Not only the storytelling and the story to be told, but the fact that this huge and terrible part of history could be told in a simple and easier to understand way.
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin also does just that. We are all very aware of the horrible refugee crisis in our world but perhaps many of us do not know of the journey that these people need to go through in order to reach a new country.
Told through the eyes of young Ebo, we learn about where he lives in Africa and his desire to leave his home town where there is no work and little family left. Following his older brother he makes a dangerous journey into the town of Agadez where he meets his older brother. It is there that they work hard to leave the city and make the perilious journey through desert and then the sea for a better life.
The reader experiences the highs and the many lows of Ebo’s journry. Giovanni Rigano’s illustrations show the reader the love, hope and desperation of the people. We are also able to see the harshness of the desert and the terror of the sea.
Through Coulfer and Donkin’s storytelling we feel Ebo’s emotions, understand his desires and hope for a better future with him.
We meet other refugees who also desire a better life and we learn why they risk everything in order to reach a country, which they think will help them.
Illegal is a story that needs to be shared. The way refugees are treated by many countries is beyond comprehension and this story just shows how desparate theses people are. No one would ever undertake the journey if they didn’t need to.
At the end of the story the reader can view a map with explanation of where Ebo travels which I found and those children I shared the story with most informative.
There is also another short graphic story at the end of Illegal, that speaks to us about a young refugee woman. This story brings to light the plight of young women who may be travelling with young children or pregnant and their desperation to flee terror and poverty.
Illegal is a story to share and a story to reflect on. It is a story that will hopefully stir emotion and action so that more people do not need to take these journeys.
Find out where the refugees in your country are from and plot the journey they have taken to get to your country.
Find some news articles that tell you a story about someone who has come you’re your country as a refugee. Find out how they came here, who they left behind or lost and what they needed to do.
Look at how the graphic novel is set out and create your own graphic novel that will teach others about an important story like this one.
See if there is a way you can help people who are refugees in your country.
– Write a letter to your local member, Premier or Prime Minister.
– Contact Local refugee organisations and see if there is any way you can help.
– Raise awareness in your community by submitting a short graphic novel to the local newspaper or school newsletter.
Learn more about the UN charter of rights and also the Rights of a child. Which rights did Ebo, his brother and many people not have along the journey? Can you think of anyone you know who is not being given all of their rights?
andrew donkin
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Campaign Chronicles
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Make a Show of Force in Queens
By Eric Lach
At what was billed as Bernie Sanders’s comeback rally, featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he continued to emphasize his core issues: inequality, Medicare for All, abolishing student debt.Photograph by Peter Foley / Shutterstock
On Saturday, at Bernie Sanders’s big “Bernie’s Back” rally in Queens, the guest of honor, apart from Sanders himself, was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Earlier in the week, word came that the young congresswoman, who is the most famous and successful member of the lefty cohort that traces its political activation back to Sanders’s insurgent 2016 Presidential campaign, would attend the rally and offer Sanders her endorsement—welcome news for a candidate navigating the most delicate personal and political moment of his campaign. Earlier this month, Sanders suffered a heart attack while campaigning in Nevada. Doctors inserted two stents into one of his arteries, and Sanders took a break from the trail to recover. On Tuesday, he appeared onstage with his Democratic opponents at a nationally televised debate. But it was Saturday’s rally that was billed as his comeback.
With Ocasio-Cortez’s presence already announced, the big news coming out of the rally was its size. According to the Sanders campaign, more than twenty-five thousand people crowded into a park in the shadow of the bridge known now as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, with the towers of Manhattan visible across the East River. It was the show of force that his campaign was looking for when they picked New York as their venue for this event. Sanders isn’t a reboot guy—consistency, of message and affect, is his calling card. But he needed to show he could respond to a health scare that made his age—seventy-eight—more of a topic than it already was. Even before the heart attack, Sanders was in a bit of a positioning trap, with Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden both recently polling ahead of him, one appealing to voters looking for the Party to make a progressive turn, the other appealing to voters who want to vote for someone they already know. Sanders was comfortably above the second tier of candidates in the race, but could he claim a spot in the first? Saturday’s rally was a reminder of the broad support he still commands.
“What do they say?” the filmmaker Michael Moore said, warming up the crowd by warning of the “tropes” that the “powers that be” would try to use against Sanders. “Bernie’s too old. Yeah? Well, here’s what’s too old. The Electoral College is too old. A seven-dollar-and-twenty-five-cent minimum wage—that’s too old. Women not being paid the same as men—that’s too old.” Moore was one of six warmup speakers. When Ocasio-Cortez’s turn came, she, too, tried to flip the worries about Sanders’s age on their head, reminding the crowd of the political fights that the senator has engaged in since long before she arrived on the scene, on issues from health care to education to discrimination. “Bernie Sanders did not do these things because they were popular, and that’s what we need to remember,” she said. “He did this, and he fought for these aims and these ends when they came at the highest political cost in America.”
When Sanders finally appeared at the podium, the shadows were getting long in the park. In March, Sanders launched his campaign a borough over, in Brooklyn, where he grew up. At the time, his campaign was promising that voters would get to see a more personal and personable version of Sanders than they’d seen in 2016. That hasn’t happened. Sanders doesn’t want to talk about himself. He wants to talk about his core issues: inequality, injustice, Medicare for All, abolishing student debt, raising wages, fixing housing. On Saturday, he dispatched with the topic of his heart attack with his usual aversion to sentiment. “Let me also, on a personal note, take this opportunity to thank the many people across this nation who in my time of illness sent me and my family their prayers and well wishes and their love,” he said. “It has meant the world to Jane and me, and I thank all of you so very much. And, along with the great medical care that I received, I am happy to report to you that I am more than ready, more ready than ever, to carry on with you the epic struggle that we face today. I am more than ready to assume the office of President of the United States. I am more than ready to take on the greed and corruption of the corporate élite and their apologists.”
And, with that, he was off, taking the crowd through his stump speech, identifying the villains in his story of modern America, and describing the weapons he would wield to put them in their place, with the crowd booing and cheering, and occasionally breaking out in chants of “end the wars” or “abolish ICE.” Sanders, wearing a sweater under a blazer against the October chill, hit his points behind the podium in his usual way. His voice boomed through the P.A. system, his tone, as always, equal parts old Brooklyn grandpa and Old Testament preacher. He spoke for almost an hour. Next week, Sanders will embark on what his campaign has called an “End Corporate Greed Tour,” in Iowa. “To put it bluntly,” he told the crowd on Saturday, “I am back.”
Eric Lach is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
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International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage
Home > Journals > Arrow > current > IJRTP > Vol. 2 (2014) > Iss. 2
A Cross-cultural Comparison of Weekend–trips in Religious Tourism: Insights from two cultures, two countries (India and Italy)
Kiran A. Shinde, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, IndiaFollow
Katia Rizello, University of SalentoFollow
This paper explains peculiarities, significance, and universality of weekend-trips as significant form of religious tourism using a comparative analysis of this phenomenon in two pilgrimage sites from two different cultures (and countries), namely, Vrindavan in India and the Shrine of Santimissi Medici in Italy. The findings derived from a case-study approach and visitors’ survey method confirm that religious tourism falls under the more general category of leisure and that visitors who flock to these places on weekends do not coincide either with general models proposed in the extant literature, nor can they be assimilated to the conventional categories of pilgrims and/or tourists. While highlighting the similarities and differences in the two cases, the paper proposes that weekend visitors are best described as religious tourists: visitors who use tourism as a means to fulfill a predominant religious motive in visiting a destination they consider religious or sacred. The analysis based on the concept of weekend-trips helps to explore nuances of religious tourism which can be used for better planning and management in religious tourism destinations.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Shinde, Kiran A. and Rizello, Katia (2014) "A Cross-cultural Comparison of Weekend–trips in Religious Tourism: Insights from two cultures, two countries (India and Italy)," International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 3.
doi:https://doi.org/10.21427/D7PF0W
Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol2/iss2/3
https://doi.org/10.21427/D7PF0W
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doi: 10.21427/D7VC7D