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Friday, July 8, 2011
Review: Murder in the Ashram
Murder in the Ashram is Kathleen McCaul’s debut book , a murder mystery revolving around a yoga ashram in Delhi. The book’s synopsis had me hooked. Well anything to do with murder, mystery based in a yoga ashram sounds like fun read. But sadly I was quite disappointed with the book. The book started out as fun but just lost the plot mid way. I felt the book tried to hook in many reasons to show why Yoga ashrams will continue to be enigmatic, intriguing and mysterious forever.
The story goes thus. Ruby Jones moves to Delhi to pursue a career as an international journalist. When her closest friend and flat mate Stephen Newby’s body is pulled out from the Yamuna river she uses her investigative instincts to get to the bottom of who was responsible for her friend’s death. Was it a suicide or a murder? And ,if it was a murder who were the people responsible for it? All these questions keep leading her to Swami Shiva’s ashram where Stephen was a regular. What brings an intriguing angle to the murder is that just a day before his death Stephen writes to Ruby about having found the identity of his yet unknown to the world father.
As she explores deeper her questions take her deep into the world of Indian policing and into the heart of Swami Shiva’s yoga ashram. She realizes that everything is not as calm and peaceful in the ashram as it seems.
What I found was that the author followed a typical pattern of how to handle a book based on an ashram. Let me tell you that I am absolutely no fan of ashrams and yogis but it is a feeling I got while reading the book. To write a book checklist followed is this a) murder b) drugs c) sex D) money e) ashram at the crux of it all. Hence the predictability.
1 comment:
1. Sounds like a interesting plot especially coz of the Sai baba fiasco, baba ramdev fiasco, Asaram bapu fiasco.. and I presume that is what is probably getting predictability... | dclm-gs1-107240000 |
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2012 - 12.15
It may surprise everyone who reads TGA, but I don’t see any significant benefit in making semi-automatic weapons illegal. It didn’t work with dope it won’t work with guns.
That being said . . .
We do need to address the process for acquiring and keeping certain types of firearms.
For example:
In every state in the US, everyone must purchase a license to operate their car on state and federal roads. In Florida, I must have my car inspected for safety and emission standards once a year. Once these terms and conditions are satisfied, I can operate my car on the road.
Wouldn’t it seem reasonable to regulate the long term ownership of semi-automatic firearms in some type of fashion? Normal people don’t see annual licensing of our cars as infringement of our freedom, why would we see it differently for guns?
It can take anywhere from 30 to 70 days for a gainfully employed wage earner to go through the process of mortgaging and purchasing a home. Forms, background checks, credit checks; the list goes on.
We do not see our freedom being assaulted because lenders want to protect their cash from people not responsible to handle it. Why would we see our freedom assaulted because society wants to protect its citizens from crazy people with assault rifles?
It can take 60 to 90 days and about $100 for me to purchase a passport so I can go stay at the Fort Garry in Winnipeg. Then, I have to renew this every few years, even if I only want to go there one more time.
Is it such an infringement on our freedom that the process of purchasing and maintaining the privilege of owning semi-automatic guns should require a semi-regular government review and perhaps a financial commitment on the part of the owner to continue this ownership?
And lastly, there is something wrong in a society where the process to adopt and give a warm and loving home to a non-infant or handicapped child is lengthier and infinitely more difficult than the process to purchase a semi-automatic firearm that can change the lives of innumerable children and adults forever.
This is one where I don’t have a proposed answer other than the horror taking place in the United State on an all too frequent basis doesn’t seem to happen in other Western countries.
What we do doesn’t work.
How many children must we bury before we as a society make some type of change?
Today’s Gay Agenda: Blessed be the memory of these dear souls, and may their loved ones at some point find peace and comfort before their journey on this earth ends.
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8 Responses to “Gun Control”
1. NoDakSt says:
There are countries with less stringent gun control policies then ours that don’t have our problems with violence.
The media clamor and public dialogue that occurs when these shootings happen miss the boat in addressing the real issue of mental health care in this country. As a society we tend to marginalize mental health issues which tends to result in persons suffering from illness to not seek help for fear of being labeled . Combine that with the fact that resources are limited for the on-going care of mental illness from all aspects including medication, case work, and therapy.
2. Marcie Neuman says:
I agree with NoDakSt above. The solution must be multi-faceted. Just because we need to provide more options for mental health care doesn’t mean we can’t also do something about the guns that are designed for one purpose only- to kill as many people as quickly as possible. I am not referring to banning all guns or even automatic or semi automatic guns. However, there is no need for someone to be able to shoot dozens of rounds in a matter of seconds unless they are at war.
3. Profile photo of Mac Mac says:
I haven’t been watching this story very closely, but once again I must agree with James. I cannot help but think this could have turned out differently if Adam’s mother had exercised her right to own firearms and defend herself from someone intent on harming her.
4. PJ Holden says:
Mr. Haglund notes the decreases in gun crimes with confiscation. He does not note any changes in number of robberies, suicides, murders. Just listing gun crimes is not telling “the rest of the story”.
5. opinionated says:
Unfortunately there is no absolute right or wrong here. Still, no way in hell will I allow our government to track and oversee my personal property in this fashion. Frankly I see that as being nothing more than a first step to their taking control and possession of our 2nd amendment rights later own the road. I also don’t think it would do any good. The only people who would voluntarily register all their devices are not the ones we need to worry about anyway. The problem element would work around registrations anyhow. Else they would simply move more towards other options such as explosives.
I won’t faulty people from thinking registration is a potential way to avoid future catastrophes, that’s a natural response to the horror of living thru such an event, but it’s simply blindly overreacting to an issue and grasping desperately at anything to make it go away and not repeat.
Your Reply | dclm-gs1-107250000 |
Sunday, September 4, 2011
First Rotation
1. I'm in the middle of my IM rotation as well, and I feel the same way about the clinical experience. The interns and residents don't have the opportunity to spend as much time as they'd like with patients, but as a third year medical student I can stretch out the history and physical to let the patients share as much as they'd like. I've found that just listening to patients can help in their healing. Best of luck to you on your rotations!
2. Hi Jennifer,
I am a sophomore in college and I really think I want to be a PA. This year is my first year taking college-level sciences and so far I am not doing to well in Chemistry. I was wondering how important our course pre-requisites were when applying to PA school? I know they put an emphasis on Bio, Chem, Organic Chemistry, etc, but will it make or break my chances of getting accepted if my grades are not high? I am really considering going to PCOM because of your blogs. Thank you so much for all of your advice. Reading your posts makes me want to be a PA more and more.
3. Hi Stephanie,
I am so glad to hear you are thinking about being a PA. I think that everyone has their strong and weak science classes, chemistry just happens to be your weaker one. Just keep with it and do the best that you can. As far as pre-reqs it depends on the school how strongly they look at each part of you application. I think pre-reqs are definitely important but so is the rest of your application. So, dont put all your eggs in one basket so to speak, strengthen everything. Increase your health care experience, community services, and try to pass chem with the best grade possible. My grades in the sciences were definitely not the best, but I tried really hard and passed them all. I knew for me that was the best I could do and I got into PA school. I did have to explain some of my grades in interviews but I was honest. I also had an upward trend to my science grades which helps because it shows you are improving and taking the necessary steps to do so. My goal, and it is pretty much what I tell everyone, was to get to the interview because I knew that I could sell that by being unique and personable. Ultimately, they are looking for a person to represent the school and become a good PA that is relatable to patients and knowledgable in the profession.
I am glad you are considering PCOM, it's a great school. You will like it here. .Let me know if there is anything I can do to help in your application process. I am glad you like reading my blog, it's great meeting new people on this and inspiring others. | dclm-gs1-107260000 |
Monday, July 16, 2012
Why Libertarian? by John Jay Myers
My buddy John Jay Myers is running for U.S. Senate. This is from his campaign website. Please spread it far and wide ! (You can also go here to send some money to his campaign.)
I am asked, “Why don’t you run as a Republican? You could do so much good in the Republican Party.” I should not be upset. After all, it’s sort of a compliment - “They like me. They really like me!” It’s hard to respond because I don’t feel like knocking anyone's attempt at freedom or smaller government.
Libertarians are the Party of Principle. The others are Principally Party.
America is ripe with crony capitalism, foreign intervention, debt and inflation, economic controls, and Ponzi schemes. Yet every election cycle we are led to believe that the major challenges facing us are “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and mosques. Well ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you that we need to focus on the issues that unite us, and stop being divided by the idiocy of the election cycle. It is time to stand up and say, “Stop stealing my stuff!”
As long as we remain divided and so full of hate towards one side or the other, we will always fail to notice the two major parties slipping out the back with our wallets, our future, and our freedoms.
This is where the constitution comes in, and why we must return to it. Right now the Republicans and the Democrats are constantly giving deals to Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Big Energy, Big Oil, Big Banks, Big Auto, Big Agriculture, Big Education, Big Foreign Aid, Big Religion, and Big War. I ask you, by what right? By what right can they do this? It is not our government’s job to take our stuff and give it to the politically connected friends of politicians. Their only job is to protect our life, liberty, and property. This is a relatively simple job the current crop of leaders seems completely unable to handle.
If you turn in your constitution to Article 1 Section 8, you will find the 17 enumerated powers of government. Where do you see the power to give our money to any of those industries? It is not there. War is actually in there, but we don’t even have an officially declared war going on. We have strayed far from what our founders envisioned and more towards what Eisenhower warned us about, the corruption of the Military-Industrial Complex.
But we can change the Republicans...
No, you can’t. God bless ya for trying. We may be able to get a few reasonably good Republicans in there, and in my opinion Ron Paul is one of the greatest men in America. But, most of the liberty candidates were shot down, and even Rand Paul has had to fly very low on the radar, and either has intentionally toned down his message or is not as much like his father as I had hoped.
But my question is, where do you think all the hardcore neo-con nanny staters are going to go? They simply are not leaving the GOP. Those people believe we need to outlaw masturbation and have constant wars with half the world regardless of the cost or the lack of sense that it makes. Those people believe being fiscally conservative is not good enough - they have to tell people how to live their lives, and in some cases die.
They are not leaving the Republican Party, and their influence and power is growing. Christine O’donell didn’t win the primaries because she wants to end the wars and let people be free. She won because she is a social conservative who is willing to say, “We should stop spending money, and live within our means” - the meaningless mantra of every shell Republican who can’t figure out that Barack Obama’s health care plan did not double our debt during George Bush’s 8 years in office.
Do you believe these people are just going to disappear? It’s not going to happen. The Republicans will always find themselves bitterly divided, and that will not work when it comes to spreading liberty. It is a package deal. You can’t just take a little freedom.
Do you want to spend years of your life pounding your head against a brick wall only to find that half the bricks will never break?
The Power of Being Libertarian
This year I think we are going to see some very good poll numbers from Libertarians despite the fact that the media ignores us, and then they don’t allow us in the debates because they say we haven’t gotten enough media attention. If it wasn't so horrifying I would have to laugh. For some strange reason they say we don’t poll that well when we either aren’t included in the polls, or haven’t been mentioned in the media.
But, there is another reason why we should vote and run as Libertarians - because we are right. Our message is true, and we do not have to sacrifice some of our policies in order to appeal to a hard core wing of our party. We do not have to soft sell the message. The message is freedom, and when we start turning in numbers from 10-20%, we just may see that the Democrats and the Republicans, who are two sides to the same coin, just might start thinking a little more Libertarian. This to me would be a small victory on the way to major party status.
It is however very important that Libertarians stay true to the message of Less Government and More Freedom, and stand strong behind Social and Fiscal freedoms, which include religious freedom and tolerance, and ending the wars.
"But I am an Independent!"
No you are not; you are dependent. You are dependent on the two major parties to come up with a candidate that you are going to vote for. But as we have already shown, both sides are the same. Who is going to get the candidate who shares your belief on the ballot? Now is not the time to think, “The two parties got us into this mess and I am done with parties.” You would still only have those two. Now is the time to support a party that most represents you.
If those people only knew how hard it is to achieve and maintain ballot access for anyone but the two major parties, they would be more willing to help. Libertarians work very hard to get on the ballot especially considering we get no donations from major corporations because when elected they know we would not give them anything.
For those people who say they are independent I say, sorry, you are very dependent. If you don’t help a third party, any third party for that matter, you always will be.
Remember....Go here to send John Jay Myers some money for his campaign.
Some in the Libertarian Party might take exception to my comment “I believe in Principle before Party.” I do believe this, but let me say I also believe the Libertarian Party needs to flourish and become a true option for the American people. It would be silly for me to tell people that they should not always vote for party and then tell them that they should only vote for mine. However, I would like to take this time to explain the many reasons why I believe people should vote Libertarian and run as Libertarians.
But My Teacher Says...
I was forwarded a letter the other day from the Texas Secretary of State. It was an instructional tool for teachers to help them explain to students why we have a two-party system. It went on to say that “it helps preserve majority rule in a democratic state.” If you know me, you would understand why this completely gets under my skin. We don’t have a two-party system. If you look in the constitution, you will not find any mention of having parties whatsoever. I am quick to point out that the words majority rule, democratic, and democracy are also all not found in the constitution. Not once.
Democracy is the idea that people can vote themselves things. But the first question is where do things come from? That is where it should hit you. A direct democracy is theft. It is legal theft, but it is not much different than a gang with guns stealing from you. Because if you do not submit to the will of the majority, a man with a gun will soon come and take your stuff, and possibly put you in jail.
A simpler analogy is that democracy is simply two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for dinner, and you can bet that the answer will be lamb chops.
So we actually live in a republic. The difference is that individuals have rights, and the government has no power to take them away. This is why we have a constitution. So as Thomas Jefferson put it, “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”
I personally do not have any confidence in the man known as a politician, except that he is probably a "confidence man" (con-man for you kids out there). Which is why I ask the left and the right, “If we are all so sure the government is corrupt, why be so quick to give them more power?”
When we are taught that we only have two parties, they are robbing us of choice. What we really have is a majority opinion, and no one standing up for the opinion or rights of the minority. This smells a lot like lamb chops cooking to me.
Libertarians endorse many methods of ending the two party monopoly. Among them are Ranked or Approval Voting. Either is a step in the right direction from where we are now.
R’s and D’s are opposites?
Let’s play a game: which side supports the drug war, Iraq, Afghanistan, Patriot Act, and Gitmo? If you said Republicans, you would be right; if you said the Democrats, you would be right as well.
Which side supports socialized medicine, bailouts, stimulus, and debt? If you said the Democrats, you would be right; if you said the Republicans, you would be right as well.
Far from being opposites, neither will bring the troops home, restore fiscal responsibility, deal with entitlements, or promote free markets.
You may be starting to see why it is important that we have a strong Libertarian option. Libertarians would have a none-of-the-above approach on all of these issues.
Dr Ralph said...
As usual, it all sounds good until you actually hear what's being said.
Most European nations have multi-party systems (it's called parliamentary government) and the last time I checked, they had plenty of taxes. Incidently, what often happens in parliamentary systems is the major parties end up being held hostage by fringe parties so they can form a working majority. I guess for a party like the Libertarians (who've barely polled over half a percent in the last 8 presidential elections) this sounds pretty good.
Ranked or "Approval" voting? Given the above mentioned half percent polling, what makes you think you stand a snowball's chance in hell of improving your odds?
No - my guess is what the Libertarians really want is power apportioned based on the amount of property owned. Another name for that is Plutocracy. Fear not - we continue to inch in that direction.
"Democracy is theft?" Flawed though it may be, it's better than anything I've seen proposed here.
Spoken like a loser.
The Whited Sepulchre said...
Assuming that you are one of the nation's 81 million taxpayers, your share of the burden created by the Crips and the Bloods is around $191,000.00
Quit typing, and get busy. John Boehner needs his car washed.
Dr Ralph said...
Since 2003 the top marginal income tax rate has been 35%, on individual income over $380.000. Supposedly, Mitt Romney and I pay the same rate but I'm beginning to wonder.
Prior to 1981 and reaching all the way back to 1932, the top rate was never lower than 63%. From 1965 to 1981, the top rate was 70%, and from 1946 to 1964 the top rate ranged from 91% to 94% on annual income over $2 million dollars (adjusted for inflation). Looking back I don't see any signs that the high rate stifled innovation, or whatever bullshit reason is popular with the 1% these days.
You want to lower the deficit? Raise the top marginal tax rate instead of ranting that "taxes are theft," like some fundamentalist railing against biblical inerrancy.
Oh, and for the record, the reason I'm washing John Boehner's car is he's too busy washing David Koch's car to do it himself. You ought to know - you're carrying his water. | dclm-gs1-107290000 |
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
It's Not Free -- It's Expensive
Rick Santorum got himself some attention the other day when he accused President Obama of being a snob for thinking everybody should get a college education; like my mother said, some people will do anything to get attention. Oh, Santorum got raked over the coals for that! (According to the smart folks at RawStory, though, he got a "round of applauds [sic]" from his Tea Party audience.) Santorum had to do some damage control again, explaining that he meant that college indoctrinates students and changes their ideas.
I don't think Obama's a snob, and I do think that Santorum is a dangerous, stupid fanatic. But I couldn't help noticing, first, that there was some truth in his complaint, and second, that there was nothing new about it. The Right has been complaining that academia is too far left for a long time. It goes back at least to William F. Buckley Jr.'s God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom," which was originally published in 1951, and is probably much older. Which made me think of this piece I wrote, and somehow got published in the student newspaper, in the early 1990s. I'll have more to say in another post, but for now, consider that one customer review at Amazon lauded Buckley's polemic as a "Common Sense View of Education Too Profound for the Elite." Funny how the Right flipflops between a fake populism and an equally fake defense of elitism, as the needs of the moment demand.
(Whatever happened to Young Americans for Freedom, by the way? They seem to have merged with College Republicans as the far Right took over the Republican Party. ... Oops, nope, they are now Young America's Foundation -- who needs freedom anymore, right? -- and they kicked Ron Paul off their board of directors last year for thoughtcrime and severe political incorrectness.)
The other day I found a leaflet in a trashcan at work: "Survive Political Correctness at IU" it began. "YOU Have a Right to be Heard!" On the flip side it read:
Indiana University Young Americans for Freedom
IUYAF is a conservative student organization dedicated to preserving the element that made America great:
YAF was founded in William Buckley's living room in 1964, and functions mostly as a sort of fraternity for extreme right-wing students, giving them access to government jobs when they graduate. The most famous YAF alumnus (not counting co-founder Marvin Leibman who came out publicly as gay in 1990) is probably Tom Huston, who as a White House aide in 1970 presented then-president Richard Nixon with a "clearly illegal" plan for suppressing dissent in the US.
I began reading. "Isn't the University supposedly a place where ideas are freely exchanged?" the leaflet asks itself. "It's supposed to be," it answers itself. That was a surprise. In general the Right views the University as a place where students passively ingest the glories of white heterosexual male culture. According to Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, the New Left of the 1960s destroyed this age-old curriculum and encouraged students to think for themselves, even to question their professors. It's gratifying to see how far YAF has swung to the left.
"However, many professors are LEFTISTS," the leaflet goes on. So? Many professors are Rightists. People who are committed to the free exchange of ideas welcome a variety of viewpoints in the University; but not YAF. (Similarly, right-wing IDS columnist Reid Cox warned freshmen against taking any "leftist" classes such as Jewish Studies, lest they be exposed to contaminating influences.)
"Many professors will ridicule any attempt to present views that are contrary to their own." Professors anywhere on the political spectrum may exhibit such unprofessional conduct, but apparently it only bothers YAF when "LEFTIST" professors do it: Rightist profs may and should ridicule any ideas that are contrary to what YAF calls "common sense." There is a serious point here: how can there be a free exchange of ideas with or under someone who has the power to grade you, who may be tempted to impose his or her beliefs by turning them into course requirements? "LEFTIST" educational critics have been pointing this out for years, but it's not a partisan political question. YAF would have you believe that the Right is neutral, universal, while only the Left is partisan.
The leaflet then lists some "LEFTIST" ideas: professors "will criticize free markets. They will condemn the actions of 'whites'. They will scorn the traditional two-parent family and praise homosexuals."
"All these things are contrary to common sense," says the leaflet. "Yet you will hear professors repeat these themes in class again and again." Most advances in human thought have been "contrary to common sense," from the recognition that the earth moves around the sun to the extension of the vote to non-propertied white males, from religious toleration to equal pay for equal work. If we limited discussion to ideas which one special-interest group considers common sense, we'd still be living in caves. Evidently YAF really wants something like "the free exchange of ideas which meet YAF criteria of True Political Correctness."
"What kinds of people will I encounter?" the leaflet then asks. "All kinds," it replies. " ... Treat them all with respect." Since Diversity Programs at IU are meant to promote respect for all kinds of people, I thought for a moment that YAF had come around. But watch out for "some people who seek to destroy what you know is true ... These persons are IU's 'thought police.' They want you to think that their way is the only way." (Perhaps they believe that only their way is "common sense"? In other words, anyone who disagrees with you is "thought police," the crack PC commando squads of IU's Ministry of Diversity, "slaves to the University," which 'pays them to break down what you learned before coming to IU."
Notice that the "you" addressed here is a white heterosexual male of right-wing Republican views. (A potential member of YAF, in other words.) YAF apparently assumes that any student outside this narrow target group will have no trouble surviving Political Correctness at IU. Indeed, YAF views such students as the problem: YAF knows that its opponents go far beyond Diversity Advocates to large numbers of its fellow students. The programs and classes YAF deplores were not unilaterally imposed from above, but are the products of student pressure dating back to the 1960s.
"How can I survive this war on free thought?" Confront "opinionated" professors, YAF advises. Allan Bloom must be spinning in his grave! Of course, this is only acceptable if they are LEFTIST: black students who disagreed with a white professor at Harvard were misrepresented and vilified in Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education. "If he or she [note PC terminology!] belittles your views, simply say, "Gee. I thought a scholar like yourself would be open to a true discussion of opinions.'" This is cute, but a "true discussion of opinions" requires more than the insistence that one's own view is "common sense."
Still, a pattern is emerging. The free exchange of ideas always carries with it the risk that you may be wrong, or at least unable to prove you're right. Your opponent may be better-informed, or a more skillful debater. If you're rational, you'll shrug, and resolve to learn more and do better next time. But YAF wants the exchanges rigged in their favor. If they lose, they complain that their opponents are paid tools of the diabolical PC agenda; it never occurs to them that they didn't do their homework, let alone that they might be wrong -- they know they're right. This attitude is consistent with the Right's approach to other issues. Free thought is risky; only total abstinence is safe.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Authentic Democratic Gibberish
My Tabloid Friend on Facebook linked to this article celebrating the Dear Leader, whose poll numbers have been rising lately. No wonder: compared to the prospective opponents the GOP is fielding, he almost even looks good to me.
The same writer also recently explained "Why President Obama is more like Jesus Christ than any Republican", concluding:
President Obama is far from perfect and his legacy is still yet to be complete, but as his presidency continues each day he has stayed true to his message. Not every promise has been fulfilled and as his time in office continues the choices become greater. One thing that can be said about President Obama is that he is doing what is best for the country as a whole, not just a particular sector of the country. It's hard to please everyone when we all have different ways of thinking, but in the end if the message in the story of Jesus is to be tolerant, caring and accepting and doing what is right for everyone, President Obama has a stronger leg to stand on than his Republican counterparts.
As you can see, Robert Sobel needs a copyeditor. President Obama has only one leg to stand on? A bit earlier Sobel wrote, "In no way should anyone try to compare President Obama to Jesus or anyone else [so why is he doing it?], he's his own man and he stands on his own two feet." (Sobel bills himself as a "middle class father, husband and son, [with] a degree in communications and media production." College degrees aren't what they used to be, I guess.)
And no, I don't think it can be said about Obama "is that he is doing what is best for the country as a whole, not just a particular sector of the country."
What especially enchanted me was this comment from a Top Commenter:
The President of the USA is a mighty fine man, husband, father, an leader of the free world. The best President we have ever, I only saw the republicans kill JFK but loved him didn't see him for to long since I was young. Obama is the best thing besides McCain & Palin Poor Bruce below me is a brunt of an thuglican whom call our PRESIDENT a CHIMPMS. He probobly needs viagra or something to a republican that wants to talk about evolution and is a Pukelicant, whom needs viagra, an needs cialis for his erectile dysfunction is all he thinks about...Not about the Solar & Wind Green Energy. He looks like the supidest man in a red shirt a BP Employee whom should be jailed for polluting the Gulf of Mexico and killing the people of the ocean he stands in front of with pride so you see the dolphin dead behind his right should. OMB BP SUCKS AN SO DOES BRUCE VAN BRUNT FROTHY FECAL MATTER. Bullseye on his face would look nice...
It's great to see that unlike the Republicans, Democrats and especially supporters of President Obama are rational, literate, and civil.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Just You Wait Till Your Father Comes Home!
I was poking around in the recent past when I found this interview of Anne Lamott by Joan Walsh. (I got there by way of Walsh's piece on Internet misogyny, which I agree with.)
Now, I like Lamott's writing, from her fiction (all of which I've read) to much of her nonfiction. Bird by Bird is a great book, not just about writing but about being a human being. Operating Instructions, her journal of her first year as a mother, was beautiful too. But when she writes about Faith and Spirituality, she turns me off; I've only read her first Christian book, and that was enough. From time to time I find myself tempted to read the later ones, just because she's a good writer; but then I remember how obnoxious she -- yes, even Anne Lamott -- becomes when she starts talking about God. In this interview she has a lot of good things to say about aging, politics, and Molly Ivins, but first she has to deliver a little sermon.
Everything in the culture says that if you’re a person who really loves Mary or Jesus or one of the Hindu gods or whatever, that you’re not supposed to have jealousy or existential waves of judgment. And I don’t think God ever said that. I think the message of Jesus is “Me too” and “It’s weird down here” and “People can be really awful and the amount of suffering you’re going to see around you, whether in San Francisco or Fairfax or a foreign country, is going to literally blow your mind.” I work like hell but I’m also secretly kind of lazy. I do tons of benefits and stuff like that and yet I’m kind of lazy and shiftless; I take a nap every single afternoon. I have a life that allows a 45-minute nap. So what I can say to people is, “There’s nothing you’ve thought, I haven’t thought too. No matter how awful you behave I can probably relate, although the details will be different.”
That last sentence is good, it's a major part of what I like about her writing. It's what comes before it that doesn't work.
"I don't think that God ever said" that "you're not supposed to have jealousy or existential waves of judgment." Perhaps she should read the gospels, where Jesus says that if you judge others, you'll go to Hell; and that if you even experience lust, let alone act on it, you'll go to Hell. The message of fanatical perfection that she blames on "Everything in the culture" is an echo of Jesus' teachings in the gospels, and particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. I'm not aware of any passages that counter them. I'm sure Lamott has her ways of getting around such sayings, but that's what she has in common with other fundamentalists. Christians have almost two thousand years' experience explaining away troublesome Bible passages. That's long enough that most of the time they can forget that it's what they're doing.
I'd sure like to see her expand on this. It's not very easy, as Lamott surely knows, to boil down all the teachings of Jesus in the gospels to a single message; probably Jesus himself couldn't have done it. It's very subjective, but what's subjective can be discussed, defended, and criticized. "Me too"? The Jesus of the gospels is quite sure that he's better than you, that's why he came to give his life for many. He is, after all, the Son of God, come down to rub elbows with the canaille downstairs for a season, until it's time to carry out his suicide mission and return to the heaven from which he came. I can't think of any place in the gospels where Jesus commiserates with anybody; sometimes he takes pity on their suffering, but that's not a "Me too", it's an alm tossed to the lepers. "It's weird down here" doesn't make sense to me at all when I think of the Jesus of the gospels. "People can be really awful and the amount of suffering you're going to see ... is literally going to blow my mind." ("Literally"? I'd hope Jesus wouldn't use that word that way.) Again, I can't extract this message from the gospels. It's more like, "If you think things are bad here, wait till I cast you into eternal hellfire, you craven sinner! Wait till Our Father comes home!"
And there's the irony. Lamott's conclusion is just fine, but it really has nothing to do with Yahweh or Jesus; their concerns, as far as we can tell from the Bible, are quite different. (Yahweh's, for example, seems to be more like "Ooh, gross! Body fluids! Wash them off this minute before I get sick." Or his take on animal sacrifice: "The food is terrible here -- and such small portions." There is, I admit, more interest in social justice in the Hebrew Bible than in the New Testament, and that's good, but why would an omnipotent, omniscient being be so squeamish about the same ladyparts he created?) Lamott believes in her message because it's what she wants to believe, and I consider it preferable to anything I've ever found in any religion I've looked at. But I don't agree that it's the message of Jesus -- I know the New Testament too well to fall for that.
Which just goes to support my reversal of Gandhi's famous (but evidently apocryphal) platitude: I do not like your Christ. Some of your Christians are pretty decent; they are so unlike your Christ.
We Were Only Trying to Help!
In a follow-up to its story on the killing of two American officers in the Afghan interior ministry building this weekend, the BBC reports that "At least 30 people have been killed in violence over the last five days." By "violence" it clearly means "violence by Afghan rioters," not "violence by NATO troops against Afghan civilians around the rest of the country in the course of their normal duties," which right-thinking journalists and news consumers know isn't really violence at all.
Glenn Greenwald has a good related post at Salon this morning, pointing out that the protests in Afghanistan aren't simply about the burning of Korans. He quotes this New York Times story:
I've noticed that Americans have trouble remembering what the US is doing over there. It's reminiscent of the US invasion of Vietnam in this respect: One one hand, we're only over there to help the "Afghanis," because if we leave the Taliban will oppress their women (never mind that the Northern Alliance, our allies in the overthrow of the Taliban, also are patriarchal Islamic fundamentalists who oppress women), we're only trying to help them, okay, and they should at least appreciate that, instead of rioting over trifles. On the other hand, the "Afghanis" are a threat to American security and we can't leave until we've made sure that they'll never attack us again, we are over there primarily to protect and defend ourselves, and the sooner they put down their arms and stop fighting us, the sooner we can leave that godforsaken wasteland (except for the bases and troops and mercenaries we'll certainly want to retain, for our own security, and they wouldn't begrudge us such trifles, would they?).
I think this might be the place to use, finally, this quotation from an educated liberal commenter on a lesbian-feminist blog a couple of years ago, as one example of "folks who are angry and upset with their own lives, and who, for some reason, attribute all that is wrong in their lives to the actions and influences of others":
Ask an Afghani Taliban peasant why his family is impoverished, and he’s likely to blame Israel, the US, or the West. Ask him to show you those places on a map and chances are he can’t do it. Gee, ya think his support of a system of corrupt tribal warlords, a corrupt weak government, and the lack of decent free education might have something to do with his poverty?
(Other examples proffered by this commenter included black -- "urban" was the commenter's adjective, which as you'll see was dogwhistle code -- men who sit around drinking Colt .45s and blaming "The Man" for their inability to get a job, and angry white male Limbaugh fans who blame all their "economic and personal woes" on gays, feminists, and people of color. Quite even-handed, you see.) The complacent ignorance displayed about the situation in Afghanistan that led to the US presence there still amazes me; certainly the commenter is in no position to cast the first stone. And how many Americans can find any country on a map? (That Afghan peasant doesn't need to find America on a map, by the way: the American invaders are right there in his country, killing people.)
Greenwald also points out that Americans have our own little totem that you had better not mess with: the Flag.
Probably not, but I'm sure that pundits for the country that invaded us would do so.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
The Color of Disbelief
It seems only fitting that this should have turned up right after the Post ran an article about a bunch of antigay African-American Christians whining that they're being picked on for their religious beliefs:
“There is an idea that it is mandatory for blacks to believe in God,” said Mandisa Thomas, founder of Black Nonbelievers, an Atlanta group.
“We have heard this from preachers who say blacks would not have gotten anywhere without faith. And if you do not believe in God, you are ostracized, targeted by family and friends, accused of trying to be white. There is this idea that if you subscribe to atheism you are betraying your race, you are betraying your culture, you are betraying your history as well.”
Now, a growing number of African-American nonbelievers are reaching out to others in their communities to help them confront these challenges. They are calling on atheists of all colors to make the fourth Sunday in February — Black History Month — a “Day of Solidarity with Black Nonbelievers.”
The Day of Solidarity originated last year with Donald Wright, a Houston consultant who has written about his own journey from the black church to atheism. Fellowship with other atheists is critical, he said, if black nonbelievers are to move not only out of the closet, but also into the mainstream of American life.
Sounds good to me, though the American mainstream isn't comfortable with atheists of any color. We're just going to have to crash that party.
Does Not Compute
An unidentified gunman shot and killed two senior NATO officials in the interior ministry building in Kabul. The killer is still at large.
Nato commander Gen John Allen condemned the attack as "cowardly".
Thus saith the BBC. Also that the building "should be one of the safest in the capital, and that any Afghan who carried out the attack would have had the highest clearance."
So, some individual managed to enter a secured building belonging to the occupiers of a country at war -- which means not just security gates but probably armed guards -- reached the "command and control centre," killed two American military officers, and escaped. "Cowardly" doesn't seem like le mot juste, pardon my French. If Navy SEALs did something similar, like breaking into a compound to take out one of America's enemies, it would be a bold, daring, heroic exploit that would have American news anchorpersons wetting their pants with admiration, and brave American citizens dancing in the streets. Liberal Hollywood would want the movie rights.
For purposes of comparison, killing civilians from afar with remote-controlled predator drones isn't "cowardly." I'm kind of used to this sort of doublethink after so many years of having it shoved in my face, but every now and then an especially blatant case brings me up short.
Bonus BBC Fun Fact: Spiders are bigger when you're afraid of them.
Second Bonus BBC Fun Fact: Men may not become extinct after all. It had been feared that men might die out in five million years or so, which meant I was going to have to stock up. But fortunately, it's not going to happen, so I can let all those hoarded men go.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Christian Pride
My Tabloid Friend on Facebook linked today to this Washington Post article on the controversy over same-sex marriage in black churches in Maryland.
Wow! I can totally relate, y'know, because I've experienced anger and name-calling too -- from their side. When you take a moral stand, you have to expect some anger and name-calling, and you don't whine about it. (If you're a Christian, you're supposed to glory in it.)
This is a false dichotomy. Freedom of religion, for example, is a matter both of civil rights and of Scripture and religious belief. Many religions, and subdivisions within religions, require the chastisement of people with dissenting beliefs. (At first I wrote "persecution" there, but that's not how the religious see the killing, torture, and expulsion of people with the 'wrong' beliefs. "Persecution" is what you do to me, not what I do to you, even if we do the same things.) For Christians, the target can be non-Christians (Jews, Muslims, "pagans") or it can be other Christians (Catholics vs. Protestants, Anglicans vs. Baptists, and everybody against "heretics"). In the days when Christians took their faith seriously, as a matter of life or death (life for me, death for you), it was absurd to argue that people had a right to believe the wrong thing. As Robert Wilken wrote in The Myth of Christian Beginnings (Notre Dame, 1971),
Most English-speaking American Protestants trace their origins to the colonists who came from England in the early seventeenth century and settled at Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth. Parents, schoolteachers, clergymen have told and retold generations of children the tale of persecution and oppression in Europe and the desire of these first Americans to establish religious freedom in the new land so that men might live together peacefully, tolerating different views.
... Even such a fundamental pillar of American life as the separation of church and state is widely thought to be an inheritance from the first settlers. Yet those Pilgrims never dreamed of establishing religious freedom in their colonies. Indeed, they had no idea of toleration. "All Familists, Antinomians, Anabaptists, and other Enthusiasts shall have free liberty to keepe away from us." And another: "Tis Satan's policy to plead for an indefinite and boundless toleration. ..." The land, however, was spacious, and men could, if they found the atmosphere confining, simply move on to form a new colony [8-9].
There's debate nowadays over whether freedom of religion includes freedom from religion. As you can see, freedom of religion in America traditionally meant my freedom to burn you at the stake, unless you exercise your freedom to get the hell out of Dodge first. But we've left those days far behind in our secularist abandonment of all traditional values.
Still, as late as the 1960s and after, the Civil Rights movement had opponents who insisted that the Negro question was not a matter of civil rights but of Scripture, and whether a country founded on Christian values would honor God's wishes or not. The material I'm about to quote comes from the journalist Robert Sherrill's Gothic Politics in the Deep South (Ballantine, 1969), which has a chapter on the topic. Page numbers refer to this book.
The chapter begins with a quotation from the late Senator J. Strom Thurmond: "This war we're in [over desegregation] is basically a fight between the believers in a Supreme Being and the atheist" (234). (Thurmond, you may remember, managed to defy God long enough to father a daughter on his family's black maid.) One of the ministers quoted in the Post article said, "It’s really believers against nonbelievers." Mostly the chapter is devoted to Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, "the school that dismissed Billy Graham as a student for breaking rules, later gave him an honorary Ph.D., then reversed itself again and damned him as a heretic in an argument that still rattles the Fundamentalist world" (237).
Sherrill describes with bemused awe the restrictions on BJU students in those days:
A student who is merely caught inside -- not necessarily buying anything, just inside -- any of a dozen anathematized stores near the campus is automatically dismissed from BJU. These are stores -- drugstores and grocery stories, as well as eateries -- that obtained liquor licenses over the protests of the college. Also the students are not allowed to:
Listen to jazz on the radio, or sing or play it themselves.
Go into the gym in mixed groups.
Date off-campus without written permission.
Sit or lie down on blankets anywhere on the 185-acre campus.
Leave the campus after 10:30 p.m.
Borrow anything from townspeople.
Release any information to newspapers without getting it approved by the administration ...
The parade-ground crackle is awesome. Students rise with a bell, and go to sleep with a bell; they must attend all chapels; they must go to all meals; they must study at certain times and not study at certain other times; they must wear certain clothing (stockings for the girls at all times; for the boys, ties to class, coats at evening meal); girls must not loiter in the halls; and all classes must open with a prayer, and all discussion groups close with a prayer [241].
(By the way, I used to work with a man about ten years my senior who thought it a shame that students nowadays aren't required to dress the same way at meals at Indiana University -- a state school, mind you -- as they were when he attended Ball State in the Fifties.)
But then, as "Dr. Bob [Jones], Sr, was fond of telling the BJU students in chapel, 'If you don't like it here you can pack your dirty duds and hit the four-lane highway'" (240). Freedom of religion, just like the Pilgrim Fathers!
The Founder (as he often called himself) explained, "If you are against segregation and against racial separation, then you are against God Almighty because He made racial separation ... It is no accident that most of the Chinese live in China. It is not an accident that most Japanese live in Japan ... " (247). But Bob Jones III explained to Sherill in an interview:
I don't want you to ... don't misconstrue this as an attack upon the Negro -- it's not. We love the Negro people. Some of the finest Christians I've ever known were Negroes. In fact, they put me to shame. And I have looked at several Negro Christians and wished to God I could be as Christlike as they are. And among Christian Negroes there is no strife between them and us -- we are brothers in the Lord. I'm for the Negro being able to have rights, to be able to ride on the bus with the white man, to eat at a restaurant if he wants to, to have education in a state institution -- he pays taxes like everybody else and he should have the privileges his tax money brings. I believe this and I'm all for it [247].
"He seemed to be heading toward a modest pitch for integration," Sherrill reflected, "but I knew he wouldn't be able to make it all the way" (248). I'd point out that Jones's rhetoric is perfectly mirrored by today's antigay Christians, who assure us that they love us, and are not against letting us visit each other in the hospital, and recognize us (as one of the ministers in the Washington Post article put it) as fellow sinners. "This young man sitting across the desk from me, godlike in his certitude, was also stretching forth a finger to touch the Negro into a life of fellowship," Sherrill continued. "But there was still the small gap, in this case requiring his imagination to effect the bridge, so I knew it would never happen."
Jones did not disappoint.
... Until we have our redeemed, supernatural bodies in Heaven we're not going to be equal here, and there's no sense in trying to be. Here's what I say. The Negro -- and I'm not, it's not my own feeling -- but a Negro is best when he serves at the table, when he does that, he's doing what he knows how to do best. And the Negroes who have ascended to positions in government, in education, this sort of thing, I think you'll find, by and large, have a strong strain of white blood in them. Now, I'm not a racist and this is not a racist institution. I can't stress that enough. But what I say is purely what I have been taught, and what I have been able to study in the teaching of the Scripture [248-9].
I'll spare you the ensuing tirade against the United Nations, but it's worth mentioning because today's Right continues that vendetta.
So, you may be thinking, this is one wacko college, but they only speak for themselves. I quoted the Joneses because they were handy, but I remember hearing the same arguments from racist whites throughout the period. The Christian schools that sprang up all over the country, but particularly in the South, from the 1950s were intended to hide racism behind a religious front. The trouble was, they claimed tax-exempt status as well, and managed to get it for a long time, supported by the Supreme Court. (The same question is arising about Christian schools and gay students.)
Besides, for all its marginality, Bob Jones University achieved a kind of martyr status on the Right when it lost its tax-exempt status because of its ban on interracial dating. (BJU had begun admitting black students in 1971, but until 1975 they had to be married, and even after that they could not be in an interracial relationship. Despite Jones Sr.'s remark about God putting the Chinese in China for a reason, the school had always admitted Asian students.) The school took the fight to the Supreme Court, where it lost in 1983, despite then-President Reagan's intervention on BJU's behalf. "Reagan would later say that the case had never been presented to him as a civil rights issue." In 2000 George W. Bush visited BJU to deliver a campaign speech, igniting a firestorm of criticism which led to the school abolishing its policy against interracial dating. Bob Jones III told Larry King that it was "a rule we never talk about" and "We can't back it up with a verse from the Bible." Most damning, BJU abandoned its official racism not under government pressure, but under criticism from the worldly and ungodly. (When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Not even at Bob Jones University.) Keeping up with the Joneses isn't easy.
Funny how these eternal-will-of-God, God's-ways-are-not-our-ways policies have a tendency to crumble over time. But you know, the anger and the name-calling sting. Could it be that Christian opposition to same-sex marriage will go the same way eventually? Probably.
But again, the point of going over this history is to point out how the same themes keep recurring in Christian bigotry. Was racial equality a civil rights issue or a religious issue? It was both, of course. Is same-sex marriage a civil rights issue or a religious issue? Both, of course. In both cases, it's illegitimate for churches or other religious institutions to dictate social policy. That they can't see that they are repeating the same worthless arguments that were made against the Civil Rights Movement a half-century ago speaks very badly for them, as men of the cloth and as human beings. Somewhere the apostle Paul said that if Christ wasn't raised from the dead, then his preaching was in vain and Christians' faith is in vain; and Christians are of all men most to be pitied. That's pride speaking, Christian pride; it's certainly not evidence for the Resurrection.
Back to Nathaniel Thomas, the minister quoted before in the Post article:
If Thomas and his allies really feel this way, they should be lobbying to take marriage out of the civil sphere altogether, including for heterosexuals, and give civil unions to everybody who wants state recognition for their relationships. Can you imagine the fury that would ensue over that? It would come mostly from Christians. The word marriage is already "in there." (Does he think Loving v. Virginia should have settled for giving the Lovings a civil union while denying them marriage?) Thomas must know that he's lying in his teeth, because the Bible does not define marriage as one man and one woman: polygamy is the Old Testament norm, and the New Testament has nothing to say on the matter. Christians abandoned polygamy to conform to Roman norms, not for biblical reasons. Nor is marriage a biblical word; it can be found in most religions and most cultures. (By his standard, non-Judeo-Christian heterosexuals shouldn't be allowed to marry either.)
As I've noticed before, the biblical prohibitions of sex between men (and I agree that they are there) aren't about marriage: men aren't allowed to commit buggery even if they are not married to each other. Yet Thomas is willing to ignore Romans and Leviticus, even to extend full civil rights to sodomites and sapphists; he only draws the line at civil marriage. How does he justify that? His hypocrisy is staggering, especially here:
Thomas already sanctions "his behavior," by his willingness to let those with "that lifestyle" have civil unions. Nor will legalizing same-sex civil marriage force him to sanction "that lifestyle," leaving aside the fact that he already sanctions it. The Maryland bill already includes a completely unnecessary religious exemption, since churches are not required to recognize even heterosexual marriages that don't meet their cult requirements. And if this debate is between "believers and nonbelievers," which suggests that it's only non-Christian gays who will want to get married, then what does Thomas have to worry about? (In fact, there are plenty of gay Christians who'll want church weddings, and being Christians they view the First Amendment as a mere piece of paper. But in time the churches will come around without state pressure, just as they did on race.)
Looked at rationally, it's hard to see what the fuss is about. Certainly it's not a religious issue, except insofar as these shameless bigots are making it into one. But all religious issues are made by human beings. Maybe it's not a civil rights matter either; the civil rights issues involved are shaky, in my opinion, but it's not necessary to view same-sex civil marriage as a civil rights issue in order to legalize it. These men may not want to see themselves as bigots; the truth often hurts. But I can't see what else to call them, except fools.
Duality of Tastes
"By whom is it accepted?" [inquires Caro]
"I am going to be married" [193].
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Russ Feingold Supports Targeted Killings
I've never been a fan of Russ Feingold, but then I never paid much attention to him. Many on the leftward end of the American political spectrum adore him, though.
Today Feingold appeared on Democracy Now! Although he's now one of thirty-five co-chairs of President Obama's re-election campaign, he disapproves of Obama's decision to accept Super PAC money. "That’s not who Barack Obama is," he said, which indicates that he needs to pay more attention. And then, later in a long interview:
To her credit, Goodman followed up, and Feingold provided a textbook example of waffling in reply:
Notice that last sentence in particular, which is charmingly incoherent, and remember that there is no evidence that Awlaki did any "horrible things": he was a propagandist for al-Qaeda, but he doesn't seem to have committed any acts of violence himself. Certainly Feingold didn't specify any, nor did the Obama administration. What provoked Goodman's first question was Feingold's listing Awlaki, along with bin Laden and Qaddafi, as bad people who were now "out of power," thanks to President Obama; but of the three only Qaddafi was ever actually "in power." This could probably be explained as a minor error resulting from speaking extemporaneously if Goodman hadn't asked him to clarify.
Obama's contempt for due process was the entire point of the criticism directed at him in the matter. And if being a propagandist for "horrible things" provides your opponents with a license to kill you, there are a good many Americans, from journalists to government figures, who'd be in big trouble. But as Obama has also made clear -- by his stance on the mere possibility of investigating the Bush administration for its crimes against humanity -- committing horrible things is only a crime for Them, not for Us.
A Conspiracy of Hope
Jon Stewart did a fun segment on Republican attacks on Obama:
The Daily Show with Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2012 - President Evil
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Indecision 2012 - President Evil 2
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"Republican leaders believe that everything Barack Obama has done in his first term has been a canard so that he can do the opposite in his second term." Entertaining, and on target. But isn't that what Obama's supporters and apologists have also been saying all along? "Oh, he's just pretending to support all these right-wing positions so that he can get the nomination / be elected / to play 11-dimensional chess with the Congressional Republicans / get re-elected. But once he's safely in office, he'll be able to let the real Barack shine through!" Almost nobody in the political mainstream believes that Obama says what he really means, it's always a cover for his true intentions. The difference is whether you believe that his true intentions are evil, or good.
And those of us who, all along, pointed not only to his public statements -- the threats against Iran, for example, which began in 2007 -- but his record, and suggested that these had some relevance? Oh, we were accused of being secretly on the side of the Republicans, of being nasty Grinches who wanted to destroy all Hope, and of being conspiracy theorists.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
In the Room the Women Come and Go
I've been reading Shirley Hazzard's 1980 novel The Transit of Venus (Viking) -- rereading it, rather. I first read it soon after it was published, because of the rave reviews it garnered, but it made absolutely no impression on me. Hazzard writes very well, her prose is the main attraction, but I suspect I'll forget the book again right after I finish it. It reads like a Virago reprint of a novel from the 1930s or 40s, and indeed it's set (except a bit of backstory) in the 40s right after the end of the Second World War. The trouble is that it seems to have no perspective on the period, as one has a right to expect from a novel written, or at any rate published, thirty years later.
This passage, for example, from page 146. One of the principals, a young woman in her early twenties, is in a department-store tearoom overlooking Piccadilly in London, waiting for a friend to arrive.
Admitting only seemly sounds, the room sheltered none but the decorous. All tables were occupied by women. Waitresses like wardresses kept a reproving eye on performance, repressively mopping a stain or replacing a dropped fork. Something not unpleasant, a nursery security, came along with this. Yet in such a setting you might sicken of women -- sicken of their high-pitched, imperious, undulant gender, their bosoms and bottoms and dressed hair, their pleats, flounces, and crammed handbags: all the appurtenances, natural and assumed, of their sex. In such density they could hardly be regarded as persons, as men might be; and were even intent on being silly, all topics sanctified by the vehemence brought to them.
There is some validity to these observations, but exactly the same could be said of men in all-male environments, be they gay or straight, butch or nelly: in such density they can hardly be regarded as persons. I don't know much about Hazzard, but I get the impression from this novel that she's rather male-identified: the kind of woman whose friends are mostly male, who thinks of herself as above the fripperies and foolishness of most women. Or maybe not, who knows? The novel, so far at any rate, is highly gendered, a glimpse into the heterosexual lifestyle that makes me feel quite content not to be part of it.
Turnabout Is Fair Play
From Dan Savage's latest column:
I was bemused by the utter hysteria that the revelation of the postmortem baptism by Mormons of Gentiles produced. For example: "The Mormon practice of converting dead people is so despicable and sickening" -- just one of many. You'd think that the performance of this rite actually did something, had some effect. Which, of course, it doesn't. Your late loved ones and revered historical figures will not become Mormons, they are safely beyond the reach of any intervention now. seems a perfectly reasonable response, and just so there will be no confusion about this, I entered Orson Scott Card's name in there. I know he's not dead yet, but why should he have to wait? And, of course, this site is every bit as efficacious as the Mormon rite.
(The very first commenter on this column at The Stranger pointed to the next logical step: since the LDS also do posthumous marriages, because you can't enter into the Kingdom if you're single -- which would have surprised Jesus and Paul -- it is legitimate and indeed a blessing to posthumously gay-marry those poor dead Mormons who otherwise would have been shut out of Heaven.)
Come to think of it, though, the fuss over the Mormon rite reminds me of the way that many people, straight and gay, react to speculations or evidence that this or that historical figure (or even fictional character) may have "known the joys of homosexuality," as ADMANG puts it. It's as though we were posthumously recruiting them.* The suggestion is still commonly seen as an accusation, even in our supposedly more enlightened times.
*The comments on that article are entertaining. For comparison, see this helpful site. Aren't you glad that liberals and progressives aren't gullible, credulous fools who believe everything they see on the Web, unlike the fools who watch FOX News?
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
What Do You Do With a Drunken Samurai?
Last night I had a chance to see a 35mm print of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai shown on campus. It was the third or fourth time I've seen it in thirty-odd years, and it was a good time to see it because of the thinking I've been doing about violence in films and fanboys' celebration of it.
Seven Samurai was originally released in 1954, and it quickly became a classic. Kurosawa wanted to flesh out the samurai genre, which was already a standard of Japanese cinema, as martial arts was in China and the Western and crime film were in Hollywood. It's the story of a small village, ravaged by bandits in the late 1500s, whose people decide to hire samurai to defend them. Seven are willing to take on the job, a motley crew like the ensemble in a World War II picture: they range from the grizzled veteran and the hero-worshiping young novice to the drunken clown (played by Toshiro Mifune with enough mascara at times to double for Joan Crawford). The samurai organize the villagers and lead the defense, killing off all forty of the bandits and suffering some losses themselves. The survivors go on.
The finished product is 207 minutes long, almost three and a half hours, and it moves along steadily, expertly, at times creakily. Some of the plot devices, like a doomed romance between the youngest samurai and a village maiden, are just too obvious, but they don't get in the way. There's always the problem, when you watch an older film, that what seems like a cliche now may not have been one when it was made. In terms of the story (as opposed to technical aspects such as cinematography), I don't think that's true of Seven Samurai, but Kurosawa -- who also cowrote the script -- and his cast handle these elements with such conviction that they mostly work. And when you consider that the film is almost sixty years old, it stands up remarkably well.
Still, watching Kurosawa's old samurai movies brings home just how much cinema has changed in the intervening decades. Audiences expect brisker (not to say manic) pacing, less character development, and more gore. Seven Samurai's characters don't really develop -- those who live to the end are pretty much the same people they were at the beginning, even the novice -- but we do learn more about them and their backgrounds; that is, we get exposition rather than development. There are no real surprises, but then surprise really isn't the goal.
I recall one geekboy who argued online that because he personally fell asleep (or claimed he did) while trying to watch Seven Samurai, it was therefore inherently a boring movie. I pointed out that very many people did not fall asleep while watching it, so he was wrong. Granted, a 207-minute-long feature is a long slog, but as many viewers and reviewers have said, Seven Samurai moves along quickly. Sitting down in the theater last night, I was a bit worried about what I'd committed myself to, especially since I'd seen it before, but the time passed easily and without boredom. I couldn't help wondering what the many younger people in the audience, who'd grown up with a whole different kind of action movie, thought about it. The showing was sold out in advance, and I had to wait to get a ticket, but the film is a known classic and I'm sure instructors had recommended it. Were the kids disappointed? I don't know.
Consider: Seven Samurai is in black and white, in the old boxy screen ratio (1.33:1.00) of the days before Cinemascope and other widescreen formats. It must have cost a lot to make because of the extensive sets, the costumes, and the large cast (a hundred or so villagers, the inhabitants of the town where the samurai are hired), plus fight choreography and fire and rain effects (the final showdown takes place in a pouring rainstorm, probably machine-made). But one special-effects expense was conspicuous by its absence, namely blood and prosthetics. There are no geysers of blood or swords stuck into eyes, no lopped-off limbs or impaled torsos. A lot of characters are despatched by sword and spear, but the effect is theatrical, stagy. There's no attempt to make the violence look "real" by today's standards (though today's screen violence is increasingly unreal). So I was surprised by this online reviewer's assessment:
No, men don't "really die" in this movie; at least he didn't say "literally." It's just pretend death; it's a movie, okay? (And "skirmish" is really not the right word for the battle in the rain.) Often the camera "looks" only glancingly at the fighting, and the swords and clubs flail around without seeming to connect with anyone; only the agonized (but still stylized) screaming of the wounded tells you that the weapons found their mark. Fake blood is used very sparingly, only once or twice in a very long movie. It's reminiscent of classic Hollywood Westerns, where men who've been pumped full o' lead simply contort themselves and fall, with no blood shed, let alone exit wounds. But the fighting looks messy and brutal and no fun at all, which is probably the effect Kurosawa wanted. I just think it must seem tame to contemporary audiences.
Another specifically Japanese aspect of the film is the amount of male nudity, or rather exposed male flesh. Male peasants working in the fields often wear no more than a loincloth which shows off their buttocks, and there was one closeup shot of a man's backside and thighs that I don't think lingered on his body merely incidentally. Toshiro Mifune, playing the wild samurai, shows off his body quite a bit. It's not a great physique by 1950s Hollywood standards let alone today's defined, gym-toned buffness, but it's still impressive. As the samurai are on their way to the village, Mifune strips down to what this writer calls "a g-string" to frolick in a stream and catch fish for lunch with his bare hands, while the others (fully clothed) watch from above with amusement. Later he steals some armor from the bandits, a corselet almost like a Merry Widow, that covers his torso and allows his buttocks to peek out coyly below; he spends the last half hour or so of the film in this outfit. I'd be wary of reading too much homoerotic subtext into all this, including the young novice's hungry hero worship of the older fighters, if it weren't for the fact that Japan generally, and the samurai in particular, have a long tradition of male homoeroticism and hot man to man action. It needn't take place only within a minoritizing gayish framework (though it can do so, using different terms and categories than the contemporary American ones), so it shouldn't be ruled out in Seven Samurai.
Still, the (almost entirely Western) audience last night only giggled at Mifune's nudity -- and to be fair, it is clearly supposed to be as much a comic as an erotic element, though the two don't exclude each other -- as they did at the peasants' antics, though those are also double-edged in a different way. Kurosawa's peasants aren't simple, uncomplicated bumpkins: they have a darker side that keeps them from becoming caricatures. It's one of the great strengths of the film.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Repressed Never Really Went Away
I really hadn't meant to write more about Jeremy Lin, but some of the noise has been hard for even me to ignore.
The two incidents involving racial stereotyping, for example. First there was this image of Lin's head emerging from a broken fortune cookie, aired on MSG Network. (And what's up with his tongue hanging out like that? I've seen what I'd call a disproportionate number of news photos of Lin that show him yelling, face distended, as if he was a coach. But I admit, the ways of fans and sports media are not my ways.) Second, somebody on ESPN decided to put a headline (via) on their site about a "Chink in the Armor" after Lin's gameplay faltered. The headline was quickly taken down, an apology was issued, the writer responsible was fired, and the anchor who read it was suspended. (Some reasonably intelligent discussion of "chink in the armor" can be found here.)
Maybe I should add Floyd Mayweather's deprecation of Lin's success, claiming that he only got attention because he was Asian. Rush Limbaugh couldn't have said it better. Mayweather responded to criticism like a white person, claiming that "Other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine. As soon as I support Black American athletes, I get criticized ... Wow what a country." He later added, "I'm speaking my mind on behalf of other NBA players. They are programmed to be politically correct and will be penalized if they speak up." Right out of the Limbaugh playbook! I guess it's a sign of African-American progress that their pundits now borrow from the most characteristic right-wing talking points on race.
Saturday Night Live did a funny sketch about all this:
(Just a thought: Could it be an unconscious, tacit admission of the fundamental triviality and boringness of sports that sportswriters need to put so much energy into drivel like "Linsanity"?)
Then Gawker put up a story headed "What if Kim and Lin Started Dating?" Yes, Kim Kardashian.
My ever-vigilant Tabloid Friend on Facebook linked to it, gabbling "Wow I bet she would totally fuck that dude's head up if she managed to get that close to him. lol" and "I'd be retarded putty in that woman's presence for a while...unless she managed to offend me sufficiently enough, which then kinda gets the blood flowing to the proper head, so to speak. lol" Racist ("she only like men with big dicks") and misogynist ("she's only after the money, afterall knicks offered lin billions") comment ensued, to say nothing of the comments at Gawker itself. I commented that TF was scraping the bottom of the barrel for material to link to. I did not add, though maybe I should have, that none of us even know that Lin is heterosexual. (He's an evangelical Protestant who wants to become a pastor -- two of the early warning signs of the closet.)
This stuff really makes me feel weary, because I hate being reminded how racist this country still is. Like most Americans, the people I referred to above would indignantly deny that they're racist. But if they're right, why does racism keep leaking out around the edges when they talk? And these are just the leaks; sometimes it's blatant, as shown in this story (via) from Lin's college days:
Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, I recognize that some "racial jokes" are not meant as slurs. I eventually came to realize that when some of my blue-collar Hoosier co-workers greeted foreigners of any background with clumsy stereotyping jokes, they were just being awkward, and meant well. They were being friendly, as best they knew how, as taught by their culture; it's just that their best was pretty poor stuff. (And of course their culture, like most, is racist. We're in Klan country down here.)
But what Jeremy Lin has had to deal with can't be excused that way. It was another Ivy League player who called him a chink during a game, and it seems fairly certain that he was passed over for the NBA draft because he is Asian, not because of any lack in his game. Of course racism is as Ivy League as Harvard and Yale, and I'm not at all surprised to find racism and overt stupidity in the upper classes. (An older professor once confessed to sports sociologist Michael A. Messner as they watched a women's baseball game, "You know, it amazes me to see a woman throw like that. I always thought that there was something about the female arm that made it impossible to throw like a man."* This wasn't a personal blip but a commonplace medical myth of the good old pre-Title IX days.) It looks to me like elite sports is one of the areas where even the pretense of eliminating bigotry doesn't apply, once you get below the surface protestations. But that, I think, is because it's so representative of American life. (For once I'm not going to say "white American," because as Floyd Mayweather demonstrates, the bigotry is not limited to whites.)
In her review of The Bell Curve back in the 90s, Ellen Willis wrote:
The idea that black brains are genetically inferior to white brains did not fade from public view simply because white people were convinced by Stephen Jay Gould's eloquent arguments. Rather, the gap between Americans' conscious moral consensus for racial equality and the tenacious social and psychic structures of racism was papered over with guilt and taboo. Many opponents of racism thought they were doing their political duty by shouting down the Jensens and Herrnsteins driving them underground. But this literal enforcement of taboo was only a crude reflection of a much more widespread process of self-censorship.
I don't mean that the moral consensus of the post-civil rights era wasn't genuine. I mean that morality isn't enough, that it can't forever keep the lid on contrary feelings rooted in real social relationships that have not been understood, confronted, or transformed. Commenting on The Bell Curve in The New Republic, John B. Judis indignantly points out that the taboo Murray and Herrnstein are so proud of violating was a reaction to Nazism: "It's not a taboo against unflinching scientific inquiry, but against pseudo-scientific racism. Of all the world's taboos, it is the most deserving of retention." The problem, though, is that taboos can never truly vanquish the powerful desires that provoke them. For some decades after the Holocaust, there was a moratorium on open anti-Semitism in Europe and America; it didn't last. So long as hierarchy is a ruling principle of our culture, the idea of black inferiority cannot be transcended, only repressed. And in an era when an ascendant global capitalism is creating a new, worldwide class structure -- when the language of social Darwinism is increasingly regarded as a simple description of reality -- genetic determination of social status is an idea whose time has come back.
While I agree with her main argument here about the limitations of taboo, I disagree with Willis on several points. The main one is that racism (and other bad -isms) never really went away. Racism didn't so much go underground as become more genteel, and mainstream American racism had always been genteel: Saying the N-word is tacky, nice people don't do it, but really, Those People would really be happier sticking to their Own Kind. White people created good jobs for ourselves, and while we'll be happy to let Those People have whatever jobs or positions at Harvard are left over when we've taken our share, they should be modest and polite and not become importunate. That Martin Luther King is just a Communist troublemaker, stirring up unrest; the Colored would be perfectly content if he and all the other outside agitators would mind their own business. The adaptation of this approach to other disenfranchised groups can be left as an exercise for the reader.
Aside from this, the problem I see is that most white Americans weren't interested in, or even aware of "the eloquent arguments of Stephen Jay Gould." And as Willis suggests, they were beside the point anyway. Racism was never based on believing that "black brains are genetically inferior to white brains"; the scientific arguments, worthless as they were, always floated atop the gut conviction of difference and inferiority. Willis even recognizes this: elsewhere in the same review she wrote that "If I bought the authors' thesis, I would still be allergic to their politics. I don't advocate equality because I think everyone is the same; I believe that difference, real or imagined, is not excuse for subordinating some people to others. Equality is a principle of human relations, not Procrustes' bed" (40).
Many people believe (or act as though they believe) that simply reciting a list of fine principles -- equality, justice, can't we all just get along? -- should be enough to absolve them of racism, sexism, etc., when they get caught saying something vicious and stupid. There's a great Feiffer cartoon from the late sixties depicting a male and female hippie facing off. The woman listens blankly as the man declares for several panels that they're in the same struggle, the same fight; her face only closes down when he asks, "So why is it that every day after slaving away on the barricades, I come home to a dirty commune?"
But back to the way racism leaks out of the celebration of Jeremy Lin. I can't understand why his success is so threatening to white sports commentators; for that matter, it says a lot about the culture of elite sport in the early 21st century that he was passed over for the NBA draft and then spent so much time on the bench. The people in charge -- presumably white males, again -- couldn't see past his Chineseness to the talent he had. It took a couple of accidents to give him a chance to play; otherwise, who knows how long he'd have languished without a chance to prove himself? As Andrew Ti wrote at deadspin,
NBA fans have almost no vocabulary with which to talk about him. As with any Asian person in popular culture, people's first resort is a torrent of pan-Asian racist gibberish: If it has anything to do with any country, food, product, concept, or stereotype involving Asia, the rule is basically, "Make any association or equivalence you want, whatever." ... There isn't much to say other than that this is racist as fuck.
He's right, but really? In 2012, white (and also, judging from the examples Ti gives, black) Americans still have almost no vocabulary with which to talk about a talented basketball player who happens to be Asian? And lacking such vocabulary, they aren't smart enough to shut up totally about it and just talk about his playing? And they are so obsessed with his Asianness that if they try to shut up about it, it keeps leaking out? And somebody at ESPN thought he could sneak it in with "Chink in his armor"? And probably thought he was terrifically clever?
Which is one more reason why I stopped worrying about being normal decades ago. I looked at the conduct of the people who were normal, and realized I wasn't missing a thing.
*"Ah, Ya Throw Like a Girl!" by Mike Messner, in New Men, New Minds, Breaking Male Tradition, edited by Franklin Abbott (The Crossing Press, 1987), p. 40.
** In Don't Think, Smile!: Notes on a Decade of Denial (Beacon, 1999), p. 40-41.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Eminent Outlaws
I've just begun reading Christopher Bram's new book Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America (Twelve, 2012). It's a fun read, and I should have known better than to start reading it early in the evening. I kept reading twenty or thirty pages, putting it down, and then thinking, "Hm, I'll just read a little more." Next thing I knew I was over halfway through its 306 pages, it was three in the morning, and I stopped reading reluctantly. I'll probably finish it today.
That's probably just me. Bram and I are almost the same age, and we're both readers ... oh, and we're also both gay. So we read pretty much the same books, and we have similar tastes. He's also read a lot of the same critical and biographical material on these writers as I have, so the historical narrative had few surprises for me. Reading Eminent Outlaws is like a long chatty comparing-notes session with another serious reader.
Of course, we disagree on some minor points. He has a somewhat different take on the great Foucault question, and I wonder if he's actually read Foucault. I really disagree with his claim that "Queer theorists imagined a wonderful arcadian past where men and women simply did what they did and only their actions were judged, not their souls" (311). I've read enough queer theory to know that's not true, even when you take into account that the judgment of the actions in Christendom was extremely harsh. What he says there reminds me of what a lot of my non-Foucauldian contemporaries believed: that somewhere in the past -- ancient Greece, the Islamic world, Latin America -- society had not been corrupted by Judeo-Christian homophobia and the love of men for boys was celebrated. (This attitude is epitomized for me by Arthur Evans's Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture [Fag Rag Books, 1978], which as I recall managed to argue both that classical Athens was a totally gay-friendly society and that Socrates was executed for having sex with other men, because of cultural homophobia.) Still, I agree with Bram that "gay people today, whatever they call themselves, occupy a very broad spectrum of desires, personas, and self-definitions. The names are only approximations, anyway" (x). The men he's writing about all lived after 'the invention of the homosexual', so it's appropriate to discuss them under that rubric.
Similarly, on page 194 Bram writes:
Most straight people, and many gay people, especially those who came of age more recently, don't understand how momentous and difficult coming out was to men and women of this generation. It seems so obvious now, so banal. But the straight world made coming out important and dangerous. They despised homosexuals so much that the homosexuals responded with either total silence or the clever argument of Gore Vidal and others that there was no such thing as a homosexual -- if only people understood that gay identity was a social fiction, then antigay feeling would go away. Yet it wasn't until huge numbers of men and women took the banal and embarrassing step of naming themselves and sharing the name with their families that not just culture but the whole body politic began to change, shifting forward a few inches.
I don't remember that queers of my generation thought any such thing. I think Bram underestimates the influence of Alfred Kinsey on our understanding, but then I might overestimate it from having lived so long in Bloomington, the home of his research. Kinsey was opposed to both biological determinism and to psychoanalytic theories of sexuality, but the biggest impact his work had that I remember was its revelation that sex between men (as well as most other stigmatized sexual behavior) was far more common than most people had realized. Queers of my generation argued, not that "gay identity was a social fiction" but that it was common and therefore okay; not a very strong argument. This claim was taken to the extreme of claiming that Kinsey had proved that everybody is basically bisexual, or that sexuality is distributed on a bell curve, with most people bisexual and only a few either exclusively homosexual or heterosexual. Kinsey didn't prove any such thing, but this was a powerful myth.
But nowadays gay people believe that if only people understood that gay people are a separate breed, the slaves of our genes, driven to commit sodomy and listen to Lady Gaga by our biological difference, then antigay feeling would go away. I don't believe that antigay feeling is based on any assumptions about the nature of gayness; rather, I believe that beliefs about the nature of gayness are invented to justify the antigay feeling. Or the progay feeling, which as I indicated, is compatible both with biological determinism and radical anti-essentialism. I admit, though, that from what I've seen the most popular defense is to wail that we are born this way and can't help ourselves -- a claim that has deep historical roots.
One criticism I've seen made of Eminent Outlaws concerns its male focus. Bram makes the usual excuses: "I chose this focus reluctantly, but I needed to simplify an already complicated story. Also, lesbian literature has its own dynamic and history. It needs its own historian" (x). To give him his due, he does mention female writers, like Mary Renault and Patricia Nell Warren, who contributed to the gay male canon: Renault for her historical novels of classical Greece, Warren for her breakthrough novel The Front Runner (Morrow, 1974), about the love between a gay track coach and his star runner, and he points out (174) the impact that poetry had on lesbian culture. That the full story would be too "complicated" is not a very good excuse, but I can sympathize. He might have mentioned that lesbian writing flourished as an alternative canon, often involving small presses and self-publication; few of the major writers found their way into the mainstream houses in the US. Adrienne Rich, for example, won recognition before she came out. (Notice how she's de-gayed in this bio. And this one.)
A better explanation would lie in this book's subtitle, the words "changed the world." The literary establishment is predominantly male, and was even more so when Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin, and the other post-WWII writers Bram discusses built their careers. They worked in the mainstream; even Allen Ginsberg, whose work was first published by small presses, and William Burroughs, whose first published novel was a pulp paperback, achieved nationwide notoriety as part of the legal campaign against obscenity laws. Women writers, regardless of their sexual orientation, were rarely allowed to have such impact on "the world." (Gertrude Stein, of an earlier generation, was an exception because of her male identification and connections to famous male artists; Bram barely mentions her, but she's chronologically outside his scope anyway.)
The women's movement changed the world, however, and the work of women writers, including lesbians, gained a prominence and even legitimacy that's new in history -- against intense resistance that continues to this day. But then, gay male visibility also faces such resistance. But few if any of the writers Bram discusses had much to say about feminism, or about women's writing. Christopher Isherwood met Virginia Woolf once or twice -- her publishing house put out his first novels, in fact -- but he was more influenced by E. M. Forster, who was uncomfortable with Woolf's feminism. Carson McCullers barely features in Eminent Outlaws, despite her connections to several of Bram's principals and her relevance to his subject. And there have been some important books focusing on lesbian writers to the exclusion of gay male ones, starting with Jane Rule's Lesbian Images (The Crossing Press, 1975); it's arguable that gay men and lesbians have different, somewhat parallel literary traditions, though some knowledgeable people, like Terry Castle, might beg to differ. Thanks to the lesbians I've known, my exploration of queer literature since the 1970s has always included the work of women.
Since Bram didn't aim to write a scholarly book (which would probably have legitimized an even narrower focus), he can probably be excused for taking the easy way out. Eminent Outlaws will be a good introduction to the post-World War II gay male canon for people, especially young ones, who didn't grow up with it. But someone ought to take a look at the bigger picture. | dclm-gs1-107300000 |
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Parshas Ki Sisa
When Dignity Really Counts
By Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Friday Night:
G-d told Moshe, "When you take a count of the Israelites to determine their number, each one should be counted by giving an atonement offering for his life. In this way, they will not be stricken by the plague when they are counted ... " (Shemos 30:11)
Blessing is only found on that which is hidden from the eye ... And not on that which is weighed, measured, and counted ... (Ta'anis 8b)
We already discussed the concept of ayin hara from one vantage point in Parashas VeYechi (5758). However, the addition of the concept of "blessing" alludes to another dimension of this discussion, and alludes to some very deep and central concepts.
For example, the concept of a blessing is the idea of increasement (which is why the word "brocha" begins with the letter bais, which represents the number "two"). Sometimes G-d wishes to increase our lot in life miraculously, without our being directly involved (as in the case when someone earns a "bonus" at work). However, He also looks to work "undercover," only performing revealed miracles on special occasions. Therefore, if someone checks his bank account and watches it to the penny, then how can G-d increase the amount without it being known to the individual that a miracle has occurred? According to this idea, counting the money closes it off from such miraculous increasement.
Another way of looking at this idea is in a broader, more universal sense. Many people seem to have this innate desire to unify mankind, one way or another. People talk about "universal brotherhood" and similar ideas. Though their methods for achieving this ultimate state of humankind may be "off the wall," the notion itself is rooted deep within the esoteric teachings of Torah.
Kabballah talks about how everything can be traced back to a single source, G-d Himself. As the light of G-d "leaves" and "moves away" from G-d, it becomes more physical. The more physical the light becomes, the more "complex" it becomes, until, eventually, it results in so many different kinds and species, the number of which is beyond comprehension.
Eventually, the Kabballists explain, as history moves toward the 6,000th year (and beyond), creation will naturally re-unify with G-d once again to such a degree that many of the differences that interfere with such sublime unity will completely disappear. This is what the Talmud means which it says that "the only difference between this side of history and that of Moshiach's is that in the latter, no nation will oppress another" (Brochos 34b).
Weighing, measuring, and counting all are aspects of this physicality. The expression "Stand up and be counted" might as well say, "Stand out and be counted," since counting something makes something separate from everything else around it, a fragment of the whole. It is excessive individuality that interferes with the accomplishment of unity with others; the same thing is true of that which is measured and weighed.
Shabbos Day:
G-d said to Moshe, "Carve out two tablets for yourself, just like the first ones ... " (Shemos 34:1)
Well, not exactly. The first set of Ten Commandments that Moshe had descended with at the time of the golden calf had not only been inscribed by G-d, but the Tablets themselves had been carved out by G-d as well. Though the "replacement" tablets were also going to be inscribed by G-d, the actual carving out of the tablets, it seemed, was to be Moshe's doing.
This difference was also alluded to by the fact that the First Tablets contained 17 less words than the Second Tablets (Ba'al HaTurim, Parashas Aikev). This can be understood to mean that, as a result of the golden calf and the ensuing "physicalization" of the Jewish nation, it took more words to express the same lofty concepts found on the First Tablets. As a result, says the Pri Tzaddik (Parashas Aikev, 2), we are forced to exert more energy to draw out the levels of meaning meant to be available to us through Torah.
The Tablets were the work of G-d and the writing was that of G-d engraved (charus) on the Tablets. Don't read charus (engraved), but cheirus (freedom), for there is no one freer than one who studies the Torah. (Pirke Avos, 6:2)
The answer is, the Second Tablets were not the replacement for the First Tablets, but a medium through which to access them. Just as seeing glasses act as a corrective device for one whose vision has become impaired, so too did the Second Tablets act as a "corrective device" to help us recover what was lost when Moshe broke the First Tablets.
Seudos Shishi:
G-d said to Moshe, "I have chosen Betzalel son of Uri son of Chur of the tribe of Yehudah, by name. I have filled him with Divine spirit, with wisdom, understanding and knowledge ... " (Shemos 31:1)
It is one thing to be an architect; it is something altogether different to be G-d's architect in the building of the Mishkan, a miniature version of the G-d's own creation, the world itself. What made Betzalel so special? The Talmud explains:
Betzalel was named as an indication of his wisdom. When The Holy One, Blessed is He, told Moshe, "Tell Betzalel to make Me a Mishkan, an Aron, and implements," Moshe switched the order and said, "an Aron, implements, and a Mishkan." He [Betzalel] asked him, "Moshe Rabbeinu, is it not the way of the world to first build a house and then after put the vessels into it? And yet, you are telling me to first make the Aron and the implements! Where shall I put them?" He answered him, "[You're right!] That's how The Holy One, Blessed be He, told me to do it ... Make a Mishkan, an Aron, and then the implements. Perhaps you were in the shadow of G-d (b'ztel E"l)?" (Brochos 55a)
But, as if that genius wasn't enough, the Talmud adds:
... Betzalel knew how to combine the letters [of the Aleph-Bais] that were used to make heaven and earth.
However, as the Talmud concludes, that was wisdom that came from G-d. Nevertheless, it was Betzalel's initial wisdom that prompted the gift of Divine understanding, for, as the Talmud concludes, G-d gives wisdom to the wise.
Perhaps the original verse itself indicates another aspect of Betzalel's greatness and reason for being chosen from amongst millions of people, when it mentions the name of Betzalel's grandfather and tribe (his father's name can be considered an identifying family name).
Who was Chur?
There is a disagreement in the midrash as to whether Chur was Miriam's (Moshe's sister) husband or son. Regardless, Chur had illustrious ancestry: Yehudah, Peretz, Chetzron and Kaleiv. His was the line through which the kingship of Israel passed on the way to King David, and eventually Moshiach.
However, Chur's own trait was not unique to him, but to his entire tribe. When Yehudah was faced with the choice of "facing the music" and taking responsibility for unknowingly impregnating his daughter-in-law, Tamar, or letting her die accused of improper behavior, Yehudah "took the wrap" (as they say). For this reason, Yehudah's own father, Ya'akov Avinu, on his deathbed not only praised Yehudah, but he cited that event as the basis for the consensus of his right to the Jewish throne.
Why should this trait play such a central role in building the kingdom of the Jewish people? Because being "modeh" (admitting) to truth without concern for personal humiliation reveals a commitment to a higher level of truth, G-d's truth. This is a trait that most kings of the past barely even grappled with, yet, it is the root of the Jewish Malchus. It was also Chur's and Betzalel's spiritual inheritance ... the foundation upon which the Mishkan would eventually stand.
Melave Malkah:
The commentators "go to town" on the name Amalek, the ancestor of Haman, each one looking for another clue to the essence of Amalek's inherent evil. One such "drush" is "amull-kuf" (ayin, mem, lamed-kuf), made up of Amalek's letters of his name, which means "work of a monkey."
There are many ways to understand this, but one very relevant way is to understand that Amalek comes to reduce human dignity. Man was made in the "image of G-d," which was to be our sense of loftiness, and to separate us from the animal world that, physically, can come very close to what we look like and do. The question many still pose: Is man imbued with a holy soul, or only some hitherto unexplained form of consciousness and self-awareness ... Is he a monkey, or something altogether different (no matter how well-trained a chimpanzee can be)?
On the surface, such questions seem self-honest. After all, what fulfillment-seeking human being doesn't want to better understand his origin, be it physical, spiritual, or both? Science demands that we ask questions-all the questions-even if they reflect negatively on the stature of man.
No, says the Torah, that is not so. The Torah states outright that man did not descend from apes, but was formed from the dust of the ground (as were the animals), and then imbued with a holy, godly soul (unlike the animals). If you want to ask a scientific question, such as, "How do we know Torah is true, and that G-d gave it at Sinai?" and then research the answer, that is an important step along the way to finding G-d, a key to developing a keen sense of human dignity.
However, to dismiss the Torah out-of-hand and ask questions like, "Why does the monkey look so familiar to us, and act so human? Can it be ... ?"
Questions such as those are the work of Amalek, of the "monkey" himself. Why? Because, ultimately, the goal of Amaleks, and of Hamans, and of Hitlers, is to sever man's connection to G-d. The Amalekian approach is one that attacks the relationship of man to G-d by reducing man's own sense of godliness. Does it really make a difference, in the long run, whether you call man descended from monkeys, or whether you make him build golden calves, or more recently, stand, completely disgraced and immodest in front of one another and cruel murderers (one can't help but wonder if allowing the public to view pictures of such scenes doesn't, in fact, perpetuate this deep sense of shame and humiliation)?
(After all, Hitler, may his name and memory be erased, was a self-professed Social-Darwinist, who believed whole-heartedly in the philosophy of "survival of the fittest." One of his chief complaints against the Jewish people was that they corrupted the natural course of mankind, by teaching that the strong must help the weak survive.)
Purim celebrates the reversal of this trend. It comes to "lift the heads" of mankind (to borrow the language of the first verse of this week's parsha), to defeat the Hamans of history by restoring our sense of Elokus (godliness). This is why, according to the Rambam, there is an special mitzvah of helping out the poor on Purim, and why one who does is compared to G-d Himself. For, when one helps out a downhearted person, they restore his hope, just as G-d did to the Jews of Persia in Haman's time.
A Freilechen Purim,
Shabbat Shalom.
Pinchas Winston
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Oliver North
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Some people just don't get it.
John Kerry couldn't figure out why his fellow swift boat veterans attacked him so vehemently after launching his presidential campaign with that "reporting for duty" line.
Jane Fonda confesses to being "befuddled" about why Vietnam vets, many even older than she is, hurl epithets -- and more -- when she shows up to hawk her books.
And now, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and his colleagues are wondering why so many people refuse to accept his "apology" for slandering the men and women of our armed forces by likening them to those of Hitler, Stalin and Cambodia's Pol Pot.
In failing to comprehend the consequences of their words and actions, the Fonda-Kerry-Durbin trio serves as an archetype of the far left in misunderstanding the antipathy most Americans feel toward those who aid and abet our enemies.
Of the three, Durbin's June 14 verbal assault from the well of the U.S. Senate is the most egregious. Fonda's self-gratifying capers with the communists in Hanoi were conducted as a private citizen. Kerry was in a similar status when he made his unfounded, attention-grabbing atrocity accusations in 1971 before a congressional subcommittee.
But Durbin is no private citizen. He's the minority whip, the No. 2 ranking member of his party in the Senate. His were no "off the cuff" remarks. His unsubstantiated accusations of "barbaric treatment" at our terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo came before an assembly that arrogantly describes itself as "the world's greatest deliberative body." Thus, it could not have been a surprise to him or his fellow-travelers that his words flashed around the world, demoralizing our troops in the line of fire and offering our enemies a propaganda windfall.
Every major media outlet throughout the Middle East gave "lead story" status to Durbin's unconscionable remarks. Two days later, after he refused to recant, Al-Jazeera, Saudi Television, Al-Arabya, Lebanon TV and other mouthpieces for our Islamo-fascist adversaries gleefully reported, "U.S. Senator Stands by Nazi Remark." And, unsurprisingly, Durbin's belated, tearful, pseudo-apology on June 21 has been ignored by that same media. And he still doesn't "get it."
Those who now say "we can put the situation behind us" because Durbin has finally done "the right thing" are wrong. First, the serious damage done to our country and our military will not be easily undone. Second, what Durbin offered was no apology or act of contrition: "I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings."
Oliver North
| dclm-gs1-107330000 |
Phyllis Schlafly
The Republican and Democratic parties could have stirred up more television audience for their national nominating conventions by allowing the delegates to debate their party platforms. But both presidential nominees exercised such tight control that no such debate was permitted.
Both parties adopted their platforms with a single pound of the gavel. The thousands of delegates who came from all over the country dutifully played their roles as props for a television special.
It was an extraordinary feat of political management to prevent political activists in both parties from airing deeply held differences on political, social, economic and foreign policy issues. Party managers allowed strong positions on only two issues essential to their own constituencies, while most of the verbiage in both platforms was written to appeal to the so-called middle.
The Republican platform supports traditional marriage as the "unique and special union of one man and one woman." It endorses a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
The Defense of Marriage Act garnered 85 votes when it passed the Senate in 1996, but Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was one of the handful who voted against it, and President Bush rubbed this in during his acceptance speech. Bush said, "If you voted against the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act, which former President Clinton signed, you are not the candidate of conservative values."
The Republican platform quotes President Bush's oft-repeated line: "We will not stand for judges who undermine democracy by legislating from the bench and try to remake America by court order." The platform followed up by asserting: "The Republican House of Representatives has responded to this challenge by passing H.R. 3313, a bill to withdraw jurisdiction from the federal courts over the Defense of Marriage Act. We urge Congress to use its Article III power to enact this into law, so that activist federal judges cannot force 49 other states to approve and recognize Massachusetts' attempt to redefine marriage."
In contrast, the Democratic platform endorses "equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections" for "gay and lesbian families," and opposes a federal marriage amendment. It stopped short of endorsing same-sex marriage, hiding behind the excuse that marriage should continue to be defined at the state level.
This pretense of Kerry and the Democrats to be born-again states' righters is as phony as a $3 bill. The Defense of Marriage Act, which Kerry voted against, is the perfect states' rights answer to the marriage issue because it assures the right of the other 49 states to refuse to recognize Massachusetts same-sex marriage licenses.
Phyllis Schlafly
| dclm-gs1-107340000 |
Mettre - French to English Translation
Translate Mettre To English
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Source Language
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put, put in, place, lay down; keep; pot; apply, frame; put on, pull on; wear, fit, don
insert, put in, put away, stow
Translate the French term mettre to other languages | dclm-gs1-107370000 |
Linux Format 172 On Sale Today - Has Ubuntu lost it?
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Your comments
The Damn Exchange Rate and Furshlinger Overseas Mail
You guys kill me every time an issue comes out. I never heard of Linux Format until I found the Tuxradar podcast. I got hooked on the show so I "acquired" a PDF of an issue. It's extremely well written, fun, and there's something for everyone of any experience level to appreciate and learn from. It's also SLICK. Effy does an incredible job (I'm a designer too).
I live very far from any retailer that would carry the magazine (rural Wisconsin) so I can't pick up single issues. I'd love a subscription, but holy cow, I don't have that much disposable income to spend on my own entertainment, I've got a family to spend money on. I would continue "acquiring" digital issues as they come out, but so help me I can't get used to reading magazines or books on a computer. Long live print. Plus, I can tell you guys all work very hard when you're not at the pub. I usually don't feel guilty about liberal downloading online, but I feel like I know you guys now and would hate to take money out of your pocket. (Don't worry Effy, JK Rowling can afford it)
So until I get a raise or the American Dollar becomes worth something again I'll just stew every time a new issue comes out.
Best of luck
Overseas Subscription - Worth the Pain
@Burgess Meredith, I feel your pain. $140 USD per year for a hardcopy subscription here in the USA made me think long and hard before I first subscribed. Really, I had to debate with myself for 6 months.
Glad I did though, for all the reasons you mentioned. I look forward to each issue as a little monthly reading luxury away from the countless hours spent reading from video monitors.
I finally rationalized it to myself by comparing the monthly cost of each LXF issue to the price of a cinema ticket, which would I enjoy more. LXF won by a large margin. Actually, it was a bargain when I framed it that way. (your mileage may vary).
Keep up the great publication and podcasts Graham, Ben, Andrew, Jonathan, David, Neil, Efi, and all the others. Mike, your presence is always missed!
Quality is a worthwhile investment
I too live in in the wreckage that was the states and similarly lament the great difficulty acquiring this fine publication (especially after B&N pulled issue 155!). Yes, the price is higher than rags about fashion, celebrities and cars (more like catalogs really)yet the usefulness of the content far outweighs the investment. As a bonus, subscribers get unlimited access to archives of previous issues to reference not to mention the satisfaction of rewarding one of the few truly worthy teams of journalists in the trade. In closing Yes, Unbuntu lost it's way with Gnome (which Win 8 is miming) and since then has not really been that great; luckily there's plenty of other tasty fish in the sea for hungry penguins like us :-)
There is a great deal to like about Trisquel, and just enough not to like to wonder why you took the plunge. But I've tried it and liked it reasonably well enough. Support those guys if you can.
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I have modified the value of net.core.rmem_max with sysctl, and now I would like to set it back to its default value.
If I reboot, net.core.rmem_max will go back to its default value (because it is not overridden in /etc/sysctl.conf), but can I know this value without rebooting?
Ideally I should have run sysctl net.core.rmem_max to read the value before modifying it, but I forgot...
share|improve this question
2 Answers 2
This is not possible in general: the kernel does not retain the original values (at least under Linux it doesn't, and this is probably true of other unix variants). The value of the setting is stored in a variable; when you change the setting, the memory containing the variable is irreversibly updated.
For most settings, the initial value of the variable is a constant that is determined at compile time and stored in the kernel binary. So you could, in principle, inspect your kernel binary to find the default value. You would have to locate the symbol corresponding to the setting you're interested in, and follow the address of that symbol in the kernel binary. Booting your kernel in a virtual machine would be less work.
For most settings, you can look in the kernel source — kernel/sysctl.c and other files. You'll see definitions like
.procname = "rmem_max",
.data = &sysctl_rmem_max,
(in net/core/sysctl_net_core.c), from which you can trace the initialization of the sysctl_rmem_max variable. While this one is initialized from a constant, it takes quite a bit of reading C code to expand.
share|improve this answer
On my OpenBSD machine, /etc/sysctl.conf lists a bunch of default sysctl values, but this list is not exhaustive.
Probably the best way is to read the sysctl code or ask a friend who is running the same OS for his values :)
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-107400000 |
Cranberry mince pies
02 DECEMBER 2013
Makes: 20
Preparation time: 20 minutes plus chilling time
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
For the mincemeat:
100g/7oz Ocean Spray® Craisins® Dried Cranberries
1 x 400g jar mincemeat
25g/1oz chopped almonds
For the pastry:
500g/8oz plain flour
2 tbsp icing sugar
250g/9oz butter, diced
Icing sugar for dusting
1. In a small pan, cover the Craisins® Dried Cranberries with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180*C/fan oven 160*C/Gas mark 4. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the butter and using fingertips; gently rub in to resemble breadcrumbs. Add 6-7 tbsp of cold water and mix into soft dough. Wrap in polythene film and chill for 10 minutes.
3. Drain any excess liquid from the Craisins® Dried Cranberries, mix with the mincemeat and chopped almonds.
4. Roll pastry to approximately 3mm/ 1/8 in thickness and use a 8cm/3 ½ in cutter to make 20 rounds. Line a deep bun tin with the rounds. Spoon approximately 1 ½ tbsp of mincemeat into each case. Use the leftover pastry to cut for the lattice topping.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
6. Serve with some cream or brandy butter as an indulgent dessert. | dclm-gs1-107410000 |
For this discussion's purposes the outcome of Tuesday's voting doesn't really matter
As the late Variety columnist Army Archerd might have said, “Good morning, and congratulations election winners.”
The outcome of Tuesday’s voting was unknown as this column was written, but for this discussion’s purposes, doesn’t really matter. Because, as with any high-profile contest that generates reams of analysis and can only produce one victor (a la “Highlander”), a lot of very public people will wake up Wednesday having been proved terribly, horribly, incontrovertibly wrong.
And there really ought to be some penalty for that.
We live in an age obsessed with data, immersed in digital information. Not only are there sports leagues, but fans with too much spare time have created fantasy versions driven entirely by statistics, divorced from actual games.
Yet for some reason, those in the opinion business are spared the sort of scrutiny they shower on others.
This is not only unfair, but poor customer service. Political pundits, stock-market analysts and sports commentators should come with their own onscreen stat sheets, in much the same way marketers label their products.
Wouldn’t it help if MSNBC or Fox News flashed info like “Has been wrong calling two of the last three presidential elections,” much like knowing a pitcher has a high earned-run average, or a quarterback throws a lot of interceptions?
If a pundit picked John McCain in a landslide back in 2008, or assured investors Bear Stearns is “fine” shortly before its collapse (hello, CNBC’s Jim Cramer), shouldn’t that play some role in whether you’re predisposed to buy the line they’re selling now?
Instead, such pearls of non-wisdom disappear down the memory hole. Indeed, sportstalk shows often encourage co-hosts to disagree about pretty much everything for the sheer theater of it, subsequently ignoring how the guy who picked Detroit before the World Series might have damaged his credibility when the NFL playoffs roll around.
Oddly, we know everything about the combatants, from politicians’ poll numbers to each unguarded moment and garbled sentence — just as we know how pitchers perform against left-handed batters in cold-weather months.
But with the people providing all that information? Not so much.
The future, of course, is inherently unpredictable. Yet if your expertise involves reading the pulse of the country, weaknesses of Alabama’s offense or vitality of the European markets, and you are consistently proven inept in that regard, viewers have a right to know.
So why the free pass for pundits? The reasons are threefold.
First, accuracy doesn’t matter because those in charge are much more concerned about presenting information in an entertaining way than the quality of the material itself.
On ESPN’s college football show, Lou Holtz and Mark May argue courtroom-style each week, and being demonstrably wrong (while occasionally acknowledged) is treated like a big joke. Presidential elections are more significant, but the underlying point-counterpoint shtick remains the same.
Second, once you gain membership in the club, it’s difficult to get ousted, barring an extracurricular scandal or such outlandish poor judgment as to become an embarrassment. It’s why Pat Buchanan endures, like the crazy uncle who’s not so bad as long as he visits infrequently and doesn’t stay long.
Finally, the sheer crush of data ensures nobody will spend too much time sorting through particulars about who said what before moving on to new areas of debate. Indeed, ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd posted a piece handicapping the 2016 race on Saturday, as if there wouldn’t be ample time to begin that process, oh, let’s say after Election Day.
All this brings to mind a personal episode from when “Dexter” premiered. After writing an unfavorable review, I later penned a follow-up admitting the series had more merit than my original assessment.
This modest mea culpa yielded a surprising amount of feedback, based primarily on people finding it refreshing to see one of those know-it-all critics concede they might have gotten something wrong.
There will doubtless be a degree of playful post-election joshing, but people who misread the race with absolute conviction are unlikely to earn black marks on their permanent record, despite striking out in what amounts to their profession’s biggest game.
Besides, there’s always potential redemption in the next vote. Or Super Bowl.
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Location: 95 Chestnut St, Providence, Rhode Island, United States United States
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Startups from around the country come to Providence for Betaspring's intensive 12-week accelerator program. Our full-immersion program, which runs in both Spring and Fall, enables teams with a strong start on a high-growth venture to rapidly transform into fundable, scalable companies.
Throughout the program, startups develop and refine their product, launch it to their target customer groups, and test their delivery and business models. Through interactions with Betaspring Mentors and select audiences, each startup polishes their company pitch and demo to present to investors and potential partners.
By the conclusion of the program, companies are well-positioned to attract follow-on funding or have built a path to profitability wherein they can operate without additional investment. Betaspring teams present their company to investors during our Launch Week events. An active alumni and mentor network sustains and supports Betaspring startups after the program as they tackle the world.
The main thing we give you is tons of mentorship: professional advice, focused expertise and valuable criticism. We have over 80 experienced entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts and design gurus who are excited to share their knowledge and experiences with you, and ready to help you shape and scale your product and company.
We also provide you with a small amount of seed capital (up to $20,000) free legal counsel, incorporation filing, and other legal work necessary to make your startup investable at scale. Additionally, you have access to Betaspring HQ, a fully-equipped workspace for you and the other teams to get to work, for the 12 weeks of the program and 10 weeks beyond.
• Allan Tear
Allan Tear | Team member | dclm-gs1-107440000 |
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M&A Boom Bounce Back?
Thursday, 8 Mar 2012 | 7:40 AM ET
There are lots of statistics that suggest that M&A should have some activity but it isn't, says Peter Weinberg, Perella Weinberg Partners, who explains why he sees more M&A activity happening towards the end of 2012. | dclm-gs1-107450000 |
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Public Statements
Floor Speech
Location: Washington, DC
Mr. WATT. I move to strike the last word.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from North Carolina is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WATT. Mr. Chairman, I don't come to the floor very often anymore to debate. I have kind of changed my pattern. Eighteen years ago, 19 years ago, when I saw egregious things, I would be right here in the heart of the debate, ranting and raving, some people would say.
When my colleagues and sometimes my constituents now ask me, Have you lost your passion, I tell them that there are some reasons that I don't come to the floor anymore. One is that I find that most of the time, my colleagues on the opposite side are tone deaf. They are not really listening to what anybody is saying to them. They are off on some radical right undertaking, falling off the right edge of the Earth, and they are not listening to anything I say.
They don't share my values, and they don't really care about this debate that we had, 3 hours of talking about women, infants, and children going hungry. They really don't much care about that, I say to my constituents. And, third, they just make up stuff. You know, they have this--you know, if we repeat it enough, it's got to be true, and we will convince the American people of about anything if we just keep saying it over and over again. Or they ..... have convenient memories that forget that it was President Bush----
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman will suspend.
For what purpose does the gentleman from Nebraska rise?
Mr. FORTENBERRY. The gentleman has accused our side of the aisle of lying. Is that a cause for having his words taken down?
The Acting CHAIR. The Chair construes that as a demand that words be taken down. All Members will suspend. The gentleman will take his seat.
The Clerk will report the words.
[Time: 20:20]
Mr. WATT. Mr. Chairman, in the interest of time, some people have said that I called somebody a liar and, obviously, that would be in violation of the rules. I am aware of that. So if I did, I ask unanimous consent that those words be removed from the RECORD.
The Acting CHAIR. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from North Carolina?
There was no objection.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from North Carolina may proceed in order.
Mr. WATT. Can the Chair tell me how much time remains in my 5 minutes?
The Acting Chair. The gentleman from North Carolina has 3 minutes remaining of his 5 minutes.
Mr. WATT. All right. Well, let me try to pick up essentially where I was without offending anybody else.
There's some conveniently forgotten items that I think we need to be reminded of. Number 1, that it was President Bush who requested the government bailouts. That occurred on his watch. It was President Bush that was responsible for the tax cuts for the rich that got us out of surpluses as far as the eye could see and into this deficit spending. And it was rampant speculation and abuse of derivatives on Wall Street that resulted in a meltdown that made Dodd-Frank and the CFTC regulation that we're here debating necessary. Those are the three important things that I think we need to take note of.
It also resulted in a tremendous economic down turn that resulted in more people needing food stamps and the benefit of the WIC program. So these two things are really not disconnected from each other, the 3 hours of debate that we had previously and the debate on whether we are going to adequately fund the CFTC, which has been given authority under the Dodd-Frank legislation to rein in the speculation that is taking place that's driving up food prices, oil prices, and if we're not careful, will result in the same kind of economic meltdown that we experienced that got us into this in the first place.
So this whole process of being in denial about this and ignoring the facts is something that I think we should not countenance on this floor. We need the CFTC to regulate derivatives and speculation. And to the extent that we cut the staff and the funding of the CFTC, we could be replicating exactly what led President Bush to say we needed a bailout in the first place.
So, that's what this debate is all about. I think it's terrible that we are cutting funds under this bill for women, infants, and children, the most vulnerable in our society. But it's even more terrible that we are going to run the risk of allowing the same kind of rampant speculation, unregulated, to get us back into another meltdown that will result in our being back here trying to figure out how to dig ourselves out of this ditch. A year from now, 18 months from now, 2 years from now we'll be right back here again.
Now, this is not rocket science. It's all just connected to each other. And my colleagues can deny it all they want. They can say that this is about drilling for oil in the United States. That's not what it's about. All of the science I've seen says there's more supply of oil now than there is demand, and if we were operating in a regular domestic market on regular economics, the price of gas would be going down.
We need to regulate the CFTC. We need to have them regulating derivatives and speculation.
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Back to top | dclm-gs1-107460000 |
Jul 20, 2012
Now, panel, what is in Mitt Romney's tax returns? Paula Poundstone?
PAULA POUNDSTONE: The story of a little fella who dreamed of making lots of money, and did.
SAGAL: Jessi Klein?
JESSI KLEIN: Last year, his largest multimillion dollar investment was in a very rare Beanie Baby.
SAGAL: And Brian Babylon?
BRIAN BABYLON: He actually bought the phantom tollbooth and tried to write it off as a tax write-off.
CARL KASELL: And, if any of those things turn up in Mitt Romney's taxes, panel, we'll ask you about it on WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME!
SAGAL: Thank you Carl Kasell. Thanks also to Paula Poundstone, Brian Babylon and Jessi Klein.
| dclm-gs1-107470000 |
End Of The World
December 11th, 2012
Wassup Wit Dat! :shock:
25 Responses to “End Of The World”
1. GA Bows:
If I knew it was garans... I would spend as much time with my family. Da wife and keikis would get all of my attentions.
2. BowlingBuddy:
Whether if its true or not, I would not change a thing. I would wake up on the day to see if its true or not. I will turn on the tv to watch the news and see if anything was happening anywhere else in the world. I want to see the predictor of this event and see what kind of excuses that person will make "why it didn't happen".
3. M:
Howzit BL!
It will be anadah day fo me, no different dan any adah day. I plan to go SUP on Saturday like I always do.
4. kamaaina808:
Nothing's garrans but death & taxes. 8-O
I find it pretty funny about the doomsayers' fixation on 122112, oh teh panic! But in reality, today could be the 'end of the world' for any of us... just sayin.' If I remembered this throughout the day, my time would be spent less frivolously.
5. zzzzzz:
Check the news before you go to work on 12/21, because if the world ends that day, it will already have ended in places like Japan, where right now it is tomorrow.
6. roach:
Utter nonsense (sent from my underground bunker).
7. che:
First thing on my bucket list would be to cancel the Christmas party on the 21st. I don't want to spend the last day cooking on the grill. I would then with draw all my money and travel to Japan but will anyone at the airlines be working?
8. M:
My ex is living on da mainland and is one of dose "Doomsday Preppers". She's stocked up with supplies and food and she's calling her compound "Da Ark". :lol:
9. M:
If dis is fo real, I no like be around. Going get all the suffering and all the lolo's out deyah. If dey find out you get fuud and stuff dey going kill you fo it.
10. king katonk:
The first thing on my bucket list would be to buy a bucket. That way they can scoop up my remains and discard it in an orderly fashion. Also, I gotta make sure the BVDs are on tight.
Perhaps a Costco-size box of Depends may come in handy as well.
11. king katonk:
Come to think of it the Mayans are right. The end of the world is coming as we all fall off the fiscal clifffffffffff.
Rats, now I'll have to pay death taxes as well.
12. PFP:
Wouldn't change a thing. Would keep family first as focus, as I always have.
13. Kage:
I am going to just sit and watch TV.
Then call my sister. She keeps reminding me that the world will end this month. :lol:
14. sally:
Wherever the target is, I wanna be smack dab in da middle of it.
15. Ynaku:
For all those that believe the world is ending on 12/21/12, please cash out all your holdings and let me store it for you. then if the world doesn't end that day, I'll give you back half :lol:
With the other half we throw one heck of a party.
16. 9thIslandGirl:
I would definitely spend time with my and eat lots of chocolate.
17. M:
Guud morning BL!
If dis is fo real, I going to have all my family together on dat day.
18. NKHEA:
Ynaku you got my check yet.........
I think we goin get one heck of a PAH-TAY
19. cojef:
Me, 87 years old and still kicking so Mayan Calendar prediction or not inokea. Outlook, what ever happens, hapin. The calendar over 5,000 years old, so many things change, no kan help.
20. M:
Waaaasssssuuuppppp BL!
21. rayboyjr:
:cool: Good Morning Everyone!!! :cool:
... hey Braddah Lance ... why worry about it??? ... if the world is going to end, we really have no control over that ... sadly ... so I just hope it's in one thunderous and quick moment ... boom!!! ... and done ...
... I don't think we have enough time to do anything on our bucket list anymore ... wait, I don't even have a bucket list ...
22. mows:
I would be with my wife and 2 mo'olelo and hug them and kiss them and just love on them as I do everyday. They are really the most precious things to me in the world.
23. Coconut Willy:
Aw, how come the world going end on my day off!
24. SittingInLimbo:
So i'm assuming that I don't need to pay any bills this month being tomorrow is the last day for earth. LMBO!
25. Braddah Lance:
I'm spending everything I got........ but I'll be in trouble tomorrow if I'm still around. :lol: | dclm-gs1-107480000 |
querulous ******************************************************************************** 1. Of persons: Complaining, given to complaining, full of complaints, peevish. In first quot. possibly for querelous QUARRELLOUS; a certain confusion between the words is also suggested by some 17th c. quots., which at least do not imply peevish or whining complaint. b. Of animals or things: Uttering or producing sounds expressive or suggestive of complaint. 2. Of the nature of, characterized by, complaining. | dclm-gs1-107490000 |
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When I allow an application to access my data, what information can it actually access?
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It used to be that applications had full access to all your data, but now it's more restricted:
instead of granting access to all of their profile data when engaging with an application for the first time, users will now authorize only specific categories of user data – like interests, gender, or their current city, for example. With the changes, when developers want to access new profile information fields not granted in the original application authorization, they’ll need to ask for explicit permission.
So the application should ask you for permission and tell you which categories of data it wants access to. So if you're not happy about letting an application having access to your photos for example you should be able to tell and not install it.
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The new permissions model is now live, giving you, the use, more detail into what exactly is made available to the application.
With this new authorization process, when you log into an application with your Facebook account, the application will only be able to access the public parts of your profile by default. To access the private parts of your profile, the application has to explicitly ask for your permission.
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Can't open .asp on the website
Hi, all
I have website www.koamart.com running several years without any problem. The web is in the server 2000. Someday suddenly we couldn't open .asp file from IE or Firefox either. I can open HTML files.
I have two Windows 2000 servers, but I don't know why I have two. I only have one web site. If I see second server, there is ftp.koamart.com and first server has www.koamart.com.
If I disconnected second server, website was not working, but now two servers connected.
Most of my website files are .ASP, so I can't open any page.
Please help!!
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Shamiul Azom replied Sep 6, 2011
Which version of IIS are you running? Did you check if your web is running in IIS? Is it stopped or paused?
If you can access only html files, did you check the "Default Document" setting in your web configuration in IIS? Does it have .asp in the list? Is script execution permissions set to the web user?
Please post what you find. Thanks.
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Chris Baughman replied Dec 28, 2011
You need to ensure that the user that IIS is running as has permissions in that folder to read and execute the files. Also, it sounds like you are running Win Server 2000 so you'll also want to open the IIS MMC and select the security tab in the IIS manager then make sure that you have IIS set to allow anonymous access (if that's what you want) and make sure that you set IIS permission to read, execute scripts, and anything else you want to do. I hope that's helpful, I have set up many sites and would forget something here and there like that, so the above is my mental checklist that I use when this happens. Let me know if that doesn't do it and I will go into much more detail.
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"Emma? Honey...? War?"
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November 18 2013
"You're our little monkey". Cue the Ward/Fitz slash.
Exactly my thought, Perseo. The line that launched a thousand fics.
Ha! Cue the slash.
And that's Kat from Alphas (Erin Way). It looks like a really cool ep; I love that they are cleaning up the mess of Thor.
any idea what kind of accent they were aiming for ?
I'd guess at a Norwegian accent. The sign said Trillemarka Naturreservat and that's in Norway.
[ edited by SimonHelbergIsMoist on 2013-11-18 13:17 ]
I agree that it's Norway, but the accents sounded like some weird combination of Irish and S. African. Not so good. However the episode looks like fun! Perhaps I'll try to sneak out to see Thor before tomorrow night!
I was just traveling in Norway a few months ago - no one sounded like that.
Of course the bigger question is if they were indeed Norwegian why were they speaking English?
Anyway I like the beginning part with Simmons doing an Odin type monologue only to cut it short and everyone complaining about all the mess.
I wonder if this episode will make any sense to people who haven't seen the Thor movie yet.
It has happened before that some Norwegians have adopted a variety of accents and used them accurately and inaccurately.
A Norwegian who is not trying to speak in the melody of English will sound a bit odd to English people. He will probably not sound like the pair here. The girl sounds more English than anything else to my ears. The man sounds as if he is trying to have a very intense voice, possibly with Norwegian as his first language, thereby influencing the melody in his voice. He sounds kind of silly.
I think I read the casting list and none of these people are Norwegian. Well, maybe the park rangers. "God, what have you done?" sounded so corny, and well, Norwegian.
It would be awesome if Fandrel showed up. Zachary Levi could do that.
AndrewCrossett I was coming here to ask the same thing! There are those of us who can't afford to go to every single movie that comes out.
I'm of two minds on this tie-in episode: I like that they're keeping the continuity flowing, but I hope the episode won't be confusing to those who haven't seen the movie (i.e. lots of in-jokes and references).
As it is a Norse artifact that's been hidden for thousands of years, it makes sense they'd be in Norway. The two who find it could be from anywhere, but yeah, why the park rangers would speak English when no one else is around is perhaps odd, but not necessarily unbelievable.
I think ABC and Jed/Mo are aware that people will see this episode without having seen Thor 2, so they'd make sure The Well can be followed and enjoyed without seeing the movie. Frankly, I think the marketing is more misleading than anything else. The staff from the tree is not part of the movie.
I don't think the show is referencing every single movie. Just the one.
IrrationliTV My point was some people can't afford to go to the movies, or might only be able to get to one or two a year (if they're lucky), so hopefully, as bobw10 suggests, those in charge of this episode realize that not everyone will have seen Thor 2 before this episode airs, and it won't be confusing to those people.
As I said, it's great that the show is keeping with the continuity of the movies, but I'd like it to be its own entity also. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to set some money aside to see Desolation of Smaug next month. My extreme part-time job means I have to pick which movies to see in the theater and which to wait for DVD and eventual Netflix release. I'm sure I'm not the only one who watches SHIELD who is in that position.
I haven't seen Thor 2 yet either, primarily because the theater I can walk to where matinees cost $5 didn't get it. That's why I don't see a lot of movies, actually.
[ edited by The One True b!X on 2013-11-18 20:52 ]
From the video linked here, I don't think the episode will suffer if you haven't see the movie. Just know there was some destruction in London (which they pretty much state upfront).
I will really be shocked if the episode isn't completely accessible to people who didn't see Thor 2.
Lots of people watched The Avengers without seeing the previous MCU movies and enjoyed it.
Most comic books handle telling a wider story through the lens of one character/aspect fine. If Hawkeye makes a joke about Tony Stark being in space, he must be in space; it's a nice nod for those who read other books, but it hardly affects the enjoyment and understanding of the Hawkeye book you're reading.
And let's not forget people watched Buffy without Angel and Angel without Buffy. They survived. People watch Star Trek: TNG without Star Trek: TOS. Generally, writers know how to balance their story so it is still their story, and not a wink-fest.
yeah, as someone who has seen Thor, the clip here really doesn't make it look this episode is really going to depend on having seen Thor; if you go to out to see Thor just to understand the episode, you may find out it was completely needless. It's hard to tell from just these few minutes, but if the clip is any indication, it seems that show is just referencing the movie in the most general way, as "there are these aliens, and now there are dangerous and powerful objects lying around." But the staff doesn't look to me like anything that featured in any meaningful way in the Thor movie. So I think those who are saying it will be accessible on its own are correct.
This is very encouraging, as I don't think I'll be able to see Thor before tomorrow night. About the Norwegian thing, most Norwegians speak English, and have for many years (when my brother moved there in, um, the 1970s, he had to refuse to speak English so that he could learn Norsk). But it is a media convention that the characters in an English or American show will speak English. Although they could have used subtitles, I suppose.
Jocelyn What I liked about the interrogation scene in The Avengers was they were speaking Russian with subtitles, until the bad guy went over to the table to pick up an instrument of torture, and then finished his sentence in English. That was smooth. And then Coulson called and threatened him. :-D
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Government Shutdown 2013: D.C. Lottery to stop cashing winning tickets
If you get rich playing the D.C. Lottery, your luck will run out when you try to cash your prize. Lottery officials said they have temporarily suspended all pay-outs.
They said pay-outs will resume, but not until the federal government re-opens. On day 11 of the shutdown, it is unclear when that might happen.
"It's so unfair that they're not paying those that win the lottery," said Arlington resident Shaylee Carmona.
The D.C. Lottery is solely funded by ticket purchases - with no taxpayer money - so some players don't understand why the federal government shutdown would stop pay-outs.
D.C. Lottery player Bobbie Coles said, "It doesn't make any sense at all."
Coles and many others said it's not fair. If they're paying to play, they should be paid when they win.
Lottery player Jorge Rojas said, "Everybody needs their money right now. If you won, you're supposed to get your money."
But after a legal review, D.C. Lottery Director Buddy Roogow said attorneys decided the pay-out process must be suspended. They determined pay-outs are not "essential to the protection of public safety, health, and property," as defined by Mayor Vincent Gray when he kept the D.C. government operating during the shutdown. Therefore, they said pay-outs cannot happen until after funding has been appropriated by Congress.
Legally, Roogow explained, he's caught between a rock and a hard place.
"The District law that established the lottery requires us to run a lottery and hold drawings," Roogow said. "We actually are required to continue to sell the tickets. But we're also required not to make the pay-outs."
He continued, "I know that sounds crazy. It's the last thing I want to say. I'm the director of the lottery. I want our sales to go normally. I want our players to trust the lottery and continue to play because we're going to honor those winning tickets if they buy them today, yesterday or tomorrow."
Beyond the complicated and confusing legal situation, many players feel lottery officials should have done more to inform them of the change.
Thanks to a viewer's news tip, NewsChannel 8 discovered the D.C. Lottery - as of Thursday morning - initially decided to suspend payments on winning tickets, $600 in value and greater. Winning tickets worth less than $600 were still cashed out.
When players showed up Thursday to claim centers and retail locations to redeem tickets worth more than $600, they were turned away.
At the same time, other players continued buying tickets, unaware of the change. Once they learned about the suspended pay-outs, many players said lottery officials should have - at least - posted a disclaimer on lotto ticket vending machines.
Roogow acknowledged the policy was in flux this week and finalized Friday afternoon. At that time, he said Mayor Gray was informed of the change - that no winning tickets of any value will be cashed until the government shutdown ends.
After NewsChannel 8 started asking questions about whether the public was adequately informed or educated about the suspended pay-outs, an alert was posted on the D.C. Lottery website and a press release was sent to the media. Roogow also vowed, by Saturday, notifications would be added at retail locations across the District, even on the front of tickets.
Roogow said, "We're actually putting them on the tickets that people are buying now - that we're not able to redeem tickets until the shutdown ends."
While D.C. Lottery officials said they consulted attorneys, it does not appear D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan reviewed the legality of withholding payments from winning players. The Attorney General's spokesperson declined to comment, saying "at this moment, we can't discuss this."
However, it is worth noting, the D.C. Chief Financial Officer has directed the suspension of other payments during the shutdown, including tax refunds.
Like many other problems caused by the government shutdown, this lottery pay-out suspension is unique to the District of Columbia - due to D.C.'s lack of budget autonomy. In neighboring Maryland and Virginia, it's business as usual for lottery operations.
In the event that someone wins a substantial jackpot playing Powerball or Mega Millions in the District during the shutdown, lottery officials said they would advise that player to ensure the safe-keeping of their winning ticket. They would also advise that player to contact them. While the player would need to wait for their pay-out like everyone else, they could still begin the process of certifying their claim. | dclm-gs1-107540000 |
Leadership Most Important Thing for Caps Now
May 02, 2011 | Ed Frankovic
Trailing two games to none heading to Tampa for game three was definitely not a position this Washington Capitals team ever imagined they would be in on Monday afternoon. The Caps have lost two close, hard fought hockey contests primarily due to their own mistakes and now are in a very difficult position. There is nothing they can do about those losses now so they have to focus solely on winning on Tuesday night. Strategic and tactical adjustments will likely be made by the coaches but to me the most important thing for the Capitals now is for their team leaders to stand up and take control of the team.
Alexander Ovechkin is the team captain but he has pretty much admitted he also relies on veterans Mike Knuble, Jason Arnott, and Scott Hannan to help him in the leadership department. How that trio gets a still very young hockey team to settle down and not panic will be crucial to the rest of this series. Arnott has been through a Stanley Cup run that included his New Jersey Devils team rallying from a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals. That team had great leaders such as Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, and Claude Lemieux so I would have to imagine that #44 will likely pull from that experience to help his club try and turn around a series that has not gone according to plan.
Past NHL playoff series are filled with teams coming back from 2-0 deficits including the 1991 and 2009 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Granted both of those rallies came with game three and four victories on home ice but each year it seems that where an NHL post season game is played matters less and less. That was evident in the first round this spring when the Boston Bruins dropped the first two tilts in Beantown before prevailing in seven games over the Montreal Canadiens.
As I mentioned following game two, Michal Neuvirth, John Carlson, and Karl Alzner were members of the Hershey Bears team that dropped the first two tilts at the Giant Center last spring before winning three straight in Austin en route to a six game Calder Cup victory. After the Bears won that series, I remember talking to King Karl on the ice in Chocolatetown and he said the whole key to the turnaround was the outstanding leadership that Bears team had. Captain Bryan Helmer apparently led a players only meeting before game three and reminded everyone to stick to the game plan being put together by Head Coach Mark French. That leadership became ULTRA important when Hershey fell behind 3-1 after the first period of game three. But the Bears, who were on a 0 for 16 power play stretch, got a power play goal from veteran Keith Aucoin and from there on out it was all Hershey.
Through two games of this Eastern Conference semi-final series with Tampa the Caps are carrying the majority of the play, but like the Bears did last spring, trailed primarily due to their own mistakes. Similarly, the Washington power play is in a funk going 0 for 11 in the first two tilts. Yes, I get that this in the NHL and not the AHL, but that experience should be valuable for #27 and #74, Washington’s best shut down defensive pair.
So I imagine that Arnott and company met on Monday night and he drilled home the point that the Caps have to stick to their game plan. They cannot afford to make lazy plays, take bad penalties, and commit the mental mistakes that led to a game two costing bad line change. They must get pucks deep in the Tampa zone and get their cycle game going because that is the best way to wear out the Bolts defense to make it easier to get chances in front of red hot Dwayne Roloson, who seems to be stopping everything he is seeing. They also must be responsible in their own zone and not allow the Lightning skill players any time and space.
The Capitals are an immensely talented team with Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green, but winning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is not about talent. It takes commitment, patience, team play, and a group of players that bond together to form great chemistry. This team has been through a great deal together this season and they must rely on their past ability to get through those tough times and overcome yet another obstacle. That is why the leadership is so important at this stage, because players can’t single handily try to win the game with their skill and talent, it takes everyone on the roster working together and sticking to the game plan in order to get the desired victory. We’ll soon find out if the leadership on this current Capitals roster has what it takes to get things turned around for Washington. | dclm-gs1-107550000 |
Bill Kristol Spews, America Heaves
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Yeah, you better watch your back.Bill Kristol’s inaugural New York Times column appeared today and it confirmed our suspicion that Kristol’s head is so far up his ass that he views the world from inside his own mouth, which might, actually, explain his world view. He’s like to thank Obama for opening up a can of whup-ass on Hillary in Iowa, not that he in any way likes anything about Obama and, oh, by the way, he has some really, really good reasons for that:
Bill, may I be the first to ask: what the fuck world you you live in? Victory in Iraq? The good done by the Alito/Roberts court includes what exactly? A sphincter says “what”? Exactly.
Also, by the way, Mike Huckabee totally sucks and no one wants to vote for him but everyone likes his real-guyness and his ability not to change his mind on his policy positions and play the guitar. Oh, and Bill’s Republican friend in New Hampshire is “savvy” (way to kiss ass, Bill) enough not to vote for Huckabee but thinks he might be the best candidate. So, Huckabee is the anti-intellectual candidate that no one will vote for but he’ll win anyway? How does that work, exactly?
Bill also, like, totally knows that if Huckabee wins the Republican nomination this summer that Bloomberg will run as an independent and take votes from Obama. Naturally, it totally won’t be too late to really get in the race or anything and those rumors that he’s considering running aren’t just a ploy for positive press or anything, they’re a real interest of Bloomberg’s despite the fact that he still hasn’t actually done anything about running in all these months it’s been “rumored.”
And he quotes that other great conservative intellectual, Michelle Malkin, because nothing solidifies an argument like quoting Malkin. Seriously, the reason I don’t read Dowd and Friedman is because I find their work tedious, annoying and unenlightening, which I guess makes Kristol actually the perfect addition to the New York Times. I’m sorry to have doubted their wisdom in hiring him.
President Mike Huckabee? [NY Times]
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Former Colts Linebacker Inspires Imagine MASTer Academy Students (with Video)
By Megan Trent
February 14, 2013 Updated Nov 19, 2013 at 2:48 PM EDT
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (www.incnow.tv) - As students and staff at Imagine MASTer Academy are left wondering about the future of their school in the wake of Ball State University's decision to drop their charter, they took time on Thursday to hear an inspirational message from former Colts linebacker Devon McDonald about hard work and dedication.
The gymnasium was filled with students, parents and staff as McDonald told the group about his journey from Jamaica to Notre Dame (where he earned a national championship ring) to the Indianapolis Colts to the Arizona Cardinals.
He acknowledged that he made plenty of mistakes along the way, but encouraged the students to avoid the missteps he made and instead focus on setting goals and working hard in and out of the classroom.
"Words do affect people," says McDonald. "If you believe what you are saying and saying what you believe, people sense that. They sense it and people are hungry for motivation. They're hungry for inspiration."
As for the charter, Imagine administrators say they are in the process of appealing Ball State's decision and want parents to voice their opposition to losing the charter as well. They say most children at Imagine come to the school several years behind their peers, and the school simply needs more time to get them up to speed. They say Ball State should put more emphasis on the progress being made at Imagine schools.
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Nervous coaching = Nervous playing?
It seems to me that the way Harbaugh is so intense and wound up on the sideline, borderline nervous, it may be rubbing off on the players and gameplan. Harbaugh needs to relax cuz that s**t rubs off on the team and the play tight.....when he's loose, they play loose....thank god for another win but they need their swag back on offense.
Remember Harb had a baby boy 9/4/12, maybe he isn't getting enough sleep or love life. | dclm-gs1-107580000 |
Open Access Open Badges Letter to the editor
Camila Alexandrina Figueiredo1, Laura Cunha Rodrigues2, Neuza Maria Alcantara-Neves1, Philip J Cooper34, Leila Denise Amorim5, Nivea Bispo Silva5, Alvaro A Cruz6 and Mauricio Lima Barreto7*
Author Affiliations
1 Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
2 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
3 Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK
4 Colegio de Ciencias de La Salud, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador
5 Instituto de Matemática, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
6 ProAR – Núcleo de Excelência em Asma, Universidade Federal da Bahia and CNPq, Salvador, Brazil
7 Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal de Bahia, Rua Basilio da Gama s/n, Canela, 41110-040, Salvador-Bahia, Brazil
For all author emails, please log on.
Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology 2012, 8:18 doi:10.1186/1710-1492-8-18
Received:1 August 2012
Accepted:28 November 2012
Published:19 December 2012
© 2012 Figueiredo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
In this work we explore differences in blood cells and cytokine profiles in children according to atopic status and asthma (atopic or non-atopic). The study involved measurement of Th1(IFN-γ) and Th2 (IL-5 and IL-13) cytokines in Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus stimulated peripheral blood leukocytes, blood cell count, skin prick test and specific IgE against common aeroallergens. Atopic status was associated with eosinophilia and production of Th2 type cytokines. Atopic asthma was associated with eosinophilia and non-atopic asthma was associated with IFN-γ and elevated monocytes in blood. IFN-γ and monocytes might play a role in immunopathology of non-atopic asthma in Latin American children.
Non-atopic asthma; Cytokines; IFN-g; Monocytes; Atopic-asthma; IgE; Atopy
Historically, atopy is associated to asthma especially in developed countries, however, in fact less than half asthma cases worldwide are attributable to atopy, with the population attributable fraction varying from 41% in ‘affluent’ countries to 20% or less in ‘non-affluent’ countries [1]. In this last group are situated Latin America countries [2,3]. Although the immunopathological features of atopic asthma are well characterized as an eosinophilic bronchitis in the airways, with the inflammatory process governed by Th2 cytokines, such as IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, the immunological and cellular profiles of non-atopic asthma are not well known. Experimental animal studies have shown that Th1 cells rather than counterbalancing Th2-mediated effects may worsen airway inflammation. Similarly, studies of asthma in humans suggest possible roles for interferon-gamma (IFN-γ): a) asthma has been associated with elevated production of IFN-γ but not IL-4 by bronchoalveolar lavage cells [4]; b) greater frequencies of peripheral blood CD8+ T cells expressing IFN-γ in asthmatic airways, correlating with asthma severity and bronchial hyperresponsiveness [5]; c) induced sputum from patients with atopic or non-atopic asthma presented increased eosinophils and IFN-γ [6]. In the present study, we compared the cytokine profile of peripheral blood leukocytes and blood cells counts by asthma phenotype and atopic status in children.
The methods used have been reported in detail elsewhere [7]. This study was conducted in the city of Salvador, BA, Brazil with nearly 2,800,000 inhabitants, mostly of mixed African descent, located in Northeast Brazil. Briefly, we studied 1,445 children aged 4-11 years old, enrolled in a cohort recruited from 1997 and 2003 for evaluating the impact of a sanitation program on the incidence of childhood diarrhea, in different city areas, selected to represent the population without sanitation at that time. 51.7% (n=651) of the kids enrolled were from families having mensal income equal or less than 147 USD in 2005 and only 3.3% have equal or more than 500 USD, characterizing this population as a typical urban poor population. In 2005, these children were resurveyed and where was collected information on wheezing status, serum for IgE, skin prick test, blood cell count and whole blood culture. Analyses regarding cytokines were performed with 788 children who had information on both cytokine response for Dermatophagoides and allergy markers. Children were classified into 4 groups based on the detection of allergen-specific IgE in serum (sIgE) and asthma symptoms: atopic asthmatic, non-atopic asthmatic, atopic non-asthmatic and non-atopic non-asthmatic. The prevalence of atopic asthma is 10.9% and non-atopic asthma is 11.3%, while disease severity, based on reported symptoms (such as number of episodes in the last 12 months, difficulty of speech during crises and awaking up at night due to wheezing), is observed among 51.18% atopic asthmatics and 55.86% non-atopic asthmatics. Using hospitalisation as parameter of asthma severity we got 12.6% for atopic asthmatic and 11.03% for non-atopic asthmatic. No great difference on disease severity between atopic asthmatic and non-atopic asthmatic was observed considering both parameters. Atopy was also defined based on SPT reactivity to common aeroallergens. SPTs were performed with extracts of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Blomia tropicalis, Blattela germanica, Periplaneta americana, dog and cat epithelia, and a fungi mix (ALK-ABELLO, São Paulo, Brazil). Children were considered positive if the mean diameter of the wheal was ≥3mm after subtraction of the negative control. sIgE for D pteronyssinus, B tropicalis, P americana, and B germanica in serum was measured according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Phadia Diagnostics AB, Uppsala Sweden). sIgE measurement of ≥0.70 kU/L for at least one of the tested allergens was considered positive. Specifically for D. pteronyssinus, 21.4% of 788 children were sensitized to this mite. For the cytokine evaluation, we collected venous blood into heparinized tubes and cultured the blood at a dilution of 1:4 in RPMI (Gibco, Auckland, New Zealand) containing 10 mM glutamine (Sigma- Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and 100 μg/mL gentamicin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). The cell cultures were set up within 6 h of blood collection and were maintained in a humidified environment of 5% CO2 at 37°C for 5 days in the presence of endotoxin-free D. pteronyssinus antigen (ALK-ABELLO) (5 μg/mL) or media alone for the detection of IL-13, IL-5, and IFN-γ by ELISA (BD Pharmingen San Diego, CA, USA). Children with cytokine concentrations above the lower detection limits after subtracting negative control values were classified as responders.
The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire, translated into Brazilian Portuguese [8], was applied to the child’s parents. Asthma was defined as wheezing in the previous 12 months and at least one of the following: diagnosis of asthma at least once in life or waking up at night because of wheezing, wheezing while exercising or four or more episodes of wheezing the past 12 months. Associations between cytokine responsiveness with atopic status and the four asthma groups were assessed using the Pearson chi-squared test adjusted for gender and age. Fisher’s exact test was also used when appropriate. Geometric means (GM) and 95% confidence intervals were obtained for analysis of differential blood cell count. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted to compare blood cell counts across the groups. Logistic regression model was used for evaluation of the simultaneous effect of differential blood cells count and Th2 cytokines on asthma.
The proportions of children producing detectable levels of Th2 cytokines were greater among children with a positive sIgE in comparison to non-sensitized children (IL-5: 3.8% vs 1.2% p=0.018; IL-13: 21.2% vs 14.3% p=0.032) (Figure 1a). The proportions of Th2 cytokines were also higher in children with SPT reactivity in comparison to SPT negative children (IL-5: 3.8% vs 1.5% p=0.042; IL-13: 21.3% vs 15% p=0.036) (Figure 1b). The proportion of children producing detectable levels of IFN-γ was higher among non-atopic asthmatics compared to atopic non-asthmatics (16.9% vs 4.9%, p=0.0013) and non-atopic non-asthmatics (16.9% vs 4.9%, p=0.0002) (Figure 1c). Children with detectable sIgE or SPT reactivity had greater counts of blood leukocyte cells, although this was significant only for sIgE (Mann-Whitney test P=0.008–data not shown). In addition, eosinophil counts in peripheral blood were greater in children with a positive sIgE (0.59x103cels/ml (95%CI= 0.55;0.63) vs. 0.40x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.37;0.42)) (Figure 2a) or SPT reactivity (0.53x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.49;0.57) vs. 0.43x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.41;0.46)) (Figure 2b) both in comparison to non-sensitized kids. Children with non-atopic asthma had higher monocyte counts than non-atopic non-asthmatics (0.64x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.60;0.67) vs 0.57x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.56;0.59)) (Figure 2c). Non-atopic non-asthmatics had lower eosinophil counts (0.37x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.35; 0.39) compared to non-atopic asthmatics (0.52x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.46;0.60) and atopic non-asthmatics (0.57x103cels/ml (95%CI=0.53;0.61)) (Figure 2c). Lymphocyte and neutrophil counts were similar in the 4 study groups (data not shown). Through the logistic regression model we observed that eosinophils are significantly associated to the occurrence of atopic asthma even after controlling for Th2 cytokines production, indicating that Th2 cytokines may play a role on increasing eosinophil inflammation on atopic asthma (data not shown).
thumbnailFigure 1. Cytokine profile of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus stimulated PBLs by levels of IgE (A), and skin test reactivity (SPT) to common aeroallergens (B); and by asthma phenotypes (C) (# p<0.05 adjusted for gender and age; × and * p<0.001 for multiple comparisons).
thumbnailFigure 2. Geometric means and 95% confidence intervals of eosinophil and monocytes in peripheral blood by presence of allergen-specific IgE (sIgE) (A), allergen skin test reactivity (SPT) (B) and asthma phenotypes (C).
We have shown that atopic status was associated with the production of Th2 cytokines by allergen-stimulated whole blood as might be expected even considering limitations of WBC in contrast to the great part of previous studies that have used isolated cells such as purified lymphocytes and/or dendritic cells or even PBMCs which are enriched leukocytes cultures in either way they can both amplify the signal for cytokine production using protein measurement and also can diminishes that interferences of possible cytokine background. Even though, we also observed in WBC the production of IFN-γ by D. pteronyssinus-stimulated PBLs to be more frequent among non-atopic asthmatic children, an unexpected finding. Based on this and other related observations [4-6] we hypothesize that the pathogenesis of non-atopic asthma may involve the production of IFN-γ in response to house dust mite allergen. Recent studies have suggested that house dust mite allergens may directly activate the innate immune response [9] and now we extend this to suggest that house dust mite allergen might also induce Th1-mediated inflammatory responses. Previous works have indicated that non-atopic asthma does not fully fit within the Th1/Th2 shift paradigm [5,6,10] and asthma is also associated to IFN-γ production [5,6]. In fact aforementioned studies found that IFN-γ was being produced together with other Th2-type cytokines [5] and eosinophils on asthmatic subjects [5,6]. Other report had also pointed out that peripheral blood IFN-γ-producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from non-atopic asthmatic children were increased in relation to atopic children and inversely associated with eosinophils or airway hyperresponsiveness [9]. However, no study was found related to specific Th1-mediated response to a mite antigen as D. pteronyssinus. We also found that in addition to IFN-γ, monocytes are up-regulated in non-atopic asthmatics children. Taken together our results show that IFN-γ may play a role in non-atopic wheezing. In conclusion, this is the first large immunoepidemiological study to report that non-atopic asthma in children is associated with a Th1-cytokine production in response to a mite stimulation (D. pteronyssinus). A better characterization of allergen-induced cytokine profiles is likely to enhance our understanding of the biological mechanisms of asthma and related diseases, and could offer a line of explanation for the high prevalence of non-atopic asthma in Latin America [3,11,12] as a consequence of an environment with a high burden of infectious agents attenuating Th2 mediated phenomena but activating other elements that mediate non-allergic inflammatory pathways.
GM: Geometric mean; IFN-γ: Interferon-gamma; IL: Interleukin; PBL: Peripheral blood leukocytes; PBMCs: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells cultures; SPT: Skin prick test; sIgE: Specific immunoglobulin E; WBC: Whole blood cultures.
Competing interests
All authors declare they have no competing financial interests. This study was funded by The Wellcome Trust, UK, HCPC Latin America Excellence Centre Programme, Ref 072405/Z/03/Z.
Authors’ contributions
CAF has performed some laboratory assays and wrote the manuscript together with MLB. MLB has coordinated the epidemiological work, planned and revised the manuscript. NMAN coordinated the laboratory work and revised the text. PJC and AAC have suggested analysis and revised the manuscript. LDA and NBS have carried out the statistical analysis. LDA has revised the text. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
The authors want to thank the Wellcome Trust for the funding support.
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3. Cunha SS, Barreto ML, Fiaccone RL, Cooper PJ, Alcantara-Neves NM, Simões SM, Cruz AA, Rodrigues LC: Asthma cases in childhood attributed to atopy in tropical area in Brazil.
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J Asthma 2004, 41:869-876. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text OpenURL
10. Cui J, Pazdziorko S, Miyashiro J, Thakker P, Pelker J, Declercq C, Jiao A, Gunn J, Mason L, Leonard J, et al.: TH1-mediated airway hyperresponsiveness independent of neutrophilic inflammation.
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U.S. Supreme Court
Can silence before arrest be used against defendant? Supreme Court to decide
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a defendant who refused to answer an officer’s question before a formal arrest can have his silence used against him at trial.
The case is Salinas v. Texas, report the New York Times and the Washington Post. The cert petition (PDF) by Stanford law professor Jeffrey Fisher argues that the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination protects a defendant’s pre-arrest silence. State and federal courts are “openly and intractably divided” on the issue, according to the petition.
The case is an appeal by Genovevo Salinas, identified as one of the people who attended a party hosted by two brothers the night before their murders. Salinas accompanied officers to the police station and answered their questions until he was asked whether a shotgun turned in by Salinas’ father would match shells at the murder scene. Salinas did not answer.
“When law enforcement agents question someone about his or her potential involvement in criminal activity,” Fisher wrote, “the individual has two choices: speak or remain silent. If the latter necessarily creates evidence of guilt, then the right the Constitution grants him to remain silent is little more than a trap for the unwary.”
Unusual sentence for would-be juror who Googled murder defendant
Commenting is not available in this channel entry. | dclm-gs1-107600000 |
The Archbishop and Jesus
Sunday 6 November 2005 6:00PM
The Most Reverend Peter Jensen, Archbishop of the Sydney Anglican Church, is giving this year's Boyer Lectures, titled The Future of Jesus.
But how do you talk about Jesus to an unbelieving public? In this interview, Dr Jensen describes the challenge of speaking to an audience that has drifted away from Christianity. He also explains why he doesn't regard himself as a religious man, and why he finds it hard to like the institutional church. We also encounter one of the future directions of Christian worship, the young rock band Christian City Youth.
Rachael Kohn: Singing about Jesus in their lives, Nikki Fletcher and Daniel Korocz, are part of the new wave of Christian youth who are passionate about Jesus.
Hello, and welcome to The Future of Jesus on The Spirit of Things. I'm Rachael Kohn, and you're tuned to ABC Radio National.
The Christian City Youth Band is not just a music phenomenon, they're communicating Jesus through music to lots of young people. And they might be where the future of Jesus lies. Nikki and Daniel join me later in the program.
Jesus' future may be assured in the independent churches, but in other churches in the West it's an open question. One of the highlights of Radio National's listening year is the annual Boyer Lecture series, given by a distinguished Australian.
This year, the Archbishop of the Sydney Anglican Diocese, the Most Reverend Peter Jensen was handed the mantle. It's only the second time since its inauguration in 1959 that the Boyer Lectures will be given by a man of the church and that a specifically religious topic will be addressed.
For six weeks, beginning next Sunday at 5pm, Dr Jensen will be addressing The Future of Jesus. And unlike the young people who'll join me later, he's not as optimistic about Jesus' popularity in the West.
After reading the lectures, I went to St Andrews House to talk to him about some of the spiritual issues he raises.
Rachael Kohn: Archbishop Peter Jensen, welcome to The Spirit of Things.
Dr Peter Jensen: Thank you very much, and hello to all your listeners.
Rachael Kohn: What was your reaction when you were invited to give the Boyer Lectures?
Dr Peter Jensen: Presuming you want the truth, I was bowled over and rendered almost speechless. I think being asked to give the Boyers is as high an honour as our country can give anyone, and I was not expecting it, was, as I say, hugely honoured by it, and it will surprise my friends to hear, rendered speechless.
Rachael Kohn: Well you managed to overcome that, fortunately. But really, you must have wondered what sort of note to strike, given that the ABC has a reputation for being a secular collective, as a kind of reflection of society as a whole.
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes, and no. I don't accept that view of the ABC, because I know among other things The Religion Report exists and the Religion Department exists, and the ABC has various voices. On the other hand, yes of course it did make me think about what to talk about, and I took soundings and advice, and it was some time before I came to the view that I'd talk about Jesus.
Rachael Kohn: Well how did you settle on Jesus rather than the church or Christianity in general?
Dr Peter Jensen: In the end, I wanted to talk about the thing that really was the most important thing of all to me. The Boyer lecturer is able to talk about anything that he or she wishes, and so I could talk about gardening or fishing or something like that. However, I thought Well, the best thing to do is to talk about what I'm really, really passionate about, and it's not the church even, or Christianity, it is Jesus. And so I thought I'd better talk about him.
Now the danger is of course that talking about Jesus, he is far, far greater than we are, and therefore to talk about him really you are in great danger of making a complete fool of yourself. Well I've accepted that that is the danger, but I still think if I can get others to be interested in him, then that really will fulfil the aim.
Rachael Kohn: You've said in a few places that Jesus really is your passion, and is the most important person in your life. When and how did that happen to you?
Dr Peter Jensen: Rachael, that goes back to my teenage years. I was born in a family which was basically a churchgoing, or at least a church sending family, and went to church as a child, and then as a teenager, but it was not personal, and it may well be that like many others, I may well have drifted away from church, but in 1959, our church became strongly involved in the crusade run in that year by Mr Billy Graham, in Sydney. And in going to his meetings, the very first meeting I went to, his sermon was so arresting, the Bible spoke to me in a very powerful and strong way, I now say by the power of the holy spirit, and my faith, which was conventional, became what I'd say personal. That afternoon, I think it was April 1959, was the turning point of my life.
Rachael Kohn: Do you think a lot of people today focus a great deal on the church and have sort of missed Jesus? He's been sort of eclipsed by debating about the church?
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes that has been the difficulty right through Christian history, and particularly in the time when Christianity became very popular, and became more or less co-terminus with society.
Infant baptism didn't help here I think, people simply joined the church as one joins society, and the question of a personal faith often hardly arose. Now there may have been faith, there may have been some significant faith there, but not personal, and it was often attached to the teaching of the church. Sometimes I think the teaching of the church did that, the church itself taught more about itself than it taught about Jesus, and suggested that the route to Jesus lay through the church and its ordinances, the sacraments and so forth.
Rachael Kohn: I suppose some of your critics would say that you have been concerned with preserving a certain type of church.
Dr Peter Jensen: I'm not sure what they would mean by that since perhaps it would be ignorance on their part, that they would say it.
Rachael Kohn: Well perhaps things like changing the liturgy, perhaps not ordaining women, a certain kind of church whereas others might focus on Jesus, they might say you have been interested in preserving a certain type of church.
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes, your two illustrations are interesting. The first was changing the liturgy, which of course is not preserving a certain type of church; I am known more as a radical in many ways than a conservative in these matters, because a deeply conservative theological person can afford to be radical. And the radical nature of my sort of Christianity involves changing church.
When our diocese several years ago accepted the idea of being on a mission footing, so to speak, one of the rules we set ourselves was to change everything that needed changing, in order to reach modern Australia. And one of the key things we needed to change was the church experience. I'm happy to see church on a Wednesday night with three people meeting in the open air, still seeking to serve Jesus, that's the essential part of it, but without any clergy, I'm known rather I think as being rather radical in these areas rather than conservative.
Rachael Kohn: But certain radical steps you wouldn't take, such as ordaining women, or ordaining gays for example.
Dr Peter Jensen: I don't know, I don't regard these as radical, I regard them as innovatory in Christian history, it's true, and again I'd say yes, I'm certainly pleased to be known as someone who has a conservative theological centre, which just happens to link me in I think with 99% of the world's Christians, and virtually 100% of Christians who have ever lived.
So I'm not sure that this is something that's really as significant as some critics might make out.
Rachael Kohn: Well Jesus has certainly had to compete with a lot of things in the modern world, and one of them would be a big trend to see him as a man, as a teacher, not as the Lord.
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes, and that's a very useful trend, because the glorification of Jesus, the sort of stained-glass Jesus, has not been a very helpful picture.
One of the things that we need to say as clearly as possible is that he was indeed truly man, that he slept and that he ate and that, it's interesting in the gospels, one or two times it talks about him having a special friend, or friends, an intimate group within his disciples. It says he met a young man once and his heart went out to him.
In other words, he had a full range of ordinary human instincts and emotions, he was thoroughly human and as I always say, I guess he had nappy rash and he may well have had bad teeth, who can tell. He is a thoroughly human person because in my belief, Jesus is still of course, having been resurrected, alive and well, and he remains human.
Now the distinctive thing about him however, according to the Biblical record is that he was both human and divine, and it's finding out how we may see his divinity in his humanity, and his humanity in his divinity which is something that's extraordinarily important if we're talking about Jesus. But the move that you talk about is a great one, very helpful I'd say. Unless it's connected with 'he's only human'. That's a problem.
Rachael Kohn: Yes, well certainly Biblical scholarship has gone in that direction; there are quite a few scholars who refer to the miraculous as really mythology. That being the trend of modern Biblical teaching, how did you manage to hold on to your faith?
Dr Peter Jensen: First of all I'd say it's the trend of some modern Biblical scholarship, by no means all. Perhaps if we did an actual head count around the world we'd discover that the majority of very serious Biblical scholars were quite comfortable with the supernatural as such, the miraculous as such, and things like the resurrection. So we need to be careful there.
Yes of course there is a great number who question these things, but it's not by any means such a vast movement that we have to think that it's the winning movement. As far as I'm concerned, my greatest test of faith I think came in my second year of theological study, and I felt for some time that I might have to renounce my faith, to lose it under the impact of those critical studies to which you refer. And it was a period of some months and of testing, of going down to the foundations again, of asking questions, of trying to bring historical criticism to bear, that persuaded me on those grounds, that we were dealing with reality and not with fraud.
Questions are a very helpful way of being a Christian and from time to time, my faith, as is everyone's faith, is strongly tested, and from time to time I look again and say, Well, is the whole thing wrong? That's just natural, and it's a good thing for us, it's a helpful thing for us, and as long as we don't live in a state of suspended animation, I welcome the testing of faith.
Rachael Kohn: What do you think of the remarks of G.P. Taylor, the Anglican vicar turned bestselling children's author, who thinks the church killed off Jesus by turning him into a bearded eunuch, in fact Taylor likes to use colourful language and he says 'The lukewarm made Jesus puke'. Do you have some sympathy with that view?
Dr Peter Jensen: Sure. My particular bete noir I have to say is late 19th century stained glass windows. The pre-Raphaelite pictures of Jesus are awful, they seem to have captured the market, the idea that Jesus was a long-haired sort of hippy type person is the one that comes to people's minds. And in many ways this has come out of the church's perceptions. That's why I want people to go back and read the Gospels for themselves, to break the stereotype, and to listen carefully.
If Jesus spoke like that, well then what sort of man was he? He was an extraordinary person, and I think we need to hear his genuine, rough accent again, to break the stereotype.
Rachael Kohn: Well Jesus is not always easy to have a firm picture of. The four Gospels have slightly different versions of him. Which of the Gospels speaks to you most powerfully about Jesus?
Dr Peter Jensen: I think the answer to that is Luke, strangely. Luke's the longest. It's a difficult question because they all, the four pictures, are all needed. Yes they do speak with different voices, I don't doubt that, and John speaks with the most different voice of all, and is in a class of its own. So I couldn't possibly imagine a world without all four pictures.
But if I had to, if I was forced to choose and go to a desert island with one, I should think it would be Luke, who records on his own, some of the most extraordinary parables for example, and some of the greatest moments of the Gospel. I think Luke. If I was going to say to anyone, Read at least one Gospel, I'd say Luke.
Rachael Kohn: I guess it's the strong, almost muscular Jesus which we've seen recently in the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, and that sort of clearly-drawn Jesus is very easy to connect to I guess, particularly for young people, because it's so clearly drawn. Did the film capture the essence of Jesus for you?
Dr Peter Jensen: I wouldn't go and see the film. Would you like me to say why?
Rachael Kohn: Yes, I would.
Dr Peter Jensen: It's rather personal. I love Jesus, and the idea of going and seeing an actor portraying him brutalised would be to my mind, something like going and seeing an actor portraying my father being shot. I couldn't quite see why I would want to do that. Secondly, I think the film was historically inaccurate at various points, it was rather catholicising, I am told, a rather catholicising view of the death of Jesus, and I don't think that's helpful. And then thirdly, it's interesting that there is no portrait of Jesus, there's no actual portrait of what he looked like, and there's not even a word portrait of what he looked like.
And I have to say I have some hesitations about us too readily portraying Jesus, whether it's the Hollywood Jesus, because of the danger of us attaching our thoughts to a picture which turns out to be only partially true. Now that's a personal attitude, and I know that many differ from me. Many of my friends went and saw the movie without any of the feelings that I've described. So I'm giving you my personal reaction and I realise there'd be others who have a quite different view of the movie.
Rachael Kohn: The Sydney Anglican Archbishop, Peter Jensen, giving some pretty sound reasons why he didn't appreciate Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the Christ. Dr Jensen is giving this year's Boyer Lectures, beginning next Sunday at 5pm, here on ABC Radio National. And in this preview on The Spirit of Things, we're talking about The Future of Jesus.
Later on, we'll hear from a couple of singer-songwriters from one of the hottest young bands on the Christian rock scene.
Rachael Kohn: The Boyer Lectures are as you've named them on The Future of Jesus, and I wonder whether this popular culture appropriation of Jesus, is going to be his future.
Dr Peter Jensen: My first fear is that Jesus may be forgotten in some parts of the world. I don't think he will be forgotten overall, after all, his religion is still a very successful one, and in parts of the world, people are becoming Christians at an astounding rate. But I do fear that in some parts of the West, we may forget him. And there will be no popular appropriation of Jesus, because he will not be known.
It does mean of course that we will be cut off from a huge amount of our artistic and literary culture, but that's one of the prices we pay for extinguishing the knowledge of Jesus. Now where he is going to be known, you're right, I think I suspect that people will try to come to terms with him and take those bits of him which they find helpful to them in their daily lives, and for some that will be his teaching and so forth. What I am trying to do is to get them, however to - it's not just Jesus, it's the Bible, you see, the Bible has shaped Western culture, because it's delivered Jesus to us.
So I'm trying to bring Jesus and the Bible back together again, and I think when they actually have an encounter with the Jesus of the Bible, they'll discover it's not just any old human teacher from back then.
When he died (this is in Luke of course) he was crucified, an absolutely excruciating death of course, he says 'Father forgive them, they know not what they do'. And someone has said that if Socrates died like a philosopher, then Jesus died like a god. And it is in that moment of abject humiliation that we see a man who lived like God, so to speak, we see God shining out from someone being crucified. Now I think even in folk religion and popular religion, as people come to look at him, they will sense, I think, the presence of God in him.
Rachael Kohn: Dr Jensen, in the Boyer Lectures you talk about Jesus, the man of miracles, and I wonder if there can be much hope for a miracle worker in a culture that is so bent on self-help philosophies, and self-made success. Are we overly confident in ourselves?
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes, though there is something else I would like to challenge first, or observe first. It's astonishing, isn't it, that you refer to our culture rightly, but at a popular level miracles are immensely welcomed. There are huge numbers of people who actually believe in miracles, or who believe in the supernatural, at least believe in the stars. The so-called scientific world view has not won through and taken over the whole of the culture in which we are living.
People sense that there is a beyond, there is another way of looking at the world, there is a way in which the supernatural interacts with the natural world. I don't think the alleged warfare between science and Christianity is at all true, let me say that. Nonetheless, if you merely took the so-called scientific world view as a philosophy, you would be I think in our society, in a minority. So the idea of Jesus, the one who does miracles, I think is not going to be as difficult as some people imagine it will be.
Rachael Kohn: Well I actually would challenge you there. I think that perhaps supernatural is alive and well, but maybe magic, which is something you control, is more easy to accept than a miracle, which happens by the grace of God. Maybe that's much harder to sell, as it were.
Dr Peter Jensen: I agree with you entirely. See the difference between faith and superstition is not the inner feeling, superstition is faith in the untrue, or faith where you are attempting to manipulate the supernatural, what you've just called magic. Rightly so.
Magic can be defined as my will be done; Christianity is defined as thy will be done. That's the difference. But as far as the experience, the inner experience of faith, and the inner experience of superstition, exactly the same, it's the object of our faith that makes the difference. All I'm trying to say is that I think there's an awful lot of superstition and magical thinking about.
At one level it therefore leaves us open to the truth exhibited by the resurrection, that this material world in which we live is not a closed continuum, that it can be broken into by the God who has made it all, and that the world of death and destruction and decay and the grave, is actually not the true world. Those who've committed themselves to that view of the world have committed themselves to hopelessness.
What Jesus and his resurrection shows is that outside that closed world, there is a God prepared to break into our world and give us a new world. That seems like good news to me and I think magic and magical thinking is a grasping after that great truth.
Rachael Kohn: In the Boyer Lectures, you come out very critical of individualism as a threat to Christianity, on a par with Marxism. And certainly at the extremes, one can see that. But doesn't individualism owe a lot to Protestant Christianity, which wrested the individual from the collective tradition and placed him, or her, before God. Christianity depends on individual voluntary conversion, and that depends on a society of individuals, does it not?
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes, it does, I think that's a fair point, and if I'm critical of individualism, therefore, see I think that Protestantism to which you refer, to my mind rests on the Bible itself, and the infinite preciousness of the individual, and that we don't just simply make the collective, the God to be worshipped.
If I am to defend my position I would therefore have to say that it is the taking of what Protestantism and the Bible itself has delivered to us, and the distortion of that is that of which I am very critical. And I've illustrated it in the lectures by discussion in Judith Brett's book on the Liberal party in which she points out at the beginning of the 20th century the Liberal party was a philosophy of individualism, but what it meant by individualism was that the individual took responsibility for herself, or himself. And then served others, under the impact of the spirit of Jesus. Whereas in the late 20th century the philosophy hasn't changed, but the whole atmosphere of the culture has changed. So that individualism lacks the sense of service of others.
Now where individualism lacks the sense of service of others, it is, I think I'd rather live in a collective State. No, that might be exaggerating when I think of Europe under Marxism, but certainly it's a very dangerous spiritual situation for our nation. Yes, it may be a legacy of Protestantism, but if so, it's a distortion of Protestantism and it's a very ugly thing.
Rachael Kohn: There's a strong message in your lectures that the demise of Jesus in Western consciousness, is not only a matter of personal salvation alone, but of Western civilisation itself. But you also say that Western civilisation is founded on the Bible, it has its deep structure in the Bible. So is it possible to uphold the central values such as mercy and justice, without really knowing where they come from?
Dr Peter Jensen: Oh yes. All sorts of things that we do, it's interesting in a society like ours, there are all sorts of things that we are committed to which we unwittingly are committed to, but they come from the Bible.
An African friend of mine for example, said to me, we were driving somewhere down near Manly, and there was a little incident in the traffic, and someone stopped to let someone else do something. He said, 'That's Christian'. I said, 'What on earth are you talking about?' He said, 'In a society in which Christianity has not been a shaping force, you would not find people driving like that'. Now I don't know whether he was actually specifically correct, but he is generally correct.
There's a huge number of things in which all unwittingly, people in our society take Christianity for granted. Now these things are so deep, so pervasive, they can't be changed, and won't be changed in a single generation. But over 100 years or 200 years, if we suppress the knowledge of Jesus and the Bible, a new civilisation will be born, a new way of looking at the world, I believe it will be retrograde, that we will commit ourselves to what patterns and ways of life which we will find very unhelpful as human beings.
Rachael Kohn: Jesus is often invoked as the model of forgiveness, and acceptance, but he also announced that those who aren't with me are against me. Many post-Christians would say this ethic has caused unnecessary antagonism to other religions, to other peoples.
Dr Peter Jensen: Well they might. Yes, I'm glad to hear you quote that, because there's a huge number of things in the - I think reading the Gospels is like seeing a very rugged terrain. It contains many boulders and sharp rocks, many things on which we bruise ourselves. Many things to confront us and affront us, because the Bible is one of those texts which now in a sense, comes to us from outside our culture.
Yes it is foundational to our culture but in the present situation it comes in a sense outside our culture, it doesn't reflect us, it reflects something else, and the sayings of Jesus specifically do, and I think we need a good dose of that. We need to free ourselves from some of the romantic notions that people have about life in this world. We're becoming more and more romantic because we live so comfortably here in Australia, so very comfortably, we think that this is the natural way humans live. And the truth of the fact is that all around the world people do not live like this.
We are so used to religion being benign we think that religion is by definition benign. Well we used to think that. And this is not true. So what Jesus does is instead of just being a mere sort of figure who endorses all the thoughts we may have, he is a very confrontative figure, and the quotation that you've given me is typical of the way in which he confronts us.
Rachael Kohn: Well you cite the French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, who said 'Jesus is the centre of all, the object of all, whoever knows not him, knows nothing aright, either of the world or of himself'. Do you agree with him?
Dr Peter Jensen: Yes, I do.
Rachael Kohn: So that means that essentially to know the world aright and to know yourself aright, you must be a Christian?
Dr Peter Jensen: You must know Jesus and hear his strong word. Yes, I think Pascal who of course is one of the founders of modern statistics, one of the most extraordinarily able intellectuals of all time, who found God himself in an extraordinary experience. I think he has put his finger after much thought, on the truth. I think that, not because I enjoy thinking that, or think I'm right, or something like that, I think that because in the end, there is only one who is both God and man. And if it is true that he is God and man, then what Pascal says follows.
Rachael Kohn: When it comes to growth, the Anglican church lags behind some of the independent churches, churches like say Christian City Church, and Hillsong, which are hugely successful with young people. Isn't the future of Jesus with them?
Dr Peter Jensen: No, I don't believe so for a minute. Yes, they have their successes. Mind you, there's an awful lot of Pentecostal churches that are small, struggling and often disappear. We see something of the picture here in seeing those big ones, and I'm glad of their success, of course. But for every one like that, there are dozens that aren't like that, that are struggling, and then too, amongst the Anglican churches, we too have our large churches.
What we are standing for is as I said, a trust in God's word in the Bible and in Jesus, the Jesus described in the Bible, what people call conservative, but I don't know why they say that particularly, it's Biblical. And we have found as many of the Pentecostals have found, that preaching the Jesus of the Bible is attractive, even in the modern world, and we find ourselves, our churches are growing and we too have many young people. Our theological college is full to bursting, if that's what this is about.
There is a fundamental distinction that exists between Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism which is what I represent, and that is that the locus of authority in Pentecostalism is on the experience, and the locus of authority in Evangelicalism is on the Bible. Now don't get me wrong, the Pentecostals have the Bible and Evangelicals have experience. I'm talking about the basics, when you get down to the basics. And I don't believe that an experientially-based religion is going to be able to carry the Gospel, the Biblical Gospel with its intellectual demands, into the next 50 years.
I'm putting my money, if I may use that expression, on Biblically based religion. So I quite agree that many of the Pentecostals of course love the Bible, and to that extent too, they too will be blessed by God.
Rachael Kohn: Archbishop Peter Jensen, you've said in the Boyer Lectures that you don't consider yourself a religious man, an extraordinary admission; what do you mean by that?
Dr Peter Jensen: When I think of religion, I often think of people dressed up in funny gear, and going into rituals, and wearing strange things, being intensely interested in churchy matters, and being pretty good at prayer I suppose. When I think of myself, I'm thinking of a person who has a relationship with Jesus, and I think relationship rather than religion.
I find prayer pretty hard myself, I don't find living the Christian life an easy one, and I certainly don't think I want to go to church every day. When I go to conferences where they have church every day, I have to say I find it very difficult. I love going to church and being with my church family, that's different. But I'm not a natural churchgoer, if I can put it like that. So that's why I say, yes, I'm a person with relationships, I'm not sure I'm a person with a religion.
Rachael Kohn: Faith, not religion, that's the credo of Dr Peter Jensen, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. He's giving this year's Boyer Lectures on the Future of Jesus, and he hopes to provoke public debate. And I'm quite sure that some of his remarks will, if not with people of other faith, then certainly within the Christian camp.
The Boyer Lectures begin next Sunday after the news at 5pm, here on ABC Radio National.
The theology of the Sydney Anglican Diocese is evangelical, it's also been called Calvinist, referring back to the 16th century reformer, John Calvin. It's a complex history of ideas.
But when you front up to the Christian City Church at Oxford Falls, it's not the theology that hits you, it's the intimacy. In the words of Pastor Phil Pringle, worship is about connecting, connecting to Jesus. And what better way to do that than through music. Here's 'No Longer I' by the Christian City Youth Band, including singer-songwriters Nikki Fletcher and Daniel Korocz.
Dan Korocz: 'No Longer I' is pretty much about not living for yourself, and there's a scripture in Galatians 2:20 it says I've been crucified with Christ, no longer I live, but Christ that lives in me, and it's about living a life, about God and other people.
Rachael Kohn: The lyric also says Christ lives in me. How does Christ live in you?
Nikki Fletcher: I would consider myself a disciple of Christ, I'm one that follows Christ, Jesus Christ who came and walked on this earth 2,000 years ago and stars in the Bible. And we believe that he died for our sins, he died on a cross, and for the salvation of mankind, and so for me, I have given my life to Jesus, so that I may have salvation. But to do that, it's a daily walk with him, and I then become transformed, it's no longer I that lives, but it's Christ that lives in me.
So the Nikki Fletcher that has lived all these years, daily comes before Jesus Christ and says Jesus, I can't walk this thing called life alone, I don't get it without you. And then Jesus enters my heart and my life, and I follow the word of God, that's the other thing you know, that's how we come to know Jesus is through the word of God, the Bible, which is a big fat book full of a whole lot of little books, and we believe that that is God breathed and from heaven, and it transforms our world every day as we read it.
Dan Korocz: It's not a religion, but it's just having a relationship with Jesus and every day just having that relationship, just like you do with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you know you have relationship with Jesus that's what it means to me, and daily I'm praying and reading my Bible.
Rachael Kohn: Does Dan ever struggle with Jesus inside him?
Dan Korocz: Oh yes, like definitely, like because Dan wants to live, but then Christ wants to live also, so you know, they're like fighting each other, you know. But that's why you've got to - it's a daily walk with Jesus because you know, you're like you're dying to yourself daily. I've got to daily like shut myself down, I'm like OK it's not about me, it's about Christ in me, and I've got to keep on telling myself that.
Rachael Kohn: How did you come to Christ first?
Dan Korocz: I've grown up in a Christian family my whole life, so I've always - I went to Christian schools, I've always been around church, around Christians, but it's funny, it's probably only up until maybe I'm 21 now and maybe when I was 15, 16, that I actually got really passionate and actually encountered Jesus for the first time.
Rachael Kohn: In what setting?
Dan Korocz: Probably pretty much as coming to church and I used to go to another church besides this church, and it was a lot smaller and it was nothing like this church today. It wasn't really relevant, very sort of old-fashioned, or laid-back, and I came here probably about 8, 9 years ago and totally blown away about all the people here, they were so relevant I could totally relate to them, and it's pretty much the people that I met here is what brought me to Jesus.
Rachael Kohn: Was the music important to you? Is that what moved you? Is that what made you think it was relevant?
Dan Korocz: Yes, definitely, like that was a huge part of it, but I think even more than that, it was the people, and seeing Jesus in other people's lives, that's what connected me to Jesus first.
Rachael Kohn: Nikki, did you always think you were going to sing your faith?
Nikki Fletcher: No, I didn't always think that I was going to sing, but I grew up in church, same sort of story as Dan, and always was surrounded by Christianity, and was aware of God and felt that I always knew God existed and was real, but I never thought that I would end up sort of doing 24/7, I thought that you know, I would have a career in music and do albums and you know, be a Delta Goodrem or something like that you know. So I didn't always think that I'd be doing it.
Rachael Kohn: How did it happen, how did a budding singer become a worship leader?
Nikki Fletcher: Well I grew up in church and then when I was probably 18, I actually made a decision for myself outside of my parents that, this was what I wanted to live for in my life.
I believed in Jesus, I believed in church, and what church was about, and so I made a decision in one of our services to follow Christ and be a disciple. After that, I think I got asked to sing in one service, and just one thing led to another until I was singing in all the services, and leading and writing worship songs and then about two years after that when I was about 20 or 21, I knew that this is what God had in store for my life, and I knew that I was meant to write songs about God, and minister to people through the church, and so I've never looked back and gone Oh well I think I might one day have a career in music, even if one day I stop singing about God, I know that my role is here in the church and in ministry. It's a different path that I've taken.
Rachael Kohn: As you say, it's 24/7. Can you tell me how do you write your songs?
Nikki Fletcher: Well the songs that we write, Dan and myself here, are for our service and for the people in our church, predominantly, that's our first reason for writing our songs.
We have what naturally comes out, so we'll sit down, we'll sing and there it is, it all kind of comes out and then we'll package it, so it works for the service. As it would be if I was writing for a record company or an artist and I wrote well here's what's in my heart, blah-blah-blah, there it all comes out and the artist said Yes, but it doesn't really fit my album, I need the songs to be shorter I need more hooks, whatever. It's the same kind of thing with church, it all comes out of my spirit and then you know we'll work it, and the pastor of the church will often listen to it and go Oh, it's not kind of the vibe that we're wanting, or whatever. So that's the kind of process.
I mean there's probably a whole team of songwriters here probably about 10, 12 songwriters that write and we write with the intention of our church in our church services. But firstly, it comes from your spirit, you know, whatever's in your heart is sort of what comes out.
Rachael Kohn: But you're something of a preacher. I mean you're communicating the word to the congregation, so do you find your lead or your hook, if I can use that term, from the Bible, from Bible passages, like 'No Longer I'?
Dan Korocz: With all my songwriting, I pretty much get all my songs, I read my Bible and pray, I can pretty much kind of do that, and whatever I read in the Bible, something stands out to me, I'll write a song out of that, and I do think worship leading is like preaching, you're up there, you're prophesying into people's lives, you know like when I sing it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me and prophesying into other kids' lives, other people's lives.
Nikki Fletcher: So if I was going to write a song which is probably what I spend a lot of my spare time doing because it's just something that I love to do, a lot of the time I spend reading the word of God, reading the Bible, and praying and often there'll be something that's going on in my world which comes out in song, as I sit down and write, so for example this song which I'm working on at the moment, is called My Soul Delights, and it comes from Psalm 23 which David wrote.
It's very famous, which is 'The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want. He restores my soul', and so I've just been meditating on that, 'He restores my soul, and he leads me, he guides me,', all that sort of stuff, and so that's sort of come out in song, but slightly, you know, my interpretation of it, so the chorus goes (SINGS).
So that's the kind of thing, and then I'll get a you know, just keep singing, get another chord progression (DEMONSTRATES) So for that section like I came up with 'My soul delights', it's another Psalm, but then so that the congregation could sing it, and it's for them, it's not just for me, 'My soul delights, of your glory we will sing, My soul delights as we worship our king', so it's as we worship, so that like, I'm picturing the congregation. 'I'll worship and sing', 'We worship', do you know what I mean, rather than me just going 'I worship you lord my king', or whatever, it's sort of for them, so that's kind of how it works for us.
Rachael Kohn: Gosh. It sounds like you've got a hit there. At least with the congregation. In fact how does the congregation respond to your songs?
Dan Korocz: There are times when they don't respond well. We've had to ditch songs, but generally I think we're getting better, it's something you learn as a songwriter and a worship leader, you're actually writing songs for a congregation, and you're not writing songs just for yourself, so at times you know, you've got to write songs that really easy and really catchy, but there have been times when people have - we've had to ditch songs and times when people have loved them straight away.
Rachael Kohn: When we're talking about the congregation here, how many people are we talking about?
Nikki Fletcher: We have a whole lot of youth services and we have a whole lot of church services on the weekend starting on Friday night.
Rachael Kohn: Well how do they differ? What's a youth service as opposed to a church service?
Nikki Fletcher: So out youth is aimed at people from the age of 11 to 25 and then our main church services are aimed at 18 year olds up to whatever.
Families and older people, and in those services different services have more specific audiences, like for example an 8am service on a Sunday morning is very family orientated, it's a bit of a shorter service, and the music's a little bit quieter, you know, we wouldn't get up with the whole rock band and get a mosh pit happening on an 8am service, but then a 6pm service on a Sunday night includes the youth aspect as well as some younger families and you know, middle-aged people or whatever, so it kind of crosses the borders.
Our Friday night services are, we have a junior high, senior high and a young adult service, and so we have three different services all running in different buildings, and they all kind of target that exact - because I think you find these days that generations are very short and small and so what's relevant to a 11 or 12 year old is completely irrelevant to an 18 year old. So to shove them all in the same room and expect to throw the same thing at them and get the same response just doesn't work any more. So we have the three different programs and they have very similar music in that area.
Rachael Kohn: But it sounds like you'd have to have a lot of different bands.
Nikki Fletcher: Yes, we do. And so we have a live worship band in every service that we do, including our prayer meetings on Tuesday nights, even our staff meeting on a Wednesday morning we have full band, and we do music and everything.
Rachael Kohn: So essentially, you're going to have a church in the future that's filled with people who can sing and play guitar and keyboard and everything.
Dan Korocz: Great. Definitely.
Nikki Fletcher: That's what we need, like in our main church services we probably have 100 people, and some of them are absolutely brilliant musicians that do sessions all over Australia and stuff, and then we have the beginners starting out in Year 7 coming in and going 'Can we learn guitar? We want to be in part of the band', and it's sort of our job to find these people, get them plugged in and have them there for the long term, because that's what our church is doing now, like we have the music in every service, so if we didn't have any worship team, if we didn't have any band, me and Dan would be learning to play everything at once.
Dan Korocz: We've got a creative arts college here as well, like any age group you can come here and you can be trained in whatever instrument, or even dance or media, you can get trained in that area, and serve the church.
Rachael Kohn: The creative artistic way of connecting to Jesus, at the Christian City Church in Oxford Falls, Sydney. Nikki Fletcher and Daniel Korocz are two of the key members of the Sydney-based band Christian City Youth. And maybe they're where at least one future of Jesus lies. Who's to say any one church has a monopoly on Jesus. the Christian City Church and its collection of rock bands are pretty busy organising a huge event in the SuperDome featuring the visiting Black American preacher, T.D. Jakes, with a special appearance by Guy Sebastian.
To find out more about the Christian City Church music and events as well as this year's Boyer Lectures by the Anglican Archbishop, Peter Jensen, just visit our website.
Production today was by me and Geoff Wood, with technical wizardry provided by John Jacobs.
Next week discover how another part of the spiritual universe lives, the Theosophists. Started 130 years ago, Theosophy still believes that spiritual truth is ever evolving and never exclusive.
That's Theosophy, next week on The Spirit of Things with me, Rachael Kohn.
And I'll leave you now with more from my guests Nikki Fletcher and Daniel Korocz.
Christian City Youth
No Longer I
CD details: Christian City Church
Further Information
Boyer Lectures
The Boyer Lectures have been delivered by prominent Australians, selected by the ABC Board, for over 40 years.
2005 Boyer Lectures: The Future of Jesus
Details of Dr Jensen's Boyer Lecture series from the website of the Sydney Anglicans.
Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney
Christian City Church, Oxford Falls
The rock band Christian City Youth performs at youth services for the Christian City Church.
Dr Rachael Kohn
Geoff Wood / Dr Rachael Kohn | dclm-gs1-107610000 |
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White blood cell protein aids melanoma
Woman wearing hat and applying sunscreen
Despite the finding, researchers recommend avoiding large doses of UV radiation to prevent melanomas forming (Source: Robert Churchill/iStockphoto)
Unwitting helper Scientists have pinpointed a molecular mechanism in mice that helps skin cancer cells confound the animal's immune system, according to a study.
The discovery, if duplicated in humans, could one day lead to drug treatments that block this mechanism, and thus the cancer's growth, the study's authors report.
In experiments on mice, researchers showed for the first time that a protein called interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) plays a key role in the spread of melanoma, a notoriously aggressive form of cancer resistant to standard chemotherapy.
The same kind of ultraviolet radiation that leads to sunburn caused white blood cells to infiltrate the skin of the mice, says Glenn Merlino, a scientist at the US National Cancer Institute and the main architect of the study.
The white blood cells, in turn, "can produce IFN-gamma. We believe that IFN-gamma can promote melanoma in our model system, and perhaps in people," he says.
Injecting the mice with antibodies that block IFN-gamma interrupted this signalling process, effectively reducing the risk of UV-induced skin cancer, the researchers found.
"We are trying to develop inhibitors that are more practical than antibodies, a small molecule, for example," says Merlino.
Ideally, such a treatment would mean that someone exposed to large doses of UV radiation could escape the potentially lethal threat of skin cancer.
"But we would never encourage intense sunbathing, even if such a treatment were available," cautions Merlino.
Cases of cutaneous malignant melanoma are increasing faster than any other type of cancer.
In 2000, more than 200,000 cases of melanoma were diagnosed and there were 65,000 melanoma-associated deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Upending assumptions about interferons
The findings, reported in the journal Nature, could upend assumptions about the relationship between interferon proteins and cancer, say the study's researchers.
Up to now, interferons were thought to impede the formation of cancer tumours. One in particular, interferon-alpha, has been widely used to treat melanoma, both as a first-line drug and an adjutant.
Earlier research has raised doubts as to effectiveness of the treatment, which also has serious side effects.
The highest recorded incidence of melanoma is in Australia, where the annual rates for women are 10 times the rate in Europe and more 20 times for men.
The main risk factors are high exposure to the Sun and other UV sources such as sun-beds, along with genetic factors.
The disease is far more common among people with a pale complexion, blue eyes, and red or fair hair.
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010
What Can Be Learned from the Hearings Part 3 Avoiding Future Problems
What To Do To Avoid Problems Going Forward
It is important to re-emphasize that the examples given and the problems cited may not apply to every school and company but they do for too many. And these examples are the sort that are easily found on the internet, websites, the media and hearing evidence so the must become important even to the schools that do not do them. It is important that the sector stop patting itself on the back all the time and be real about some of the players within it. It is necessary to take the whispering at meetings like CCA and do something to stop the offenders from harming and maybe even destroying the whole industry. We all know there are issues yet little is done about them by the Career College Association, its members or the accrediting agencies who could bring pressure since if they don’t, the federal hearings and rules will.
The sector needs to hire more leaders who have had experience in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. A college is an educational institution first that makes money through its successful recruitment, teaching, retention. customer service, graduation and placing of students. Students must be treated as what they are – our customers. That does not mean giving the what we think they want such as high grades for little work but real academic customer service. This includes good classroom experiences, training that does apply to the real world by professors who can teach, class sections that are offered without sudden cancellation, equipment that is up-to-date and appropriate to the learning, good tutoring when needed, an environment that is both academic and attractive and most important, people who care and value them as students.
This means that people all the way through the student experience must provide good academic customer service that is also within the rules and regulations that govern colleges. That means being honest and upfront on all issues and trying to help resolve them to the student’s and schools benefit. Remember a dropout will not register for more classes. For example, it includes when a student is behind in tuition payment we do not just send dunning letter and pull the student from class. What we do is sit down with the student and try to help him or her find ways to make the payments. If we do that, even if the student finally has to leave, she will feel the school did all it could to help out and be complimentary rather than a potential hearing complainant. It means listening a lot more and demanding a lot less. It also means that people need to be trained in academic customer service so they can treat students correctly.
The campus president or director should have the care and feeding of students as her primary job. She should think of herself at the DoCS, the Director of Customer Service. It should be her obligation to deal with and resolve any and all student issues before they become complaints. If she is in her office too much, she is not working with and in the student body enough. She must also be the DoCS for the staff of the college and become an advocate for them with corporate or whomever she reports to. She should make sure everyone knows the 15 Principles of Good Academic Customer Service and lives by them.
Academic customer service training is also needed for the employees especially those who have any sort of HR function which is really everyone. Too many school rely on an HR person to take care of the hard stuff like firing even after that original manager made the situation not just hard but destructive. Managers, directors and senior staff need to realize there is a reason G-d gave us two ears and one mouth. She was trying to tell us to listen twice s much as we talk. And everyone must realize that everyone in the school is their customer and needs to be treated with dignity and value.
The bonus system needs to be made more egalitarian. Everyone contributes to a successful or failing school so bonuses should not just focus on the senior leadership but everyone. Everyone should get a bonus id the college succeeds. But the entire bonus system should probably be ended and replaced with a better base salary plus a salary scale increase system so successful people get promoted and/or salary increases regularly. Bonuses just push people to possibly do things that cause the college problems later.
The whole industry needs to just settle down and realize that it is not possible to keep growing at rates that are outpacing the market every quarter. There was a time when that was possible when the sector was still newish in the 1990’s with a huge market and not all that many players. Now the sector is crammed with what may be too many schools for all to be successful. There are so many career colleges out there that even the small markets are over-crowded. But the investors want a good return so even weak schools need to perform somehow. That how is what gets too many school in trouble and the entire sector the target of federal hearings.
Someone needs to regulate the industry from within or it will be done from hearings, new federal rules and on the State and Federal level. Someone needs to be the watchdog and sniff out issues before they become obvious to everyone. Someone needs to have the authority somewhat like an accrediting agency using something like a Sorbanes/Oxley desk audit of all activities and functions and for the sector and be able to tell a school or company that it may not do certain things, over market, promise what they cannot deliver, etc. It may be that schools should be under a regulating/accrediting agency not for academic programs but sort of as a Good Collegekeeping seal of approval that can be given for meeting and performing or taken away until the school is back in line. Perhaps this should be one of the roles of the CCA though I do not see it doing this. But it needs to come from within if at all possible or it will come from outside.
Everyone just realize that everyone in the school is my customer and needs to be treated with dignity and value.
Finally, since there is no such regulating body, individual colleges and schools need to police their own activities. They cannot permit anyone, admissions, financial aid, bursar, anyone from the President on up to engage in any deceptive practices, claims, or actions that will harm students even if it means that some number is not hit. Better to miss a start for example than to start a federal hearing.
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[excerpted from Polar Peoples]
by Fae L. Korsmo
From Polar Peoples: Self-Determination and Development, "The Alaska Natives," by Fae L. Korsmo, pp. 81-104, edited by Minority Rights Group, 1994. Used with permission of the publisher, for educational purposes only.
Russian America, 1741-1867
Alaska Native languages
Early US administration and aboriginal rights
Retribalization, reservations and statehood
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
Powers of tribes: Indian Country, sovereignty and Alaska Natives
The ‘1991’ amendments
Self-determination, tribes and Indian Country
From the moist coastal climate of the southeast panhandle, with its towering cedar trees, to the bare, windswept tundra, Alaska hosts a diversity of cultures. Long before Russian explorers plied the coasts in the 1700s, the forebears of the Alaska Natives had established themselves as distinct societies. The term ‘Alaska Natives’ encompasses the Yupik, Inupiat, Aleut, Athabaskan, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples. Together, they constitute just over 15 percent of the state’s population, or more than 85,000 people out of approximately 550,000 statewide.1 They speak twenty different languages.2 Fifty-six per cent of the Alaska Natives are concentrated in non-urban areas, including more than 200 small villages with populations smaller than 2,500.3 However, the state’s most populous city, Anchorage is home to more than 14,000 Native people.4 Alaska Natives can be found in a variety of occupations and ways of life, from subsistence hunting and fishing to state and corporate office. Despite the cultural, linguistic, occupational and geographical differences, the Alaska Natives have shared similar challenges as a result of colonization and pressures to assimilate to the dominant culture. Perhaps the most pressing concerns of the Alaska Natives today involve self-government and tribal jurisdiction over land and water, in addition to health and social problems such as alcohol abuse, suicide, unemployment, housing and sanitation.5
This chapter will give a brief overview of the controversies and recent developments surrounding Alaska Native rights, beginning with the history of contact between Alaska Natives and first the Russians and then, after 1867, the United States. After the historical treatment, we shall turn to the issues of subsistence, tribal sovereignty and future prospects. Space does not permit more than a few details about the separate and distinct Native cultures in Alaska, or more than a cursory glance at the complex evolution of US policies. Throughout the chapter, however, a single theme emerges: Alaska Natives are neither the passive victims of aggressive colonization nor the single most important arbiters of their own lives, but independent actors who are nevertheless subject to powerful economic and political forces beyond their control. The recognition of Alaska Native rights evolves and shifts accordingly in the ever-changing context of minority-majority relations.
[insert map, p. 82]
Russian America, 1741-1867
When Vitus Bering and Alexii Chirikov and their crews landed on the Alaskan coast in 1741, they opened the way for more than a century of Russian fur trade. Russia extended its empire to Alaska as part of the sweep across Siberia. Whereas peasants were brought to till the soil and colonize Siberia, in addition to hunters and trappers of fur-bearing mammals such as sable, farming made little headway in Alaska. Few Russians actually settled in Alaska. Instead, the sea otter became the main object of the Russian hunter-traders (promyshlenniki) who stayed long enough to accumulate their bounty. The Russians forced the Aleuts to hunt sea otters and fur seals for them, taking advantage of the expertise and equipment the Aleuts had developed over thousands of years of living in their marine environment. As a result of the harsh treatment as well as new diseases brought from the European continent, the Aleut population declined by at least 80 per cent during the first and second generations of Russian contact.6
Along with population loss came culture change. Because Russian settlement was largely confined to the coasts and the mouths of major rivers, not all Alaska Native groups experienced daily contact with the newcomers. Who were these different peoples the Russians encountered? How were they treated?
The Aleuts experienced the longest and most intensive history of non-Native contact.7 Prior to contact, the Aleuts lived in villages and seasonal subsistence camps along the coasts of the Aleutian Islands. Food sources included marine mammals, marine invertebrates, eggs, birds, fish and plants. Villages consisted of multi-family semi-subterranean dwellings, or barabaras, made of stones, driftwood and whalebone. With their water-repellent clothing made of gut and their sturdy canoes or bidarkas, the Aleuts were well adapted to the marine climate, When forced into Russian service, the male Aleut hunters were often taken from their homes and families, leaving the women and children to fish and gather. Settlement patterns were broken. and some Aleuts were relocated to other islands such as the Pribilofs. In addition, Russian Orthodoxy replaced traditional spiritual beliefs and rituals associated with the hunting and gathering life.
Other coastal peoples affected by Russian contact included the Koniag of Kodiak Island, the Yupik of southwest Alaska, the Kenaitze of the Kenai Peninsula, the Chugach, and the Tlingit in southeast Alaska. The Koniag numbered 10,000 or more at the time of Russian contact. Archaeological evidence reveals a complex society based on extended families (again we see the multi-family dwellings, housing perhaps 18 to 20 people), ritual observances centred around spiritual transformations and a fisher-hunter-gatherer economy where the salmon played an important part.8 Linguistically related to the Koniag, the Yupik of the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta first encountered Russian explorers and missionaries in the early 1800s.9 The Yupik may have numbered as many as 15,000 at the time of Russian contact, spread out in villages along the delta. Rich in fish, including salmon, whitefish and trout, the rivers and streams braided through territory that supported abundant game — moose and caribou as well as smaller mammals like otter, muskrat, fox and mink. People followed the movements of fish and game, with extended families occupying fishing camps along the rivers during the summer and larger, more permanent villages during the winter.10
To the south and east, the Russians attempted to gain a foothold in Tlingit territory, using Koniag and Chugach men as hunters and warriors to raid the Tlingit villages in the late 1700s. The Tlingit were trading with the British and initially fought the Russians.11 The northernmost of the northwest coast peoples who built large wooden houses, totem poles and dugout canoes, the Tlingit were known as skilful warriors and traders who gave away their many luxuries at elaborate ceremonials called potlatches.12 They temporarily succeeded in expelling the Russians, but after 1804 it appeared the Russians were determined to maintain a settlement at Sitka. The Tlingit simply went on with their lives and tolerated the Russian presence.
People living in the far north and interior regions of Alaska saw far less of the Russians than the coastal and riverine groups, simply because these areas were inaccessible or undesirable from the Russian perspective.13 For the Inupiat and Athabaskan peoples living in north and interior Alaska, contact with the Russians was predominantly indirect; trade with other Native groups further south brought Russian goods into their hands, but Russia established no settlements.14According to Kostlivtsev, commissioned by the Russian government to investigate property rights in Russian America in 1860:
‘the further from the coast, the more rough and independent the character of the savages; every symptom not only of social, but even of settled life, disappears, because these natives, having no other occupation but hunting, migrate in the track of game from one part to another, establishing but provisional settlements for the winter season.’15'
Kostlivtsev may have been describing the Athabaskans, hunter-fisher-gatherers of the northern forest. Northern Athabaskan groups can be found across both Alaska and Canada. They were extremely mobile, and their temporary and semi-permanent dwellings reflected their seasonal movements according to wildlife migrations and weather patterns.16 While the Russians dismissed them as savages, the Athabaskans had elaborate kinship networks and powerful tribal chiefs or councils comprising a rather complex political system. The same could be said of the Inupiat, who in general were more oriented towards the north coast and depended on the sea-mammal harvest. The most important early contact with the Inupiat, in fact, was made not by the Russians but by whaling ships from New England and California which followed the bowhead whale along the north Alaskan coast and across the ocean to the western Chukchi Sea during the middle 1800s.17
Russian presence, then, had varying impacts on Alaska Natives, ranging from the virtual enslavement of the Aleuts to little or no interest in the more remote groups of Athabaskans and Inupiat. Given the mistreatment of Aleuts and other coastal societies, it seems incongruous that Russians accepted Creoles, or people of combined Native and Russian heritage, as Russian subjects and devoted considerable energy to teaching and preserving the Aleut language.18 Perhaps an explanation lies in the inclusive form of colonialism the Russians practised, whereby local leaders willing to cooperate were co-opted and their followers integrated into Russian society.19
The 1844 Charter of the Russian-American Company, the fur-trading monopoly established as a hybrid governmental and economic concern in Alaska, recognized three categories of Natives. First, the dependent or settled tribes were considered Russian subjects, and these probably included the Aleuts, Koniag, Kenaitze and Chugach. Second, the not wholly dependent tribes lived within the reach of Russian settlement, but did not enjoy the duties or privileges of Russian settlement. The second category most likely referred to the Tlingit, who resisted the Russians. Third, the independent tribes (further north and inland, such as the Athabaskans and Inupiat) had little interaction with the Russians.20
The Russian classification system became an important source of knowledge for the United States when the latter purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. It is hardly surprising that neither Russia nor the United States consulted the societies living in Alaska before making this transaction. To this day, some Alaska Natives refer to 1867 as the year that ‘the occupation rights’ to Alaska were transferred; Russia never had legitimate possession of Alaska, so how could Russia sell something it did not own?21 In any case, the Treaty of Cession between Russia and the United States recognized three groups of Alaskan people: (1) Russian subjects who preferred to retain their allegiance and were permitted to return to Russia within three years; (2) Russian subjects who preferred to remain in Alaska and enjoy the rights and immunities of US citizens; and (3) the uncivilized tribes who would be ‘subject to such laws and regulations as the United States may, from time to time, adopt in regard to aboriginal tribes of that country.’22
But these categories did not translate directly into US law. Who were US citizens? Prior to 1924, Native Americans could become citizens of the United States only on the condition that they applied for an allotment of land and gave up their tribal ways. Were the children of Russian fathers and Alaska Native mothers US citizens or members of ‘uncivilized’ tribes? Were Alaska Native societies ‘tribes’ under federal law?
Alaska Native languages
Language family
Central Yupik
Siberian Yupik
Upper Kuskokwim
Upper Tanana
Early US administration and aboriginal rights
Immediately after the 1867 Treaty of Cession, the United States occupied Alaska militarily, using both the army and the navy. The 1884 Organic Act ended military rule in Alaska and made Alaska a customs district governed by several federal officials. The Second Organic Act of 1912 made Alaska into a territory of the United States and provided for a legislature.23
With regard to Native rights, US rule consisted of a mixture of neglect, assimilation and segregation. Schools were segregated. During the first twenty years following the Treaty of Cession, the United States made no provision for education; instead mission societies provided education. From 1885, the US government began to establish state schools and contracted with the missionaries to continue to provide education. Around the turn of the century, however, a dual system of education was inaugurated. Under the governor of the District (and subsequently Territory) of Alaska, schools were established for ‘White children and children of mixed blood leading a civilized life.’ Native schools, however, were under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Segregation also existed in the realm of political participation. In 1925, the Alaska territorial legislature enacted a literacy law, requiring that voters be able to read and write the English language. Similar laws in other parts of the United States were designed to keep minorities from voting, and the same motivations were present in Alaska.24
Policy concerning Alaska Natives’ rights to land and water was marked by neglect and, whenever a conflict arose between Native and non-Native, a confusion of two approaches: assimilation and aboriginal rights of possession. The 1884 Organic Act had provided that ‘Indians or other persons in said district [Alaska] shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or now claimed by them, but the terms under which such persons may acquire title to such lands are reserved for future legislation by Congress.’25 However, on what basis did the Alaska Natives possess title to their lands? Was it aboriginal title or did the Natives and non-Native settlers possess equal rights to landownership? The courts said yes to both. In the first instance, Alaska Natives were legally equivalent to Native American tribes and held land in common based on aboriginal occupancy.26 In other words, Alaska Natives held separate but not inferior systems of land tenure, and these systems had their own internal validity independent of recognition by a European power. Once the discovering nation established a foothold, though, the power of the Natives to sell their lands to anyone else but the discovering nation was curtailed. Thus, when the United States signed the Treaty of Cession, Congress assumed the ultimate power to extinguish aboriginal title and dispose of Native lands. The Alaska Natives still had the right to possess those lands, however.27
In the second instance, the courts determined that Alaska Natives held individual rights equivalent to those of white, non-Native settlers who came to homestead.28 This approach was in tune with the assimilationist policy favoured by the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The purchase of Alaska from Russia and its territorial incorporation occurred concomitantly with the selling of Indian reservation lands in the rest of the United States and the accompanying efforts to make Indians into farmers. The General Allotment Act (also known as the Dawes Act) of 1887 divided tribal property into individual allotments, sold the ‘surplus’ Indian lands and provided for citizenship to be conferred on Indians who abandoned their tribes, took up the plough and adopted the habits of civilized life.29 Congress passed a separate allotment act for Alaska in 1906, even though there was very little reservation land to break up. In fact, the small reservations that the US government did establish in Alaska during the early years were primarily for schools, hospitals and reindeer herding. They represented the efforts of the US Commissioner of Education and his agent, Sheldon Jackson, to provide tools for self-sufficiency and a settled, civilized life, not a means to reaffirm and strengthen Alaska Native cultures.30
These reservations were designed to aid the transition from a hunter-gatherer existence to a cash economy through vocational training, the establishment of reindeer herding and the protection of fisheries.31
The question, then, of whether the Alaska Natives possessed collective aboriginal title (as had the Native American tribes of more southerly regions before they signed treaties with the United States), or whether they held individual rights equivalent to non-Native homesteaders, remained unresolved and confused, often decided in favour of more powerful interests, such as the fisheries and-mining industries.
Retribalization, reservations and statehood
During the 1930s, the United States turned away from the allotment policy. The Dawes Act had failed to assimilate Native Americans or to eliminate the tribe as a fundamental unit. Instead, the land losses and dislocations resulting from the policy seemed to exacerbate problems of poverty. The new policy under the- Roosevelt administration, then, recommitted the United States to maintaining tribal identity. The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 repealed allotment, appropriated funds for the purchase of lands for landless Native Americans, set up a credit fund for loans and authorized tribal organization and incorporation. Tribes had the right to adopt constitutions, employ legal counsel, protect tribal lands and negotiate with federal and state governments. They also acquired the right to own, manage and dispose of property. Two years later, the policy was extended to Alaska in the Alaska Reorganization Act of 1936.32
US Secretary Harold Ickes gave three reasons for establishing Alaska Native reservations. First, they would define Native groups as tribes. Second, they would stipulate the geographic limits of tribal jurisdictions. Third, they would allow the United States to protect the economic rights of the Natives against outside commercial interests.33As a result of the Alaska Reorganization Act, 69 villages chose to reorganize their form of government and adopt the constitutions recommended by the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act. In addition, six villages established ‘IRA’ reservations.34
Why so few reservations in Alaska? Opposition to reservations came from several sources. First, commercial fishing and cannery companies opposed any reservations that would limit their access to rivers and coastlines. Second, politicians, including the territorial governor of Alaska Ernest Gruening, opposed segregating Alaska Natives and equated reservations with powerlessness, poverty and subsistence. Third, in some cases the Natives themselves voted down proposed reservations. For example, the Inupiat of Barrow and Shungnak voted against establishing reservations, reportedly because they thought a reservation would not encompass a large enough area for hunting and fishing.35
In the United States as a whole, the policy to encourage the maintenance of tribal identity was short-lived. It was replaced by ‘termination,’ or several legislative acts authorizing the cessation of a special federal-tribal relationship for specific tribes and the removal of responsibility in Native American affairs from the federal to the state level. For example, Public Law 280 transferred civil and criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans from the tribes to the states; the states also assumed many educational responsibilities formerly carried out by the tribes and the federal government.36 In Alaska, the campaign for statehood after the Second World War coincided with the termination era in federal Indian policy. For those interested in the economic and political success of the new State of Alaska, reservations and the federal-Indian trust relationship seemed like obstacles to the development of resources and the collection of tax revenues.37 After considering various options for statehood, including the revocation of Native reservations in Alaska and the transfer of practically all lands to the new state, Congress passed a bill that would grant 103.5 million acres, or nearly one-third of Alaska’s territory, to the new state. Thus, when Alaska became a state in January 1959, it had the power to acquire a great deal of land, including land still claimed by Alaska Natives.
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
During and after the Second World War, Alaska experienced a construction boom, and the territory’s population nearly doubled, mostly as the result of in-migration. Alaska Natives constituted 45 per cent of the territory’s population in 1940; by 1950 they were only 26 per cent.38 Increased population meant higher demands on resources. More importantly, however, the strategic importance of Alaska in the Cold War and the newly achieved statehood made both the state and federal governments powerful contenders for Alaska’s land and water. The federal Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), for example, proposed to use a nuclear explosive to blast an artificial harbour at Cape Thompson on Alaska’s northwest coast. In 1958, the AEC requested 1,600 square miles of land and water for the proposed explosion. The village of Point Hope voted against the project and wrote a letter of protest to President John F. Kennedy. Eventually the plans were abandoned. Similarly, the state proposed to acquire as part of its 103.5 million acres of land an area near the Athabaskan village of Minto, not only for a recreation site but also with future oil development in mind. Minto and other nearby villages protested the state’s plan.39 The village of Minto filed a counter-claim to the land and water they had occupied for many generations. In fact, villages all over Alaska began filing claims with the US Department of the Interior.
Increased competition for Native land and water not only sparked local resistance but helped to mobilize the Alaska Natives on a regional basis. In 1966, these regional Native associations met and formed a statewide organization which would become known as the Alaska Federation of Natives. In addition, the Native villages and associations across Alaska filed claims covering the entire state in an effort to block the State of Alaska from acquiring land and water the Alaska Natives had never ceded.40 The US Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, responded by stopping the transfer of public lands to the state until Congress could settle the Alaska Native claims. Congress was just starting to look at the issues when significant oil reserves were discovered on the North Slope of the Brooks Range. The oil companies wanted to build a pipeline to the port of Valdez to transport the oil out of Alaska, but Native claims held up their plans. Because the economic stakes were so high, Congress acted rather quickly to open up negotiations with the oil companies, Alaska Natives, environmental groups and the State of Alaska.
The result, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, created twelve regional for-profit corporations that would have title to the surface area and subsurface minerals of land selected for development across the state up to a total of 18 million hectares (44 million acres) statewide. Villages in each region could also create their own corporations, and the village corporations would retain surface title to local lands as part of the settlement. Monetary compensation for lands given up by the Natives would total $962.5 million, about half from funds supplied by Congress and half from mineral revenues collected on state and federal lands. On the surface, the ANCSA seemed like a generous settlement, one that embraced the need to modernize economically yet empowered the Natives to do so themselves and on their own terms. As time went on, however, it became clear that the settlement was not at all ‘a settlement’ but rather left several questions unresolved.
First, the settlement was a transitional mechanism that provided a 20-year period during which stock in the Native corporations, both regional and village, could be held only by the Alaska Natives. After that 20-year period, however, the restricted stock would be replaced by at-large shares on the open market. If non-Natives bought up the corporate stock in 1991, they would then acquire title to Native lands, for the corporations were the entities that held the title. The Alaska Natives would not only lose control over the corporations, but they would also lose their land. The year 1991, then, loomed large.
Second, Congress postponed the issue of subsistence. The settlement act extinguished aboriginal rights to hunt and fish, with the implicit assumption that subsistence practices would decline as Natives moved into the modern cash economy. At the time of the settlement, the State of Alaska promised to provide for Native subsistence needs in state fish and wildlife regulation. 'The State of Alaska has not recognized any Native right to hunt, fish and gather, however, and the regulation of fish and game has been riddled with controversy. Additionally, contrary to the assumption that they would move away from subsistence, Alaska Natives continue to practise a mixed economy, where wage earning provides cash for subsistence hunting and fishing technology: boats, rifles and snow machines. Subsistence is not merely a means to survive in the Arctic and sub-Arctic, but also a way of life. Identity, self-worth and life itself for the Alaska Natives are inextricably linked with subsistence activities.42
Third, the status of Alaska Native villages as legal and political entities and the existence of Indian Country in Alaska remain subject to dispute. ‘Indian Country,’ or the territory over which tribes exercise jurisdiction, and tribal sovereignty, or the domestic dependent sovereignty described by Chief Justice Marshall, are issues that continue to surface in the courts. Before we consider subsistence, the ANCSA corporations, Indian Country or village status, however, we must turn to those very doctrines of federal Indian law which have engendered such controversy: aboriginal title and tribal sovereignty.
Powers of tribes: Indian Country, sovereignty and Alaska Natives
As the legal basis for Alaska Native claims prior to the ANCSA, aboriginal title is one of the ways Indian tribes have acquired property held in common. Enshrined in early US Supreme Court decisions from the early 1800s written by Chief Justice John Marshall, one of the most famous Supreme Court Justices to articulate the principles of federal Indian law, the doctrine holds that American Indian tribes have separate but not inferior systems of land tenure. Certain limitations were imposed on the powers of the tribes to cede lands to others, however, when the European powers began treating with the tribes. Through the principle of ‘discovery’ the Europeans divided up the right to enter into relations with the native inhabitants of the country discovered. Each European power gained the exclusive right to acquire land from the Indian tribes within their respective spheres of influence. Until the European power actually purchased Indian lands, the tribe still possessed those lands as the rightful occupants.43
In addition to land title, Chief Justice Marshall ruled on the legal and political status of tribes in relation to the state and federal governments. The doctrine of tribal sovereignty arises out of the treaty relationships between the Indian tribes of North America and Great Britain (later the United States). For example, the Cherokee signed a treaty in 1791 ceding certain lands to the United States, and the United States in turn guaranteed other lands to the Cherokee, lands that happened to be within the boundaries of the State of Georgia. But the State of Georgia demanded that the United States extinguish Indian title and remove the Indians from the state. When the federal government did not respond, Georgia extended its laws to Cherokee territory, despite the fact that the Cherokee Nation had its own constitution and legal system. The Cherokee took the case to court, and in this as well as related cases involving the Cherokee, Chief Justice Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation had the status of domestic dependent nations; within the lands they possessed, they retained sovereign powers of self-government. With respect to external diplomacy, however, the Cherokee had by treaty given up their powers to establish relations with other nations to the federal government of the United States. State governments could not assume jurisdiction within Indian reservations, then, but the federal government could limit the activities of Indian Nations beyond the boundaries of Indian Country.44
Powers of Indian tribes include the ability to determine the form of tribal government and tribal membership; the power to legislate, including the power to levy taxes, establish schools and control economic activity; the power to administer justice and exclude persons from tribal territory; and certain powers over non-Indians, except in criminal matters.45 This ‘domestic dependent sovereignty’ assumes that a distinct territory exists, such as a reservation, over which the tribal government can exercise its power. Furthermore, jurisdiction is related to possession, a trait of Anglo-American law; the sovereign holds title to the land under its administration.
Chief Justice Marshall, in his Supreme Court decisions, characterized the relationship between the federal government of the United States and the Indian tribes as that of a guardian and ward. The stronger nation, the United States, protected the weaker nation, and in return, the tribe necessarily gave up some of its sovereignty. This ‘trust’ relationship between two governments implies that the United States has a continuing duty to protect tribal resources and act in the tribes’ best interest. Here enters a paradox: tribes have the power to govern themselves, yet the federal government has established itself as a paternalistic protector.
What are the implications of this paradox for the Alaska Natives? Do Alaska Native villages constitute federally recognized ‘tribes’ or do the unique circumstances of Alaska make the Natives an exception to federal Indian law?
The State of Alaska has argued that the Alaskan situation is indeed unique compared to the history of the Indian tribes in the contiguous states.46 According to the state’s argument, Congress generally intended Alaska Natives to be governed by the same federal laws applicable to all other residents of Alaska, at least until 1936. Furthermore, the state points out that Congress never signed treaties with Alaska Natives, never regarded them as anything more than dependent subjects. The brief interlude of creating reservations according to the Alaska Reorganization Act of 1936 was merely an administrative attempt to settle Alaska Native claims and, because of the opposition it engendered, was not fully applied to all Alaska Natives. Within this argument put forth by the State of Alaska, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act merely continued the federal policy of treating Alaska Natives as individuals rather than tribes. The state relies on three features of the ANCSA to support this claim. First, the Native corporations would hold land in fee simple title rather than tribal reservations. (‘Fee simple title’ means that the owner can sell or otherwise alienate the land, while reservation land has been set aside by the federal government for tribes and cannot be sold to or settled by outsiders. The United States holds reservation lands in trust for the tribes, while the tribes exercise their rights of self-government on the lands.) Second, as part of the settlement act, Congress encouraged Alaska Native villages to form municipal, or city, governments. These municipalities would be instruments of the State of Alaska and would therefore lack the capacity to form a government-to-government relationship to the United States. Third, the ANCSA shielded undeveloped Native lands from taxation for twenty years. According to federal Indian law, Indian Country is not subject to taxation. Therefore, Congress could not have considered Native corporation lands to be Indian Country.
The State of Alaska, then, has argued against special Native rights based on the tribal model of Indian Country and domestic dependent sovereignty. Because of the shifts in federal Indian policy, and the ambiguity of US policies concerning Alaska Natives, the state’s position is not entirely unfounded. However, as the following three sections on ANCSA amendments, subsistence and tribal status show, the state’s argument has not always prevailed.
The ‘1991’ amendments
During the 1980s, a highly charged debate took place about the viability of the regional and village corporations created under the ANCSA. By 1981, ten years after the settlement, the Native corporations had received less than half of the land allocated to them. The regional corporations had only marginal profits, with at least one in danger of failing.47 Furthermore, the ANCSA required the automatic cancellation of restricted stock in December 1991 and its replacement with ordinary stock. This would give the Native shareholders the option to sell their shares. If enough Natives sold their shares to non-Natives, they would lose control over the corporations. In turn, the loss of corporate control meant loss of the land. Because few of the corporations were successful, the danger loomed that non-Native interests would be in a position to take control of the corporations and the land.
Efforts to amend the ANCSA to eliminate this danger took place on two levels. First, the Alaska Federation of Natives and Native corporate leaders sponsored conferences and workshops to gather ideas on how to amend the ANCSA to protect Native ownership and control. Second, village leaders and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference investigated alternative forms of land tenure that would guarantee Native rights to land and water for generations to come. Specifically, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference commissioned Thomas Berger, a respected advocate of Native rights and a former judge on the British Columbia Supreme Court, to visit Alaska Native villages and gather the views of Alaska Natives. After gathering volumes of testimony, Berger observed:
'Alaska Natives wish to choose a form of landholding that reflects their own cultural imperatives and ensures that their ancestral lands will remain in their possession and under governance . . . At every hearing, witnesses talk of the corporations, shares, profits, sometimes even of proxies, but then, emerging from this thicket of corporate vocabulary, they will talk of what they consider of most importance to them — land, subsistence, and the future of the villages.’48
Berger concluded that the corporate form of land tenure, with its risk-filled profit-making imperative, did not accommodate the aspirations of the village people to hold on to tribal lands. Instead, he recommended that Native shareholders concerned about land loss vote to transfer land from the village corporations to the tribal governments. If a minority of shareholders voted against the transfer, however, they could exercise their dissenters’ rights and exact compensation. Berger suggested Congress enact legislation to facilitate the transfer of land by the village corporations to tribal governments without regard for dissenters’ rights.49 Alaska Native associations concerned with village government, such as the United Tribes of Alaska and the Alaska Native Coalition, lobbied for such legislation.
The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), its leadership dominated by the regional corporations, did not support the transfer of lands to tribal governments. Rather, it proposed extending the stock restrictions indefinitely, reserving the option for each corporation to permit stock alienation, subject to shareholder vote. In an effort to create a united front, AFN leaders and tribal advocates forged a compromise with tribal government leaders and included in their proposal an option to transfer land and assets to other Native entities (such as trusts or non-profit corporations) without the burden of dissenters’ rights.50
Congress did not approve the land transfer provision, but did agree to extend the stock restrictions and keep the corporations in Native hands, unless the corporations themselves opted to sell shares.51 Thus, with the so-called ‘1991’ amendments (passed in 1988), the Alaska Natives could at least be assured of continued control over the corporations. Other amendments to the corporate provisions of the ANCSA were less satisfactory. For example, the original legislation failed to provide for Alaska Natives born after December 1971. These ‘new Natives’ or so-called after-borns were not assigned shares of stock in the village or regional corporations and therefore had no legal ties to the land unless they inherited stock. Over the generations, the inherited stock would be divided and redivided, eventually worth very little. The amendments to the ANCSA passed in 1988 allowed each corporation to issue stock to the new Natives if that corporation so desired. Of course, if the corporation decided to issue new shares, this would dilute the value of existing shares. It is not surprising that the few regional corporations that voted to issue new shares were among the most financially sound and thus able to extend the sphere of shareholders.52 While it may seem a minor problem, the option to distribute shares to Natives born after December 1971 demonstrates the inadequacy of the ANCSA as legislation defining Alaska Native rights. Differences between corporations can result in disparate treatment of Native people.53 For all its complexity, the ANCSA remains a land settlement rather than the last word on the status of Alaska Natives.
Although the ANCSA extinguished aboriginal hunting and fishing rights, Congress urged the State of Alaska and the US Secretary of the Interior to protect the subsistence needs of Alaska’s indigenous peoples.54 The Alaska Natives became increasingly alarmed at the prospect of losing subsistence rights, especially since more and more people were moving to Alaska during and after construction of the oil pipeline, and the State of Alaska was doing little to adjust for the increased pressure on natural resources. In the late 1970s they lobbied both the state and federal governments for subsistence protection. Anticipating congressional action on the matter, Alaska adopted a subsistence law in 1978, providing a preference for customary and traditional use of fish and game. ‘Customary and traditional’ referred to historical uses of fish and animals for food, shelter, fuel, clothing, tools and transportation, implying a continuous dependence on the resources over time.
The federal government’s subsistence law came in the form of Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980. The ANILCA set aside public lands in Alaska for national parks, forests, refuges and wilderness preservation. The subsistence provisions of Title VIII recognized the priority of rural residents, both Native and non-Native, who depended on local resources. When the populations of fish and wildlife species reached levels that could not be sustained, sport and commercial harvests would be curtailed, while the subsistence users would be able to meet their needs. If the suspension of sport and/or commercial uses were not sufficient to sustain the species, then reduced subsistence harvests could be allocated among subsistence users, subject to three criteria: (1) customary and direct dependence on the species as the mainstay of livelihood, (2) local residency and (3) availability of alternative resources. Subsistence uses are defined in the ANILCA as ‘customary and traditional uses by rural Alaskans of wild fish and game for personal or family consumption, barter, or customary trade.’55
The state had one year after the passage of the ANILCA to enact and implement laws and regulations on subsistence; if the state did not act, then the federal government would assume management. The state did adopt the rural subsistence priority, but not without a great deal of controversy. For example, the state’s definition of a rural area as ‘a community or area of the state in which the noncommercial, customary, and traditional use of fish or game for personal or family consumption is a principal characteristic of the economy of the community or area’ came under fire from the Kenaitze Indians of the Kenai Peninsula. According to the state’s definition of rural, the Kenai communities did not qualify for subsistence priority. The Kenaitze filed suit, challenging the state’s definition, and a federal court ruled that population size, rather than the economic characteristics of a community, was a more appropriate definition of ‘rural.’ The court concluded that the State of Alaska was attempting ‘to take away what Congress has given, adopting a creative redefinition of the word rural, a redefinition whose transparent purpose is to protect commercial and sport fishing interests.’56
The Kenaitze case was only one sign of disagreement over subsistence. The next major challenge came from urban dwellers, including two Alaska Natives who lived in Anchorage. They objected to the geographical requirement, claiming that individual need rather than place of residence should determine subsistence preference. Since a large portion of the Alaska Native population live in non-urban areas, the rural subsistence priority benefited them. But what about urban Natives? The McDowell lawsuit pointed up the imperfect fit between a rural preference and a Native preference; neither Congress nor the State of Alaska was willing to adopt the latter option. In its decision, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the state subsistence statute unfairly discriminated against the urban population and violated Article VIII of the Alaska Constitution, which states that the fish and wildlife resources must be reserved for the common use of all Alaskans, that subsistence laws could not create an exclusive right or special privilege of fishery, and that state laws must apply to all persons similarly situated. The court decision against a rural subsistence priority threw the state out of compliance with the ANILCA.57 While the federal government still uses the rural criterion for subsistence hunting and fishing on federal lands, the state recognizes all Alaska residents as potential subsistence users.
The implications for Alaska Native rights are troubling. To assert their resource rights, Alaska Natives are pursuing a variety of strategies. These include (1) efforts to amend the state’s Constitution to provide for a rural subsistence priority; (2) closing Native corporation lands to prohibit trespass by non-shareholders; (3) contracting as tribal entities with federal subsistence managers; (4) expanding the tribal government’s role in regulating hunting and fishing; and (5) arguing for the inclusion of indigenous customs and traditions in both state and federal regulation.58 Currently several Native organizations, including the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, are asking the federal government to assume control of fishing regulation on major rivers in Alaska.59 At the time of this writing, navigable waters are subject to state control. In the autumn of 1993, the state closed subsistence fishing on the Yukon River and its tributaries because of a low run of chum salmon. Natives protested vigorously, fished for chum illegally and argued that the low numbers of salmon were caused by heavy commercial fishing off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula. The Alaska Natives argue that the federal take-over of fishing regulation is necessary to ensure subsistence rights promised in Title VIII of the ANILCA.60 In addition, the Alaska Natives will continue to press for an amendment to the state’s Constitution to allow a subsistence preference.
At stake in the subsistence battle are not only competing interests (commercial, recreational and subsistence users), but competing ideologies. Natives who define subsistence as essential to cultural survival invite the scorn of a non-Native who supplements the family diet with salmon and caribou. The urban dweller who charters a plane out to western Alaska and leaves fish parts lying around the river banks is seen as a disrespectful and dangerous invader by a Native villager. There is more to the controversy than who gets what. Western biologists seek to limit the harvest to ensure sustainable yield, while Native villagers may be more focused on preventing waste.61
Some advocates of Native rights maintain that the best solution is ultimately local control over resources. Indian tribes enjoy the exclusive right to hunt and fish on land and water reserved to them, while off-reservation rights are usually negotiated through treaties or congressional legislation. In Alaska, however, the status of Indian Country remains subject to dispute.
Self-determination, tribes and Indian Country
The debate over tribal status for Alaska Native villages involves more than legal niceties. Whether the villages have the right to determine their own membership, levy taxes, operate their own schools, regulate hunting and fishing, administer their own separate justice systems or adopt and enforce their own legal codes depends on the extent to which they are recognized as tribes. Of course, there are other options; one of the strongest local governments in Alaska is the North Slope Borough, effectively a Native government. This entity, a regional government formed in 1972, has the power to tax, to regulate energy exploration and development, to govern the school system and to have decision-making powers in fish and wildlife management.62 Another Native-controlled borough, the Northwest Arctic Borough, has exercised important powers of taxation and economic regulation. But Native dominance of these regional governments depends entirely on maintaining a majority population in the region. A tribal government, on the other hand, can limit membership and participation to Native people, even if they have left the village for employment in a larger city. In 1990, 41,380 or 48.3 per cent of all Alaska Natives lived in areas where Natives made up more than half the population, a decline from 54.5 per cent in 1980.63 Congress encouraged Alaska Native villages to establish municipalities through the ANCSA. Many villages have done so, but other Native communities oppose municipal status; municipalities are instruments of the State of Alaska and have no special government-to-government relationship with the United States.64 The State of Alaska, on the other hand, prefers to deal with municipalities rather than traditional tribal governments.65
The status of Alaska Natives is more a political than a legal question, but that is the nature of federal Indian law. Throughout history, the US policy shifts from assimilation to retribalization to termination have made themselves felt in Alaska, as outlined above. The most recent trend in federal Indian law is self-determination. During the 1960s and 1970s, Congress enacted laws that guaranteed civil rights to Native Americans both on and off reservations (the 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act) and demonstrated acceptance of tribal autonomy (the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act). The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 gave tribes the authority over decisions about child custody, or when to remove children from their families, decisions that had previously been made by state governments. Similarly, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 promise to protect traditional religious practices.66 Increasingly Congress has recognized the right of tribes to self-govern. Despite the ambiguities created by the ANCSA, it is clear that Alaska Natives are included as beneficiaries of the self-determination era. In October 1993, the federal government confirmed tribal status for Alaska Native villages through the publication of a list of federal recognized tribes. Approximately 250 Alaska Native villages were listed as ‘recognized and eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.’67
While the federal recognition of tribes in Alaska is an historic event, the existence of Indian Country has yet to be resolved. Several villages have transferred ownership of their lands from the village corporation created under the ANCSA to the tribal governments, hoping to establish it as Indian Country to be held in perpetuity by the tribe. Tribes have the power to prevent the taking of tribal lands without the tribe’s consent. Lands held by the ANCSA corporations are currently thought to be vulnerable to loss through procedures such as condemnation (the process of taking land for public use against the will of the owner) or seizure by creditors (in cases of non-payment of debts where land is used as collateral for loans). Establishment of tribal property could help to establish Indian Country, or the territory over which tribal governments have jurisdiction.68 Of course, it is not out of the question that the courts may some day rule that ANCSA corporate lands constitute Indian Country.69 As yet, the status of Indian Country in Alaska remains to be decided.
An important but largely unexplored area of tribal jurisdiction in Alaska is education. Until Alaska became a state in 1959, there was a dual system of education, with the federal government (Bureau of Indian Affairs) responsible for Alaska Native schools and the territorial legislature responsible for educating white children. After statehood, the federal government agreed to gradually merge state and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools into one system. In 1974, a lawsuit filed against the state on behalf of a 14-year-old Yupik student, Molly Hootch, for not providing local secondary schools in villages, led to dramatic changes. Due to the lack of secondary schools in rural Alaska, village students had to be sent to Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools in southeast Alaska or other western states. In the mid-1970s, as a result of the challenge brought on behalf of Molly Hootch, the state agreed to build secondary schools in the villages. Today there are approximately 120 small high schools in Alaska villages operated by regional and local boards. The state invested millions of dollars in these schools, and yet academic achievement among village students remains relatively low. This may be partly a consequence of the tension between the objectives of education for community use and education for success in Western culture. Some school districts have made an effort to introduce the study of Native languages and cultures into the classroom. In 1987-8, for example, a total of 7,781 Alaska Native students were enrolled in bilingual education programmes, the majority located in the Yupik and Inupiaq regions.70 A major obstacle to providing bilingual education is the shortage of Native speakers. According to one linguist, most Alaska Native languages (with perhaps the exception of Yupik) are spoken by few or none under the age of 40.71 It must also be mentioned that rural education remains dominated by non-Natives.72 Only 2.8 per cent of all teachers in the state are Alaska Native, and the percentage of Alaska Native school administrators is even lower.73
Currently six Alaska Native communities are applying for federal funds to operate their own schools. These would be tribal schools, separate from the state education system, governed and operated by the tribes themselves.74 Under current federal law, tribes can control their own schools.75 The major obstacle is the reluctance of the State of Alaska to transfer existing school facilities, since the state opposes tribal sovereignty in Alaska. Federal recognition of tribes in Alaska may force the state to abandon its opposition, however; in that case, tribally operated schools may become more common throughout the state.
Problems of alcohol abuse, suicide, unemployment and poverty among Alaska Natives are often traced to two sources: first, the severe social and psychological dislocation caused by rapid change in terms of population growth and billions of dollars in oil revenues and, second, the increased dependence of Native communities on outside factors (such as markets and governments) over which they have little control. Enhancing the capacity of local institutions to incorporate Native traditions and beliefs, it is argued, would mitigate the effects of rapid change and dependence. Yet the fact remains that Alaska Natives in the remote villages rely on the financial support of the state and federal governments. In western Alaska, for example, transfer income, or money and services provided by the state and federal governments, constituted 60 per cent of per capita personal income in 1989.76 Despite the fact that most Alaska Native villages lack running water systems or adequate waste disposal systems and have a high rate of hepatitis-A and other diseases, it was only in 1993 that substantial federal funding became available to improve wastewater treatment in rural Alaska.77 Finally, Congress has recently decided to fund research, prevention and diagnosis of foetal alcohol syndrome. Alaska has the highest rate of foetal alcohol syndrome in the country.78 Alcohol abuse, according to the Alaska Federation of Natives, ‘is undermining the ability of Alaska Natives to control their lives. It is the fuel that fires the cycle of violence and self-destruction.’79 The causes of, and solutions to, such pervasive and complex problems reach beyond the capability of federal dollars and politicians’ promises.
From the beginnings of Russian America to the present, Alaska Natives have experienced periods of rapid change, often with tragic results such as epidemics and culture loss. But there has also been a revitalization of Native traditions and a growing grass-roots movement to consolidate self-governance at the village level. Contemporary Alaska consists of contrasts between wealth and poverty, rural subsistence and urban professionalism, wilderness and resource development. These contrasts are also part of Alaska Native society. Alaska Natives own and operate some of the strongest corporations in the state. Cook Inlet Region Inc., Sealaska and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation generated 95 per cent of the total net resource revenues of $398 million for all the Alaska Native regional corporations from 1976 through 1991. Oil and gas leases as well as timber sales accounted for the three corporations’ revenues.80 Yet per capita income for Alaska Natives is less than half of the per capita income for whites in the state.81
Contrasts between Alaska Native cultures, state and federal policies, and regional economies is only part of the story. There are also deep ideological divisions between Alaskans, particularly among non-Natives, regarding the future prospects for Native societies. People who look at the material welfare of the Natives often point to the benefits of assimilation into the dominant culture: education, employment and a higher standard of living, as opposed to the subsistence lifestyle of a rural village. People who are concerned about the maintenance of a separate cultural identity in an age of television and electronic communication look to village self-government and local control. With regard to minority rights, those who emphasize the rights and responsibilities of the individual and healthy competition between different interests are less likely to support what they perceive as privileges belonging to Alaska Natives. Those who accept the premises of the federal-tribal relationship are more willing to consider the collective rights of tribes. Shifting policy on the part of the federal government and the absence of treaties with Alaska Natives certainly add to the ambiguity inherent in the current debate on Native rights.
Nevertheless, many Alaska Native villages are sweeping aside the ambiguity and establishing or strengthening their own institutions: tribal courts, tribal councils and schools. Through their own actions, they are contributing to the complex evolution of minority rights in Alaska. No doubt the state government will continue to oppose tribal sovereignty and Indian Country, but the federal government can exert substantial pressure on the state if it wishes. Here is the paradox of self-determination: dependence upon recognition.
[Alaskool Home] | dclm-gs1-107650000 |
London, United Kingdom - Almost a decade ago, the head of the UK's privacy watchdog voiced concerns about how advances in technology coupled with greater powers vested in the police, security services and other authorities to tackle issues such as terrorism and immigration risked undermining the liberties of British citizens.
"My anxiety is that we don't sleepwalk into a surveillance society where much more information is collected about people, accessible to far more people shared across many more boundaries, than British society would feel comfortable with," Richard Thomas, the then-information commissioner, told the Times newspaper in 2004.
Following revelations by Edward Snowden, the US whistleblower, about the volume of internet and telephone data being secretly compiled about them by state intelligence services, and shocking allegations about the activities of undercover police officers, even the least paranoid of Britons could now be forgiven for adopting the restless fidgeting and sideways glances of an inveterate conspiracy theorist.
"By what definition of a police state are we not already living in a police state?" wrote one correspondent to the Guardian newspaper, which broke details of both stories last weekend. "The fact that I hesitate to write my name under this email for fear of reprisal only confirms that self-censorship, the sign of living in fear under a totalitarian regime, is already starting to make itself felt."
Tempora exposed
According to papers leaked by Snowden, analysts at the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a security agency specialising in electronic eavesdropping, gained access to much of the world's internet and telephone traffic by tapping into fibre-optic cables running in and out of the country.
Listening Post - Edward Snowden - Shooting the messenger?
The secret project, codenamed Tempora, was launched in 2008 with the bold ambition of "Mastering the Internet", according to the title of one GCHQ document.
Civil liberties campaigners argue that GCHQ used the project to circumvent legal restrictions on their ability to spy on Britons by treating internet activity routed through servers abroad as external traffic, and therefore beyond the scope of UK law. In a confidential briefing to US counterparts at the NSA, a senior British official allegedly boasted of the country's "light oversight regime".
Coming just days after allegations that foreign leaders were spied on while attending the 2009 G20 summit in London, details about Tempora have also raised international concerns.
A 'Hollywood nightmare'
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Germany's justice minister, described the project as a "Hollywood nightmare" and wrote to the British government seeking clarity over its legality and whether any German citizens had been targeted.
Meanwhile, the undercover activities of London's Metropolitan Police are also under scrutiny after a former officer said he had been deployed to spy on the family of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager murdered in a racist attack in 1993, in an effort to find information to discredit the family's campaign for justice.
In other cases involving the same now-disbanded unit, officers infiltrated environmental and political groups using the identities of dead children, with some even fathering children by female activists during their years of working undercover.
Campaigners say recent stories have only confirmed Britain's place as one of the worst offenders internationally, when it comes to respecting its citizens' right to privacy.
Gus Hosein, executive director at campaign group Privacy International, told Al Jazeera the UK ranked poorly in the democratic world in terms of the amount of intrusion it allowed, describing the government as "addicted" to new surveillance powers and technologies.
"The UK's surveillance laws are amongst the most lax across the world," he said. "We knew that the laws were drafted with massive holes in them to permit mass surveillance, but we had been promised so many times that this surveillance was not taking place. We didn't believe them, and Edward Snowden's revelations have given us the proof that we so badly needed."
Addressing parliament after details of the extent of British internet surveillance were exposed, William Hague, the foreign secretary, defended the UK security agencies' secret activities as necessary to protect the country from terrorism and serious crime, and said that they acted within the law.
More surveillance?
But campaigners are concerned that Britons could be subjected to even greater levels of surveillance in the future. The latest leaks about GCHQ's activities came just weeks after the government abandoned efforts to pass a new communications data bill that would have enhanced the security services' abilities to legally gather more data on British citizens by requiring internet service providers to retain details about their customers' online activities.
Hosein said the degree of surveillance permitted by the proposed legislation, dubbed a "snooper's charter" by critics, was on "an unprecedented scale for a democratic nation".
Inside Story Americas - Snowden's great escape
Yet following the killing of a British soldier in London last month, supporters of the bill, including three former home secretaries from the opposition Labour Party, called for it to be revived, arguing that intelligence services needed greater powers to combat the threat of terrorism.
Emma Carr of Big Brother Watch told Al Jazeera that revelations about the scale of existing surveillance operations had rendered the political debate over the bill largely redundant.
"The whole point about having laws in place is that they are debated very heavily, for many years in some cases, to make sure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect privacy," she said. "If those laws are being circumvented, then what is the point of having them in the first place?"
David Murakami Wood, editor of the Surveillance and Society journal and co-editor of an official 2006 report on surveillance issues in the UK, also cited concerns about the country's extensive use of security cameras and predicted that drones could soon be deployed as spies in the skies.
"Britain is still a world leader in CCTV," Murakami Wood told Al Jazeera. "Once again, terrorism is the justification, but the use of drones against terrorist suspects seems rather limited: it seems more that these things will be used for crowd control, in other words, political policing."
Current levels of covert intelligence gathering in the UK and other western nations posed a threat to democratic accountability, he added.
"Essentially, and for a long time, [intelligence services] have been acting as rogue agencies beyond democratic control. There is very little evidence that much of what they do in secret, would not be better done in public. That's not to say that there can be no secrecy, but the current levels of secret government action are not conducive to democracy."
Hosein said he took heart from growing awareness of privacy issues in the UK, citing how public pressure had forced previous governments to abandon schemes to introduce ID cards and a DNA database, but he called for more openness about surveillance at government level.
"The UK is a democracy, it is not East Germany or North Korea. And a democracy under the rule of law is far better positioned to address these problems," he said. "But secrecy is certainly a common thread amongst these countries."
Follow Simon Hooper on Twitter: @HooperAJ
Source: Al Jazeera | dclm-gs1-107660000 |
Their testimonies will come the day before an appearance by Peter Goldsmith, Britain's former attorney-general, who dropped his legal objections to the war just days before the invasion.
But much of the week's focus will be on Friday when Tony Blair, the former prime minister, is due to give evidence.
'Hunger for blood'
Jean Seaton, the associate editor of Prospect magazine and the author of an article analysing the inquiry, said the inquiry is getting closer to determining the way in which the government operated in the lead-up to the invasion.
in depth
Iraq inquiry - another whitewash?
Dutch inquiry finds Iraq war illegal
"There is a huge hunger to somehow see blood on the floor. People want the humiliation [of former leaders]," she told Al Jazeera.
"I don't think [the public] knew the detail of how it was that people came to their decisions and how they made their dispositions.
"Seeing Elisabeth Wilmshurst - who is one of the people who acted in a way that is quite controversial - seeing those people and how they arrived at what are always quite difficult judgments will be a very profound backdrop to seeing Tony Blair."
The inquiry is also expected to hear testimony from Gordon Brown, Britain's current prime minister, John Chilcot, chairman of the inquiry, has said.
Party politics
Brown's scheduled appearance is likely to take place before parliamentary elections, raising concerns that the inquiry could become caught up in party politics.
An initial decision to hear from Brown after the elections had drawn criticism from his opponents, who said the prime minister was trying to avoid drawing attention to his role in the war before voters headed to the polls.
Brown served as finance minister as Tony Blair decided to include UK troops in the US-led invasion of Iraq.
The conflict split British public opinion and spawned a massive protest movement, and much remaining support for the campaign withered away as Iraq descended into chaos. | dclm-gs1-107670000 |
Song Premiere: Direct Hit!, “Buried Alive”
August 20, 2013 by Cassie Whitt
Song Premiere: Direct Hit!, “Buried Alive”
Direct Hit! delve into the mind of a serial killer and go all Stockholm Syndrome with him and his victim in "Buried Alive" from their upcoming album Brainless God
"This is the last part of the first 'act' in the story we wrote," vocalist/guitarist Nick Woods tells AP. "All this fucked up shit has happened to the main character, and she [just says], 'Fuck it, who cares?' because the world's gonna be dust soon anyway. It's sort of a forgiveness thing."
If you think that and carcasses in suburban basements are intense, just wait until you see the video, which finds the main character "watching the sun set for the last time with the serial killer who abducted her, another character in the story who's having sort of an existential crisis of his own," says Woods. "So, it's part of a love story, I guess, in a really fucked up and backhanded way."
Stream "Buried Alive" below:
Pre-order Brainless God
song premiere direct hit | dclm-gs1-107680000 |
The National Catholic Review
Whether Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for the presidency or not, his serious-contender candidacy has sparked an explosion of empirical research on Mormons in the United States. In due course, this research should serve not only to enhance public respect for the Mormon minority, but also to give Catholics some clues about how to strengthen their own faith community.
In a report issued in January 2012, “Mormons in America: Certain of Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society,” a research team representing the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that most Mormons are regular churchgoers and that more Mormons (73 percent) believe that “working to help the poor” is “essential to being a good Mormon” than believe the same thing about “not drinking coffee and tea” (49 percent).
According to a new study previewed on March 15 by an expert panel convened at Pew’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice what they preach about helping the needy. Led by Ram A. Cnaan, a renowned Israeli-born social-work scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, the study concludes that churchgoing Mormons “are the most pro-social members of American society.”
On average, Mormons dedicate nine times as many hours per month (nearly 36 hours) to volunteer activities than other Americans do. The comparison stands up even after one subtracts from the Mormon totals the work of young, full-time Mormon missionaries.
Mormons reliably tithe to their churches and also give about $1,200 annually “to social causes outside the church.” Even Mormons who have relatively low household incomes both tithe fully and give more of their income to assist non-Mormons in need than other Americans do.
What is behind these differences? At the Pew panel, David E. Campbell, a University of Notre Dame political scientist who is a Mormon, quipped that while Mormons are even more “hierarchical” than Catholics, hierarchy is definitely not the answer. Nor, he said, does the fidelity of individual Mormons to particular Mormon religious tenets explain the differences.
Rather, research suggests the secret to filling church coffers and packing the pews while simultaneously stimulating robust ministries that benefit needy nonmembers is what a religion does to induce intrafaith friendships, transcend Sunday-only ties and foster widespread participation in faith-motivated, civic good works for people in need.
Cnaan’s surveys were administered to Mormon congregants in four different regions of the country after their usual three-hour worship services, which are typically followed by many members and their families intentionally socializing together.
Let’s face it, in too many Catholic parishes, the minority of self-identified Catholics who attend Sunday Mass regularly expect it to take not more than an hour, punctuated by a contrived communal “sign of peace” wave or handshake and followed by a post-Communion dash to the parking lot.
By contrast, last month I attended standing-room-only evening Purim services (complete with costumes, small children running in the aisles and raucous noise at every mention of Haman) at an Ortho-dox synagogue in New Orleans. I was joined by a small group of Catholic undergraduates who were on an interfaith, service-learning trip.
As one Catholic student put it, hearing the all-Hebrew singing-reading of the Book of Esther took well over an hour but was “a blast,” as was the communal after-party that included eating, drinking, card-playing—and collecting donations for the poor.
Catholic bishops should pay as much attention to how much time churchgoers spend together at or after Sunday Mass as they have recently paid to which words get used (consubstantial!) during nearly empty worship services. The bishops should continue to promote annual donations to wonderful Catholic nonprofit organizations like Catholic Charities, which also attract thousands of Catholic community-serving volunteers. They and all Catholics should also strive to make our churches places where ever more Catholics come to worship, socialize and serve neighbors in need.
Bill Taylor | 4/4/2012 - 1:00am
I come from a strong LDS (Mormon) background and have been around Mormons all of my life. Mormon churches are small, usually around 150 families, where everyone knows everyone. Generous Mormon giving is not really voluntary. The church asks its members to contribute up to 12% of its income before taxes, with a strong sanction directed at those who don't, with eternal consequences. A lot of this centers around a "recommend" allowing entrance into a temple, which will not be given if the member had not been paying tithing or contributing to other financial obligations in his "ward." Once a year, every faithful Mormon, down to the kid receiving an allowance, has to stand before his bishop and make a financial accounting.
A generation ago, Mormons did not help people outside their church, but this has changed. It is interesting to see that, when large disasters occur, Mormons have funneled their help through Catholic Charities, or at least this is what I have been told.
I read a lot of material meant only for Mormons and have concluded that this is a works-oriented church to the nth. degree. The members make up lists of things they have to do if they are going to "qualify" for the Celestial Kingdom, the highest of three heavens in the Mormon faith, which is a path toward godhood. Helping the poor is one of them, along with keeping a clean house.
Catholics would like to emulate the Mormons, but the Mormons believe in revelation given to the different members of their Melchizedek Priesthood: From the President of the church down to the father of a family. This belief in revelation gives Mormon authorities clout a Catholic bishop or priest can only dream of.
This means that a Mormon bishop can assign one of his ward members to a sensitive ministry. The man or woman cannot say no, because the assignment came by revelation. If the person does say no, the day of reckoning will come when it comes time to ask for a temple recommend. Whew. I can only ask for volunteers and most people look away.
Richard Kingston | 4/2/2012 - 11:26am
I was a Mormon for 30 years - technically I still am. This appears to me to be a very fair article regarding the Mormon church. We should never decry a religion for their acts of service even when we may have more fundamental issues with their belief system.
Service in the Mormon church is emphasised andencouraged at all levels and age groups. However, the emphasis is definitely on service within the Mormon church to other church members, or as a means to proselyting when directed to non-members. In this latter scenario it is a means of showing that the church is a community player and influential. The church is well organized and therefore this is a sign that it is divinely instigated. When performing service to non-members, a bright yellow vest with "Mormon Helping Hands" is often worn.
When a person who is not a member of the church moves in to your area, members ares encouraged to help them move in, take a casserole to them, invite them to church. The emphasis is on bringing the person or family "unto the LDS church", not primarily "unto Christ", though the two in a Mormon's mind are often the same.
I readily accept that my comments are sweeping generalities and that there are LDS members who do these acts of servide for the love of Christ - the LDS church is just the vehicle that they bring the people to Christ. Now, I am sure Catholics belive the same - that the Catholic Church brings people to Christ, but I would maintain that the presence and nearness of Christ in their actions is more pronounced.
When looking at what service the LDS prople do, do the statistics in the article include:
1. Teaching in church on: a Sunday; weekday seminary for the 12 to 18 year old children.
2. Home and Visiting Teaching: a visit a month to all families and women who are members.
3. Missionaries - 18 month or 2 years proselyting.
4. Temple work - service on behalf of the dead.
5. Cleaning the chapel.
All of the above are inward focused on the Mormon community or its proselyting effort on gaining new members. I agree that the greatest service is to bring people to Christ.
Otward focused actions may be less - though still praise worthy:
1. Mormon helping hands.
2. Disaster relief.
3. Prison ministry (though often only to LDS members).
So much to learn from the organization of the Mormon church. Does organization at this level cause problems with keeping the motive pure. I once saw a film on the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, where it protrayed Mother as rejecting the business approach to the work of the Sisters of Mercy.
Just my Two Cents worth. Hopefully someone can pick up on the good parts and develop them
Graham Ambrose | 4/2/2012 - 2:27am
When individuals, regaredless of formal ecclesiastical standing, are called and authorized to fulfill church positions, then a sense of community naturally follows. As you may know, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, lay members in a local church are called to serve by the Bishop or Branch President in a wide range of activities and organizations, including:
- Priesthood quorums (from 12 years of age on up)
- Relief Society (women's organization)
- Sunday School (adults, young men and young women)
- Primary (a Sunday School for children 11 and under)
- Scouting (Cubs, Scouts, Varsity and Explorer)
- Young Women (12 to 18)
- Young Men (12 to 18)
- Missionary service (for both young and old)
- Home Teaching (priesthood holders visiting members)
- Visiting Teaching (women visiting women members)
- Temple service
Since the Sabbath is when most members see each other as a group during a local church's three-hour block, most members can't help but stick around to talk to each other about various issues naturally arising out of their callings.
C Walter Mattingly | 3/31/2012 - 3:10pm
A few comments.
These young interfaith students who found the singing in Hebrew of the Book of Esther "a blast," which surely they understood scarcely a word of. Might they not appreciate some of the old Latin hymns which they might understand a word or two of? If they can appreciate ancient Hebrew traditions, perhaps they might not be as opposed to ancient Church traditions as some here anticipate.
Also that community of dynamic activity sounds a lot like my pre-Vatican II parochial and high school days, when the churchyard/schoolyard was filled with CYO sports teams competing with one another, skinned knees, and hot dogs, popcorn, etc being hawked by the Dad's club. Still is like that in some parishes, but is by no means as common as it was in the late 50's/early 60's. How best to regain that sense of communal involvement, which existed widely in my city Fr just visited before but declined so rapidly after Vatican II (not necessarily causally related)?
Bill Parks | 3/30/2012 - 11:19pm
CLAIRE SPELTA MRS | 3/30/2012 - 12:29pm
I think this article is right on point. One step further, I think we need to consider the families that attend or want to attend Sunday Mass. At our Parish, preschool classes are offered during the Mass. What an excellent idea that benifits not only the child but the parents as well. Rahter than sitting through a Liturgy and a Homily geared towards adults, my daughter attends a preschool class and is fully engaged in the daily lesson. It also allows my wife and I the opportunity to fully participate in the Eucharist celebration without having to watch over a fussy child during the Mass. I understand this may be offered at other churches but why not offer this service at all churches? Why not establish a national program that is well thought-out and administered. The future of our Church is with our children. Shouldn't we pay more attention to them?
This is just a small example. The key issue, as stated in the article, is to strive to make our churches places where even more Catholics (and those who want to become Catholic) come to worship. To create a Holy Catholic community. A community where families gather for both religious and non religious activities (i.e. sports leagues, teenage dances, etc.) all under the fellowship of the Church.
Mike Evans | 3/30/2012 - 11:12am
First, Mormons are mostly engaged in charitable activities for their own membership, not in community at large activities although some exceptions are noted. But more importantly, the sense of community, fellowship and family that exists in the competing protestant churches, not just the mega-churches, should challenge Catholics. We tend to live in spiritual 'bubbles' and are mindful mostly of personal piety, not communal life. And we are grossly understaffed and undersupported in our parish life. Typically we have one over-burdened parish priest, a part-time secretary and mostly unpaid volunteers to help in every other ministry, liturgical and social. Contrast this with the numerous associate pastors in most Protestant churches who take responsibility for programs and outreach. And they really spend time and money on music, preparation and activities connected with each service. You get what you pay for.
Kent Skor | 3/30/2012 - 10:25am
I live in Atlanta and am an active member of my local parish. We have a good attendance on Sunday but that is the only time most parishioners visit the church.
I am also a member of the Health and Fitness Club at the local Baptist mega-church. Anyone can join. They have yoga and spin classes, workout rooms, indoor track and a pool. I seem to talk more to members of my parish at the club (many are members) than I do at church. On the way home from working out, I pass by my darkened parish (including the locked school gym and empty parking lot).
I mentioned this to our pastor at a Liturgy Committee meeting when we discussed how to “compete” with the mega-churches. He said that he was not in the business of "offering Stairmasters or coffee-bars" (they have one of these, too). True, but he is in the business of creating a community – one feature that is sorely lacking. (Plus, he doesn’t realize the revenue generated by the health club that the Baptists plow into their other programs.)
Recently by John J. Dilulio, Jr.
Broken Promises? (August 13, 2012)
Recently in Columns | dclm-gs1-107690000 |
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 10:16:25 +0100
Subject: Re: Half Past the Hour
Charles M. Rosenberg, University of Notre Dame said:
I was born and raised in and near Chicago and went to college
near Philadelphia. To my ear three-thirty is the norm, though
I have heard half-past three as well.
Charles M. Rosenberg, University of Notre Dame
DMLance wrote:
As a former Texan (Nay -- once a Texan always a Texan), I assure you that
'half past' in various forms is not uncommon. I have echoes of my father
using it; he was born in sw Ark and lived in "Indian Territory" south of
Okie City from age 2 to age 15. And I use it regularly, even in Missouri,
with no indication that anyone thinks it's strange.
sharp, as when answering a query like "When does your train leave, sir?"
"[at] three thirty".
I would use hafl past three almost exclusively, and nothing else.
This is not to say that the expressions cited on this list aren't usable or
correct. Of course they are, but I don't use them.
Dennis Baron debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu writes:
`A quarter of' is `a quarter to/till' ie, `before,' the hour. `A quarter
of 7' is not `1 3/4,' as one misguided usage "expert" once insisted. Nor
is `a quarter to' `15 minutes toward the next hour,' as another one
This must be an Americanism. "Quarter to three" is the same as 1445 (or
0245) hrs. When in doubt, I always try to use the British forms. This may
be due to the fact that I'm not a native speaker (I hope that doesn't mean
I can't hvae opinions on ADS-L. Also, it may stem from the fact that I live
east of the Atlantic :-)
Dennis Baron continues:
The one I've always had trouble remembering was `half seven' -- is
that 6:30 or 7:30 (or is it really 3.5 after all)?
Dennis (that's d/E/nnis)
That's invariably 6:30 - I'll come to that (see below).
Robert Kelly kelly[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]levy.bard.edu wrote:
thirty was radio talk, we said half-past.
Good to see that at least some USians use "half past" ;-)
Some Britons I know pronounce
three thirty as "half four."
You're right, Robert - I've also heard this when I was traveling in
Scotland in 1987:
ScottishAccent on
- What's the time? /Wots D[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] tEim/ - It's half six [5.30] /hA:f siks/
ScottishAccent off
It sounded really nice to my ears, because this is the norm in Swedish,
Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, German and Finnish, and I thought English
didn't have that form. For example:
Swedish "halv tre", meaning 'half three', i e two-thirty. It's never used
in the sense 'three-thirty'. Similar variants in the other langs, except
Finnish, where it's translated: puoli kolme 'half three'.
Thus, "half three" and "half past three" are completely different
expressions, the difference between them being one hour.
Jean Le Du wrote:
As a complete outsider - being a Frenchman - I HAVE
discovered Twenty after three and twenty of three
in Stephen King's novel.What is the actual US norm?
Do twenty past and twenty to sound English to an American
Jean Le Du, Un. of Brest, France
At least, "twenty to" and "twenty of" sound awfully unBritish to me, i e I
assume they're transatlantic (i e USian) usages, until proven otherwise.
//Hans Vappula, Gothenburg Universities' Compunting Centre, G|teborg, Sweden
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Title: For What You Dream Of
Author: nostalgia
Rated: PG (Slight implied slashiness)
Summary: Obi-Wan, Anakin and the balance of the Force.
Disclaim: George Lucas owns the Jedi and their side of the schism. Planet name theived from the sublime Paul Magrs. One random Oscar Wilde quote.
Etc: This is the longest thing I have ever crafted. By quite a lot. kbk is my funky beta. Written for fun, finally finished for the Obi- Ani 'Angsty Anakin in August' challenge. I think I've finally managed to purge medieval history from my system. *fingers crossed*
_Hi, I'm standing in for italics_
_his earliest memory is of being held underwater_
He has been to Hyspero many times since. It is, as they say, beautiful. The sunlight glistens on the lakes, the vast banks of solar cells along the equator shimmer like seas themselves, the night side glows with the lights of cities that never sleep. It is a world where life itself is art.
_closing his lips against liquid death, eyes wide and stinging_
The Jedi are not welcome on Hyspero. For the planet and its people have their own ways of doing things, their own ways of listening to the Universe. They build sculptures of glass and steel to venerate it, they sing to it in the streets. The disciplined ascetism of the Jedi insults the Force of the Hysperons. They are, quite simply, heretics.
_the air boiling in his lungs, blood churning as it's oxygen disappears_
On Hyspero the Jedi have to flaunt their difference. The lightsabers on their belts become a warning rather than a utility. The cold cylinders reinforce the idea that the Jedi are dangerous. Sometimes this fear can be useful.
_carbon dioxide building up to attack the body that gave birth to it_
* * * * *
"I'd like you to go to Hyspero."
"Why?" The question comes out harshly, the tone bordering on confrontational. The thin, quiet aide in the corner of the room raises an eyebrow and leans forward slightly. Obi-Wan mentally berates his lack of self-control. He keeps his gaze level, but at the back of his mind he wishes that the thick carpet were just a little softer, to allow him to sink silently into its depths.
The Chancellor smiles slightly. "Kenobi is a Hysperon name, isn't it? I thought they might find you a little more...acceptable than most. One of their own."
"I am Jedi, Chancellor. Not Hysperon."
"Of course." The smile again. Unsettling, isn't it? "But every little helps in these situations. There is an ambassador from Alderaan leaving the planet in two days. The Republic wishes to provide an escort for him."
"The Republic security forces are perfectly-"
"The Seperatists are strong on Hyspero, Master Kenobi. The ambassador has survived two assassination attempts there. His bodyguards have not. He would feel safer under the protection of the Jedi." Palpatine lowers his voice significantly. "He has made a specific request."
"Then he shall have our protection. I'll leave as soon as I can arrange alternative care for my apprentice." Obi-Wan suppresses a shudder as a chill starts to snake its way down his back. He wonders if the air-conditioning needs repairs.
"Why not take young Anakin with you? I'm sure he'd be very interested to see your home planet. You must have a lot of fond memories." He smiles.
Obi-Wan freezes, just for a fraction of a moment. _He knows. He must know. He has access to the archives, he..._"Yes, Chancellor."
He bows low, forcing his eyes downward. Membership of the Jedi Order demands that he trust this man implicitly, trust all the Chancellors of the Republic. They would not hold their power if it were not the will of the Force, and a Jedi must respect that will. Even if they do not always respect those it chooses.
* * * * *
Halfway up the building, on the northern side, there is a garden. This in itself is not exceptional, the garden is one of many crowded along the terraces of the Jedi Temple. This one juts out from the structure, daring gravity to blink first. On two sides the garden ends at a wall and a rail, enough to stop you falling, not enough to prevent a jump. The other two sides are cloister. The plants grow wherever the architecture allows and a few places where it doesn't.
The centre of this improbable courtyard is the purpose behind the overhang - a shining floor of glass, seemingly to wide and too thin for such a height.
Anakin, nineteen and brazen with it, stands in the centre.
Anakin's earliest memory is of sand in a cup of milk. Sharp little remnants of rock floating in the liquid, coating his tongue and scraping the inside of his throat.
Glass is just heated sand, he tells himself.
"I'm not going out there." Fenri, who runs faster and has a longer braid, looks at Anakin with a mixture of incredulity and trepidation. She is scared of heights despite her training, and more to the point she has told Anakin about this on numerous occasions.
"It's not going to break. Look." He jumps up and down a few times. Fenri winces slightly. Anakin grins, suddenly sly. "Well, if you're scared..."
She glares at him. "I'm not!" Her lightsaber is in her hand in an instant, her feet moving purposefully across the glass. She doesn't look down.
Lightsabers ignite, green and violet. "Just remember," she tells him as they circle each other, "that there is no shame in losing to me. I've got two years plus early childhood on you. Your victory is measured in how long you can hold me off."
Anakin nods. "So what's your victory measured on?"
"How quickly I can-" Anakin almost isn't fast enought to stop her winning immediately. Almost. He parries the blow with millimetres to spare, stumbling back slightly.
Fenri jumps over his first attack, ducks under the second. Anakin manages to maintain the stalemate longer than she had expected.
He tries to work out where his advantage lies. Not in agility, speed only barely. She is slightly more predictable in her movements. He is taller. She is scared of heights.
He drops to the ground, rolling to avoid her blade. Fenri keeps her eyes on her opponent, closes her mind to him when he projects a sensation of falling. Anakin realises that this isn't going to work. He pushes himself up, he needs to take back the advantage of height. He leaps, somersaulting over her head.
His foot slips as it makes contact with the glass. He feels his centre of gravity tip backwards, his feet leave the ground and the air leaves his lungs at the impact. He looks up to see Fenri's blade at his throat. His own lightsaber is gone, fallen from his grip as he tumbled.
"Very good, Skywalker." She switches off her lightsaber and returns it to her belt. "Do you know what you did wrong?"
"I fell." He picks himself up, cataloguing each of the new pains he has just discovered.
"You underestimated her." The padawans turn guiltily as Obi-Wan emerges from the cloisters. "Well done, Padawan Modiki, that was an impressive victory."
Fenri bows and mumbles her thanks, blushing slightly.
"If you'll excuse us, Fenri, I must speak with Anakin."
He watches as the girl scurries off. Back to her books, probably, thinks Obi-Wan. Apparently this is what most Padawans do with their time, instead of foraging for parts to build yet another slightly pointless machine. "She doesn't like me," he comments.
"She thinks you're mean." Obi-Wan looks surprised. His skin flushes and he stares down at the distant streets of Coruscant.
Don't you worry about falling?" he asks.
"If it wasn't safe it wouldn't be here, Master." Anakin gazes past his own feet and through the glass. "Everyone's afraid of it. I don't think I've ever seen anyone walk on it that didn't have to."
"I'm here."
"You're not scared of anything." Anakin's voice holds such conviction, and Obi-Wan has to hold back the reflexive laugh at the statement.
"I don't like water," he says finally.
"You taught me to swim."
"I had to. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to lose your Apprentice? I'd never live it down."
Anakin blinks. "You're teasing me again!" He grins as Obi-Wan gives in to the smile trying to form on his own mouth.
* * * * *
They leave mere hours later - the Jedi are renowned for travelling light. A space-scarred red transport rises slowly above the Coruscant skyline, solid and nondescript. It carries a crew of twenty, a large cargo of machine parts, a small, carefully hidden quantity of semi- contraband tropical plants, and two slightly tired Jedi.
Obi-Wan shrugs his robe from his shoulders and produces, from somewhere, a thick, leather-bound book. He hands it to Anakin.
The teenager frowns as he takes it, "What is it?"
Obi-Wan raises his eyebrows and Anakin looks down at the object in his own hands. He squints to read the faded black lettering, "A Short History of Hyspero." He opens the book carefully and flicks through thin, rustling pages.
"Which I expect you to have read by morning, Padawan."
"Master..." he begins, but Obi-Wan raises a hand to silence him.
"A Jedi is always prepared, Anakin. What if you were unwittingly to break a cultural taboo and cause some sort of incident? Again."
Anakin flinches, ever so slighty. "You know that was an accident, Master. How was I to know that-"
"Well, this time you _will_ know." He smiles wickedly and turns towards the door.
"Aren't you going to help me?" Anakin looks confused. The book is suddenly a little heavier, the thin pages a little more numerous.
Obi-Wan doesn't turn around, calls over his shoulder; "I'm going to bed."
Hearing Anakin follow him, Obi-Wan stops at the doorway, spins round to face Anakin so suddenly that his apprentice almost stumbles into him.
"No." He stretches his arms out to block the entrance.
"I want to."
"Goodnight, _Padawan_".
* * * * *
"I like it here."
"Why?" They are in the streets, where they are unwanted and where they have no real reason to be. The closest Obi-Wan can find to reason is that Anakin is young and restless and doesn't want to spend their only free afternoon in a palace. "Palaces are boring," he'd complained. So here they are.
"There's no sand." Anakin grins, because in this hostile city he is in his element. He fits in best, Obi-Wan notes yet again, in places where he can never hope to never fit in. It's the strange mix of infamy and anonimity, being unusual makes the boy feel acceptable.
"I expect you to pick up a little more about this planet than the lack of sand, Padawan. Looks around you. Learn."
Anakin blinks at him. "Can't we just have fun? We have nothing better to do." Which isn't true, he knows, but he says it anyway. Obi-Wan had been becoming as claustrophobic as his Apprentice in the palace.
"Anakin if you were a little less worried about 'fun' and more concerned with..." He tails off.
Anakin sees his Master staring up at a red and yellow sign above the entrance to a canvas tent: _Fortunes Told_. "You have _got_ to be kidding..."
Obi-Wan smiles at him. "Well, I have nothing better to do. It might be fun."
"Never be closed to local cultures Anakin. I won't be long." He produces some coins and hands them to Anakin. "Why don't you have a wander round, hmm? See what you can find."
"Oh, and Anakin?"
"Yes, Master?"
"Don't break anything."
The boy grins, "Yes, Master."
* * * * *
The fortune teller's tent is dark and cool. It smells of spices and lingering smoke. Obi-Wan finds it quaint. He smiles a little, but he wonders if this is a mistake. At best, the mystic can tell him a few stories and take his money, at worst he lends credence to a heresy. He realises that he is nervous.
He jumps at the sound. The reaction makes the old woman smile as she pulls the tent-flap closed. She shambles over to the pile of cushions at one side of the tent, half-sits, half-collapses onto them.
She gestures for him to sit, and he sinks onto the threadbare carpet crossing his legs under him.
"Eretychi. It's my name. Now tell me yours, boy." From somewhere in her layers of clothing she produces a pipe and lights it. She draws on it, breathes in deeply, then stares at him through a cloud of exhaled smoke.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi." He looks up as the smoke rises to mingle among the ribbons and feathers hanging from the ceiling of the tent. Very ethnic, he thinks, very traditional. The old bat probably lives in a high-rise in the suburbs. Does this all for the tourists.
"Your boy," she nods her head to one side to indicate the doorway, "He's got that Force of yours dripping off him."
"Yes." He is perfectly calm, now that he knows this all about illusion. Anakin is a Jedi, and this woman hasn't shown any magical insight.
"Frightening, isn't it?"
The skin on his back begins to chill as the tiny hairs along it lift from his skin. His heart beats slightly, almost imperceptibly faster. He forces the breath from his lungs. "The Force isn't frightening, Mother," he uses the honorific in the lightly condescending fashion of the young, "It never causes harm to any lifeform. It is benevolent."
She fixes him with a steady gaze, still smoking on her ridiculous pipe. "Is that what they teach you in that temple of yours?"
"Yes." Cold, almost aloof.
"Then may the gods protect us. You all running around the galaxy with your fancy laser swords and your silly haircuts and that's what you think you're serving. There's no hope for any of us, is there?"
* * * * *
Meanwhile, in the air and in the sunlight, Anakin stands on the corner of the street, trying to make up his mind. The force is indeed dripping off him. It gathers in clumps and bundles, disperses into waves and swirls. Today it is green, with shades of violet. But Anakin does not know this, because this is not the way the Jedi think that the Force should be.
He looks up at the towers and the domes. The people of Hyspero have made their world beautiful by viewing every object as a work of art. The buildings are not simply shelters from the elements, they are poetry in stone and glass and metal and plastic. Wooden spires climb from concrete, copper mates with transparency. Hyspero is a popular destination for tourists.
Anakin is also, in his own way, a tourist. He decides that he wants to see some art.
* * * *
_There was a time, so long ago now, when wars were fought on Hyspero. 'Religious conflict', said the star charts of a thousand worlds, and Hyspero was carefully and studiously avoided. Trade routes were moved and tourism became a footnote in history. There was espionage and there was intrigue, but nothing could get better until the worst was gone. _
_Hyspero was a pariah by this time anyway, the worlds around it sought the protection offered by Jedi Order, which was newly-formed and stonger than the strange, stubborn faith of the Hysperons. The Jedi had said that the Force could not be vicious and could not be sensuous. Schism had arisen and divided._
_So the Hysperons fought alone, amongst themselves. First one side then the other triumphed with the destruction of cities and continents. "It's Hysperic," said the people of far-off stars when the wanted to suggest chaos._
_Towards the end of the wars, the Jedi turned up, but no one these days is entirely sure what happened next._
* * * * *
Obi-Wan is not weak-minded, or so he likes to think. He is not impressionable. He is not susceptible to suggestion. He is Jedi.
He stares at the old fortune teller, her papery skin and her smoking pipe. He remains, he tells himself, in control. "I shouldn't be here," he says, and considers standing up.
"But you are." The woman looks amused but her tone is not quite disinterested and he knows that she is intrigued.
Obi-Wan nods, slowly, "Yes, I am." He laspes into silence for a few moments. Smoke swirls past his eyes as he unconciously bites his bottom lip. He stares at the edge of his own sleeve, at the point where skin meets cotton.
"I have...dreams," he says finally.
* * * * *
Anakin finds his art, as one does on Hyspero, everywhere. He follows elaborate plazas and exotic streets, staring at anything and everything. He runs his fingers over shining surfaces and widens his eyes to take in all the colours. He wanders, not quite realising how far he has come from the street market where he left his Master. When he sees how far the sun has moved across the sky, he shrugs off the worry and starts slowly back the way he came. Everything will be fine, he tells himself and breathes in the hot dry air of the city.
He meanders, enjoying himself. He wishes he could do things like this more often. He passes back along a row of shops, bright canopies stretching out over the cobblestone street. He sees a stall selling small smooth fragments of Hyspero. A round, grey stone sits among the blues and the reds, calling to him with its simplicity.
He lifts it from the shaky table, tilts it round a dozen angles to watch the light skitter across its dull surface. It fascinates him. The light rushes over it, pulling the stone from pitch black to brilliant white and back again. He wonders at the sense of unity.
"How much is this?" He cradles the stone protectively in his palm, the fingers of his left hand running over the coins in his pocket. He wants this.
He can have it, because the price the trader asks is lower than the value of the currency in his pocket. For once, Anakin doesn't have to be denied beautiful things. He slips the polished stone into his robes, feeling its weight pressing against him. Possession is forbidden, but this is not really possession, is it? It conducts the heat from his body through the fabric of his clothing, it adds sensation to his life.
He thinks of Obi-Wan and of firm hands against his own skin. He closes his eyes for a moment, the illusion shattering as he breathes in entirely the wrong scent. His eyelids flutter open again, he feels slightly embarrassed.
He moves on a few stalls, to where a man is disembowelling fish. The smell of decay is overwhelming this close to, but Anakin has never minded the scent. Fish, after all, live in the ocean, and when you are near the ocean you are far away from the desert. But for the moment, he isn't hungry and he moves to turn away from the stall. But as his feet begin to move his eye catches the bright and badly- spelled sign above his head; _Aurim Kenobi Qualti Fishmungers_. He stops at this at reads the words again. He blinks once or twice. Finally he drops his gaze to the man gutting fish and asks him, "Is your name Kenobi?"
The older man looks from Anakin's eyes to the lightsaber and back again. "Why? What do you want?" Already the man is beginning to pack up his stall.
Anakin spreads his hands in the galactically-recognised gesture of the non-confrontational. "Nothing, I'm just...that's my Master's name. Is it Hysperon?"
"A Hysperon Jedi?" The fishmonger continues filling crates as he looks sceptically at the teenager before him. "I don't think that's very likely. We don't-"
"Like the Jedi."
"Well, you could put it like that, if you felt like it. Wouldn't be too far off."
"But the name, it's Hysperon?" Anakin feels himself getting irritable. He tries the meditative techniques Obi-Wan has taught him.
"Yes." The man has stopped packing up now, evidently convinced that the Jedi won't cause any trouble. Not the physical kind, anyway. The boy just wants some information. Best just to give it to him until he goes away.
"What about Obi-Wan? Is that a Hyspero name?"
"Never heard it my quite considerable life."
"Well then," says Anakin carefully, tension barely hidden in his voice, "Is there anyone who would have heard of it?"
The fishmonger looks at the boy, steadily. He raises his arm and points to a doorway further along the street. "Constantine."
"I'm very grateful for your help," lies Anakin. He turns from the man and starts towards the mysterious doorway. After two steps he pauses, looks back. "May the Force be with you," he says, and smiles to himself.
* * * * *
The woman, the fortune teller, the mystic, the heretic...hold Obi- Wans hand in hers, palm facing upwards.
"Is this really necessary?" he asks, his voice a little too high.
She looks up into his eyes. "Do you want answers?"
"Then you'll have to trust me, won't you?" She grins, toothlessly. Obi-Wan wonders what he is scared of. "You Jedi," she continues, "Always so hesitant, always so orthodox about everything."
"Have you met many of us?" He finds that he is intrigued despite his misgivings.
The old woman looks back at his palm. "Just you and your boy."
"Then how do you know what we're like?"
She doesn't answer. "This is the bit where you give me money and I tell you that you're going to settle down with a nice young woman and have three beautiful children."
Obi-Wan rolls his eyes and reaches his free hand into his pocket. He produces the correct amount of the correct currency - a Jedi is always prepared. He places it on the floor next to the fortune teller. She nods approvingly. "Good boy."
"The dreams," he prompts.
"I thought you lot were supposed to be patient?"
He sighs and lets her examine the lines on his hand. He shifts uncomfortably.
"A darkness," she says finally, and he stares at her.
"Yes. What else?"
"Nothing you don't already know. An enemy you thought you could trust, deaths..." her eyes are glazed now, she seems blind to the world. Obi-Wan hears his blood pounding in his ears. "Fire...pain..." Her eyes widen suddenly and she stares up at him, sightless. "Balance."
The old woman flinches suddenly and Obi-Wan moves forward to catch her. When he is certain she is fully conscious he sits back down, legs folded beneath him.
"It's him." She says, her voice shaking as she speaks. "Your boy." The old woman closes her eyes.
"He'll bring balance." Her eyes snap open, "Why did you bring him here?"
"We were sent by the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic."
"Get him away from here. As soon as you can."
She looks at him sadly. "You know how we feel about the Jedi on Hyspero. You of all people."
He doesn't ask how she knows. He has learned that sometimes acceptance is the only path.
"Balance isn't what the Jedi think it is, Obi-Wan. Although you're wondered about that yourself, haven't you?"
He nods. The admission, strangely, doesn't seem such a betrayal anymore. He worries that this world is starting to affect him.
"You can't stop it," she continues, "It's too powerful."
"Will I be ready?" He wants some comfort, a logic with which to pull apart his nightmares.
"Just keep the boy safe. Do whatever you have to, but keep him safe."
"Is something going to happen to Anakin?" He is alert, worried.
"I'm not talking about Anakin," she says. Obi-Wan feels confusion swarming in his mind.
"You'll find out," she says. "You'll find out eventually." She pulls back a curtain and looks at him, eyes glistening. "Once everything's balanced."
She disappers behind brightly coloured fabric and Obi-Wan is left standing alone and trembling. He breathes in slowly, and walks out into the sunlight.
* * * * *
"I'm looking for some information." Anakin has found the door and the room and the man. The young Jedi stands by a tall glass sculpture, staring at his would-be informant.
"Oh are you now?" The old man is unimpressed.
"I was told...they say you..."
"Out with it boy, I haven't got all day." He glares at Anakin with sightless eyes.
Anakin swallows, realises that he is thirsty. "I was told you know about names."
"That all depends on the name. And who you are." Constantine smiles tightly, but there is no pleasure on his face.
"I'm someone who wants your help." Anakin is impressed by his own avoidance of the question. "Do you know anyone called Kenobi?"
Raised eyebrows and a mirthless chuckle. "Oh, plenty. Useless, the lot of them."
"It would be a while ago." Anakin guesses. "About thirty-five years ago."
"Oh." Constantine gazes at nothing. "That."
* * * * *
_On Hyspero, all life is art. But as the say in the desert, all art is quite useless..._
The street bustles with talk and trade. The planet continues as it has always done.
Obi-Wan closes his eyes, and tries not to remember.
* * * * *
"We knew they'd come for him. We said he'd bring nothing but grief."
"The Jedi?" He asks, but the old man ignores him.
"One of them came for him to take him back with her to that palace of theirs. Had officials in from the Republic telling us that we were doing things wrong. Took the Universe away from us." Sigh. "A few moments more and we would have been safe. Just a few moments and they wouldn't have been able to do anything."
"What did you do?" Like ice, like a blade.
"He was in the water when she came. His mother held him under herself. Tears almost drowning her but she knew it had to be done. Had to keep the Jedi away from Hyspero. Had to do what was needed."
"You tried to kill him." Anakin is quiet. He is surprised by how dangerous his own voice sounds.
"Of course. That Force that they like so much had plans for him. A part to play in dreadful things. The Jedi trust that thing, they've got no idea what's going to happen to them."
"What?" Almost silent now, a low whisper.
"Darkness. It's going to bring darkness. Some obscure reason of its own, but it's going to kill so many people to do it. It wants balanced. We took that little Kenobi brat to the Elders and they looked at him and they saw it. Not him, but he's a part of it. Better for all of us if he was dead. Better for all of us."
He doesn't see Anakin start to move, because of course the old man is blind, but he feels the fingers close around his throat, he feels them tighten. He feels his lungs burning. He is drowning in the air, suffocating in a wide room. His hands move to cover Anakin's, but he knows that the boy is stronger. He wonders what he has done wrong.
Anakin lets the body drop from his grasp and stares at it in confusion. He has never killed before, not like this. He wants it not to have happened.
He needs to find Obi-Wan.
He runs.
* * * * *
Anakin is breathless and stumbling. It hadn't seemed so far the first time.
"Are you alright, Anakin?" There is concern in the voice and Anakin bites back the urge to tell him everything. It wouldn't do, he decides, to upset his Master needlessly. Anakin can keep this secret, what difference will one more make to anything?
"I'm fine, Master," he manages. "I just worried that you'd leave without me. I thought I'd gotten myself lost."
"Well, you're back here now. Not to worry."
Anakin notices that his master is distracted. "Did she tell you something bad?"
Obi-Wan makes himself smile. "She told me I'd meet a wonderful woman and have too many children."
Anakin laughs, because he feels he is expected to.
Obi-Wan places a hand on his shoulder. It is a welcome heat. "We'd better get back. We have people to protect."
They leave the streets together, and the bustle continues behind them.
* * * * *
Obi-Wan kneels on the deck of the Ambassadorial ship, his Apprentice standing guard in the next room while he meditates. He breathed slowly in and out as he runs the mantra over and over in his mind:
_There is no emotion, there is peace._
_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._
_There is no passion, there is serenity._
_There is no death, there is the Force._
_There is no emotion, there is peace._
_There is no... _
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If it came from NASA, it most likely is either Kodak or Agfa film. Let's assume Kodak. It could be either aerial film (very likely for 70mm) or cine film or ordinary still film. Since it came with that back and is unperforated, it is unlikely to be cine film. It could be either negative or positive. Many Kodak negative aerial films did not have an integral orange mask, but they were compatible with C-41 processing. My guess is that it is aerial film. | dclm-gs1-107740000 |
The Retina IIa can be a little finicky at age 50. All three of mine are awaiting repair. I would go with one of the Japanes RFs or maybe something Soviet. The Kiev 4a can be very good if your hands are big enough to handle the "Contax grip". Also worth looking at are the Fed 2,3, and 4 and the Zorki 4 and 6. One of the lesser known Japanese models that usually goes for a song is the Petri 1.9. The lens is decent and the rangefinder, viewfinder, and overall ergonomics are superb. | dclm-gs1-107750000 |
Nicholas is one of the last vestiges of what I think of as Camden - and I wouldn't change it for the world! He makes a lot of money burning those that allow themselves to be and is a cantankerous ummm, I'm new here, insert your preferred expletive...HOWEVER - you can do "a deal" with him IF you have the patience and have done your research thoroughly. It's like shopping in Thailand - offer 1/3 of what he says and work from there.
He never burnt me and has furnished me with several outfits in the last 10 years or so. Aperture is a much nicer place to go when you want something - you won't be patronised, everything is fairly priced and the coffee is good too - but if you want a thingummy for a blah blah and you need it by tomorrow, Nicholas will come through. | dclm-gs1-107760000 |
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Written for the 6th Anniversary Fest Prompt #135 submitted by hunnyhugs: Lyrics - "All the Things You Never Knew" by Leehom Wang Sometimes, things happen and nothing makes sense anymore.
-Stars in the Sky, a story by dove
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A: Ukraine. Read More »
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This document is part of your ASTM Compass® subscription.
Determining the Transport Through Geomembranes of Various Permeants in Different Applications
Published: Jan 1990
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The widely different uses of geomembranes as barriers to the transport and migration of different gases, vapors, and liquids under different service conditions require a determination of permeability by test methods appropriate to the service. Geomembranes are nonporous and homogeneous materials that permeate gases, vapors, and liquids on a molecular scale by dissolution in the geomembrane and diffusion through the geomembrane. The rate of transmission of a given species, whether as a single permeant or in mixtures, is driven by its chemical potential or concentration gradient. Various methods to assess the permeability of geomembranes to single component permeants, such as individual gases, vapors, and liquids are described and data are presented. In addition, various test methods for the measurement of permeation and transmission through geomembranes of individual species in complex mixtures such as waste liquids are described and data are presented.
Permeability, gas transmission, water vapor transmission, transport of chemical species, polymeric geomembranes, organic vapor transmission, diffusion of gases and vapors, transport of ions, reservoirs, waste disposal, leachate, barriers, flexible membrane liners (FMLs)
Author Information:
Haxo, HE
President, Matrecon, Inc., Alameda, CA
Committee/Subcommittee: D35.10
DOI: 10.1520/STP19024S
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Re: Hilbert envelope bandwidth
Dear Eckard Blumschein:
Here are my answers to some of your questions.
'Who introduced the term Hilbert envelope?'
The name Hilbert envelope was given by Dennis Gabor. The Hilbert
transform was introduced into electrical
engineering literatures by Yuk Wing Lee around 1930. Actually 'Lee had
a difficult time convincing the
senior MIT faculty at his doctoral defense of the validity of the
relation. Ultimately it was Wiener's
endorsement of the concept that allowed the work to pass and Lee to
receive his degree. (See Therrien's 2002
article in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.)
'How to get it? Will it work in ASR?'
To get the Hilbert envelope, the Hilbert operator in the time domain or
halfway rectifier followed by low pass
filtering would normally be used. A more interesting and practical way
is to model the envelope by an
all-pole model.
Linear prediction in spectral domain (LPSD), a duality of linear
prediction, was developed by Kumaresan
and Rao (JASA 1999). In the mean time, Athineos and Ellis (ASRU 2003),
following the idea of temporal
noise shaping, proposed frequency-domain linear prediction (FDLP) and
applied it successfully to ASR first.
Even more improvement of recognition accuracy was demonstrated in their
most recent paper (Athineos,
Hermansky and Ellis in ICSLP-04), where linear predictive temporal
patterns (LP-TRAP) were introduced.
'Is it important for speech perception?'
In order to understand the relative importance of temporal Hilbert
envelope and fine structure, Smith,
Delgutte, and Oxenham (letter to nature, 2002) performed the famous
chimaeric sounds experiments
and concluded that the envelope is most important for speech perception
with increasing number of filters.
However, some of the technical issues in the design of the experiments
make their conclusion quite dubious.
Any comments are welcome.
Yadong Wang
Yadong Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow
Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Lab
Dept. of Linguistics
1401 Marie Mount Hall
University of Maryland
College Park MD 20742
-----Original Message-----
Dear Yadong Wang,
Perhaps, I am not the only one here who would like to understand how
Hilbert envelope differs from temporal envelope and what "temporally
flattened" does mean. I am aware of Dan Ellis and others who calculate
squared Hilbert envelope as squared magnitude of the analytic signal in
order to depict hearing as determined by envelope and fine structure
within a number of frequency bands. Smith, Delgutte, and Oxenham (letter
to nature 2002) even spoke of an 'alternative signal decomposition by
Hilbert slowly varying envelope and rapidly varying fine time
structure'. Who introduced the term Hilbert envelope?
I respect those who create new tools. However, I cannot confirm that so
many confusing redundancy in theory is really justified. Let's tear down
a lot of unnecessary sophistication after restricting to either really
elapsed time or time to come after a given point. In other words, let's
abandon the wrong belief that complex calculus must be immediately
merged with frequency analysis. Complex modulator envelopes, as demanded
by Atlas, Li, and Thompson at ICASSP 2004, are only then necessary
prerequisites of unambiguous demultiplication if Fourier transform is
used instead of cosine transform. Isn't it absurd to declare the
modulating signal non-negative but operate with unreal negative
Incidentally, misconception concerning band-limitation is widespread in
science. It even led to 'measurement' of signals propagating with
superluminal speed.
Eckard Blumschein | dclm-gs1-107820000 |
Week 2 levels of measurement
Category: Education
Presentation Description
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Module: Introduction to Research Code: P1112
By: dmae (59 month(s) ago)
can i download this video?
By: jennamark (63 month(s) ago)
can you allow me to download the data types and measurement scales by chee-wee tan?
Presentation Transcript
Data types & Measurement scales:
Data types & Measurement scales Chee-Wee Tan Module P1112
Data is all around us:
Data is all around us Collect data everyday. Example: Weather
Where do we get the data?:
Where do we get the data? Values
Define the concept /construct:
Define the concept /construct Any concept/construct can be conceptually defined. Example: Pain is “an unpleasant sensory & emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (International Association for the Study of Pain, 1994) This is a conceptual definition for ‘pain’
Operational Definition:
Operational Definition Abstract construct may require specific definitions to measure it. Example: Pain – ‘pain threshold’ ‘pain intensity’ ‘pain unpleasantness’
Process of measurement:
Process of measurement Characteristics of the person/object, not the person/object we’re measuring. Assign of numbers to characteristic.
Measurement scale:
Measurement scale The way we assign the numbers and the context will affect the measurement scale. Levels of measurement Properties of the measurement scale
Four measurement scales:
Four measurement scales Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Nominal Scale:
Nominal Scale ‘In name only’ Labels for identification Mathematical operators cannot be used here. Example: License plate numbers, gender.
Ordinal scale:
Ordinal scale Numbers reflect the ordered relationship Takes on features of the nominal scale But since there is order, we can do more in analysis, e.g. finding the median (Week 3) Example: Oxford scale of muscle strength
Interval scale:
Interval scale Has all the characteristics of ordinal scale. But allows inferences to be made on the extent of differences. Example: Celsius/Fahrenheit scale (temperature) Arbitrary zero point
Ratio scale:
Ratio scale Has all the characteristics of the interval scale. Absolute zero point Or ‘true zero’, or ‘natural zero’. Example: Muscle strength measured in Newtons
Discrete or Continuous variable:
Discrete or Continuous variable Discrete Varies in discrete steps Example: number of goals, number of children in a family Continuous Example: Height, weight & time
Types of data:
Types of data Data types Modified from Fleming & Nellis (1994), p8.
Why are measurement scales important?:
Why are measurement scales important? Progression Transform higher to lower scale. Reverse not generally true.
Why are measurement scales important?:
Why are measurement scales important? Metric data (interval & ratio) Use of parametric statistics Non-metric data (nominal & ordinal) Use of non-parametric statistics For this course, only parametric statistics will be mentioned.
Summary What is a variable & a value? Defining concept/constructs Measurement scales
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I want to leave the army. How do I do it?
Fort Campbell, KY |
Filed under: Military law
I have been in the military for 161 days now and I want out. I just can't take it anymore.
Attorney Answers 4
There is no easy out. You signed a contract. However, there are several ways a service members' career may be terminated, and most of them are not overly good. A soldier could be punitively discharged, or given an administrative discharge, or medical discharge. Generslly, if a soldier does not complete his contract, he will get a characterization of service less than honorable, unless he is no longer fit for duty, and in that case he will be medically discharged with an honorable characterization. As a rule, the service member cannot shoot his way out of don't try. I suggest you call a military attorney to go over your options. In your case, you have not completed 180 days in the service, so there is a possibility of ELS, but only if your command allows it. If you are able to receive an ELS then you will be discharged without a characterization of service. Call if you would like a free consult, or call any of the other regular commentators on this site. V/r Gerry
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7 lawyers agree
Recommend you have a closed door heart to heart with your command first sgt., your base Chaplain, your company commander and your XO immediately. They have an interest in helping you identify the gaps between what you want and what you are getting, physically, emotionally,and personally. They have access
to the tools, people, and resources to support
you. They have the experience and skill sets to
Help you. Most importantly, you're NOT the first Soldier they have dealt with who is in your exact same situation.
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9 lawyers agree
You should NOT consider going AWOL or similar misconduct as a way out. That might get you out but, from MANY years of practical experience with these cases the consequences can be quite severe.
For example, there is NO automatic upgrade of adverse administrative discharges. Sometimes even senior people lie and tell you there is.
Fort Campbell is a difficult post for a lot of reasons.
But this is one of those times you need to sit back and reflect on your future as well as the present.
Talk to a chaplain or your PS. They can generally talk about how to deal with and overcome the initial stresses of a first assignment.
The Army paid a lot for your training, etc., so they are not going to let you out easy.;; 703-298-9562, 800-401-1583. Answering your question does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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5 lawyers agree
"Ain't no sense in looking down; ain't no discharge on the ground." There is no easy or simple way to simply get out of the military. You have signed a contract and made a committment to serve your country! Most likely, you are facing some challenges right now. This is to be expected. If you wanted an easy or simple life, you would have remained a civilian. If you are not frequently encountering challenges, you are most likely playing it safe, playing small and cheating yourself out of your true potential. If you have the same challenges hitting you over and over again, accept responsibility, be flexible, and take a different approach.
Quick fixes and magic bullets have never worked for anything worthwhile in the long run. Becoming a stronger person or a better soldier is no exception. As a soldier in the Army, you can expect to be tested and challenged regularly. Accept this and get excited when challenges present themselves. They are for your benefit. Use them to catapault yourself to the next level! And remember, a certain amount of pain and uncertainty are absolutely necessary to reaching your true potential.
This probably isn't the answer you were looking for. However, often times in life, there is no neat, legal solution to problems. This is the case here. You're still young and new to the Army. Stay positive and be mentally strong. Once your enlistment is up, you can make an intelligent, emotion free, decision about what's best for your future.
Best of luck to you.
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Ronin - Meaning of Ronin, What does Ronin mean?
home > boy names > ronin
Ronin - Meaning of Ronin
What does Ronin mean?
Meaning of the name Ronin
[ 2 syll. ro-nin, ron-in ] The baby boy name Ronin is pronounced as ROWNihN †. Ronin is used mostly in Hebrew and English, and its language of origin is Hebrew and Celtic.
Ronin is a derivative (Hebrew) of the English, Spanish, Dutch, and Hebrew name Ron.
Ronin is also a derivative (English) of the English and Irish name Ronan.
Ronin is somewhat popular as a baby name for boys. The name has been rising in popularity since the 2000s; prior to that, it was of infrequent use only. At the modest peak of its usage in 2012, 0.015% of baby boys were named Ronin. Its ranking then was #771. In 2012, out of the group of boy names directly related to Ronin, Ronan was the most commonly used. The name was twice as popular as Ronin in that year.
Baby names that sound like Ronin include Ronan (English and Irish), Raam (Hebrew), Racham (Hebrew), Raemonn, Rahaeim, Raham (English and Hebrew), Rahan, Rahane, Raheem (Arabic and English), Rahiem, Rahim (Arabic, English, and Iranian), Rahma, Rahmahn, Rahman (Arabic and Turkish), Rahmen, Rahmin, Rahym, Raimee, Raimey, and Raimi.
Ronin Baby Name Explorer
Meaning of Ronin Meaning of Ron Meaning of Ronny Meaning of Ronnie Meaning of Roni Meaning of Ron Meaning of Ronny Meaning of Veronica Meaning of Ronnie Meaning of Aaron Meaning of Ronald Meaning of Rowena Meaning of Rhonda Meaning of Cameron Meaning of Byron Meaning of Jaron Meaning of Myron Meaning of Ronan Meaning of Lerone Meaning of Taron
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Ronin - Meaning of Ronin, What does Ronin mean? | dclm-gs1-107860000 |
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My Khaini Merchanting guide, with prices.
General MapleStory General MS questions and answers
Hello Basilmarket.
This is my merching guide which is based in Khaini prices since my world is Khini, I will be happy to bind my guide with other world guides and give the mercher guide to other people in other worlds.
Please be aware that this is my personal guide to merching, and my personal guide only, if you have a different or in your sense a better way of merching, then create your own merching thread.
[header]Merching in general-[/header]
This section will be on the general merching, just idea and some attitudes towards it all.
[header]Moral code-[/header]
Some people think Merchers are heartless people who just want to scam you to make money, correct? Well I as one, make sure I do NOT merch off of guildies, Alliance or friends, unless they agree to being ripped off (if that's what they call it), make sure you double check that is what they want, because this will earn you some brownie points in the future, if you want to rip off known people, I suggest making a different account.
This can be an optional code, as you might want to keep your status of being a mercher/rich on the down low, create an account that is the same class as your main, for example, I am an adventurer, you will want to be an adventurer to transfer your store across as the CS inventory does not combine with other classes/types.
Or you can keep your main, if you are a higher level, you are bound to get a bit more trust thrown your way, as some newer people trust higher leveled people than lower leveled.
If you are not ready to stand in the FM and spam continuously, then I suggest merching is not for you, but I also have a way to keep your hate for the FM away, because hating the FM can result in a big boredom factor which will affect your merching ways, I also suggest getting a bot for spamming, it isn't against the ToS therefore you cannot be banned because it is undetectable.
biThat is the start-up part, if you have just skipped this part, which I am guessing most have, I would probably just skim through it, because some can be of importance.[/b][/i]
iMost people will say 'Buy low, sell high', yes, this is the basic point of merching, but how the hell do you know what to buy and sell? You don't...
Most people say buy and sell GFA, and 10 ATT WG, which is obviously one of the main ones I have seen floating around the marketplace and filling up newer players with hope they will become very rich merching these, which is actually wrong.[/i]
[header]Greed & the look-[/header]
Don't be greedy otherwise you will most likely lose money during the period, and thus not merching efficiently, I suggest only spamming 3 ITEMS, you don't want people to think you are a mercher otherwise you will lost respect and people will not trade you to sell you the items, also having a rich look can also attract peoples eyes and maybe even try and look bright and colorful, and change your appearance from time to time to attract the same player.
[header]Funds- [/header]
If you have a bigger fund, obviously you have more money to spend which will result in higher merch value, and meaning you make more money, , I suggest for a welfare amount, which will give you a reasonable profit, around, 100m (100,000,000 mesos), which will get you started good, if you do not have 100m (100,000,000 mesos) then do not stress, I will put many types of merching ways down the bottom which don't require much.
[header]Know your prices of what you are merching-[/header]
First of all, make sure you know the general basis of Merching, and make sure you scim through the FM iEVERYDAY[/i] to make sure you know the prices, this takes time, I personally know prices from experience, which you will learn eventually, but I will put most prices of the things I merch below this paragraph.
Most people will consider 10m as a deal point in which, say your buying an item for 150m, if you are merching it, you should not negotiate, people who say 10m more than the asking price is not acceptable, hold your ground on buying for a certain price, otherwise this will trick your mind into raising the buying price higher and higher, which is NOT a good law of merching, I cannot stress this enough.
[header]10 ATT WG Merching-[/header]
bWARNING: These prices for 10 ATT's and the continuing are iKHAINI[/i] prices, do check around your world for others.[/b]
Obviously 10 ATT Work Gloves (WG) is a common merch, which MOST people which at least 150m merch, which to be honest you really shouldn't be doing, in my mind, I say;
Buy 10 ATT WG for 140m.
Sell for 160-170m.
That is a 20-30m profit, correct?
In most cases in Khaini FM and probably most others, is that people know that you can get more than 140m for 10 ATT's at the moment, so it is very UNLIKELY for people to sell you them for 140m, so I suggest avoiding 10 ATT WG due to the factor that EVERYONE does it.
[header]GFA 60% (Glove for ATT 60%) Merching-[/header]
Another common way to merching that EVERYONE does, which you again, really SHOULD NOT, be doing, for the same reason as gloves for ATT.
Buy the scroll for 7m in most cases.
Sell the scroll for 10-13m in store, 13m being an almost unsellable price.
That is only a 3-6m profit.
STOP doing that, 6m profit, for 3 scrolls a day is rediculous, you need to aim higher, be more optimistic, and stop being so newbie and start merching items that will make you more profit, yet if you only have a solid 10m spending money for merching, I do suggest that you merch GFA scrolls, or some other things I will suggest.
[header]Chair and Mount merching[/header]
Chair and mount merching is a brilliant way to start off knowing price and beginning your quest of wealthiness, because many people are unaware of inflating and deflating prices in chairs, since they do vary extremely fast, I will do my best to cater to the chairs and to the mounts prices at the moment, although due to the increase in mounts, some may be a bit more expensive than others.
b(The prices I list will be selling prices, not buying prices.)[/b]
b15-Day mounts-[/b]
Usually are a great start, if you buy ALL 15-Day mounts for 10m, the look of the mount will cost more than the other looks, for example, there are 3 main structure mounts, which are;
Red Truck - 20m
Gargoyle - 20m
Lion - 30m
b30-day mounts-[/b]
These mounts will probably not be sold much considering I have only seen a few, but they do sell for a little bit, usually by for 30m and sell for 50m, although the prices may vary.
b1-year mounts-[/b]
These are great, but don't be tempted to use it like I did with my Lion mount , you can buy these for a stable price, and sell them for an unstable price, considering people have NO IDEA on the price of these mounts, usually some are better than others, these are the prices;
Red Truck- 150m (buy for 90-130m)
Gargoyle- 150m (buy for 90-130m)
Lion- 150-300m (buy for about 150m and less, don't really spend too much considering people will know the price, Lion mount is HIGHLY desired in the market, as I know of about 5 people who are buying, selling for an extremely high price would be extremely profitable)
[header] Chairs-- [/header]
b(The price I list will be selling prices, not buying prices)[/b]
Chairs are a difficult thing to remember, a lot of chairs may vary, I will not list EVERY chair in the world, although I will suggest that buy/sell chairs that have unstable prices, such as 'Zakum Chair', 'Easel Chair' and others, make sure you never buy witch chairs for more than 1m as they are an extremely hard sell for 10m, so I suggest keeping the budget for chairs too about 60-150m for different chairs, the chairs I suggest to merch are;
Zakum Chair
Buy: 60-70m
Sell: 100m (NO LESS)
Easel Chair
Buy: 70-90m
Sell: 110-120m (NO LESS)
Dragon Chairs (Abyss and Inferno)
Buy: 100-200m
Sell: 250-300m
Bloody Rose
Buy: 100-180m
Sell: 200-300m
World End
Buy: 100-200m
Sell: 250-300m
Von Leon Chair (AT THE MOMENT)
Buy: 200m (NO MORE)
Sell: 250-300m (Might be a little more.)
Gold Seal Cushion
Buy: 100-150m
Sell: 180-250m
(There are other chairs that are a lot more expensive, and I will list them if they are requested through PM's, and also there are a lot of other chairs below the price of these, I don't suggest buying them, such as Balrog chair, because they barely sell.)
[header] Rings (Lv 17 II and Lv 17-10 rings I)[/header]
bWARNING: Please be aware that the prices of Lv17 Rings II are UNSTABLE and vary quick, buy and sell at own risk, the same as the other rings.[/b]
Okay, first of all, usually these rings are a great thing to merch, this is my main merching type at the moment, that I am working on, so far I have made about 300m with the Lv17 Ring II.
Lv17 Ring II
Buy: 100-110m (NO MORE NO MORE!)
Sell: 150-200m (I suggest 150.)
Okay, now first of all the first event rings are stabilizing, due to the fact that the focusing on Lv17 Ring II, so these are prices of 17-10 leveled rings.
Lv17 Ring I (I don't suggest merching due to the high prices and unstable fortunes)
Buy: 300-400m(Stable)
Sell: 450-500m (Unstable)
Lv16 Ring I
Buy: 100-150m(Unstable)
Sell: 200-300m(Unstable)
Lv15 Ring I (Good to merch with)
Buy: 60-80m (NO MORE)(Unstable)
Sell: 100-110m (NO LESS)(Unstable)
Lv11-14 Ring I
Buy: 10-20m (Unstable) (Do not focus on these types of rings, because they are extremely unstable)
Sell: 40-60m
I personally would warn you to stay away from them, as they are extremely unstable, and always will be, prices will vary, and no accuracte price can be available, this is ALWAYS from experience, no one can estimate a price of a weapon unless they see it really, I suggest contacting a friend or me if I am available in Khaini.
End of.
This is a section about selling with a store, and selling without a store.
[header]Attempting profit with a store-[/header]
Obviously this is the most favored way of merchanting, it is eaier with a mushie, so if you are alright with spending the money on a mushie, I suggest buying, and then selling in the mushie while you are buying, so your are merching simultaneously, this is the most recommended way of merching, permits, also work well as well, what I do is buy in the day, and sell at night, I suggest getting more than one if you can, since they last 90 days, it is of good value.
There are many places to set the store, here are some good spots which I usually sell the most;
FM 1-3 (These are obviously the best)
FM 7 (Try and avoid it though, Ludi doesn't sell much)
FM 13 (Do not go to 14 or any other perion place)
FM 18 (Again do not go to 19)
I know this is a bit of a high mark, but if all of those aren't available, set up in FM 12, I have sold A LOT there, just because people randomly go there for some reason.
[header]Attempting profit with-out a store[/header]
Okay, this is really not recommended, I highly suggest you do not do this, because you can make next to no profit, but it is do-able, these tips should help;
Find a great guild/Alliance, they can buy your items if they need it for average price, follow the code and don't rip guildies off.
Spam in FM for more over-priced items and hope someone buys it, which to be honest, some people actually do.
Find a friend to put your item in their store, and pay them a fee of some sort, this is the most recommended way of merching if you don't want to spend NX.
Be a supplier; this may sound ridiculous, but people like me, who buy rings for 110m, you could buy them for 100m, and go and sell to me for 115m if you have a lot of them, it's a good easy way, the same with chairs.
b That is all I am merching at the moment, and is raking me in some good money.[/b]
[header]Thankyou for viewing my guide, PM me for questions and help, if I get enough requests in the comment section below I will continuously update it.[/header]
KingKong06PoopGreener - Level 119
Posted: April
Page TopHome 1 2 3 4 5
thanks for the guide
gotnone0ExcitedType - Level 202
Apr 06 2011
Lol... what? The reasons for it being ok are because it's not against the ToS and it's undetectable? Why should detection matter if it's not against ToS? (Btw it's totally against ToS).[/quote]
Look, it helps a lot, and I'm trying to make people happier about it, I know it is wrong because it's enhancing the game, but what can you do...
KingKong06PoopGreener - Level 119
Apr 06 2011
Could you make this for Windian prices plz?
Xbl1tz3rXXbl1tz3rX - Level 138
Apr 06 2011
It's fine that you're trying to help people, but don't lie to them.
ChuckNasteeNastrofizick - Level 120
Apr 06 2011
Wow leave it up to a Corsair to make an awesome guide like this. Corsairs ftw.
Apr 06 2011
You should throw a MTS Merching guide in there
Apr 06 2011
Wow nice guide ^_^
Now I just need Zenith prices -_-[/quote]
This. Selling scrolls atm there and I'm still at ~60m
Apr 06 2011
lol youre right about the outfit thing espeically the bear suit. I have suits for diffrent kind of merchs I have :
Bear, Pro (What im wearing now but with 8k wings) Super hero (New one in CS) casual (black casual with black pants) and captian (my favcorite but my sprite wont update)
btw if your looking for a good bear one get the one that goes on your head those gin eyes from bleach teddy bear etc etc
btw my sprite wont upadate but my level will can someone tell me how to fix that?
Apr 06 2011
This part is so true, whenever I see a char with a gold-scary-mask with some weird equips, I 've never sell/buy something from that person.
Apr 06 2011
Yeah, this is a decent guide
I think it looks really time consuming... due to the really low buying prices of most items.
Apr 06 2011
Page TopHome 1 2 3 4 5
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How to describe animals
Slow worms are not worms, and they are not slow.
Sometimes confusion must come before clarity. And that is never more true than when describing our native UK wildlife.
For example, slow worms are not worms, and they are not slow.
Whales swim in our seas, but the impressive killer whale, which frequents the coast of northwest Scotland, is not a whale at all. That is why many call it an orca.
Bucks roam our countryside: male deer, hares, ferrets and rabbits are all bucks. But interestingly, none actually buck (only horses do). Rabbits give birth to kittens, but kittens can also be baby cats.
It's almost impossible to describe a butterfly that cannot be a moth, and a moth that cannot be a butterfly, while similar is true for frogs and toads.
The common names of animals are nouns. But when describing animal behaviour, the same words are sometimes used as verbs.
• A perch is a freshwater fish, whereas birds might perch on a branch. It is an accident of language that the same word is used both ways. It is no accident that swifts, those fast flying birds that look similar to swallows, are called swifts. That's because they fly fast.
• Buck (noun) is a name given to the males of many species. Its origin is thought to be the German word buc, meaning deer. However, the verb 'to buck' can only be applied to a jumping horse.
Verbs can also be turned back into nouns to help describe wildlife.
• Animals such as moles that burrow become burrowers
• Whales or barnacles that filter the water for food are filter feeders etc.
Birds perch, while perch swim in our lakes. And those killer whales we mentioned are predatory mammals, that have sharp teeth and eat meat. But they are not carnivores, not strictly speaking. Other iconic black and white creatures, our badgers, are also mammals, though not nearly as predatory. They have sharp teeth, but eat less meat. Yet they are technically carnivores.
You have every reason to be, because much confusion around how we describe wildlife comes from the confusing ways in which we name it.
So when you describe wildlife, it's important to understand which type of name you are using, and why that matters.
For example, wildlife can be described by their common names, i.e. a badger, perch or deer.
Wildlife can also be described by the group of animals to which they belong; badgers are mammals.
By their behaviour; a badger is an omnivore that eats a variety of foods.
Or by their scientific group; technically a badger is a carnivore, not because it eats meat, but because it is related to other weasel-like animals, as well as dogs, cats, bears and seals that share a suite of inherited characteristics, such as sharp carnassial teeth. All these animals belong in the order Carnivora, which is why badgers are technically carnivores.
Common names
Most people know animals by their common names, and there are no hard and fast rules as to what these should be.
Lapwing: BBC Nature A peewit, hornpie or lapwing?
Commonly used descriptions and names for much wildlife have changed with time and vary by location, spelling and capitalisation.
A lapwing, a small wading bird, is variously called a peewit, green plover, teuchit, hornpie or flopwing, depending on its location in the UK. In Gaelic it is a curracag. In Irish a pilibín.
Many names and descriptions have become an integral part of our cultural landscape, influencing the names of drinking establishments, towns, how we speak, and our art.
Think of a pub called The Swan in Shrewsbury. There, a local might ask another to stop badgering them, as they want to read Watership Down, a classic English novel about a group of rabbits given human characteristics.
Start Quote
End Quote From the best-selling novel Watership Down by Richard Adams
The attributes we assign to wildlife are often co-opted, becoming more widely understood cultural symbols. The thistle of Scotland symbolises nobility and chivalry, an example of floriography.
Because common names vary, they can cause confusion.
But giving a little-known, perhaps new species a common name is also a powerful way to be able to remember it, talk about it, and make people care about it.
Natural England runs an annual competition to name newly discovered British species for this reason. In 2012, it named a rare wasp that lives in southern England as the Cutpurse wasp, due to its habit of feeding exclusively on purse web spiders.
Animal types
Animals or plants can be informally grouped, defined often by their behaviour or where they live; such as flying insects, or forest flowers. These groupings often have no formal scientific basis.
Or they can be formally grouped into scientific categories. Each of these groups is defined by a suite of characteristics that each animal or plant within must share.
Badgers (once known as brock) are mammals, belonging to the scientific grouping Mammalia. Like badgers, all mammals have fur and all female mammals have mammary glands, which they use to provide milk for their young.
Badger: BBC Nature Brock the badgering badger
Swifts are birds, belonging to the scientific group called Aves. All birds have feathers and wings.
There is no single scientific grouping of fish, however. It is a common name used to describe animals that swim, have fins, and look like 'fish'. Scientists group fish into discrete categories. Some fish have bony skeletons, and are known as Osteichthyes. Others, such as sharks, have skeletons made of cartilage and are called Chondrichthyes.
To understand how scientists formally group and name animals it is important to understand how the Linnaean system of nomenclature works, a classification system that is easier to grasp than it sounds.
Animal behaviours
We often describe animals by their behaviour; where they live, when we see them, what they like to eat, and how they go about acquiring their food, for example.
Describing wildlife in this way can be a valuable way to communicate important information about them, to help find or identify them, or study the common challenges they face.
Marsh frog: BBC Nature Marsh frog or pond life?
Nocturnal animals appear at night, for example. All of them, whether they are bats or badgers, have to be able to move around or navigate in the dark. They develop different senses to help them; either evolving big eyes, ways to use sound to navigate, such as bats using echolocation, or perhaps a super sense of touch, used by moles.
Day living animals are described as diurnal.
Wildlife is often described by the habitat it lives in; pond life, for example.
Or by how it eats; hawks are predators because they hunt other animals. Herbivores such as deer are grazers or browsers.
The heritage and origin of animals and plants can determine how we describe them: invasive species are those that have 'invaded' another habitat, territory or country to which they don't naturally belong.
Scientific names and relationships
As described above, scientists use a specific language when naming species, and that language is governed by a set of rules.
All barn owls in the UK are members of the species Tyto alba. They are the same as barn owls flying all around the world, from South America to Africa and Europe, even if many of these birds may look subtly different.
This system underpins many of our efforts to understand wildlife, its evolution and how it should be conserved.
You decide
There's nothing wrong with describing animals in a personal way, or giving them a generic name, if you are unsure. People might variously call a cockchafer beetle a May bug, mitchamador, billy witch, or spang beetle.
White Hart pub sign A White Hart is a pub and white deer
Occasionally this can lead to confusion. Unless you have a good grasp of mediaeval history, or frequent lots of pubs, you might not know that a White Hart is actually a white deer. Or that an Essex skipper is a type of butterfly that lives far beyond Essex.
But what really matters is that you use the description that works best for you.
If you work in science, you will likely describe wildlife using the formal Linnaean naming system. Other scientists will then understand exactly which species you are describing.
If you live in one part of the country, you'll likely do best using the local, common name for wildlife that people will understand in conversation.
The more you discover and celebrate wildlife, the more you will feel comfortable describing what you see, using the appropriate language.
Tell us how you describe wildlife via BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.
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Scotland business
Scottish Gas price hike hits north of Scotland hardest
Scottish Gas customers in the north of Scotland are facing higher bills than the rest of the UK, after a decision by owners Centrica to increase prices.
The price rise will see an average UK dual-fuel bill going up by 9.2% from 23 November.
But regional differences mean domestic customers living north of Perth will see an average rise of 11.2% - the biggest in the UK.
Customers in the south of Scotland will see an average increase of 9.5%.
The smallest rise is a 6.8% increase in the south west of England.
Scotland's electricity transmission network is split between Scottish Hydro in the north and Scottish Power which holds the licence for central and southern Scotland.
Centrica, which owns the British Gas and Scottish Gas brands, said its regional price differences reflected variations in the network costs it was obliged to pay to the transmission companies around the country.
Rival SSE has already announced an 8.2% increase in bills from 15 November.
The Centrica move, which will affect nearly eight million people in the UK, includes an average 8.4% rise in gas prices and a 10.4% increase in electricity prices.
The company said it "understands the frustration" of prices rising faster than incomes. The average annual household bill will go up by £123.
On average, UK customers will see a dual-fuel bill increase to £1,444 a year.
Ofgem response
Energy regulator Ofgem said prices were determined by suppliers competing in the British energy market and it was up to them to justify their prices and profits to consumers.
An Ofgem spokeswoman said: "Any price rise will not be welcomed by customers which is why it is important that Scottish Gas fully explain the reasons for the increase.
"Energy suppliers should be doing all they can to minimise the impact of these rising costs on energy bills by ensuring they are managing their costs as efficiently as possible.
"Suppliers must also ensure they are giving customers all the advice and help they need to save money on their energy bills, for example through energy efficiency."
Related Internet links
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Profile: Central African Republic's Michel Djotodia
• 11 January 2014
• From the section Africa
Michel Djotodia (7 January 2013)
A Soviet-trained civil servant who turned into a rebel commander, Michel Djotodia fulfilled his long-held ambition of becoming leader of Central African Republic (CAR) when he overthrew President Francois Bozize in March 2013.
Often seen wearing a turban, he became CAR's first Muslim ruler, plunging the country into a religious conflict between the Muslim minority and Christian majority.
In January 2014, at a meeting in Chad organised by regional leaders to try to end the violence - which was attended by CAR's entire transitional assembly - Mr Djotodia resigned and headed into exile in Benin.
Although Mr Djotodia had officially disbanded the Seleka rebel group that propelled him to power, its fighters have been involved in a vicious cycle of attacks and counter-attacks with Christian militias, known as anti-balaka.
"While Seleka fighters have notional inclinations for political Islam, they share a strong sense of communal identity and a will to avenge previous CAR regimes and their beneficiaries identified as Christians (not much of a discriminating factor, as the CAR population is more than 75% Christian)," says French researcher Roland Marchal in an article published in September.
US anthropologist Louisa Lombard, who was once based in CAR, says Mr Djotodia always pursued his political ambitions "fervently".
"Hearing the stories of his ambition during my research, I almost felt embarrassed on his behalf - he seemed like a Jamaican bobsledder convinced he'd win gold," she wrote when he seized power.
'Russian hunters'
Born in 1949 in what Ms Lombard describes as CAR's "remote, neglected, and largely Muslim north-east", Mr Djotodia led the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) into a coalition with other rebel groups to form Seleka, which spearheaded the offensive to overthrow Mr Bozize.
For Mr Djotodia, this was sweet revenge: Mr Bozize's rebel forces had toppled his political boss, then-President Ange Felix-Patasse, in 2003.
Image caption The fighting has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee
Image caption The government says Seleka fighters have been integrated into the army
Mr Djotodia had served in Mr Patasse's government as a civil servant in the ministry of planning after studying economics in the former Soviet Union.
According to Ms Lombard, he ended up staying for 10 years in the USSR, where he married and had two daughters.
He became fluent in several languages, "which made him useful when it came to representing the UFDR to foreigners and the media", she says.
"People in Tiringoulou [village in CAR] tell of one day, long before the rebellion, when a plane of Russian hunters unexpectedly arrived. Upon hearing Djotodia's rendition of their language, [they] declared him not Central African but Russian and brought him along for their tour of the country," Ms Lombard adds.
Mr Djotodia also worked in CAR's foreign ministry and was named consul to Nyala in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region.
He was said to have used his time there to cultivate alliances with Sudanese militias and Chadian rebels in the area.
"It was these fighters from the Chad/Sudan/CAR borderlands who became the military backbone of the Seleka rebel coalition... The UFDR fighters I knew - tough guys, but a bit ragtag, especially compared to their counterparts in places like Chad or Sudan - could have put up a decent fight against the CAR armed forces on their own, but the 'Chadians' were what made them so unstoppable," Ms Lombard says.
Mr Djotodia was jailed in Benin in November 2006 for using the country as a base for his rebellion against Mr Bozize.
Image caption Mr Djotodia (L) was Mr Bozize's (R) defence minister for a short while before ousting him
According to rights group Amnesty International's 2009 report on CAR, Mr Djotodia and another rebel leader, Abakar Sabone were, detained without trial in Benin for more than a year, before being released at Mr Bozize's request in the hope that it would the end the conflict raging at the time.
It was probably Mr Bozize's biggest political mistake, as it opened the way for Mr Djotodia to shrewdly play the dual role of peace-maker and rebel leader until he finally seized power in Bangui.
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BDSM Library - Crossing the Line
Crossing the Line
Provided By: BDSM Library
Synopsis: Karen goes on a vacation in the Suth Pacific, and sees a strange sight in a marketplace. It is a girl fulfilling her true purpose in life! Is this the revelation she was waiting for?
Crossing the Line
MF, Ff, cons, semi-cons, snuff, cannibalism, oral, girls as meat
Karen had never seen a market as diverse as the one she was in now. It was her first time on
the Rich Filipino's private island getaway, and she was loving every minute of it. There were
very few taboos here, and she felt a luxurious tingle in adopting the local inhabitants' attitudes
towards nudity.
She was enjoying her new freedom by showing off her full breasts, naked in the summery air,
and had stopped wearing underwear altogether. She wore a pair of jeans that had the crotch
torn out, so if anyone looked closely, they could see her brunette bush above two very slick
cunt lips. The children and the adult men all stared at her, and she knew her beauty aroused
them. Man of the little boys' cocks were pointing straight up through the flies of their jeans...
She was walking through one of the island's many marketplaces, when she stopped and
surveyed her surroundings, as she appeared to be in a cul-de-sac.
"What is that?" she wondered to herself, looking at a wooden construction that loomed in the
distance, at the end of the bazaar. "It must be the entrance to one of the squatter's homes that
are above the marketplace" she thought... but as she got closer, she still couldn't figure out what
it's purpose was.
It seemed to be a scaffold with a ramp, much like the ones that led to carnival attractions,
except that it was made of sturdy wood and bamboo, and not metal. The ramp leveled off at
about seven feet above ground, and was around fifty feet long. However, instead of leading to
a carnival ride, the ramp abruptly dropped off at the end. At that point the "ramp" ended, there
were two almost vertical staircases that dropped steeply down, on either side of the dead-
ended ramp.
"What could that be used for?" she wondered. "It must be some kind of loading ramp, for
trucks." But that couldn't be right, because nothing could be easily wheeled up the narrow ramp
that made a ninety-degree turn halfway through. Also, there was no place to park a truck in
front of the drop-off. "It must be a walkway of some kind", she deduced.
She watched from a distance, as two strong-looking bare-chested men in blue jeans picked up
a metal pole of some kind, and began screwing it into the ground where the walkway ramp
dropped off. "Were they building something?" ...No, it wouldn't make sense to build the
entranceway to a building without the building itself...
Her curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to take a closer look. As she neared, she
realized there was a small roped-off section in front of the ramp, where there were three card
tables set up. The card tables had a few board games and card sets on them. All of the tables
were empty, except one, where two young Filipina girls sat, playing a game of chess.
It appeared that the white men had finished screwing the pole into the ground, and now it stood
bolt upright, just after the drop-off. She realized that the pole was slightly tapered at the top,
forming a point at the very tip.
As she got closer, she realized that the men who had screwed the pole into the ground were
both standing over the table where the two girls were playing chess. They both seemed very
excited, and one of them seemed really nervous. They were both sweating due to the warm,
sunny weather, but the one who seemed to be more nervous seemed to really be sweating
bullets. Her hand trembled as she reached for one of her castles, and a drop of sweat fell off of
her nose.
As Karen got closer she realized several things at once. First, she realized that the girl who
seemed nervous had lost her queen, although the game seemed fairly even, besides that... She
also noticed that the two muscular white men had left their flies unzipped, and their penises were
erect, and dripping pre-cum. "Hi! Pardon me..."
The two men looked up, and the one closest to her smiled and raised a finger to his mouth.
"Shhh! ...This is a very high stakes match!", He whispered.
Karen decided to continue looking about the structure to see if she could figure out what it was
used for. So much of the island was alien to her down-home Connecticut sensibilities. Before
coming here the attractive young English major from Yale would never have imagined that such
places existed. "Alien, but exciting!" she told herself.
She noticed that there was a sign that was almost invisible looking straight on at the side of the
ramp. It stood next to the ramp at a point fifteen feet from "the drop-off". She noticed that an
orange line was painted out from the bottom of the sign that crossed the ramp. She stepped
back so she could read the sign. It appeared to be translated into several different languages. It
She was startled by a delighted laugh from the table behind her. When she looked back at the
girls' game, the girl who appeared to be winning was placing her black queen in one of the
squares, and lifting a white rook off of the board. She leaned in and whispered something to her
nervous-looking opponent in Tagalog, and giggled again. As the girl raised off the seat, Karen
realized that there was a big vibrator in her cunt that was hidden when she was sitting on it!
Whatever the stakes of the game were, she realized it must be very hard to concentrate with a
vibrating dildo in the pussy! Karen was really interested in this strange game now, because the
girl who had just captured the rook was rubbing her little clit and moaning. Both girls seemed
excited though, which was strange... after all, the loser seemed both frightened and turned-on...
"Maybe they're going to tie her to the pole and whip her if she loses.." Karen thought. That
would explain the nervous excitement! Karen was bisexual, and the child's public masturbation
excited her. She decided that the game's wager must be sexual in nature, and the thought of the
two innocent-looking girls making up and licking each other afterwards made her cunt tingle.
She realized that several other market-goers had wandered over behind her, and were also
watching the game. A Japanese family was right behind her, and only the man was wearing
clothes. He had a rather large dick for a Japanese man, and it dangled semi-erect from his open
fly. She noticed that they had three little daughters, all completely naked, that were playing near
the entrance to the ramp. The man leaned over to her and smiled when she turned around, and
asked her, in somewhat broken English "have you seen before?"
"No," She smiled; relieved to find someone who might tell her what was going on... "What is the
object of the game?"
The man smiled, and replied, "Watch, the big piece, the king, when the king is taken then the girl
is rost!"
Karen was going to ask what he meant by "lost", but she caught a sudden motion from the
corner of her eye. She realized that the couple's girls were edging up to the line on the ramp,
pushing one another towards it, and then jumping back. Also peculiar, she thought, was that
one of the muscular "ramp attendants" (as she had come to think of them) was now standing
right next to the orange line, looking down. He seemed to be watching to see whether any of
the girls actually crossed the line.
She turned around and saw with some surprise that the Japanese man's wife was squatting in
front of him, with the tip of his cock in her mouth, as she furiously fingered her wet pussy.
Karen looked him in the eyes, and smiled, aroused by the situation. "What happens when
someone crosses the line?" She asked.
"Ahh. The rine is for vorunteer." He replied, as if this knowledge should be enough to satisfy
her. She guessed that he was assuming that she knew the details. She watched as the couple's
young daughters were joined by a cute young black girl (who was really sweating bullets!). The
little girl pranced up to the line, like she was going to cross it, and then turned around and ran
when she was a foot away.
Karen looked back at the two girls playing chess, and gestured. "No, I mean, what happens
when one of them loses?"
The man looked down at his wife who moaned around his cock. "Mikiko, can you show rady
what happen if you cross rine?"
The young wife started fingering herself faster, and moaning louder when he suggested this. He
suddenly gripped her nipples between his thumbs and clenched forefingers and painfully pulled
her up. Just as fast, he had spun her around, and shoved his spit-slicked cock up her ass. He
was fucking her in the ass, as she bent over and put her hands on the ground, her big tits
flopping back and forth with each thrust.
"Rady, I show you what happens to vorunteer!" He said, as he thrust hard into his sexy big-
breasted wife, causing her to stumble forward a single step. She cried out, and seemed to be
begging him to stop, in Japanese. The man grabbed her hips, and began walking her a few
steps closer to the ramp, with every thrust. As they neared the entrance to the ramp, the little
girls who were playing at approaching the line ran out the entrance, presumably so they wouldn't
be trapped between the narrow rails and "Mikiko" and pushed forward...
Karen was fascinated now, and realized that there was a crowd of people watching, as the man
pushed his anally impaled wife between the ramp's guardrails. "Mikiko" seemed to be begging
him to stop, but also moaning in pleasure. As her hands were pushed (wheelbarrow style) up
the first few feet of the ramp, she grabbed one of the guardrail's vertical posts, and pulled herself
up, so she was supporting herself with both hands on the guardrails. As her husband pushed
her forward, still thrusting into her ass, she grabbed the vertical post, and he had to pry her
fingers off...
Karen was rubbing her pussy, and when she looked behind her, she was surprised to see that
the crowd that was watching was all masturbating! Some of them were shooting pictures and
even videotaping the scene with camcorders! This was so exciting!
What was going to happen to the pretty, big-titted Mikiko?
As the man pushed her nearer, the two chess players even took pause from their game to look
up, both of them clearly nearing orgasm from the vibrators that hummed silently in their little
cunts. The girl who seemed to be losing shivered; her cone-shaped nipples were stiff with
sweat. Karen couldn't tell if it was in orgasm or fear...
As Mikiko neared the orange line, Karen felt spurts of semen squirting against the back of her
thighs, and moaned in pleasure without even looking back. She was so caught up in the
moment that she didn't even care if she was splattered with cum without her permission. Seeing
Mikiko pushed around like a piece of meat was a real turn on!
Karen felt a tongue on her right buttock, and when she turned around, one of Mikiko's
daughters was licking the anonymous cum off of her ass. She suddenly felt more submissive,
glancing over her shoulder with a red face, and realizing she was being caught on video since
she was at the front of the crowd.
She also noticed that someone had set up what looked like a hot-dog stand and a grill, several
feet to the left of the pole. A few people from the crowd had formed a line in front of it, but it
didn't seem to be selling anything yet...
Mikiko's hands were almost at the point on the railing above the orange line. She writhed in
orgasm then, pissing herself in fear or excitement... or both. As her husband came deep in her
rectum, his thrusts caused Mikiko's sweaty hands to slide over the orange line. The crowd
began cheering as this happened, and Karen could also hear the noisy orgasms of parents and
their children in the crowd behind her. Mikiko shuddered and gasped, moving her hands to her
pussy, still pissing in spurts, as the two attendants grabbed her under her hairy armpits.
At first Karen thought they were just steadying her, before they began pulling her forward.
Mikiko leaned back into their arms, still rubbing her pussy...
Karen's stomach flip-flopped as it finally dawned on her what was about to happen. The
thought shocked her, but it also turned her on! She was already masturbating, and her finger
continued swirling over her erect little clit! Her bush was soaking wet!
Mikiko was shivering in lust and fear, as she fingered herself. Her husband watched from
behind the orange line, his throbbing dick still slick with her juices. He continued to masturbate
as the men pulled Mikiko to the point where the ramp dropped off, taking their places before
the steep ladders on both sides of the pole.
They each grabbed one of her thighs, as they wrestled her writhing body into position above the
seven-foot tall steel spit. The men were firm but gentle as they lowered Mikiko's wet pussy
over the spit, letting her juices ease the death instrument into her body. They hoisted her
struggling body up and down several times, getting the tip of the spit slick with her lubrication.
Then they each took a step down their ladders!
Mikiko shrieked in orgasm and then pain, as the spit tore through her womb. She could no
longer even attempt to hold back her bladder or bowels, as the last of her piss spurted out, and
a thick turd slid out her ass. Mikiko was going into convulsions; her large stiff-nippled breasts
jiggling like jell-o!
Karen had never been more aroused in her life! She noticed that Mikiko's daughters were
sucking each other off in a tangle of arms and legs on the dirty trampled ground in front of the
pole... And when she looked back up, blood was gushing out of Mikiko's mouth, and over her
pendulous breasts, as the tip of the spike made its way out of her upturned mouth. Her body
was still, except for the dripping blood, and its slow movement down the ever-increasing girth of
her spit. The sight sent Karen into an orgasm that lasted for nearly a minute!
When she had calmed down from her big cum, Karen turned to a nude black girl that was being
butt-fucked behind her. "Wow! That got me so hot! It's the first time I've ever seen a real
"I know!" the girl answered, "I imagined it was me being pushed up the ramp!" The white
English college-boy who was fucking the black girl smiled, gesturing towards the 'hotdog stand',
"Wait till you see what happens next! Look!"
The spit holding the impaled meat that was once Mikiko was being unscrewed from it's mount.
As the spit was unscrewed, her arms and legs flopped lifelessly, flinging off droplets of blood.
A big blood bubble slid down between her breasts.
The women who had set up the 'hot-dog' stand had also set up two spit-mounts, and the smell
of lighter fluid and charcoal drifted into the crowd. The two strong men carried the spit over to
the mounts, and secured Mikiko's body above the coals. A Filipina woman wearing an apron
had also started a grill, since there were already so many people in line. She quickly cut off
Mikiko's arms, and one of her breasts, and dropped them onto the grill. She began cutting
bicep meat off of the arms, and rotated them with a pair of metal tongs.
Karen looked around for anyone who might recognize her, and then took her place in line. She
had never tasted woman meat, and was dying to satiate her curiosity.
While she was in line, she realized that Mikiko's husband was standing behind her. She smiled
and turned to face him.
"My name is Hiro Mishima!" He smiled and extended his hand.
"I'm Karen Hill, very pleased to meet you!" She smiled, and blushed, suddenly aware of how
naked she was.
"You're very attractive Ms. Hirr... Would you rike to share some cuts of Mikiko with my
daughters and I? I get first choice since I'm her husband... But I warn you, if you eat her meat,
you might be tempted to be my next vorunteer!"
Karen's knees felt very weak, but her pussy felt really wet...
"I'd love to, but first I'd like to sample her juices..." Her knees weakened and bent, until she was
kneeling in front of Hiro. His slimy dick pumped upward, until she tasted the last of Mikiko's
pungent pussy juices on her lips.
As Karen swallowed the head of Hiro's cock, she felt two tiny mouths on each of her nipples,
and a little tongue lapping at her soaking wet crotch. Every few minutes, she was forced to
waddle forward a few feet, closer to the wonderful aroma of barbecuing cunt. She was almost
at the front of the line when she heard cheering, and looked over at the ramp. A trembling,
skinny brown-skinned girl was being escorted away from the chess board, towards the entrance
to the ramp. Her opponent was squatting over the vibrator that stuck up into her young cunt,
bouncing up and down and laughing as her opponent was led away to become her dinner.
The winning girl was excited, because she almost never got to eat a nice big, juicy cunt steak.
The taste of Mikiko's cunt-juice filling her mouth, and his daughters mouths on her nipples and
cunt brought Karen closer to her second mind-blowing orgasm of the day. Before she knew it,
she was at the front of the line, and Hiro had sat her on the edge of the serving counter. She
was watching the girl being lifted off the ramp, as her mouth was stuffed with delicious, freshly
cooked meat. She playfully nibbled at the tiny fingers that poked the meat into her mouth. As
she chewed, she recognized the feel of a tender clitoris being ground between her teeth.
As she swallowed the chewed flesh of Hiro's previous cunt/wife, he leaned over her, his cock
sliding between her puffy cunt lips. Her stiff nipples pressed into his chest.
"I am going to roast one of my daughters next. I need to make another daughter to replace her.
I want you to be my next wife."
Her cunt spasmed as Hiro shot his seed into her womb.
"Ooooh! Yes! I'll marry you!" She screamed, as she saw a dying teenage girl open her mouth,
to make way for the tip of a long bloody spit.
She felt so sick, so dirty, like a cheap cut of meat!
She felt Hiro's spent cock deflating under the contractions of her leaking cunt. She imagined
taking Hiro's youngest daughter out of the oven, freshly roasted with her steaming little nipples
sticking up in the air!
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Dear Columnist:
I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say if you hear it on a talk show, or from a big political pundit on TV, it must be so. They say their parents are certain who'll win the election because the other side is so awful it will destroy America if they win. Can this election be predicted and is the survival of the America my parents and I know at risk?
Virginia Schmiggleberg
968 Hydrolic Street
P.S. Why can't the candidates be as cute as Justin Beiber?
Virginia, your little friends and their parents are wrong.
America throughout its proud history has experienced overheated, demonizing political rhetoric, and somehow our country survived presidents from each party -- as incompetent as many of them may have been. But it's true that hatred seemingly drives our politics more than ever. Today's raw hatred is certainly a true example of transparency in politics.
Forget talk show hosts for anything but preaching to choirs. Some on the right and left have become (cracked) mirror images of each other.
On the right, Rush Limbaugh has removed his last fig leaf (a dreadful image) to reveal pure personal hatred of Barack Obama. Limbaugh now says it's clear who "hates this country." On the left, talker Mike Malloy showed equal blinding partisan hatred with his contemptible on-the-air "interview" with Satan to ask how dead conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart is doing in "in hell." Many talk show listeners barf up their favorite host's riffs into blog posts, Facebook postings and conversation. Talk show hosts give partisan choirs new music to sing.
Some pundits and hosts on conservative Fox News and liberal MSNBC are actually political entertainers who name-call and push specific candidates. They're not serious analysts. The media create a conventional wisdom that changes on a dime. Only weeks ago, President Barack Obama seemed on the ropes due to an ailing economy, bad polling numbers on whether voters feel the country is on the right track, and statements from surrogates who contradicted talking points. And today?
The National Journal's Charlie Cook writes: "The strategic decision by the Romney campaign not to define him personally -- not to inoculate him from inevitable attacks -- seems a perverse one. ... The election is still more than three months away, and yet it has a different feel than it did just a month ago. Just as some Democrats in mid-June were starting to sound as if they were giving Obama up for dead, Republicans are now despairing. We have to remind ourselves that this election still has a long way to go."
Many analysts note that history suggests Obama will lose. But others note that Obama has often ignored and defied history -- and history's guideposts may be more complicated than pundits say.
In his masterful book, "The Candidate: What it Takes to Win -- and Hold -- the White House," University of California Political Scientist Samuel Poplin says a challenger's campaign must be like a nimble speedboat and adapt quickly, while an incumbent's is like a battleship, slower to course-correct. Romney's campaign today seems the battleship, and Obama's the speedboat. In recent weeks Obama has taken several actions that move him closer to Poplin's specific, historical criteria for winning incumbents.
Attorney and Moderate Voice blogger Patrick Edaburn analyzed American University political science professor Allan Lichtman's reliable "keys to the White House" and found Democrats have 10 of 8 needed to win. In an interview with a liberal blogger, Lichtman --who has successfully predicted every Presidential winner since Ronald Reagan's 1984's re-election, -- said the Democrats have three more keys needed to win.
So, yes, Virginia, there are some things to watch. But you still can't assume anything. Remember the old saying: "Assume makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'."
Which is why if you listen closely to pundits, partisan talkers and bloggers this election year, you'll be sure to hear a lot of braying.
PS: It's true that neither candidate looks like Justin Beiber. But both have sung in public. Obama wasn't bad, but admirers of the musical scale are thinking of suing Mitt Romney for abuse.
Pioneer staff reports | dclm-gs1-107930000 |
UC Berkeley News
Web Feature
UC Berkeley Web Feature
Panoramic image of Allen Telescope Array
A panoramic view of the 42-antenna Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California. The array was dedicated Oct. 11, the start of scientific and SETI observations. (UC Berkeley photo)
Radio telescope array dedicated to astronomy, SETI
– A new-concept radio telescope devoted equally to galactic astronomy and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence will be dedicated today (Thursday, Oct. 11) by the University of California, Berkeley, and the SETI Institute at a ceremony in northern California.
ATA photo of atomic hydrogen in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33)
One of the first images taken by the 42-antenna Allen Telescope Array shows the atomic hydrogen in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33), situated in the constellation Triangulum. Unlike M31, the Pinwheel Galaxy shows no hole at the center and an almost constant distribution of gas nearly to its outer radius. The Pinwheel's nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, is large enough to generate tides in the galaxy, which blow out faint puffs of hydrogen seen at the top and bottom of the image. (Allen Telescope Array/UC Berkeley)
Below: The Pinwheel Galaxy as seen by the Isaac Newton Telescope.
(IAC/RGO/David Malin)
Isaac Newton Telescope image of the Pinwheel Galaxy
Located in an arid valley near the town of Hat Creek, just north of Lassen Volcanic National Park, the first 42 of a planned 350 radio dishes of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) recently started collecting scientific data from the far reaches of the universe, opening a new era of radio astronomy research. The ATA also is the largest telescope devoted to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
"This is a great day for the science of radio astronomy and the study of the cosmos," said Leo Blitz, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy and director of the university's Radio Astronomy Laboratory, which is building the ATA with the SETI Institute of Mountain View, Calif. "Thanks to a unique intersection between the best in science, advanced, innovative technology and bold philanthropy, many secrets of the universe are a little closer to being revealed."
The radio telescope array will expand search capabilities for intelligent civilizations beyond Earth and provide a better understanding of exploding stars (supernovas), the massive black holes at the cores of distant galaxies and new, exotic astronomical objects that are predicted but not yet observed.
Based on the idea that a large number of small radio antennas is cheaper to build than a small number of large dishes, the ATA breaks new ground as the first panchromatic, wide-angle, snapshot radio camera ever built, and is the most effective tool to create radio images of a vast area of the sky ever placed in the hands of researchers.
Paul G. Allen, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist whose foundation donated seed money that started the project in 2001, joined representatives of UC Berkeley and the SETI Institute to launch the array.
"This project represents a potential breakthrough in building large arrays of radio telescopes that are extremely cost effective," said Allen, the primary funder of the ATA. "As now deployed and with plenty of room for growth in the future, the telescope can fulfill a multitude of uses, including broad radio sky surveys and the search for evidence of extraterrestrial technology. I'm pleased to be able to contribute to such an important advancement and help build on the work this new telescope will do in the future. My hat is off to the team that worked so hard these last seven years to accomplish this significant milestone."
Every object in space emits radio waves that can be captured and studied. From analysis of these signals, radio astronomers can create a picture of astronomical objects and events at great distances, revealing detail not discernable by telescopes operating at other wavelengths. Unlike existing radio telescopes, the ATA can image a large piece of the sky at once, enabling much speedier surveys of the heavens than currently possible.
The telescope's first test images, released today from data gathered by the 42 ATA telescopes, include a radio map of the nearby Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33).
"We welcome the Allen Telescope Array to the ranks of cutting-edge instruments seeking to advance the frontiers of astronomical knowledge, and congratulate the team whose vision, innovation, and hard work have made it a reality," said Dr. Fred Lo, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. "The ATA will play an important role, both technologically and scientifically, in the exciting future of 21st-Century astrophysics."
Allen Telescope Array dishes
The ATA consists of 42 20-foot diameter antennas, each stamped out and mounted on pivots that allow them to swivel and slew to view the entire sky above northern California. (Seth Shostak/SETI Institute)
Beyond its speed and ability to both collect and analyze data, the ATA is also the first centimeter wavelength radio telescope with the ability to multi-task. While making innovative observations for radio astronomy, it can simultaneously interrogate solar-type stars for artificially produced signals that would reveal the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
"For SETI, the ATA's technical capabilities exponentially increase our ability to search for intelligent signals, and may lead to the discovery of thinking beings elsewhere in the universe," said astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
This new capability increases many-fold the time astronomers can devote to large-scale surveys of the stars, as well as expands the radio frequency band over which they can search. For SETI, in particular, this means that over the next two-dozen-years, the ATA will get 1,000 times more data than has been accumulated in the past 45 years.
Comparing the search for intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy to the search for the proverbial "needle in a haystack," Shostak noted that "we don't know how many needles are in the galactic haystack of 400 billion stars, but I think we will find (signals from intelligent civilizations) by 2025."
"Over the next five years we will enter an era in which we will be discovering Earth-like planets, and ATA offers the opportunity to stare for hours or weeks at these planets in search of intelligent signals," said UC Berkeley's premier planet hunter Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy. "I expect the telescope to be fully online when we find that first Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star, so we can point the ATA at it and listen."
The ATA uses mass-produced, 20-foot diameter radio dishes and commercial telecommunications technologies combined with an innovative receiver design and state-of-the-art digital signal processing technology. Working together, these small dishes create a telescope with a wide field of view ideally suited to rapidly surveying the sky.
The layout of the 42 dishes was created by a computer model and is optimized to provide high quality radio imagery of the sky. The ATA can also filter out noise from man-made interference that in many radio telescopes would render much of the data unusable. The array can be easily upgraded as new advances in computer or telecommunications technology become available.
The total cost of the project to date, including research, development and construction costs for the array and the necessary radio astronomy and SETI signal detectors, is $50 million. The first phase of this project was funded through generous grants from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation totaling $25 million. UC Berkeley, the SETI Institute, the National Science Foundation, Xilinx, Nathan Myhrvold, Greg Papadopoulos, and other corporations and individual donors contributed additional funding. Both UC Berkeley and the SETI Institute are engaging in additional fundraising efforts to complete the full 350-dish array.
The full 350-dish array, when completed in approximately three years, will have unprecedented research capabilities. Capitalizing on constant advancements in computer technology, the ATA will be manufactured at a fraction of the cost of traditional instruments. The ATA team is prepared to install more dishes as additional funding is secured.
For more information: | dclm-gs1-107940000 |
Man Run Over by Army Truck in New York
Man Run Over by National Guard Truck in New York
That must have been one of those truck drivers I spoke of who like driving a vehicle larger than everyone else’s.
The accident happened at around 1:15 pm on November 6, 2012 on Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown, between Centre Street and Lafayette Street. An eye witness alleges that he saw the convoy of at least 10 National Guard trucks like the one in the photo above run the red light when crossing the previous intersection.
The middle-aged man who was run over was of Asian descent. He was reportedly crushed like a ripe tomato under the truck’s wheels but survived. He was carried away on a stretcher with a neck bracelet by paramedics and taken to Bellevue Hospital with life threatening injuries.
There’s been a bit of a media blackout about it because it was an army truck that crushed the man, so all there is are reports by eye witnesses who allege to have seen the accident.
What People Searched For To Land Here:
• squashed bodies
38 thoughts on “Man Run Over by Army Truck in New York
1. You’re in the middle of the street and you need to watch for on coming traffic. When you fail to see big deuce n half truck coming at you, well you end up flattened like a tomato! No second chance after this meeting dumb bastard..
2. His slanted eyes must have blurred the truck to make him think it was one of those Chinese parade dragons, and he wanted to be part of it, so…underneath it he went!
• damn straigh pale we own a double duece n 1/2 and that fucker is a fucking monster i still remember when we took it camping and we yanked a 6′ diamiter tree right out of ground with the roots pulled out of the ground we had to the chains out of the trunk of the tree trunk to and we camped out for a month. though we got a 1k fine for takeing a live tree that didn’t need be removed out 😛
3. I say run the bastard over again!! I live in Seattle and ill tell ya, the fucking hipsters do NOT look both ways here. If there are 3 major things I remember from kindergarten its learn to share, don’t cut in line, and always look both fucking ways!!! He was probably homeschooled.
4. There is a media blackout because i live in New York and this is the first time hearing about this story. The guy walking probably had headphones on and not paying attention to the big ass convoy truck. How do you not notice a convoy truck. Fucking people crossing streets need to pay fucking attention.
5. Mm that idiot driver of the convoy must have thought they were still in vietnam or something. He should have spotted that red trafic light. Accident my ass, that is murder. l hope the family of that asian gets a big check for xmass.
6. What is it with people getting run over by great big bulky vehicles, fist a steamroller, then an army truck! Is it that the vehicles are so high off the road that the people driving them can’t see low enough, is it just carelessness, or are the pedistrians somehow at fault? Personally I think it’s allt three!
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Archive for category Democracy
This is England
Those who squeezed in to the Scottish Green conference this weekend were greeted by thought-provoking image on the front of their delegate packs – an inverted map of the UK with Scotland in the middle nestling comfortably between Norway and Ireland, England fading into the distance.
In England though Scotland is as peripheral as ever. On a Saturday afternoon in rural Oxfordshire people mill about the bus stops and market in Witney, the nominal home of the Prime Minister. This is small town English life as the modern Tories envisage it. Pavement cafes and bistros line the high street, itself furnished with ample parking. Witney is a bus ride from Oxford, and functions as a jumping off point for even quainter Cotswold towns and villages.
A few miles away, just down the road from the RAF base at Brize Norton, sits the town of Burford. Its long street of pubs and restaurants is straight out of the Visit Britain adverts plastered on the white walls of airports across the globe.
The town hall has a noticeboard outside listing all the goings on, a public letter of support about the maintenance of rural bus services in West Oxfordshire taking centre stage among the bulletins. There’s no appeal for food bank donations or invitations to public meetings though. The various crises and pressures hitting contemporary Britain from both left and right are well beyond being felt here. Burford is the final navigable point on the Thames, and it feels a very long way from London.
In the local deli, a phenomenon quickly replacing the dying village shop in places like Burford across the South, a woman is giving out samples of locally grown organic fruit liqueur. “I’m guessing you’re not local” she says, pushing over a thumbfull of red liquid. “It’s very nice here, even if it is a bit Midsomer Murders sometimes.”
Stepping outside on the street it is obvious she is right. This is not the kind of place that needs to put up Union Jacks. Its Englishness is written into the buildings, as is its wealth.
A taxi driver who ferries people from village to village, a British-Asian called Abdul, puts it succinctly. “I mostly just do station runs or take non locals to weddings. Almost everyone here has a car.”
At a local wedding venue you can hear the transport aircraft whine as they race up the runway at Brize Norton, headed for Afghanistan, the Falklands and perhaps now Syria too. Inside a Ceilidh band is starting up and a mixed crowd of nervous home counties partyers peppered with a few Scots nervously practice the dances the band want them to play. The Scots, kilted-up and playing their part, lead everyone else as the good whisky is uncorked on the sidelines. This is the only manifestation of Scotland that could possibly work in this part of the country, detached as it is from the reality of the England outside too.
The following morning the TV at the local pub broadcasts a silent Andrew Marr as guests tuck into their full English breakfasts. The UKIP election victory in Essex is comparable to the shockwave the SNP have created in Scotland, he says. In Burford and Witney though it is very easy to forget what is going on, chillax and eat your cereal.
The Two Faces of Democracy
Today’s guest post is from Duncan Thorp, who’s previously written for us about social enterprise and hate in politics. Thanks Duncan!
12978395593_3fbf45b646_mWe’re living in exciting times, Scotland has changed for the better. Nothing’s changed but everything’s changed. The referendum has been recognised by most people as an exercise in peaceful democracy. It’s true.
In terms of the vote itself, the huge level of popular participation and the technical and legal agreements, it was incredible.
97% of the voting population registered to vote. 16 and 17 year olds enfranchised for the first time, an 85% turnout. A true Scotland-wide debate. More information, slogans and facts flowing like never before. All this over an extended timeframe, far longer than any election.
We should genuinely celebrate this achievement. Only with historical perspective will future generations understand how powerful it was, an independence movement without bloodshed is virtually unheard of. A few bad eggs are as serious as it got.
But there’s another side to this exercise in direct democracy. The environment of the wider society that it took part in was very much anti-democratic. The dominant state narrative of Britishness is ever-present in every aspect of our lives. In this context it’s nothing less than a miracle that 45% of those voting wanted independence.
Much of the mainstream corporate media was of course a blatant case of misinformation, bog standard bias or agitprop. Years of daily, unrelenting, anti-independence news from nearly 100% of the print media can’t be dismissed. Broadcasters often struggled with their values and biases in favour of the status quo. Any media “neutrality” simply means that a story includes views from both sides – it doesn’t cover the decisions to include/exclude certain stories in the first place.
Similarly, large corporations making even vague anti-independence statements, while wielding huge economic power over jobs and investment, were leapt on by the mainstream media. The very fact of the unequal economic power balance in favour of big business meant that any potential relocation was a huge threat (genuine or not).
Indeed without straying into silly conspiracy theory territory, it would be naïve to suggest that HM Government and all the apparatus of the British state, were not deployed (under the radar) to save the state itself in its most critical moment of need. Would you lie back and allow your own power to be fragmented and taken away?
It’s also perplexing that the British nationalists of the far-right were absent until after the votes were counted. It was upsetting to see a mob performing Nazi salutes, singing Rule Britannia and burning a Saltire in George Square, Glasgow. They clearly didn’t get the memo about the “war against nationalism”. Where were they in exercising their democratic rights during the campaign?
It’s certainly unfair to suggest that every no voter was simply fooled or voted out of fear. Some were emotionally dependent on the British narrative and some were basically happy with the way the UK had turned out. Many people voted no because they didn’t think that the economic case had been made. They just disagreed with the other side. Acceptance of the referendum result is vital; we can identify flaws while still abiding by it. It’s all relative. We must move on. But getting back in the box is not an alternative. “One Scotland” unity, while well-meaning, is easily abused. Orwell’s Unity is Strength springs immediately to mind because unity is often a code word for compliance and conformity. There’s no place for eat your cereal politics.
There is only wisdom in crowds, not in elite decision-making. The huge participation wasn’t simply because of the subject, it was because we, the people, were making the actual decision ourselves. Unlike in elections, we were not voting to choose other people to make decisions for us. One of saddest things I read on 19 September was Happy Dependence Day, a slogan but also a defiant recognition of the need for autonomy.
We’ve been too conservative in using the powers that The Scottish Parliament already has. By using current and newly devolved powers a real difference can be made. From the missing link of radical devolution to local communities, land reform, community energy and building our own community organisations to real public sector reform. We need creativity and commitment. We also need to drive forward social media and democratic, inclusive, unbiased media. We don’t need alternative media that just reinforces our own views without challenge.
There are many incredible people-led movements across the world and there’s also a wider war against democracy. We should be aware of these many campaigns against elite, minority rule and for direct people power. It’s only with mass and persistent action that fundamental change happens.
While the UK state infrastructure remains powerful, the unionist campaign was temporary. The Indy infrastructure is now thriving. Energised, motivated and determined, they’re going nowhere. Much of this has thankfully gone beyond narrow nationalism and indeed beyond narrow independence. It’s not about the 45%, it’s about the 100%. We now need this to be a democracy movement.
But forget the challenges, the truth is self-evident. Autonomy and authentic, direct democracy is addictive. One taste and people want more. This vote was important but it was just one step as part of an ongoing journey.
Forget governance, Scotland is more of a nation than ever.
Sweden enters a brave new world
Olof Palme, the last Social Democrat to enjoy a full majority
Today Stefan Löfven, a former industrial welder from northern Sweden, expects to begin moves to assemble a Social Democrat-led government. As the latest in a long line of Social Democrat prime ministers, Löfven assumes not just the trappings of power but an office of both party and state that defined Sweden for the latter part of the 20th century. But the party that led Sweden through its golden age of economic and social prosperity after the Second World War and made the country a role-model across Europe and the wider world is not in good shape.
It used to be said the Social Democrats were in control even in opposition. Now the question is whether they are in control when they are in government. In coalition with the Greens, they no longer have the ability to lead and make others follow. When former Social Democrat leader Göran Persson left office in 2006, Sweden still possessed many of its Nordic economic and social features, from a monopoly on the nation’s chemists to extremely high levels of sick-pay eligibility and a relatively protected public healthcare system. In the past eight years many of the old certainties have vanished, and the country the Social Democrats should inherit is, for the first time in over half a century, not a land for which they have written the rules.
Since 2006 Sweden has been led by the conservative-liberal ‘Alliance for Sweden’, a joint front of the Moderate, Christian Democrat, Liberal and Centre parties. By far the biggest partner in the coalition were the rebranded ‘New’ Moderates, who successfully overhauled Swedish conservatism under the leadership of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and proved a big influence on David Cameron’s reinvented British Conservative party.
Elected on a promise to safeguard the Swedish model, the Alliance for Sweden have fundamentally changed key aspects of the Swedish system. Since the 1950s the country has been famous for extremely high levels of employee protection, gender and economic equality and a robust economy that has weathered global trends.
Since 2006 the expansion of profit-driven free schools has increased educational division, and tax cuts for both the wealthy and the restaurant sector, intended to stimulate employment, have had little impact on the overall prosperity of the country. Combined with an affordable housing crisis in Stockholm and well-publicized scandals involving private healthcare companies, the Moderates look set to limp over the finish line with just two-thirds of the support they won at the previous election.
The complex maths generated by Sweden’s combination of open national lists and a 4% barrier for entry to parliament means that a likely Social Democrat-Green coalition could horse trade with the Left, Liberal and Centre parties to form a majority. Unfortunately for Löfven, the Feminists failed to make it past the finish line, robbing them of a natural ally. Traditionally Sweden has operated as two electoral blocs, with the Social Democrat-dominated left competing with what Swedes label ‘bourgeois’ parties in coalition.
The difficulty for either side in assembling a complete majority has been created by the entry of the far-right Sweden Democrats. The party, which first appeared in 2010 and is rooted in neo-Nazism, was vying with the Greens to become the third largest in national politics, comprehensively pushed them into third place. Both the Greens and the Sweden Democrats had consistently hovered at around 10%, with the Greens promoting their ability to keep the far right from influence to no avail. The Sweden Democrats hit 13% though, making themselves kingmakers if anyone would be willing to work with them. For now though, unlike in neighbouring Norway where the strongly anti-immigration Progress Party is in a governing coalition, the Sweden Democrats remain political outcasts.
What is happening in Sweden mirrors the fragmentation of European politics more generally, with voters abandoning traditional Social Democratic and Conservative parties in favour of newer voices on both left and right. In the recent European elections the Greens beat the Moderates into third place, whilst the grassroots Feminists mobilised largely young and female voters to win an MEP. More worryingly for the traditional blocs, the far-right have been able to take votes from both conservatives and white working class voters.
The changed nature of Swedish politics means that a return to pre-Alliance days is firmly out of the question, and the time when the Social Democrats would haul in upwards of 40% of the vote and make small concessions to other parties are long gone. It also means that the Swedish model so admired by Sweden’s European neighbours is on shaky ground even without the Alliance at the helm.
Government without overwhelming support leaves the Social Democrats with an existential question. Outflanked on the progressive left by Feminists and Greens, but unable to move further right without hemorrhaging their core support, they remain comfortably the largest party but without a clear vision of why they want to be in office. At a time when Sweden’s problems with social exclusion and income distribution risk removing it from the realms of Scandinavia and dumping it firmly within the demographic trends of the rest of Western Europe, Löfven will lead a group with the smallest percentage of Social Democrat MPs since the 1920s. His government needs to revive the Social Democratic project and make it relevant for the 21st century if the party and the society they created are to survive. | dclm-gs1-107960000 |
I, Frankenstein, and I Have a Motion Poster
I, Frankenstein (2014) Movie Title
Yes, in case you were wondering, Aaron Eckhart’s “I, Frankenstein” is still around and kicking. The bad news? It’s been slotted for January 2014, which is about a year later than expected. The film seems to be stuck in-production since forever, but maybe that’s just because I’ve been reporting on it since 2011, but it’s just now getting the very first bit of promotion — by way of a silly “motion” poster featuring Eckhart doing, well, something. Or not.
It’s pretty pointless, and makes you wonder who thought this was a better idea than just releasing a motionless one-sheet. It’s like giving a Ferrari to someone who doesn’t know how to drive. What’s the point?
Anyways, the film finds Eckhart playing the titular monster, who “finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans.” That sucks for you, Frank.
The movie also co-stars Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Miranda Otto, Caitlin Stasey, Deniz Akdeniz, Socratis Otto, Chris Pang, Virginie Le Brun, and is directed by Stuart Beattie (“Tomorrow, When the War Began”).
Fighting next year January 24, 2014.
I, Frankenstein (2014) Movie Motion Poster | dclm-gs1-107970000 |
All-Time US Best XI shameless hit and comment bait
"Oh, right, the centennial," was what I thought after three or four days of lying awake at night wondering where all these US all-time teams were coming from. I thought people were being all shock talk radio host or something. "That's a good enough excuse. Now I can pick my own team, and no one will accuse me of trying to get cheap attention!" Although it's going to be hard to top Hope Solo carping at Julie Foudy's picks. (Sorry about the obligatory ad the Worldwide Leader always sticks on its videos.) There are plenty of reasons that this is a wonderful, amazing time to be an American soccer fan, but near the top of the list is the privilege of watching Hope Solo's ongoing journey into a truly, hilariously horrible human being. The only advice I can give Hope is to commit her inevitable multiple felonies while she still has the money to afford a good lawyer. The way she's going, she's not going to want to be met at the bottom of the hill by a public defender.
But I digress. A few weeks ago the Total Soccer Show had an all-time US draft, and I thought about challenging other bloggers here to a similar draft. Except (1) you don't end up with a best XI, some of the best players and guys you're settling for, and (2) there are going to be formation issues. There would be anyway, but when there's a run on wing backs and you're down to Burns or Agoos - well, that's an empty feeling.
And once things started going wrong for me, I'd draft Gat Miller and the rest of the Boston Oneida team, then spend the rest of the draft going "Never lost a game. Never gave up a point. Never gave up a goal. My team is invincible," until someone finally told me they didn't actually play soccer, and then I'd just pout the rest of the day.
So I'm just gonna pick some dudes. I'm going 4-4-2, because that was the position we used in 2002, and anyway going 2-3-5 just because it's easier to pick forwards isn't the cowboy way.
Goalkeeper: Oh, this is the other reason I'd be bad in a draft situation. We're SO DEEP at keeper, is the conventional wisdom. But I need Brad Friedel. If you look at World Cup success, and Friedel's 2002 performance is so overpowering, I can't settle for the single game heroics of Borghi, Keller, Howard and Meola. I must have Friedel. I don't care about his accent. I don't care that I was there for Keller's game in LA over Romario. I don't care that Borghi and Meola beat England. I don't care that Friedel recommended Carlo Cudicini to Bruce Arena. But drafting Friedel first is a great way to make sure that a lot of my faves at thinner positions are gone almost instantly.
Left backPaul Caligiuri. See, if I don't draft Cal, and draft his ass early? I'm down to Bocanegra playing out of position, Hejduk (whom I love, and would be a good pick, but best of all-time?), or sticking one of the 1950's team into a position that didn't exist. Much easier to just order these guys to report to my team. Which, as longtime Crew fans will attest, is exactly how Caligiuri wants to be treated.
Central defenders: Marcelo Balboa and - crap. I was so, so set on Alexi Lalas out of sheer defiance. He was so good in 1994 and 1995, and so much better in big games than people remember. But...Eddie Pope, man. Or Harry Keough. Screw it, I'll die on Lalas Hill. I know Lalas would still be on the board late in a draft, though, as everyone rushed to get Bocanegra because soccer didn't exist before 2007.
Right back: I'm kind of reaching and cheating here...but odds are, so are you, if you're not picking Cherundolo or Hejduk. One of the things I strongly believe is that the best player of one era would be at least as good in another era, because that same player would have had the same positive (or negative) environment. I also don't think that comparing World Cup records should trump the achievements of the great players in earlier eras. I think if, say, the best player of the 1950's would have come up in the MLS era, he'd be amazingly famous. And even though this position didn't really exist in 1950 - they played a 2-3-5 against England - I think right midfield is close enough for government work. So I'm putting Walter Bahr here. Otherwise I'd have to pick another captain, wouldn't I?
Left wing: Go and read some of your fellow posters. A LOT of people are putting Dempsey here, which I regard as cheating. Alexi Lalas put Tab Ramos here, which, c'mon. Although maybe they're not playing a 4-4-2. I should get off their case. Anyway, I really see the temptation. I'm picking Cobi Jones, our all-time caps leader, and feel like I'm settling.
Defensive midfielder: Oops. Can I get away with Claudio Reyna, or do I need to pick a proper defensive midfielder? I can't, can I? Wow, I'm being a hypocrite. One of the things I detest about best XI teams is how they have no one in the middle who plays any defense, which means that on the field they would end up like - well, how did Joe-Max Moore and Tab Ramos do against Iran? Okay, well, this is where I'd put Michael Bradley, who I don't quite have on the field otherwise, and that'll fend off some criticism. (EDIT - except for people who want to criticize me for not having Dooley here.)
Central midfielder: Crap, crap, crap. Reyna or Ramos. I'm already going to - well, hold on one second.
Right wing: Landon Donovan, because he can play anywhere. He and Cobi can switch around, even. I'm going to need to keep Cobi on the field, probably, because I don't think any of the other nominees for AM could co-exist, and I'm trying to pick a team that could actually win a game. Getting back to the draft situation - I don't know what the hell you do if you don't have the number one pick overall and you don't stick Landon here to cover the hole. I suppose you could bareface Bahr or Hugo Perez, or move an AM over here and hope for the best. But this is where Landon lined up against Mexico in 2002, so this is where I'm putting him.
Central midfielder: Ramos, Reyna or Dempsey. I forgot about Dempsey, he deserves consideration. I don't really think I could stick any of these guys in Cobi's position. Tab Ramos was so, so damn good once upon a time. If Leonardo misses with that elbow, this is a much easier pick. Claudio Reyna wasn't an "attacking" midfielder, but I think he probably controlled the game better than anyone else in US history. Right up until his leg gave out against Ghana. I think he's the smartest choice here. Clint Dempsey is too streaky, and I'd like to that the Seattle Sounders for making this opinion a lot more defensible.
Forward: Finally, an easy pick. No, I never saw Billy Gonsalves play. I'm sure he'd do just fine. Although maybe he was just Patenaude's caddy - Bert was the World Cup hat trick hero, after all. Until someone starts streaming old ASL games so I can actually compare, I'm going with Babe Ruth.
Forward: Boy, am I glad Eric Wynalda doesn't read my blog. But I'd even rather face Waldo's wrath than bench Brian McBride.
Only four Galaxy players. I think I showed admirable restraint.
Oh, a women's team. Hope Solo is right about a few things. The 1999 team is overrated, and should not be used as a measuring stick. The 1996 Olympic team should be. Midfield of Akers, Hamm, Foudy and Lilly. That'll do for starters. I love Shannon Boxx more than anything, but she'll understand. It also gives me room up top for both Wambach, who I really can't justify leaving off for April Heinrichs, despite the huge temptation, and Jennings-Gabarra, who gives me an excuse not to buy into the Morgan hype or delve into old Milbrett controversies. Chastain, Rampone, Fawcett and Overbeck can be my backline (with apologies to Kate Markgraf, but Overbeck was also a starter on the 1991 team, which also doesn't get enough love), and...
...I think Hope Solo was a better goalkeeper, because she had similar success with slightly less accomplished players in front of her. We'll never know if she could have beaten Brazil in 2007, but she was astonishing a year later in the Olympics - and that team didn't even have Abby Wambach. If I was actually building a team, I'd take Scurry, but since I don't have to worry about locker room harmony, I'll pick Solo.
And I will regret it.
I already kinda do. | dclm-gs1-107980000 |
Richard J. Hughes rhughes at
Tue Mar 30 19:33:21 EST 1993
Has anyone else been having trouble ordering the Entrez CD-ROM from the US
Government Printing Office? I have had plenty of difficulty.
I initially faxed an order, waited, received no response and faxed a
query. Still no reponse. Thanks to help from the Net, I managed to locate
their voice telephone number. I had in fact sent the faxes to the correct
telephone number but they had been ignored because they didn't include a
check (?...but that's what they said). I wonder why they even have a FAX
When you call the Gov't Printing Office, you are put on hold for a long
time. When someone finally answers, the audio is so faint as to be almost
indiscernable (maybe 5 dB above background). I and one of our secretaries
have called them on four separate occasions and have made very little
headway. The audio always borders on the inaudible and whoever you speak to
passes the buck (and you) to someone else. You can just tell that they
aren't interested in selling you this CD-ROM.
Turns out that they won't send out the goods without prepayment. UCSD
P.O.'s aren't good enough. But UCSD can't generate a P.O. number without an
invoice. The Gov't printing office doesn't want to send invoices without
the goods. Catch 22.
**<<flame on>>**
It ticks me off that I'm paying taxes to support these bozos in a job
that they don't give a damn about.
**<<flame off>>**
Maybe the best thing to do is not to order from them. That way maybe the
Gov't won't be able to justify paying all those bozos to jerk us around.
More information about the Bio-soft mailing list | dclm-gs1-107990000 |
(Nuclear Blast)
01. Bloodshed
02. Cannibal Holocaust
03. Fallen
04. Ayatollah Of Rock ‘N’ Rolla
05. Master Of Savagery
06. Spiral
07. This Is Violence
08. K.C.S.
09. El Comegente
10. Soulfliktion
RATING: 8/10
"It's about the human condition right now", states Max Cavalera in a recent press release for SOULFLY's latest album, "Savages". "We have the Internet and we're working on missions to Mars, but we are still decapitating each other and blowing up marathons. We're still savages. Even with technology and how far we've come in the world, our spirit is still that of a savage".
Savage has been SOULFLY's motif since pushing every boundary imaginable on their first four albums. Gone are the omnipresent "Roots" minded percussive cannonade and funk flitters that made SOULFLY such a joyride through their first albums. For better or worse, so are the rap interludes that turned some metal purists off. What Max Cavalera had tapped into within his post-SEPULTURA enterprise was something bred of imagination, urgency and post-trauma. For all Max had lost before starting this band, SOULFLY became a healing stone for its listeners, much less its creator.
Of late, SOULFLY has moved on to embrace the ugly spirit of societal condemnation Cavalera left behind in SEPULTURA (much less NAILBOMB) and for better or worse, "Savages" is a return at-heart to "Chaos A.D.", only with less primeval results. Considering SOULFLY is once again label neighbors with Max's alma mater, a vicarious rubbing off effect seems inevitable. One only needs turn to "This is Violence" or "El Comegente" on "Savages" to feel swept back to the days of old in the Cavalera-verse. Now with former STATIC-X bassist Tony Campos in the fold alongside mainstay guitarist Marc Rizzo and Max's son Zyon on drums, SOULFLY retains its recent mindset of brutality, albeit there's an immediate polished verve to the whole thing that makes it palatable, if overcooked at times.
Continuing to stray from the blunt tribal spices that made "Back to the Primitive", "Downstroy", "Bumba", "Brasil", "Sangue de Bairro" and "Mulambo" red-hot, shimmying pleasure pills, SOULFLY stays dirty and unabashedly heavy. Instead of swarming "Savages" with non-metal elements, the majority of the external trimmings (provided more by electronic twitters, beat samples and blunt coldwave) are served as outros. Whether or not you approve of the straight-up nasty metallic approach SOULFLY has employed since "Dark Ages", at least "Savages" attempts to revive some bouncing, rhythmic tempos, as if trying to usher "Chaos A.D." into a new order, if doing little to honor SOULFLY's (much less SEPULTURA's) ingrained spiritual fonts and ethnic beautification. Albeit, Tony Campos blaring in Spanish to counter Max's Portugese bellowing on "El Comegente" is one of the album's moments of cultural homogeneity, despite the song's unpleasant subject matter of a Venezuelan man-eater.
The riff is the name of the game on this album. The tempos vary somewhat but it's obvious much labor went into structuring rhythmic guitar and bass patterns around Zyon Cavalera's developing, though hearty drumming skills. Instead of demanding he prove himself a blast furnace, Max, Rizzo and Campos pounce on the opportunity to deck and pummel their lines while Zyon hones his licks. "Master of Savagery", "K.C.S." and "This is Violence" contain some of Zyon's best punk and funk-driven grooves. In turn, the rest of the band boosts his confidence by dishing out some of the coolest riffs in their arsenal.
"Savages" is more epic-minded with its frequently drawn-out song durations. Sometimes the method works, sometimes it becomes a case of overabundance. In the case of "Bloodshed", the extensive finale creates a downtrodden cadence that bookends with the plodding and angry opening verses. In-between, "Bloodshed" steps up the pace with menacing hooks, moshing bursts and grubby wallowing on the choruses. The stripped down jam session at the end of "El Comegente" works instead of detracts, and it gives "Savages" its most realized connection to the band's building blocks.
In keeping with the situation, "Cannibal Holocaust", perhaps the most insidious of all horror films, is given an appropriately filthy thrash groove reminiscent of early SEPULTURA as Max bays about hope being lost for mankind. To endure the movie "Cannibal Holocaust" beyond one sitting takes a constitution exclusive of moral taste. It implies a bloodlust, be it subliminal or more severe. While "Cannibal Holocaust" the song could've been a silly death metal ode in the vein of CANNIBAL CORPSE, Max uses the vehicle to indict humanity on a more base level.
Max saves the goofery for "Ayatollah of Rock 'n Rolla", a fun, mindless jaunt that does overstay its welcome with a few fakeout endings, but at least the base melody and bobbing crunch grooves of the track sit agreeably. It doesn't hurt that CLUTCH's Neil Fallon drops in for narrations and some extra hollers. Fallon is one of a few guests on "Savages", also including Mitch Harris from NAPALM DEATH on "K.C.S." and I DECLARE WAR's Jamie Hanks on "Fallen". Max even gathers his full brood to yell all over "Bloodshed".
While not as thrashy and vociferous as "Dark Ages", "Conquer" and "Omen", "Savages" is still a jagged pill to shove down, made passable by Tony Campos' up-front bass plucks along with Marc Rizzo's reliable leads and decorative layers. Rizzo has always been able to dress up Max Cavalera's brutish chord structures and keep SOULFLY soaring despite the reproachful about-face in tone they've taken as a band. A transitional album to be sure, "Savages" is more entertaining by and large because of SOULFLY's will this time instead of its mere obligation to survive.
| dclm-gs1-108010000 |
It's Not Just About A-Rod
-A +A
So, it's not just A-Rod, or Bonds or Clemens; it's a whole machine. A machine we as fans support so doesn’t that makes us part of it too? If you want to blame somebody, blame yourselves and pass me a hotdog and a beer, and sit your rear on down up in front.
[National: Comment On A-Rod Debacle]
I'm all for rules and regulations but when we don't follow them or are not exactly held responsible for upholding them then they have no real teeth.
When the administering of rules and regulations is gauged unfairly by who the person is, well then it is immediately compromised. This doesn’t just apply to sports but is prevalent in politics, religion, and so forth.
The more important you are the more you are likely to be cut some slack via some smart lawyer’s use of technicality but its all a dodge. Add to the fact people have short memories and loyalties to men and not necessarily their actions and you create further imbalance in carrying out the rules.
Do you ever wonder why Bernard Madoff is allowed to languish in his penthouse rather than in a jail cell? If that were you or me, we would be under the jail had we stolen the kind of money Madoff stole.
It seems that some rules are meant to apply while others don’t. So, it’s all a sham. Heck, oftentimes we convict people that aren't even guilty. We even occasionally hate the people that tell us the truth because of how they tell it to us; refer to Jose Canseco regarding steroid usage in baseball.
Canseco, it seems, told the truth concerning widespread steroid abuse. Yet everyone hated the fact that he ratted-out other players because he was going down for it. Think about it; what difference does it make who tells you the "truth?" I mean does it matter who tells you the house is on fire? Hell, if the next door neighbor you hate gets you up and out of a burning house, then that should be alright. The truth is the truth no matter who speaks it and should be considered that way first and foremost.
What should matter most is that the truth is being told. However, people have to add in their own feelings as to who is telling a particular truth and that's where we go wrong. We're not trying to be better people, we're always just trying to win and/or protect something or somebody at any cost.
That's probably why we fail so much at being the best we can be in a variety of ways. Things are so topsy turvy - notice how the law makes deals with criminals? That's because they make bargains to get at the bigger truth, even if they have to make the deal with a mob hitman like Sammy the Bull.
When Sammy spoke about John Gotti he was speaking the truth. The truth will set you free and behind all that the Bull now roams again. While it all starts to get rather convoluted, it’s the kind of concoction we throw together when we compromise the truth. The view gets murky and our vision darker and darker.
It's probably why God implored us not to judge. God said, "Do not judge..." Therefore, I think I will choose the road less traveled and simply forgive A-Rod and all the other wayward players too; then move on. Done! After all, we find the media constantly judging and asking us to judge too. I don’t know what we are looking for—perfection. That unreasonable goal we can’t even obtain ourselves. So, do we really think the next guy will achieve what no one else has? Before we judge others we need to look in the handiest mirror first. Is that a perfect, faultless face staring back?
Not to say that we should simply forget what the A-Rods of the world have done. No. But it is meant to say let’s not judge so harshly the missteps of others, without judging ourselves. I say stop judging and just try to step better going forward. Just my view and I feel pretty great behind it.
Since it’s the fans that keep baseball alive, whether it’s the good, bad and the ugly, how can we boo A-Rod without reserving a few of those boos for ourselves. Some of these players big and small take advantage of the game and of us. We have a tendency to hold the big rats up high while the little ones eat away at our core without much attention, until one day the gnawing gets the better of us and sends us reeling to our knees.
I can remember the Bergen Record in baseball when sportswriter Bob Klapisch chased Barry Bonds into the alley for the kill on the steroid issue. That is, until he found his boy RogerClemens in the same alley smiling like a Cheshire cat. Suddenly, for all the pounding he did on Bonds, Klapisch initially went silent when it came to his guy Clemens.
Fans barely heard anything for weeks after Clemens got caught –unlike with Bonds— and when they finally did, the tone was much different from the one used against Bonds. Don't you see, these players and writers represent us—you and me. Everyone can't be a ballplayer so what these guys do and we let them get away with under false allegiances, is ultimately what backfires in our faces.
So in that, the "Them" is "Us" really since we are very much a part of the game by the choices we make. That's why we continue to dig ourselves into a hole every time someone gets caught up and then admits drug or steroid use. The character flaws they show are really a mirror to where we are in the bigger game of human development. So go ahead and kick their asses as much as you want by blaming and judging because let’s face it, it's your own ass you're really kicking the shit out of and you deserve it.
So, it's not just A-Rod, or Bonds or Clemens; it's a whole machine. A machine we as fans support so doesn’t that makes us part of it too? If you want to blame somebody, blame yourselves and pass me a hotdog and a beer, and sit your rear on down up in front.
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20. Re: WoW Cataclysm System Specs Oct 21, 2010, 17:20 sauron
Flatline wrote on Oct 21, 2010, 16:25:
sauron wrote on Oct 21, 2010, 15:38:
Are you watching, makers of FFXIV? Your stupid game makes everyone's video card melt and nobody can play it even if they want to.
MMORPGs need reasonable system specs. Blizzard and Turbine understand this.
FF14 is a joke for many reasons. It's hefty system requirements are I believe #287 on that list.
Among the top 5 still has to be: you can only do 8 quests every 36 hours.
Yes, I believe the key phrase is 'nobody can play it even if they want to'. For multiple reasons, demand is not high.
I'm guessing #1 on the list may be: there's a 2 second lag every time you press any button since the game places control for literally everything server-side. And the servers are in Japan.
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Active Versus Passive Recovery
A long while back I wrote an article titled The Importance of Rest pointing out that most people train too hard too often and would benefit from more recovery, both in an acute (day to day) and long-term sense. In that article, in the context of a typical weekly schedule, I suggested that most people would benefit from at least one day completely off per week with perhaps 1-2 others dedicated to what is usually called active recovery or active rest.
In that context, a question I have gotten enough times to make it worth addressing is whether active rest or passive rest is ‘better’. That is, is it fundamentally better to do something for active recovery or better to just take the day completely off? Not surprisingly, not even coaches and top athletes can agree on this so today I want to look at both the concept of active and passive rest as well as some potential benefits and drawbacks to each.
Defining Terms
First some definitions. Passive rest should be pretty easy to understand, on a passive rest day you do nothing. No training at all. Some might allow for something like a brisk walk. But basically this is a day completely off. Sit around, do nothing, relax, recover. I don’t have much else to say about passive rest beyond that for the time being but I’ll come back to it near the end of this article.
In contrast, active rest (aka active recovery) refers to a workout done at a reduced intensity and volume of loading (relative to a normal workout). So a road cyclist might do an easy 45 minute spin on the bike at a heart rate of 130 beats per minute. A weightlifter might use a light day of training, at 75% of maximum for sets of 3-5 (noting that 75% of max is a weight you could generally do 10-12 reps to failure with so this is very sub-maximal) as an active rest day. Fundamentally, active rest is just meant to be a light/easy day.
I actually have some rules of active recovery that I’ll come back to at the end of this piece when I make some recommendations but, basically, an active recovery workout should not be fatiguing at all. When I have trainees do an active recovery workout, the primary criterion is that they should finish the workout feeling better and fresher than they started. If they are more tired coming out than going in, they did too much or worked too hard or both. Again I’ll give specific guidelines at the end of the article.
The Goal of Active Rest
As coaches and athletes came to the early realization that they couldn’t just train at 100% day-in, day-out without blowing up, the idea of having harder and lighter days came into vogue. At least in the endurance world, the hard day-easy day approach is usually attributed to Bill Bowerman of Oregon. Other sports including weightlifting found out early on that alternating harder and easier days helped avoid problems and this eventually evolved into various cycling schemes (including the fairly popular heavy/light/medium approach).
Eventually, this idea was taken a bit further and easy days were taken to be active recovery days. Even there nobody can seem to agree what the exact purpose of active recovery days are. In the endurance world, it’s often argued that active recovery days sort of ‘stimulate the metabolic pathways of recovery’ without contributing fatigue; basically it helps you to recover more quickly.
In contrast, others argue that active recovery has no truly active role in hastening recovery, rather it simply doesn’t add training stress (while allowing the athlete to get some light work in) so that the recovery that will take place anyhow can take place. Essentially, the active recovery is passive in terms of its effects on recovery; for what little sense that makes. Personally, having trained both ways, I probably tend towards the second interpretation. I can’t say that easy workouts really seemed to help recovery. Rather they were a way to get in some training, burn a few calories, maybe work out a bit of soreness without adding to the overall stress while recovery from the previous heavy day went about it’s business.
In some sports, it’s often argued that active recovery training helps to repair damage from high-intensity days. This seems to be the most prevalent in swimming theory where concern about metabolic damage from acidosis (which occurs during high-intensity swim training) can be countered with recovery/regeneration training. Basically, you repair any damage to things like mitochondria with lots of recovery swimming. I’m not sure this idea has been adopted by other endurance sports to any great degree.
In the weight room, the same basic arguments could probably be made. Some would argue that getting a light workout in the weight room (perhaps a Tue or Wed light workout after Monday’s heavy day) pumps some blood through the tissues, helps to remove waste products, etc. Some advocate drinking a carb/protein drink during this type of training as the increased blood flow from even light training should help to carry nutrients for growth and recovery to the muscles (the same idea can apply to endurance training, as well). An old idea in bodybuilding was to perform ‘feeder workouts’, high rep light workouts meant to pump blood and nutrients to worked muscles a day or two after a heavier day.
Frankly, I can’t recall seeing any real research on the topic one way or the other; in a practical sense, I’m not sure it matters whether active recovery training is having a direct impact on recovery (hopefully positive) or is simply allowing fatigue to dissipate while getting the person training. Of more practical relevance are the potential benefits of the training.
Pros and Cons of Active Rest
I’ve actually already described some of the purported benefits of active recovery above even if nobody can really agree on what active recovery actually does: from actively promoting recovery (by activating metabolic processes) to simply letting recovery happen without adding training stress to regenerating damaged mitochondria or whatever; these are all potential benefits of active recovery. But there are more.
For sports with a technical component (which is most of them), active recovery can essentially double as a technical workout. Since the intensity is low, the athlete can focus on some aspect of technique (either to correct or perfect it depending on where they are in their learning process) and do it under conditions where proper performance should be achievable.
While this is generally true for all sports (with a very few exceptions), it’s especially true for sports with a huge ‘feel/groove’ component. Activities such as the snatch in Olympic lifting or most swimming technique require that athletes keep in touch with them almost daily or they lose their feel for the movement (and the more precise the movement patterns are, the more this tends to be the case). Doing them for light work on active recovery days allows the athlete to keep their groove; that’s in addition to any extra technical practice benefits that are gained.
I’d note that this assumes that they aren’t so exhausted from the previous day’s workout that proper technique is impossible. In which case, the potential benefit can become a negative; the athlete is so tired that they ingrain poor technical habits during the recovery workout. This would be a situation where some sort of non-specific cross training (just to move some blood, etc.) might be a better choice. After a heavy Olympic lifting day, for example, one of my trainees will often do a light recovery workout with pump work on machines. It’s non-technical, moves some blood but doesn’t require coordination or mental focus. She gets the ancillary benefits of some training without having to worry about the technical aspect of training.
But for athletes who can use proper technique during recovery workouts, active recovery is a good way to get in some technical reps and keeping their groove/feel while also getting any other benefits from active recovery (metabolic, recovery, otherwise).
As noted, athletes who sip on a dilute carb/protein drink during active recovery sessions can actually take advantage of increased blood flow to working muscles. Whether for strength/power athletes seeking growth or endurance athletes who need to replace muscle glycogen and resyntheize damaged proteins, that alone can help with recovery whether the training itself has any real benefit. I’d note that if this is the explicit goal of active recovery sessions, then the primary sport needn’t be practiced. So long as the same muscles that are worked in the main sport are used, the nutrients will be carried where they need to be. So a runner can give his joints a rest by riding a bike or doing something non-impact will still getting increased blood and nutrient flow to fatigued muscles.
As an added potential benefit, athletes who have or are having body composition control issues, active recovery can be a good way to burn some extra calories to help keep body weight or body fat under control. An extra benefit in this regards is actually psychological; simply, some people stick to their diets better on days when they do some activity. Day’s off invariably turn into a “I didn’t train so I’m not going to worry about good nutrition.” kind of day and an active recovery session may be the only way to keep them from blowing their diet.
I’d note that some athletes simply don’t do well with complete days off. Some of this is specific to the groove/feel sports I mentioned above but even for other activities, some athletes simply don’t handle complete days off well physiologically. For whatever reason, and this is highly individual, they come back flat and unable to perform after a day or two completely off. Back in the day weightlifters and other strength/power athletes such as throwers used to talk about doing ‘tonic’ workouts, basically light days meant to keep their systems ramped up for heavy training days. Again, this is highly individual but does happen. The trainee mentioned above is like this, total days off flatten her out for Olympic lifting. Some sort of activity prevents this.
And that brings me, at last, to the biggest potential con of active recovery days which actually has less to do with the active recovery concept per se and more to do with human nature. As I mentioned in the definitions section above, the point of an active recovery workout is that it is a light, low-volume workout meant to either promote or allow recovery without causing more fatigue. But humans often have poor self-control and that’s where I see active recovery going wrong. All too often trainees go into the gym or start a workout with the intention of it being an active recovery day. Then they start screwing it up.
If they feel good, they start pushing the intensity and turning it into a workout. Or, because they figure that there’s no point in driving 20 minutes to the gym, changing clothes, working out for 20 minutes and then going home, they decide to go ahead and do a full workout. Volume increases, they push the intensity just a bit more than they should and they justify it for whatever reason. And they turn what should be an active recovery session into a workout.
And, as I discussed in Keep the Hard Days Hard and the Easy Days Easy, they end up doing more harm than good. Rather than ending up alternating a hard workout with an easy or active recovery day, every workout ends up in this middle intensity range because the easy days become so hard that the hard days can’t be hard enough. In that case, where the person simply has no self-control, the concept of active recovery does more harm than good and they should just stay the hell out of the gym (or stick to nothing more than a brisk walk). I’ll mention this again when I sum up.
Pros and Cons of Passive Rest
For the most part, if you take what I wrote above and just reverse it, you have this section. Honestly, the primary benefit of true passive recovery days (e.g. no training at all or nothing more than brisk walking) is for people with no self-control in the gym. If you can’t keep the intensity and volume where it should be for active recovery, don’t train at all. If you’re the type who simply must go hard or not at all, you’re better off staying out of the gym, off the bike, etc. Or try learning some self-control.
I’d mention that even with the benefits of active recovery, most coaches advocate and most athletes take at least one day per week of complete passive recovery. This is probably as much mental as anything. It’s very different to know you have 6 days of training ahead of you and then a day when you can sit around and watch television compared to knowing that you have to train every day for the next 21 or more days straight. Because anybody can make it through 6 days of training. And going 21 days without a break tends to just make people lose it. There’s something about blocking off the training into more manageable chunks that makes it more mentally survivable.
Finally, I’d mention again that for some individuals, complete days off seem to do more harm than good, they flatten out (and this is especially true for high-intensity sports like sprinting and weightlifting) and/or loose their groove and feel. In that case, active recovery may be the better choice but again with the caveat that it must be kept under control. In that vein, some Olympic lifters will actually break the ‘one day off per week’ rule and do a very short squat workout on Sunday, otherwise they flatten out between Saturday and Monday. When I say short, I mean short, 30 minutes start to finish if that and light and snappy.
The Rules of Active Rest
Ok, those are the pros and cons of active and passive recovery, now let’s talk about the rules. I’m going to assume that you’re incorporating active recovery workouts and I’m going to assume that you have the self-control to keep them under control. Here are the rules of an active recovery workout:
So say you’re an endurance athlete and your normal workout is currently an hour. An active recovery workout for you might be 30-40 minutes (1/2-2/3rds of your normal volume) at a HR of 120-130 (~60-70% of maximum). Some will push this up to the very lowest level of aerobic conditioning (130-140 HR for most activities) but even that may be pushing it. If your typical workout were longer, your active recovery workout might be similarly long.
So if you normally go 2 hours, active recovery is 1 hour to about an hour 20 or so. If you’re an elite cyclist doing 6 hours/day on the bike, well, first off you’re not reading this site for advice. But your active recovery workout might be 2-3 hours. As noted above, some athletes may benefit from doing cross-training activities for active recovery; runners especially can benefit from plugging in non-impact cross-training to give their joints a rest.
For weight trainers, the same basic idea holds although there are more options since intensity can be varied in more ways. The percentages can either apply to the load on the bar (e.g. work at 60-70/75% of maximum), total reps done relative to maximum or both. So an Olympic lifter who normally works in the 85-90% range for doubles might do light triples at 70% of maximum for a handful of sets. A powerlifter might do something similar, doubles or triples with 60%-70% of maximum for a few quick sets (almost speed work but don’t even think about using bands or chains).
A second approach is to use a percentage of the heaviest day rather than percentage of maximum; most heavy/light/medium systems work this way. So if you work to a 5 repetition maximum on Monday in the squat, you might use 75% of that weight on Wednesday for 5 reps as the light day. If you squatted 200X5 on the heavy day, you’d use 150X5 on the light day. Alternately. if you were doing sets of 12, you might use the same weight as for a heavy set of 12 but only do 6-8 reps (50-75% of your maximum rep count).
Basically, there are a lot more programming options in the weight room and different people respond to different things relatively better or worse (some prefer to keep the same weight on the bar but do less reps, others prefer lighter weights with the same reps, some do better with lighter weights and less reps) with the only suggestion I can make being that you adhere to rule 3. If you don’t come out of the weight room feeling better than you went in, you went too heavy. Keep experimenting until you find the loading that keeps you clicking technically but doesn’t fatigue you.
And let me reiterate point 3 again: ideally you should finish the active recovery workout feeling better than you started. At very least you should feel no more tired when you’re done. If you’ve increased your level of fatigue, you went too hard, too long or both. In which case passive recovery is probably the better choice because you have poor impulse control.
Finally, as noted above, some athletes like to consume a dilute carb/protein drink during active recovery workouts, the increased blood flow from training carries nutrients to worked muscles and can only help with recovery. I’d suggest perhaps 30 grams of carbs with 10-15 grams of a fast digesting protein (e.g. whey or soy) per hour of activity or so. Enough to get some nutrients to the muscles without consuming so much that you counterbalance the caloric expenditure of the training.
Summing Up
I was asked once on a forum whether active recovery was better than passive recovery which is what led to this article. I told the person basically this which sums up this piece “Done properly, active recovery is better than passive recovery under most circumstances. But if you can’t do active recovery right, passive recovery is better.” | dclm-gs1-108040000 |
Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyaara Pyaara: Why is Manasi Salvi quitting the show?
Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha meetha Pyaara Pyaara
Nobody wants to be just a piece of furniture in a daily soap and Manasi believes, she was becoming that in the Star Plus show
Manasi Salvi has been playing Avantika in Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyaara Pyaara for more than a year now, and the actor has decided to move on to do something exciting.
The character started out as a no-nonsense woman who was estranged from her husband. They’ve united, she has accepted Pankhuri (Disha Parmar) as her bahu and has almost solved all the problems of the Diwan family; now what? Manasi feels that her character has no more scope for growth in the show and hence, it’s best to move out. As a result, the actor quit the show and her last working day would be December 31, 2013.
However, according to a birdie from the sets, it seems Manasi had been threatening to quit the show since a very long time and the production house, who had had enough of her tantrums, decided to let the actor go. Now Manasi clearly denies this story, but from experience we know there is no smoke without a fire, right?
So does that mean Manasi will be killed in the show? Now that’s a whole new topic of discussion. Earlier Mukesh Khanna was killed in the show too, when the actor decided to quit. Guess Manasi will go the same way, but her exit might be just a tad more dramatic. What do you think BollywoodLifers?Subscribe to me on YouTube
Mansi is the best actress in this serial. Due to her only, I see the serial. I like her very very much.
• shikha
If Mansi left the serial then it will not remain interesting. Due to only Mansi people are excited to see this serial
• Som
Good if she leaves the show if this is her attitude. | dclm-gs1-108060000 |
The Goose Girl eBook
Harold MacGrath
The vintner had indeed heard something. He knew not what this noise was, but it was enough to set his heels to flying. A phase had developed in his character that defied analysis; suspicion, suspicion of daylight, of night, of shadows moving by walls, of footsteps behind. Only a little while ago he had walked free-hearted and careless. This growing habit of skulking was gall and wormwood. Once in his room, which was directly over the office of the American consulate, he fell into a chair, inert and breathless. What a night! What a series of adventures!
“Only a month ago I was a boy. I am a man now, for I know what it is to suffer. Gretchen, dear Gretchen, I am a black scoundrel! But if I break your heart I shall break my own along with it. I wonder how much longer it will last. But for that vintner’s notice I should have been lost.”
By and by he lighted a candle. The room held a cot, a table, and two chairs. The vintner’s wardrobe consisted of a small pack thrown carelessly into a corner. Out of the drawer in the table he took several papers and burned them. The ashes he cast out of the window. He knew something about police methods; they were by no means all through with him. Ah! A patch of white paper, just inside the door, caught his eye. He fetched it to the candle. What he read forced the color from his cheeks and his hands were touched with transient palsy.
“The devil! What shall I do now?” he muttered, thoroughly dismayed.
What indeed should he do? Which way should he move? How long had he been in Dreiberg? Ah, that would be rich! What a joke! It would afford him a smile in his old age. Carmichael, Carmichael! The vintner chuckled softly as he scribbled this note:
“If Herr Carmichael would learn the secret of number forty
Krumerweg, let him attire himself as a vintner and be in the
Krumerweg at eight o’clock to-night.”
“So there is a trap, and I am to beware of a mountaineer, a carter, a butcher, and a baker? Thanks, Scharfenstein, my friend, thanks! You are watching over me.”
He blew out his candle and went to bed.
Colonel Von Wallenstein curled his mustaches. It was a happy thought that had taken him into the Adlergasse. This Gretchen had been haunting his dreams, and here she was, coming into his very arms, as it were. The sidewalk was narrow. Gretchen, casually noting that an officer stood in the way, sensibly veered into the road. But to her surprise the soldier left the sidewalk and planted himself in the middle of the road. There was no mistaking this second maneuver. The officer, whom she now recognized, was bent on intercepting her. She stopped, a cold fury in her heart.
To make sure, she essayed to go round. It was of no use. So she stopped again.
Project Gutenberg
The Goose Girl from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
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Lost In The Darkness
Novel By: CoralineDaughtry
Submitted:Jun 28, 2009 Reads: 59 Comments: 0 Likes: 0
Summary: William is left alone in a world he can not bare to live in after he looses his wife and unborn child in the same night. Angry with God for taking away the only reasons he had to live William decides to take his own life but is stopped by a stranger who offers him a death that will have him forever wrecking his vengeance upon God. William takes the strangers offer and finds out that it is not at all what he expected. Now a vampire he is forever stuck in the world that he so desperately wished to get out of.
Elizabeth is a sixteen year old girl with memories she has never made and a sense of emptiness that will not go away. If it were not for the memories she would never have realised that she was missing something and would be able to go on with her life blissfully unaware that she would be so much more happier with a companion to love, but not just anyone, the man from the memories.
Warning: Mention of God and someones hatred toward God.
London, England. 1883
The soft autumn wind blew William's brown curls out of place and nipped at the exposed skin of his face and hands. He stood on the ledge of the church bell tower over looking half of London and still he somehow remained unnoticed to the passing pedestrians below. Though the wind chilled him and set his appearance into a state of disarray William remained unmoved by any and all factors of present time. His eyes might have been fixed on the cobble stone street eight stories below but his presence of mind was else where.
A few nights prior two lives very dear to William had been taken from him. One had been his beloved wife and the other he had not had the chance to meet. His wife had gone into labour a few weeks earlier then the doctor had expected and ran into more then a few complications. He was meant to gain a life that night but instead lost two.
The wooden stairs leading up to where William stood at the top of the bell tower creaked under the weight of a presence who wanted to make their approach known. The heavy footsteps, which indicated a male, stopped shortly after he reached the top of the tower. "It seems to me ironic that a man lookin' to take his own life, a sin against God, would do so at a church." The lower class Irish accent seemed out of place in the heart of London as it reached William's ears. "This leaves me to wonder what tragic event, or events which ever the case maybe, could lead a man to grow such a fury against the Lord."
A strong sickened and irritated feeling rose in the pit of Williams being. He slowly turned his head to the right so that the stranger behind him could hear his solemn reply. "I do not see how it is of any business to you." There was a beat of silence before William turned his head back to face the night of London before him.
The Irish stranger took but one step towards William. "What if I told you of a much more sinful death that would have you wrecking vengeance upon His Almighty for eternity?" A victorious smirk took form of the Irish man's lips as he heard William hold his breath a second too long, signifying his interest. "I suppose it would be my business then wouldn't it?"
From the church bell tower William watched for the first time that night as the busy and minuscule lives that were the gifts of God rushed around on the land he had gifted them with. They were all blissfully unaware of the cold hard cruelty their God inflicted on those who deserved it least, punishing them mercilessly for wrongs which they had not done. William stepped down from the ledge and took a few paces backwards into the safety of the bell tower. If what this Irish stranger spoke of was true then William would take his offer. A world with out his beloved was not a world worth living in, it was just a means of exiting the world and the more defying that means be towards God the better.
The Irish man closed some of the space between him and William. "The names Cillian." He introduced with a dark smile.
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The once-gritty capital of Wales used to be known for its industry, but things in Cardiff are changing. This sometimes-forgotten corner of the UK is well known for it sports obsessions and male choirs also, but more and more visitors are discovering that Cardiff is all cleaned up and ready to visit. There are castles and ruins and churches, but great shopping and dining and nightlife these days as well.
What To Do
Cardiff Castle is a huge collection of structures that were begun in the 12th Century and things have been added ever since. The interior has a very unusual and striking décor and public tours are popular and inexpensive. Llandaff Cathedral also dates back to the early 12th Century and is one of the oldest religious sites in all of Europe.
The modern and recently opened Wales Millennium Centre is home to the city’s opera, theater, and dance performances. It’s open for free tours and there are also free performances many afternoons. Cardiff Bay is a scenic and pleasant place for a stroll or a meal with its many restaurants and pubs overlooking the water.
Getting There
Many will arrive in Cardiff by train as part of a larger UK trip, but if you are coming from any distance you’ll want to book a flight into Cardiff International Airport. There are flights from all over the UK and continental Europe as well as a few from further away. The airport is about 12 miles outside the city center, but it’s on the rail line so it’s easy to get into the city quickly and affordably. If you are coming from North America you should check prices of flights into London and consider taking the train to Cardiff.
Where To Stay
The center of Cardiff is compact and there are several hostels there. There are plenty of hotels in Cardiff as well, but particularly in summer the better and cheaper ones can be booked up early so plan ahead. | dclm-gs1-108090000 |
Alternative title: Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand [Credit: Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images]Gandhi, Mohandas KaramchandAnn Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, byname Mahatma Gandhi (born October 2, 1869Porbandar, India—died January 30, 1948Delhi), Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. As such, he came to be considered the father of his country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress.
Sojourn in England and return to India
In the boardinghouses and vegetarian restaurants of England, Gandhi met not only food faddists but some earnest men and women to whom he owed his introduction to the Bible and, more important, the Bhagavadgita, which he read for the first time in its English translation by Sir Edwin Arnold. The Bhagavadgita (commonly known as the Gita) is part of the great epic the Mahabharata and, in the form of a philosophical poem, is the most-popular expression of Hinduism. The English vegetarians were a motley crowd. They included socialists and humanitarians such as Edward Carpenter, “the British Thoreau”; Fabians such as George Bernard Shaw; and Theosophists such as Annie Besant. Most of them were idealists; quite a few were rebels who rejected the prevailing values of the late-Victorian establishment, denounced the evils of the capitalist and industrial society, preached the cult of the simple life, and stressed the superiority of moral over material values and of cooperation over conflict. Those ideas were to contribute substantially to the shaping of Gandhi’s personality and, eventually, to his politics.
Painful surprises were in store for Gandhi when he returned to India in July 1891. His mother had died in his absence, and he discovered to his dismay that the barrister’s degree was not a guarantee of a lucrative career. The legal profession was already beginning to be overcrowded, and Gandhi was much too diffident to elbow his way into it. In the very first brief he argued in a court in Bombay (now Mumbai), he cut a sorry figure. Turned down even for the part-time job of a teacher in a Bombay high school, he returned to Rajkot to make a modest living by drafting petitions for litigants. Even that employment was closed to him when he incurred the displeasure of a local British officer. It was, therefore, with some relief that in 1893 he accepted the none-too-attractive offer of a year’s contract from an Indian firm in Natal, South Africa.
Years in South Africa
Africa was to present to Gandhi challenges and opportunities that he could hardly have conceived. In the end he would spend more than two decades there, returning to India only briefly in 1896–97. The youngest two of his four children were born there.
Emergence as a political and social activist
Gandhi was quickly exposed to the racial discrimination practiced in South Africa. In a Durban court he was asked by the European magistrate to take off his turban; he refused and left the courtroom. A few days later, while traveling to Pretoria, he was unceremoniously thrown out of a first-class railway compartment and left shivering and brooding at the rail station in Pietermaritzburg. In the further course of that journey, he was beaten up by the white driver of a stagecoach because he would not travel on the footboard to make room for a European passenger, and finally he was barred from hotels reserved “for Europeans only.” Those humiliations were the daily lot of Indian traders and labourers in Natal, who had learned to pocket them with the same resignation with which they pocketed their meagre earnings. What was new was not Gandhi’s experience but his reaction. He had so far not been conspicuous for self-assertion or aggressiveness. But something happened to him as he smarted under the insults heaped upon him. In retrospect the journey from Durban to Pretoria struck him as one of the most-creative experiences of his life; it was his moment of truth. Henceforth he would not accept injustice as part of the natural or unnatural order in South Africa; he would defend his dignity as an Indian and as a man.
While in Pretoria, Gandhi studied the conditions in which his fellow South Asians in South Africa lived and tried to educate them on their rights and duties, but he had no intention of staying on in South Africa. Indeed, in June 1894, as his year’s contract drew to a close, he was back in Durban, ready to sail for India. At a farewell party given in his honour, he happened to glance through the Natal Mercury and learned that the Natal Legislative Assembly was considering a bill to deprive Indians of the right to vote. “This is the first nail in our coffin,” Gandhi told his hosts. They professed their inability to oppose the bill, and indeed their ignorance of the politics of the colony, and begged him to take up the fight on their behalf.
Resistance and results
After a night’s work which had shattered men with much bigger frames, I came across Gandhi in the early morning sitting by the roadside eating a regulation army biscuit. Every man in [General] Buller’s force was dull and depressed, and damnation was heartily invoked on everything. But Gandhi was stoical in his bearing, cheerful and confident in his conversation and had a kindly eye.
The British victory in the war brought little relief to the Indians in South Africa. The new regime in South Africa was to blossom into a partnership, but only between Boers and Britons. Gandhi saw that, with the exception of a few Christian missionaries and youthful idealists, he had been unable to make a perceptible impression upon the South African Europeans. In 1906 the Transvaal government published a particularly humiliating ordinance for the registration of its Indian population. The Indians held a mass protest meeting at Johannesburg in September 1906 and, under Gandhi’s leadership, took a pledge to defy the ordinance if it became law in the teeth of their opposition and to suffer all the penalties resulting from their defiance. Thus was born satyagraha (“devotion to truth”), a new technique for redressing wrongs through inviting, rather than inflicting, suffering, for resisting adversaries without rancour and fighting them without violence.
“The saint has left our shores,” Smuts wrote to a friend on Gandhi’s departure from South Africa for India, in July 1914, “I hope for ever.” A quarter century later, he wrote that it had been his “fate to be the antagonist of a man for whom even then I had the highest respect.” Once, during his not-infrequent stays in jail, Gandhi had prepared a pair of sandals for Smuts, who recalled that there was no hatred and personal ill-feeling between them, and when the fight was over “there was the atmosphere in which a decent peace could be concluded.”
The religious quest
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand [Credit: Margaret Bourke-White—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images]Gandhi, Mohandas KaramchandMargaret Bourke-White—Time Life Pictures/Getty ImagesGandhi’s religious quest dated back to his childhood, the influence of his mother and of his home life in Porbandar and Rajkot, but it received a great impetus after his arrival in South Africa. His Quaker friends in Pretoria failed to convert him to Christianity, but they quickened his appetite for religious studies. He was fascinated by the writings of Leo Tolstoy on Christianity, read the Quʾrān in translation, and delved into Hindu scriptures and philosophy. The study of comparative religion, talks with scholars, and his own reading of theological works brought him to the conclusion that all religions were true and yet every one of them was imperfect because they were “interpreted with poor intellects, sometimes with poor hearts, and more often misinterpreted.”
Shrimad Rajchandra, a brilliant young Jain philosopher who became Gandhi’s spiritual mentor, convinced him of “the subtlety and profundity” of Hinduism, the religion of his birth. And it was the Bhagavadgita, which Gandhi had first read in London, that became his “spiritual dictionary” and exercised probably the greatest single influence on his life. Two Sanskrit words in the Gita particularly fascinated him. One was aparigraha (“nonpossession”), which implies that people have to jettison the material goods that cramp the life of the spirit and to shake off the bonds of money and property. The other was samabhava (“equability”), which enjoins people to remain unruffled by pain or pleasure, victory or defeat, and to work without hope of success or fear of failure.
Gandhi felt an irresistible attraction to a life of simplicity, manual labour, and austerity. In 1904—after reading John Ruskin’s Unto This Last, a critique of capitalism—he set up a farm at Phoenix near Durban where he and his friends could live by the sweat of their brow. Six years later another colony grew up under Gandhi’s fostering care near Johannesburg; it was named Tolstoy Farm for the Russian writer and moralist, whom Gandhi admired and corresponded with. Those two settlements were the precursors of the more-famous ashrams (religious retreats) in India, at Sabarmati near Ahmedabad (Ahmadabad) and at Sevagram near Wardha.
South Africa had not only prompted Gandhi to evolve a novel technique for political action but also transformed him into a leader of men by freeing him from bonds that make cowards of most men. “Persons in power,” the British Classical scholar Gilbert Murray prophetically wrote about Gandhi in the Hibbert Journal in 1918,
Return to India
Gandhi decided to leave South Africa in the summer of 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. He and his family first went to London, where they remained for several months. Finally, they departed England in December, arriving in Bombay in early January 1915.
Emergence as nationalist leader
For the next three years, Gandhi seemed to hover uncertainly on the periphery of Indian politics, declining to join any political agitation, supporting the British war effort, and even recruiting soldiers for the British Indian Army. At the same time, he did not flinch from criticizing the British officials for any acts of high-handedness or from taking up the grievances of the long-suffering peasantry in Bihar and Gujarat. By February 1919, however, the British had insisted on pushing through—in the teeth of fierce Indian opposition—the Rowlatt Acts, which empowered the authorities to imprison without trial those suspected of sedition. A provoked Gandhi finally revealed a sense of estrangement from the British Raj and announced a satyagraha struggle. The result was a virtual political earthquake that shook the subcontinent in the spring of 1919. The violent outbreaks that followed—notably the Massacre of Amritsar, which was the killing by British-led soldiers of nearly 400 Indians who were gathered in an open space in Amritsar in the Punjab region (now in Punjab state), and the enactment of martial law—prompted him to stay his hand. However, within a year he was again in a militant mood, having in the meantime been irrevocably alienated by British insensitiveness to Indian feeling on the Punjab tragedy and Muslim resentment on the peace terms offered to Turkey following World War I.
By the autumn of 1920, Gandhi was the dominant figure on the political stage, commanding an influence never before attained by any political leader in India or perhaps in any other country. He refashioned the 35-year-old Indian National Congress (Congress Party) into an effective political instrument of Indian nationalism: from a three-day Christmas-week picnic of the upper middle class in one of the principal cities of India, it became a mass organization with its roots in small towns and villages. Gandhi’s message was simple: it was not British guns but imperfections of Indians themselves that kept their country in bondage. His program, the nonviolent noncooperation movement against the British government, included boycotts not only of British manufactures but of institutions operated or aided by the British in India: legislatures, courts, offices, schools. The campaign electrified the country, broke the spell of fear of foreign rule, and led to the arrests of thousands of satyagrahis, who defied laws and cheerfully lined up for prison. In February 1922 the movement seemed to be on the crest of a rising wave, but, alarmed by a violent outbreak in Chauri Chaura, a remote village in eastern India, Gandhi decided to call off mass civil disobedience. That was a blow to many of his followers, who feared that his self-imposed restraints and scruples would reduce the nationalist struggle to pious futility. Gandhi himself was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He was released in February 1924, after undergoing surgery for appendicitis. The political landscape had changed in his absence. The Congress Party had split into two factions, one under Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru (the father of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister) favouring the entry of the party into legislatures and the other under Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel opposing it. Worst of all, the unity between Hindus and Muslims of the heyday of the noncooperation movement of 1920–22 had dissolved. Gandhi tried to draw the warring communities out of their suspicion and fanaticism by reasoning and persuasion. Finally, after a serious outbreak of communal unrest, he undertook a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924 to arouse the people into following the path of nonviolence. In December 1924 he was named president of the Congress Party, and he served for a year.
Return to party leadership
Round Table Conference: Gandhi with delegates of the Indian Round Table Conference, London, U.K., 1931 [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]Round Table Conference: Gandhi with delegates of the Indian Round Table Conference, London, U.K., 1931Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.During the mid-1920s Gandhi took little interest in active politics and was considered a spent force. In 1927, however, the British government appointed a constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon, a prominent English lawyer and politician, that did not contain a single Indian. When the Congress and other parties boycotted the commission, the political tempo rose. At the Congress session (meeting) at Calcutta in December 1928, Gandhi put forth the crucial resolution demanding dominion status from the British government within a year under threat of a nationwide nonviolent campaign for complete independence. Henceforth, Gandhi was back as the leading voice of the Congress Party. In March 1930 he launched the Salt March, a satyagraha against the British-imposed tax on salt, which affected the poorest section of the community. One of the most spectacular and successful campaigns in Gandhi’s nonviolent war against the British Raj, it resulted in the imprisonment of more than 60,000 people. A year later, after talks with the viceroy, Lord Irwin (later Lord Halifax), Gandhi accepted a truce (the Gandhi-Irwin Pact), called off civil disobedience, and agreed to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress.
The conference, which concentrated on the problem of the Indian minorities rather than on the transfer of power from the British, was a great disappointment to the Indian nationalists. Moreover, when Gandhi returned to India in December 1931, he found his party facing an all-out offensive from Lord Irwin’s successor as viceroy, Lord Willingdon, who unleashed the sternest repression in the history of the nationalist movement. Gandhi was once more imprisoned, and the government tried to insulate him from the outside world and to destroy his influence. That was not an easy task. Gandhi soon regained the initiative. In September 1932, while still a prisoner, he embarked on a fast to protest against the British government’s decision to segregate the so-called untouchables (the lowest level of the Indian caste system) by allotting them separate electorates in the new constitution. The fast produced an emotional upheaval in the country, and an alternative electoral arrangement was jointly and speedily devised by the leaders of the Hindu community and the untouchables and endorsed by the British government. The fast became the starting point of a vigorous campaign for the removal of the disabilities of the untouchables, whom Gandhi referred to as Harijans, or “children of God.” (That term has fallen out of favour, replaced by Dalit; Scheduled Castes is the official designation.)
Gandhi, Mohandas K. [Credit: © Bettmann/Corbis]Gandhi, Mohandas K.© Bettmann/CorbisIn 1934 Gandhi resigned not only as the leader but also as a member of the Congress Party. He had come to believe that its leading members had adopted nonviolence as a political expedient and not as the fundamental creed it was for him. In place of political activity he then concentrated on his “constructive programme” of building the nation “from the bottom up”—educating rural India, which accounted for 85 percent of the population; continuing his fight against untouchability; promoting hand spinning, weaving, and other cottage industries to supplement the earnings of the underemployed peasantry; and evolving a system of education best suited to the needs of the people. Gandhi himself went to live at Sevagram, a village in central India, which became the centre of his program of social and economic uplift.
The last phase
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand: Gandhi, 1942 [Credit: Wallace Kirkland—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images]Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand: Gandhi, 1942Wallace Kirkland—Time Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWith the outbreak of World War II, the nationalist struggle in India entered its last crucial phase. Gandhi hated fascism and all it stood for, but he also hated war. The Indian National Congress, on the other hand, was not committed to pacifism and was prepared to support the British war effort if Indian self-government was assured. Once more Gandhi became politically active. The failure of the mission of Sir Stafford Cripps, a British cabinet minister who went to India in March 1942 with an offer that Gandhi found unacceptable, the British equivocation on the transfer of power to Indian hands, and the encouragement given by high British officials to conservative and communal forces promoting discord between Muslims and Hindus impelled Gandhi to demand in the summer of 1942 an immediate British withdrawal from India—what became known as the Quit India Movement.
In mid-1942 the war against the Axis Powers, particularly Japan, was in a critical phase, and the British reacted sharply to the campaign. They imprisoned the entire Congress leadership and set out to crush the party once and for all. There were violent outbreaks that were sternly suppressed, and the gulf between Britain and India became wider than ever before. Gandhi, his wife, and several other top party leaders (including Nehru) were confined in the Aga Khan Palace (now the Gandhi National Memorial) in Poona (now Pune). Kasturba died there in early 1944, shortly before Gandhi and the others were released.
A new chapter in Indo-British relations opened with the victory of the Labour Party in Britain 1945. During the next two years, there were prolonged triangular negotiations between leaders of the Congress, the Muslim League under Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and the British government, culminating in the Mountbatten Plan of June 3, 1947, and the formation of the two new dominions of India and Pakistan in mid-August 1947.
Gandhi, Mohandas (Mahatma): funeral procession [Credit: Public Domain]Gandhi, Mohandas (Mahatma): funeral processionPublic DomainIt was one of the greatest disappointments of Gandhi’s life that Indian freedom was realized without Indian unity. Muslim separatism had received a great boost while Gandhi and his colleagues were in jail, and in 1946–47, as the final constitutional arrangements were being negotiated, the outbreak of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims unhappily created a climate in which Gandhi’s appeals to reason and justice, tolerance and trust had little chance. When partition of the subcontinent was accepted—against his advice—he threw himself heart and soul into the task of healing the scars of the communal conflict, toured the riot-torn areas in Bengal and Bihar, admonished the bigots, consoled the victims, and tried to rehabilitate the refugees. In the atmosphere of that period, surcharged with suspicion and hatred, that was a difficult and heartbreaking task. Gandhi was blamed by partisans of both the communities. When persuasion failed, he went on a fast. He won at least two spectacular triumphs: in September 1947 his fasting stopped the rioting in Calcutta, and in January 1948 he shamed the city of Delhi into a communal truce. A few days later, on January 30, while he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting in Delhi, he was shot down by Nathuram Godse, a young Hindu fanatic.
Place in history
Pune, Maharasthra, India: Gandhi Memorial Stone [Credit: © Hemera/Thinkstock]Pune, Maharasthra, India: Gandhi Memorial Stone© Hemera/ThinkstockThe British attitude toward Gandhi was one of mingled admiration, amusement, bewilderment, suspicion, and resentment. Except for a tiny minority of Christian missionaries and radical socialists, the British tended to see him at best as a utopian visionary and at worst as a cunning hypocrite whose professions of friendship for the British race were a mask for subversion of the British Raj. Gandhi was conscious of the existence of that wall of prejudice, and it was part of the strategy of satyagraha to penetrate it.
His three major campaigns in 1920–22, 1930–34, and 1940–42 were well designed to engender that process of self-doubt and questioning that was to undermine the moral defenses of his adversaries and to contribute, together with the objective realities of the postwar world, to producing the grant of dominion status in 1947. The British abdication in India was the first step in the liquidation of the British Empire on the continents of Asia and Africa. Gandhi’s image as a rebel and enemy died hard, but, as it had done to the memory of George Washington, Britain, in 1969, the centenary year of Gandhi’s birth, erected a statue to his memory.
Research in the second half of the 20th century established Gandhi’s role as a great mediator and reconciler. His talents in that direction were applied to conflicts between the older moderate politicians and the young radicals, the political terrorists and the parliamentarians, the urban intelligentsia and the rural masses, the traditionalists and the modernists, the caste Hindus and the untouchables, the Hindus and the Muslims, and the Indians and the British.
Gandhi, Mohandas (Mahatma): postage stamp [Credit: © iStock/Thinkstock]Gandhi, Mohandas (Mahatma): postage stamp© iStock/ThinkstockScholars have continued to judge Gandhi’s place in history. He was the catalyst if not the initiator of three of the major revolutions of the 20th century: the movements against colonialism, racism, and violence. He wrote copiously; the collected edition of his writings had reached 100 volumes by the early 21st century.
Much of what he wrote was in response to the needs of his coworkers and disciples and the exigencies of the political situation, but on fundamentals he maintained a remarkable consistency, as is evident from the Hind Swaraj (“Indian Home Rule”), published in South Africa in 1909. The strictures on Western materialism and colonialism, the reservations about industrialism and urbanization, the distrust of the modern state, and the total rejection of violence that was expressed in that book seemed romantic, if not reactionary, to the pre-World War I generation in India and the West, which had not known the shocks of two global wars or experienced the phenomenon of Adolf Hitler and the trauma of the atom bomb. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s objective of promoting a just and egalitarian order at home and nonalignment with military blocs abroad doubtless owed much to Gandhi, but neither he nor his colleagues in the Indian nationalist movement wholly accepted the Gandhian models in politics and economics.
In the years since Gandhi’s death, his name has been invoked by the organizers of numerous demonstrations and movements. However, with a few outstanding exceptions—such as those of his disciple the land reformer Vinoba Bhave in India and of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., in the United States—those movements have been a travesty of the ideas of Gandhi.
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State of Cloud Computing: Locking in Migration Cost
describe the imageWhile migrating to the cloud is ultimately intended to reduce costs and make it easier to run your business, not following the right steps at first can lead to the exact opposite. Ultimately, it is the risk of downtime, security of your data, and objectives of the cloud service vendor in question as your enterprise nurtures this ongoing relationship. A Statement of Work (SOW) should be developed from the start, with a focus on objectives, tasks, and deliverables. The SOW should also cover details on project management in a fixed price model.
A vendor often presents a special deal if an organization like yours signs a contract immediately. Signing a proposal is not the same as signing an SOW, as most proposals simply outline the services to be offered. These also do not break down the cost of services or list acceptable performance criteria. A proposal is just a legally binding contract, which could put your organization at risk if the services do not meet the qualifications for quality and consistency.
Taking the time to draft the SOW helps your organization in many ways. First, make sure that prices are firmly established and obligations are stated as such, not as just vague goals.
1. Deliverables. An SOW should incorporate a project plan complete with a schedule for all deliverables and tasks associated with the agreement. Solid deadlines should be labeled outright and dates should be defined from beginning to end. Each detail needs to be written out clearly so that even someone not involved with the project can understand what is being provided. With the deliverables clearly identified, you know exactly what the cost in migrating is getting you.
2. Performance. Downtime, speed, security, and other performance measures need to be defined as precise obligations. If the vendor’s performance doesn’t meet up to these expectations, therefore, you can hold them accountable. Otherwise, the vendor can find ways to hold the customer accountable for later issues and come up with excuses to charge additional fees.
3. Organization. Define all services clearly when writing the SOW. Using alternate terms could confuse a later reader of the agreement, in effect reducing the vendor’s obligations. It can also help to create a broader SOW to generate a payment structure, for example, If you are re-negotiating a time and materials pay structure to a fixed-fee one. You can then cover individual requirements further in a later statement. Take the time to plan and analyze each aspect of the agreement before writing it, in order to clearly lay out all your expectations of the vendor.
Taking initiative when it comes to the SOW means your organization has more control over the cost of the services. You can also minimize the risk of future disputes. Integrating home-grown language into the SOW also ensures projects have a better chance of staying on track, as the requirements are clearly outlined.
Each SOW should include an overview at the beginning, plus a list of your requirements for the tasks, deliverables, and milestones to be accomplished. By locking in the migration cost, your organization knows exactly what the financial obligations will be, with all aspects of the service covered. The vendor also understands what its obligations are, especially if you are faced with excessive downtime or compromises in data security. The ultimate goal is to minimize the risk while maximizing the efficiency of running your business.
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Google executive Sundar Pichai strongly hinted that it will bring Hangouts -- the video chat feature of Google+ that lets up to 10 people talk at once -- to its enterprise products.
This would bring Google into direct competition with companies like Cisco, which sells expensive teleconferencing equipment to big companies, and put new pressure on Microsoft, whose Lync videoconferencing software is one of its fastest-growing products.
Pichai gave the last keynote of the day at the Goldman Sachs Technology conference in San Francisco today, and a questioner from the audience asked if Google would bring Hangouts to the enterprise.
At first, he hedged a little -- he didn't talk about Hangouts specifically. But then he said that Google has a history of making any consumer product work for the enterprise as well. He added:
Hangouts is built on the YouTube infrastructure, we use it to serve billions of videos a day....Bringing that scale and that stack to the enterprise is a huge opportunity.
Pichai also spent a lot of time talking about and the competition against Microsoft, claiming that Google is seeing a lot more momentum in really big companies lately.
Just today, for instance, drug giant Roche just moved all 90,000 employees to Google Apps. Last month, Spanish financial company BBVA switched 110,000 employees to Apps.
Pichai admitted that a lot of companies who switch like this keep Office licenses as well -- it's not a zero sum game -- but that's what happens with consumers as well. You buy a new Mac or iPad, but keep your old Windows PC around...for a while.
He said that he expects full switches to accelerate as more Android and iOS devices come into enterprises, and as Google continues to close the feature gaps with Office.
This is why Microsoft should port Office to as many other platforms as it can. | dclm-gs1-108120000 |
10 Animals That Will Give You Nightmares
Alien? Creature from a sci-fi flick? Nope these are just some citizens of planet Earth.
1. Aye Aye
This Madagascar native resembles a cracked out junkie on the look out for his next fix. Not enough for you? The Aye Aye has one extra long middle finger that is used to ‘tap’ on tree trunks for food. Creepy.
2. Blanket Octopus
You like that majestic cape? Think again. The females can grow up to 2 meters long and enjoy ripping off Portuguese Man O’ War’s tentacles to use for their own personal defense. Making an entrance indeed!
3. Blob Fish
Okay so this guy may not strike fear into your heart, but he has to be the ugliest thing you have seen all day. Props for his face looking just like the grumpy old guy next door!
4. Wolf Spider
The name alone combines two of the fiercest creatures into one! Take the name and add eight legs, eight eyes, and a stinging bite? Wolf Spider. Plus when the female carries babies around on its back? Not cute!
5. Snub Nosed Monkey
Sometimes monkeys are cute and fluffy, sometimes they look like Voldemort.
6. Sea Pig ( really )
Yes, once again you must wonder who gets to name these newly discovered creatures. Although this pink worm may haunt your nightmares ,it will never hurt you. It spends most of its time on the ocean floor moving on tube legs….just being a harmless sea pig.
7. Japanese Giant Salamander
It’s a salamander…. a giant one. Something that normally would fit in the palm of your hand , now could eat your hand. Sleep tight.
8. Sphynx Cat
This breed of cat is naturally born with no fur and reminds us all why we find fluffy things cute.
9. Bare-Faced Tamarin
Going bald is tough, especially when you look like a Gremlin.
10. The Wrinkled Bat
Why why why? Bats are scary enough but mother nature decided to let this one look like it smashed into a window.
Good luck sleeping tonight!
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I would like to ask if you have the original vector art for the BYOND logos around anywhere. I've asked in the past and been looked over, and they used to be up for viewing, as far as I can tell, but not anymore. So, is there any way that I can get my hands on them? It'd be a lot easier to platform brand if developers could actually use your logos.
No love? In the mean time, I've found an image that a member made with the logo and I've made a custom splash screen for introductory credits.
It's lovely.
LummoxJR mentioned on Chatters The Saloon that he has some SVG versions. Could you put those up on the site? | dclm-gs1-108150000 |
White House attacks worry some Dems
Full Story on Politico.Com
1. woody188
If the American people don’t want cap and trade and American business doesn’t want cap and trade, just who does want cap and trade other than Al Gore, Obama, Congress, and the United Nations and why are we being saddled with it?
Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain
2. Sandra Price
Cap and Trade won by default. We are saddled with it because there was no alternative action from any political party. Hell, I don’t care what the opposition was called I would have supported the LP but I would have preferred the GOP. Woody, there is only one party in America and a lot of whining hate spewing members of the lost generation of freedom lovers.
Even at CHB we are professional whiners and know what destroyed us. It will take a set of steel balls to stand up to our one party which looks to be worse than the last two Administrations.
I’ve got to get out of here before I blow again. I saw the crap that President Bush brought to the government and I saw nothing any better coming from President Obama. I did not vote for either but had hoped that this great site could be a team to plan something better. Damnit! we have both sides of our government found here and we sit back and watch our nation fall into a pit of hell. I blamed the religious right and I blamed the redistribution of wealth on the other side and all I managed to do was piss off most of the CHB’s members.
A long time member of CHB is over at another forum explaining why I was banned from RR. It is not my point of view but I dared to question the status quo of the two parties. I dared to ask people to get off their lazy butts and take action with their Congress. I’m an uppity old bitch and I’m taking a month off the internet. I respect Doug enough not to blow again on his site.
I have no warnings left. We have gone past the point of no return to sanity.
3. woody188
Yeah I’m stressed out too. Hang in there. Spend time with family and friends and talk. You are not alone and might be surprised who thinks like you do about current events.
4. RichardKanePA
I worked for Obama’s election but dreaded that he would be torn apart like Jimmy Carter was.
Then Obama began fighting back, and I was hopeful.
But not only Rep. Jason Altmire, and Doug Thomas on this blog, but also David Corn who is a real radical complained. Only MoveOn.Org, is defending fighting back.
Daily Kos’s comments avoiding the issue by saying people can talk to who they want, even the President, is a disgrace.
Jimmy Carter ignoring all the smears, Obama is fighting back and people who should know better are complaining.
Somehow most only complain about Israel trying to manipulate things. The Rupert Murdock, Washington Times, Dick Cheney alliance is trying to change this country and change the world. The next US President may actually be proud of torture and human right’s abuses.
The shrillest Washington Times attackers get rewarded by getting on Fox News. See Scoobie Davis online,
Why are those petrified by the Israeli Lobby, which doesn’t hide behind trickery, don’t also worry about what Rupert Murdock, and his partners are up to. | dclm-gs1-108170000 |
11th May 2010, 16:08
Yeah, I agree. I always keep a bottle of touch-up paint in the glove box after I buy a brand new $40,000 car.
12th May 2010, 05:59
I have bought new GM models every 2-3 years and currently have 3 of them. No paint issues. Is there a possibility there's more to this story? How about a shopping center cart hitting the car or some damage. My dealer is fair, but if I scuffed my nose of my vette on a parking bumper, the dealer would be a fool to fix my mistake. I suspect damage not a defect on this story.
12th May 2010, 10:08
I know of nightmare Subaru Outbacks and would never buy one.
I had a GM Trailblazer SS however that I recently sold, and it was absolutely great. A lot of fun to drive, especially if you have kids.
Mine was black, and if there is any color that would have the least flaw, it is black. My paint was perfect.
It would be interesting to know of all the specifics on the paint issue. What was the car washed with? And how was it washed and waxed. What chemicals and was something spilled on it (if they would admit), and it does really happen.
My friend had a overhead deck on his home, which he always parked his car underneath, and had deck wash or something spilled right through the gaps on his new SUV.
I had brake fluid in the past, which the mechanic dripped right on my fender once, and it damaged the finish.
I had the clear coat damaged on another by carelessness by others. These were late model cars at the time.
I clean my cars with safe car wash out of direct sun, dry with microfiber cloth (s) I like Maguiars products and use quick detailer carefully, not after a drive. I keep my car clean, garaged and am careful. You can tear the finish very fast with careless applications and wrong products. Embed a tiny piece of grit in your cleaning rag and you sand the car finish. Or those they burn paint with a high speed buffer. I am careful with any brushes still in any car wash and they can be an issue.
I think the dealer may have seen some underlying damage, which was not a manufacturer defect. They prep the cars and are inspected when leaving the lot. There's a chance something was spilled by even a customer onto a car parked on the lot (like on a Sunday?) by accident someone sat a caustic drink on a car. There is likely more to this story.
12th May 2010, 12:53
Again, the whole world outside of GM is not Honda or Toyota. That being said, I have had much more luck with any Honda or Toyota over the years then any GM product I have owned. You'll find stories of failed trannys and engine problems on ANY forum for ANY make of car. The only transmission problems I have ever experienced were on Chevy trucks, and unfortunately they still use basically the same defective transmissions in them now. Talk about bad design flaws! Never have I been left on the side of the road by any of my imports, not once... even when I didn't change the oil for 7,000 miles.
12th May 2010, 13:00
"I suspect damage not a defect on this story."
Normally I would agree with you, but this defect has occurred on both sides of their car. Since these cars are painted by machines, this one might have not been prepped properly or something was overlooked on the production line during this specific run of cars. GM was in an awfully big hurry to race these cars out into the market, and there were quite a few defects in them. This paint issue would not be beyond believability to me given that fact.
For GM to expect a customer to front $2,300 for a paintjob on a car with such low mileage, is ridiculous unless there was obvious signs of neglect or abuse. Would an owner, in their right mind, come onto a forum to complain about this ridiculous charge if they had done something to cause the damage on their vehicle? What would their purpose be? Sorry, but my experience with car companies leads me to believe GM is in the wrong on this one.... okay, onto the next issue as this one has been beaten to death.
12th May 2010, 21:09
Never had any issues with any of my imports. Got well over 250,000 miles out of all my Honda's. I've never had a major failure with any of my Honda's and never replaced anything major or out of the ordinary. Got almost 200,000 miles on my current car (a Toyota Corolla) and I have never had any issues with it either. The only vehicle I've ever owned that left me on the side of the road was a GM. It was the first and last one I owned.
13th May 2010, 05:38
Is it possible the owner exceeded 3400 RPM with his buffing application and damaged both sides of the car? I doubt he or she buffed only 1 side after they cleaned it up for a show etc. Unless you can physically see anything, writing about is not a visual.
I had a new Accord once that my son sat right on its hood and dented it badly. Since it was only a week old, I could have said I am upset that Honda did not cover it. These kind of things a dealer has to see and make a call on it. I turned mine in on my comprehensive and had the car fixed; did not blame Honda.
Both of my paint issues I had on new cars mentioned previously were ones that were caused by carelessness after the fact. One was a new GM and the other a black Chrysler Cirrus; also new at the time.
I live in the Northeast and the biggest paint concern I have is acid rain. I also have pine trees lining my drive with sap, and bird droppings overhead before I even reach my garage behind my home. Leave that on paint and see it etch into the paint.
The other factor is where does the car go to during the day. I go to power plants that have wash down drive throughs for the newer cars leaving, to get the ash off the paint.
13th May 2010, 09:14
If you read their explanation, they claim this has happened from 1,500 miles to 2,000 miles and doesn't sound like they buffed the car while they drove for 500 miles.
Why are we so quick to defend GM on this people? Have they NEVER done anything wrong? Please!! The new Camaro is well known to be plagued with production errors and defects, so why is this such a huge surprise to everyone? This is why they have gotten away with sub par quality products for decades. Everyone blames the owner of the car like they did something wrong to cause the problem. Give me a break. Are we really this numb to corporate scams?
13th May 2010, 14:13
I am in a vette car club, and there are many of us that only drive 1000 miles or less annually to shows cruise nights or charity events, and I know a lot of cars extreme low mileage out there. 2005s up just driven lightly. And late model Camaros. We clean after every show. Mine is not driven in bad weather or at all in winter. But I polish for hours, not once a year for the daily beaters. You can do a lot of damage in 10 minutes. I always have my shirt untucked. No belt buckles keys out to damage paint finishes. It is a lot of work cleaning cars the right way. I would love to see the dealers reply on here. Which is one side. My dealer has treated me well. I wonder if I needed a new clutch the day after possession; the response as an example. It's best to have the painted measured and checked out if there is no way it was ever cleaned | dclm-gs1-108180000 |
How to Pay for Wars
A Placeholder for War?
The administration appears more interested in seeming economical than economizing.”
No Wars, Only Contingencies
The Budget Control Act caps discretionary spending but excludes war costs. That makes war appropriations an off-book haven for defense programs trying to evade caps. As the White House notes in its budget-justification materials, that circumstance “could allow future Administrations and Congresses to use [OCO] … to evade the fiscal discipline that the BCA requires elsewhere.”
But those forces are not devoted exclusively to the wars, so the shift smacks of an attempt to game the cap. Many other budget lines could, in the future, be attributed by similarly arcane logic to war costs. The White House is already doing exactly what it says its war cap should prevent.
Paying for the Wars
Done right, spending caps would improve national decision making about war. Because American wars have broadly distributed and often obscured costs, the public and Congress have little incentive to carefully consider their consequences. Leaving aside the volunteer military, the only cost of war for most Americans is marginally higher taxes. And deficits subsidize war costs, diluting their effects on current voters.
This circumstance lets us make war almost casually. Most other public policies have more concentrated and thus tangible cost. Environmental regulations, for example, provoke complaints from the businesses that bear much of their cost. With environmentalists on one side and regulated businesses on the other, you get a fuller debate.
A war tax, which Congress traditionally used to fund wars, would concentrate the cost of wars and serve as a disincentive to use the military recklessly. Like natural disasters, wars are hard to predict, but they are the sort of thing citizens should readily finance. This could be done through an income surtax, a device that is particularly appropriate when spending caps are in place to contain government spending. A surtax for emergency spending outside of the caps keeps it from adding to the deficit.
Spending caps can create similarly beneficial effects by forcing war spending to be paid for out of other government programs, including the Pentagon base budget. That prospect encourages those programs’ advocates to oppose war. Debate improves, and the public considers trade-offs more carefully.
War and the Public Interest
That cap should be low enough so that uncapped funds cover only the initial operating expenses of war while Congress decides how to fund the rest. Funds above the cap would have to be offset by spending cuts or taxes. If that seems too restrictive, bear in mind that if a sufficiently dire circumstance occurs — think World War II — we can always change the law.
That policy would give the taxpaying public a greater interest in determining whether initiating or extending a war is wise. Spurred by its constituents and the interest groups they form, Congress would then have to take its constitutional responsibility to authorize and fund war more seriously. Like most people, nations don’t properly consider the value of something until they have to pay for it.
Benjamin H. Friedman is a research fellow in Defense and Homeland Security Studies at the Cato Institute. Charles Knight is codirector of the Project on Defense Alternatives at the Commonwealth Institute. | dclm-gs1-108190000 |
Pope Benedict XVI calls astronauts
CBS News
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Pope Benedict XVI called the combined crews of the shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station Saturday, wishing commander Mark Kelly's gravely wounded wife, Gabrielle Giffords, a steady recovery and asking station flight engineer Paolo Nespoli how he endured news of his mother's death in the isolation of space.
Pope Benedict XVI speaks to the combined shuttle-station crews form the Vatican. (Credit: NASA TV)
Speaking from a desk at the Vatican, the pope focused on the role of science and technology in solving problems on Earth and inspiring young people.
The International Space Station crew, in blue shirts, and the Endeavour astronauts, in black shirts, chat with Pope Benedict. (Credit: NASA TV)
"From the space station, you have a very different view of the Earth, you fly over different continents and nations several times a day," he said, reading prepared remarks. "I think it must be obvious to you how we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each (other).
"I know that Mark Kelly's wife was a victim of a serious attack and I hope her health continues to improve. When you're contemplating the Earth from up there, do you ever wonder about the way nations and people live together down here, about how science can contribute to the cause of peace?"
"Thank you for the kind words, your holiness, and thank you for mentioning my wife, Gabby," Kelly replied. "It's a very good question. We fly over most of the world and you don't see borders, but at the same time we realize that people fight with each other and there's a lot of violence in this world and it's really an unfortunate thing."
Kelly said people frequently fight over resources, pointing out that "the science and technology that we put into the space station to develop a solar power capability gives us pretty much an unlimited amount of energy. And if those technologies could be adapted more on Earth, we could possibly reduce some of that violence."
Pope Benedict asked the astronauts about their impression of the environment from the vantage point of space, wondering if "you see signs of phenomena to which we need to be more attentive?"
"It really is an extraordinary vantage point we have up here," station flight engineer Ronald Garan said. "On the one hand, we can see how indescribably beautiful the planet we have been given is. But on the other hand, we can really clearly see how fragile it is. The atmosphere when viewed from space is paper thin. And to think that this paper thin layer is all that separates every living thing from the vacuum of space is really a sobering thought."
The pope spoke in Italian to station flight engineer Paolo Nespoli, who's mother died in Italy May 2.
"Dear Paolo. I know that a few days ago your mom left you and in a few days you will come back home and you will not find her waiting for you," the pope said in translated remarks. "We're all close to you. Me too, I have prayed for her. How have you been living through this time of pain on the International Space Station? Do you feel isolated and alone? Or do you feel united amongst ourselves in a community that follows you with attention and affection?"
"Holy father, I felt your prayers and everyone's prayers arriving up here," Nespoli replied. "My colleagues on board the station were very close to me at this important time for me, a very intense moment, as well as my brothers and sisters, my uncles, my aunts, my relatives were close to my mom in her last moments. I'm very grateful for this. I felt very far, but also very close. And the thought of feeling all of you near me at this time has been a great relief. I also want to thank the Italian and American space agencies that had given me the opportunity so that I was able to speak with her in her last moments." | dclm-gs1-108200000 |
Positive Pushing 1st edition
How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child
Positive Pushing 0 9780786888504 0786888504
Details about Positive Pushing:
Now available in paperback, Positive Pushing gives parents clear and balanced instruction on how to encourage children just enough to produce a happy, successful, satisfied achiever. Taylor, an experienced achievement consultant, believes that, pushed properly, children will grow into adults ready to tackle life's many challenges.
Using his three-pillared approach, Taylor focuses on self-esteem, ownership, and emotional mastery, and maintains that pushing, rather than being a means of control, is both a source of motivation and a catalyst for growth that can instill important values in children's lives. He teaches parents how to temper their own expectations to suit their children's emotional, intellectual, and physical development, and identifies common red flags that indicate when a child is being pushed too hard--or not enough.
Whether a child's potential for achievement lies in academics, the arts, sports, or other areas, Dr. Taylor's insight and guidance will push parents, teachers, and coaches to nurture children into successful and happy adults.
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| dclm-gs1-108240000 |
Dmitry Bocharov
Number of games in database: 495
Years covered: 1999 to 2015
Last FIDE rating: 2560 (2577 rapid, 2679 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2647
Overall record: +180 -128 =163 (55.5%)*
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
With the White pieces:
King's Indian (38)
E60 E62 E67 E63 E66
Slav (30)
D17 D11 D15 D16 D10
Nimzo Indian (27)
E32 E20 E47 E33 E37
Queen's Pawn Game (22)
A46 E10 A40 A41 A45
Semi-Slav (20)
D43 D47 D45 D44
Grunfeld (18)
D76 D73 D80 D70 D72
With the Black pieces:
Sicilian (76)
B48 B47 B31 B63 B30
Queen's Pawn Game (29)
E00 A46 A40 A41 E10
Nimzo Indian (27)
E38 E20 E42 E34 E46
Sicilian Taimanov (26)
B48 B47 B46
Philidor's Defense (19)
English, 1 c4 c5 (17)
A33 A30 A36 A39 A37
Repertoire Explorer
NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
D Bocharov vs A Mokshanov, 2015 1-0
D Doric vs D Bocharov, 2009 0-1
P Maletin vs D Bocharov, 2013 0-1
D Bocharov vs T Sachdev, 2012 1-0
I Nemet vs D Bocharov, 2005 0-1
D Bocharov vs M Matlakov, 2012 1-0
D Bocharov vs E Sukhareva, 2012 1-0
F Vallejo Pons vs D Bocharov, 2012 1/2-1/2
D Bocharov vs B Savchenko, 2012 1-0
V Fedoseev vs D Bocharov, 2011 0-1
NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
It (open) St. Petersburg 300 (2003)
Cappelle la Grande (2007)
Russian Chess Championships Higher League (2012)
57th Russian Championship Qualifier (2004)
56th Russian Championships (2003)
6th Aeroflot Festival (2007)
58th Russian Championship Semifinals (2005)
Moscow Open (2007)
Aeroflot Open (2011)
61st Russian Championship Higher League (2008)
2nd Indonesia Open Chess Championship (2012)
59th Russian Championship (2006)
6th European Individual Championship (2005)
European Individual Championships (2007)
10th European Individual Championship (2009)
Search Sacrifice Explorer for Dmitry Bocharov
Search Google for Dmitry Bocharov
FIDE player card for Dmitry Bocharov
(born Oct-20-1982, 32 years old) Russia
[what is this?]
IM in 1999, GM in 2003. Rated 2647 in Jan. 2009. ICC: Bochkarev. Winner with Anastasian in the Dubai Open 2009.
Wikipedia article: Dmitry Bocharov
Game ResultMoves Year Event/LocaleOpening
1. A L Skvortsov vs D Bocharov 0-137 1999 RUS-ch sfB40 Sicilian
2. D Bocharov vs E Eliseev 1-041 2000 RUS-CupE60 King's Indian Defense
3. D Bocharov vs Sveshnikov 0-137 2000 Chigorin MemorialD47 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
4. Akobian vs D Bocharov 0-132 2000 RUS-CupE42 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 c5, 5.Ne2 (Rubinstein)
5. Y Kruppa vs D Bocharov 1-047 2000 Chigorin mem opE38 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, 4...c5
6. D Bocharov vs Dvoirys ½-½72 2000 Chigorin MemorialD76 Neo-Grunfeld, Nxd5, 7.O-O Nb6
7. D Bocharov vs Y Kruppa 0-135 2000 RUS Cup final 4thD79 Neo-Grunfeld, 6.O-O, Main line
8. V Popov vs D Bocharov ½-½54 2000 Chigorin MemorialA33 English, Symmetrical
9. E Najer vs D Bocharov 1-024 2000 IV Russian Cup FinalB85 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Classical
10. D Bocharov vs S Zablotsky 1-044 2001 6th Leg Russian CupA46 Queen's Pawn Game
11. G Okladnikov vs D Bocharov 0-135 2001 ch-NRB63 Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer Attack
12. D Frolov vs D Bocharov ½-½47 2001 openB57 Sicilian
13. A Shariyazdanov vs D Bocharov ½-½24 2001 Russia Cup opE41 Nimzo-Indian
14. D Bocharov vs I Ananchenko 1-068 2001 7th Stage Russian CupD41 Queen's Gambit Declined, Semi-Tarrasch
15. D Bocharov vs V Shinkevich ½-½46 2001 6th Leg Russian CupA46 Queen's Pawn Game
16. S Ionov vs D Bocharov ½-½51 2001 Chigorin mem openE11 Bogo-Indian Defense
17. D Bocharov vs T Arestanov 1-030 2001 openD47 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
18. D Bocharov vs P Maletin 1-040 2001 ch-NRE12 Queen's Indian
19. V Grebionkin vs D Bocharov 0-135 2001 7th Stage Russian CupA04 Reti Opening
20. E Najer vs D Bocharov ½-½46 2001 Chigorin mem openB23 Sicilian, Closed
21. I Kurnosov vs D Bocharov ½-½21 2001 6th Leg Russian CupB56 Sicilian
22. D Bocharov vs A Bespalov ½-½33 2001 ch-NRD27 Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical
23. D Bocharov vs D Abasheev ½-½36 2001 openE63 King's Indian, Fianchetto, Panno Variation
24. P Smirnov vs D Bocharov 1-032 2001 RUS-ch U20E58 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 8...Bxc3
25. V Shinkevich vs D Bocharov 1-054 2001 7th Stage Russian CupE11 Bogo-Indian Defense
Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-30-07 BIDMONFA: Dmitry Bocharov
The 11th edition of the strong Dubai chess open tournament is over. The winner is the Armenian GM Tigran Kotanjian who finished with 7,0/9. With the same points finished GM Bocharov and GM Anastasian, but Kotanjian won the first place with a better tiebreak.
A total of 34 GMs participated in the event, most of them within 100 ELO margin. That created a very dynamic event and many surprises were seen during the course of the competition. One of the best performances was for IM Kidambi Sundararajan (IND), who finished 6th, just half a point behind the leaders. The two top youngsters GM Gopal and GM Safarli finished 19th and 20th with 6,0/9.
The Dubai chess open started back in 1999. Since then there are 11 champions, the last one being GM Tigran Kotanjian. Here is a flashback from the past events from Dubai. It is the tournament where Magnus Carlsen became a GM (6th edition), one of the first top events won by GM Wesley So, and among winners we can see Mamedyarov, Sargissian, Goloshchapov, Asrian, Jobava, Akopian.
Oct-20-09 Birthday Boy: Happy Birthday!!! Dmitry Bocharov!!!
Premium Chessgames Member
Tabanus: GM Dmitry Bocharov, Russia, born 20 October 1982. Now rated 2592,
He was eliminated GM Gata Kamsky in round 2 of World Cup 2005, after having defeated GM Pavel Smirnov in round 1.
Biography: (in Polish)
Placed 6th in Cappelle la Grande 2003, 2nd in Abu Dhabi Open 2005, 49th in European Ch 2005, 1st in Chigorin Memorial 2006, 20th in Moscow Open A 2007, 1st in World Universities Ch 2008, 2nd in Dubai Open 2009, 1st in Dubai Blitz 2009,
4th in Commonwealth Ch (India) 10-18 May 2010:
Premium Chessgames Member
Tabanus: Placed 5th in the 3rd Mumbai Mayor's Cup Open (India) 2-10 June 2010:
Premium Chessgames Member
wordfunph: GM Dmitry Bocharov --- champion of M. Chigorin International Chess Festival 2011..
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CPS Selective Enrollment: A Veteran’s Tale
By Marianne Walsh
Member of the Chicago Parent Blog Network
I've got three days to decide if I want to go through the process of trying to get my middle son into the same Selective Enrollment school as his older brother. With the Dec. 16 cut-off looming, I have been procrastinating since October.
My middle son barely missed getting into his brother's school two years ago. When I had him tested the following year, he still had a good score, but it wasn't enough. He is now happily entrenched in the neighborhood school, but the pressure remains. These SE schools are the finest in the state. As parents, aren't we wired to always seek the best education possible for our kids?
In trying to figure out my plans for testing, I was suddenly overcome with a strong sense of déjà vu. It came not from my years of engaging in this educational rat race, but rather from another unlikely source: "The Canterbury Tales."
You might wonder what a Middle English story has to do with CPS. Let me explain. In "The Canterbury Tales," a bunch of random pilgrims from all walks of life bundle together to flee the Black Death. They engage in a story-telling contest to pass the time. Yet throughout the tale, there is an underlying friction between the social classes of the day.
Sound familiar yet?
Welcome to "A Veteran's Tale." If you're thinking of testing your kid for Selective Enrollment, here's how it's going to go down:
1. You're going to pick schools that require testing (see http://cpsmagnet.org/)
2. You're going to send some stuff in
3. You will receive a test date in the mail
4. On the day of the actual test, and against your better judgment, you will promise your kid a puppy if he/she does well
5. You're going to wait. A very, very long time
That's the formal process. But before all the snow melts in April when you hear back from CPS, you're also going to read up on the tier system, ratios for placement, principal picks, sibling preferences, and all the other bureaucratic bullsh*t that exacerbates class warfare and cronyism within the school system. It is a wretched and horrible process that I believe is designed to keep CPS parents fighting with each other instead of turning their wrath elsewhere (and I'll let you decide where that wrath should be directed).
So, I'm going to help you out. Don't. Just don't. There is no amount of obsessing that will change the outcome. Your kid will either get into one the preferred schools or he won't. Work on accepting or planning for both possibilities. Don't yell at your mailman. Don't stalk the Office of Academic Enhancement. Don't promise your kid that puppy. I made all of these mistakes and I regret them whole-heartedly.
I have driven myself crazy during the last few years over something beyond my control. I understand that many parents are desperately fleeing a sort of Black Death of Education given that many of the worst-performing schools in the entire nation are right here in Chicago.
Yet if you're still set on spending the winter making yourself nauseous after testing, be sure to visit cpsobsessed.com. The lady over there knows her stuff. And you will find others just like you. An entire army of Chicago parents visits regularly: obsessing, commenting, posting test scores, and even putting together spreadsheets on cut-offs for the current year for all the different SE schools. The level of devotion is astounding. I commend their spirit and willingness to fight the good fight. I was once one of them.
But this year, things have changed. I might just pour myself a big glass of Merlot and opt out. I'm so very tired and unwilling to let a seriously flawed system ruin my winter. I need to remember that if the laundry in my house can make anxious, just imagine what another round of SE testing could do to me.
I could die.
Then who would they get to finish all this flippin' laundry?
| dclm-gs1-108270000 |
Nineteen fourth-graders at Pineloch Elementary School can't drive, but they do have a set of new wheels.
A Gift for Teaching, a local charity, and David's World Cycle donated brand new bikes at the end of an assembly on bike safety.
The winning class' teacher was invited to enter a raffle after she came to A Gift for Teaching to seek out supplies and extras to enhance her students' classroom experience. The organization says Sophia Rodriguez-Phillips showed a commitment to her students and they wanted to reward them both.
Most of the students at Pineloch are on free or reduced lunch and many have never had a bike or know how to ride. Their expressions when the curtain was lifted and their teacher told them the bikes were theirs was priceless.
"It's the best day of my life," said Samuel Zimero.
"It makes them feel unique and special to know that just out of the blue there are people that really care," said Rodriguez-Phillips.
The bikes were complete with helmets and locks, and the total contribution was more than $6,000. | dclm-gs1-108290000 |
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Bradley Birkenfeld
"The average American is carrying the weight for all these millionaires and billionaires. That’s the fact. That’s the truth. And until someone does something about it, it’s never gonna be cleaned up."
Bradley Birkenfeld was a secret Swiss banker at UBS in Geneva who delivered some of the world’s best-kept financial secrets to the US Government. However, despite revealing the information, he was convicted for holding crucial information from the government - conspiracy to commit tax fraud - and is now serving a 40 month prison sentence. | dclm-gs1-108300000 |
Head-Spinning Continued: COM Interop
In my last column, I set the scene for reusing some old C++ code from new Managed C++ code. The reuse technique that's received the most publicity and coverage is COM Interop. In essence, any COM component can appear to your managed code to be a managed object running in the .NET Framework. In this column, I'll show you how to convert an ordinary unmanaged class to a COM component, and then use that COM component from both unmanaged and managed code.
Creating a COM Component
When you think COM and C++, I hope you think ATL. The Active Template Library makes writing COM components much simpler than it once was. You create an ATL project, add an object to it, add an interface (or several) to the object, and code the methods. If your "legacy library" was many classes with many functions in each, you would probably start by designing the interfaces, and then write your COM component as a wrapper around the real classes: The wrapper would hold an instance of one or more of the real classes, and use their methods to provide the services offered by your interfaces. Because the legacy library I'm using in this series of columns is just a single class (ArithmeticClass) with a single method (Add), there's not much design involved. I'm actually going to create the method all over again; then paste in the method body from the original class. (I presented the legacy class in my last column.)
In Visual Studio, I created a new project (choosing ATL Project as the type) called COMArithmetic. I accepted all the defaults on the new project wizard. Then, I added a class by right-clicking the project in Solution Explorer and choosing Add, Add Class. I chose an ATL Simple Object and on the ATL Simple Object Wizard I named it ArithmeticClass. (It's a good idea to use a different name from the legacy class, whether you're wrapping it or using copy-and-paste to duplicate it in ATL.) Then, in ClassView I expanded the COMArithmetic node to reveal IArithmeticClass, the interface that was generated for me, and I added a function to the interface by right-clicking the interface and choosing Add, Add Method. Here's how the Add Method Wizard looked just before I hit Finish:
Click here for a larger image.
Then, because Add is so simple, I just typed in the body. Here's how it looks:
STDMETHODIMP CArithmeticClass::Add(DOUBLE num1, DOUBLE num2,
DOUBLE* answer)
*answer = num1 + num2;
return S_OK;
Building the project will create and register the COM component. Now it's ready to be used by other applications.
Using the COM Component from Unmanaged Code
One of the reasons you might package your legacy code into a COM component is so that it can still be used from other legacy unmanaged applications. Here's a very simple console application that uses the new COM component:
#import "..\ComArithmetic\Debug\ComArithmetic.dll" no_namespace
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
//braces for scope only
IArithmeticClassPtr arith("ComArithmetic.ArithmeticClass");
double answer = arith->Add(1,3);
cout << "1 + 3 is " << answer << endl;
return 0;
This code is made simpler (honestly) by the #import, which sets up a smart pointer class, IArithmeticClassPtr, that wraps the component. The extra set of braces ensure that the instance of this smart pointer is destructed before CoUninitilalize() runs. The heart of this code is the call to the Add method, made through the overloaded -> operator of the smart pointer (which, of course, isn't really a pointer.) Althoug this code is full of COM "goo," you can see that the methods exposed by the COM component are available to you from unmanaged code without too much trouble.
Using the COM Component from Managed Code
It's actually easier to work with a COM component from managed code than from unmanaged code. The key is a Runtime Callable Wrapper (RCW), a piece of code that looks like a COM component on the outside, but inside holds classids and progids and the like to help it divert all calls from the runtime into the real COM component for processing. The RCW handles QueryInterface, AddRef, and Release, marshals between COM and .NET types, converts HRESULTs into .NET exceptions, and generally makes life much simpler for the developer. To create one, just add use the COM tab of the Add Reference dialog.
I created a new .NET Console application called ManagedTestCOMArithmetic, then right-clicked References in Solution Explorer and chose Add Reference. (This is new in Visual Studio .NET 2003.) On the COM tab, I scrolled down until I reached COMArithmetic, then clicked Select and OK. This creates the Runtime Callable Wrapper for the COM Component. The name of the resulting managed class is built from the name of the COM class (CArithmeticClass) with Class stuck on the end, giving me the rather strange CArithmeticClassClass to work with. Here's how the main looks:
double answer;
Interop::COMArithmetic::CArithmeticClassClass* arith =
new Interop::COMArithmetic::CArithmeticClassClass();
answer = arith->Add(2,3);
Console::Write("2 + 3 is ");
return 0;
There are really only two wrinkles in this simple little piece of code. First, how did I know that the managed class I create with new is called Interop::COMArithmetic::CArithmeticClassClass? I right-clicked on the reference I just added, and chose Open, to bring up the Object Browser.
Click here for a larger image.
This tells you all you need to know about the wrapper, including the full name of the namespace and the class, and even confirms that the method is called Add().
The second wrinkle is that Add() returns a double. To pass this fundamental type to WriteLine, you need to box it (as discussed in my third column, Boxing Value Types in Managed C++.) You can count on having to deal with the managed/unmanaged data issue no matter what legacy code you wrap up to reuse in this way: It's going to return unmanaged data and if you want to give that data to a method from the Base Class Libraries, you're going to have some conversion to do. If you're lucky, it will be as simple as boxing it. It may require some thought and design effort.
Is COM Interop the Right Choice for You?
If the legacy code you want to reuse is already a COM component, by all means use COM Interop to get to it. But, if it's just a collection of classes, think twice before turning it into a COM component just so that you can reach it from a managed application. Of all the techniques I'm going to show you for reusing legacy code, COM Interop is the slowest. It's a fair amount of work to create the wrapper component, and to add code to other legacy applications to use the component through COM instead of directly.
If you have an existing COM component that you need to use from managed code, this is a great first approach. But be sure to do some performance measurement right from the start. If the performance penalty imposed by COM Interop is too high for your application, you'll have to think about some refactoring. You could move most of the code into a standalone .LIB and have both the COM component and the new managed code use the library. That would give you the best performance while still exposing a COM component for your legacy code. Or, you could move your whole component into managed code, and expose it using .NET Interop (which makes a .NET managed class look like a COM component) to the legacy code. It all depends on where you can afford the performance hit.
How would managed code use the library? What other ways are there to reuse code beside COM Interop? Stay tuned; I'll be covering other reuse techniques in the columns to come.
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Number Format Pattern Syntax
Emma Peel
Joined: Feb 18, 2003
Posts: 10
Can anyone explain how to read:
'\\u0000'..'\\uFFFD' - specialCharacters
It is part of Number Format Pattern Syntax:
pattern := subpattern{;subpattern}
subpattern := {prefix}integer{.fraction}{suffix}
prefix := '\\u0000'..'\\uFFFD' - specialCharacters
suffix := '\\u0000'..'\\uFFFD' - specialCharacters
integer := '#'* '0'* '0'
fraction := '0'* '#'*
found at
Thanks! Emma Peel
Greg Charles
Joined: Oct 01, 2001
Posts: 2962
Greetings Mrs. Peel,
That link you provide has examples of building patterns for number formatters. (java.text.NumberFormat) The extra unicode characters allow you to parse and format strings with more than just numbers, for example a currency character.
One example they give is:
That pattern lets you parse or format string with the Yen sign in front of a series of numbers.
I agree. Here's the link:
subject: Number Format Pattern Syntax
jQuery in Action, 3rd edition | dclm-gs1-108340000 |
No one dates in college. No movies, dinner, comedy clubs, shows, ice skating, nothing. Instead, the guy asks the girl to watch TV in his lounge, so he can show her off to all his friends and maybe hook up with her in his room later. The girl asks the guy to sit in her room while she rearranges her desk and shows him pictures of people from high school that she doesn't even talk to anymore, so she can show him off to her friends, and turn him down when he tries to hook up with her.
Guys have a complex system of dibs. If a girl is your first dibs, (girlfriend, big crush, etc) then none of your boys can touch her. If she's your second dibs, then it'd be nice for your boys to lay off, but it's acceptable if they don't. Beyond that, it's anyone's ballgame. Girls have a simpler system – backstabbing each other and then telling everyone that the guy is a prick for hooking up with both of you.
Guys don't talk about what they did with a girl. A guy will come home, and his friend will say, "so, did you two, you know?" And the guy will say "yeah" and maybe even a number to signify how many times. A girl gets back, and proceeds to tell her girlfriends what he wore, everything he said, how much the take-out food cost, and exactly what he did with his tongue.
Girls – guys will not tell you if they like your haircut. Half the time they try, turns out that you just combed it differently, and the guy looks insensitive for suggesting it was cut when it wasn't. Guys – girls do not care about how well you did in that intramural basketball game. So what if you scored 20 points, you were playing against the women's chess team. Get over yourself, and compliment her haircut.
No offense to anyone, but if you don't date much in college, then you won't date much after college. Think of the situation you've been given. You live in a one-mile area that consists of thousands of members of the opposite sex, 99% of whom aren't married, and all within four years of your age. If that's not enough, you're put in small rooms with these people for 4 months, and then you're given a new set of people for the next four months – and this happens eight times. No one has an unlisted phone number, and everyone eats in the same place. Then, members of the opposite sex are given a lot of alcohol, and are all hanging out in the same 5 places every night. Face it, if you can't score now, then give up.
Like this column? Then buy the book! | dclm-gs1-108350000 |
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We used to shop at Kohl's regularly, especially for school clothes and Christmas shopping. They WERE my favorite store. Last year, at the checkout they had a promotion to apply for a Kohl's credit card and receive 10% off on the spot. We do not typically have any store credit cards, have excellent credit and pay for everything with a debit card, which comes directly out of our checking account. So, we applied for the credit card merely to receive the discount, with the intention of paying it in full as soon as the first bill arrived. We never receive that bill until months later, even after wading through their very confusing electronic voice answering system on two occasions, explaining that we are not going to pay a bill with no receipt. These people expected me to rattle off my credit card numbers over the phone with no bill. I reviewed our mailing address and explained that we would be paying the charge in full as soon as the bill came, but would not pay any late fees, as I had provided the correct address when I applied for the card. We finally got the bill, paid the original amount, but not the late fees. Kohl's marketing department has been harassing us ever since, calling our phones 12 times a day. We are still not going to pay the late fees, which have since accumulated, as they have added additional charges. Be warned, if you deal with Kohl's they will rip you off and harass you to death.
If anyone can suggest any recoursive action we can take, please post a reply.
Complaint comments Comments Complaint country United States Complaint category Department Stores
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25th of Jan, 2008 by 0 Votes
If you find out anything as to where there is a complaint office in kohls please let me know. this past may I had to leave town for my job, my husband was in charge of paying bills which he did, but in August our credit was pulled and kohls was reporting us deliquent, after calling them found out that somehow our street # on the address was changed, now i have lived at this address for five years and for all those years the address was correct and stayed the same, I have been trying to get this cleared up and have not to date, they say they will remove the deliquent on my credit since it was their fault, they say they will fax me something to show my creditors that i am in good standing and have not been late, I have called twice for this letter, faxed them once and I am going for a mortgage and I am in need of this letter.
The reason that it was not paid my husband did not know that we had a kohls bill and since it did not come to the house it was not paid, but it wasnt our fault....
they have corrected the address after two times calling them to change it... I am so FRUSTRATED>
27th of Feb, 2008 by 0 Votes
If you never recieved a bill after one month, that should have sent up a red flag, and you should have either contacted the credit center or checked your statement out on kohls.com.
11th of May, 2008 by 0 Votes
Back in Feb. my fiance applied for a card in store..many phone calls later from home and from customer service in the store itself we have YET to recieve the actual card OR a bill...Always an excuse that it was returned to them (wrong address) and even tho the actual application has the same address we have given to them numerous times and they have repeated it back to us, all they can say is that its been returned yet ALL of other mail finds us everyday so why the problem??
I get so aggrivated at their laziness and stupidity..Help!!!
17th of Jul, 2008 by 0 Votes
What some companies or the ones running certain departments, do not understand that sometimes a situation like this is all it takes to push someone over the edge. I love scaring the living crap out of them with a 3rd party threat. Ya see, from what I have found out as long as the treat is not directed at them and a 3rd party nothing can be done. (i.e. I can understand why people get pushed to the edge, this is the last draw, I can't take it anymore. I feel like I am going to shoot someone if this doesn't get fixed. Loudly cock the shotgun and politely ask them for their location.) I'll bet it gets fixed.
If corporate America can threaten us, why can't we do it back as long as we are within the guidelines of the law.
I had a similar situation with Video Professor. Free my BUTT. After 129.00 charge, I went completely bonkers and lost it with this poor guy on the phone. Similar to above. The next thing I know, it went from sorry we can't help you to a credit in 3 days and a faxed letter confirming no more charges would be applied. It was all fixed in 3 days. Now I get to deal with SEARS...UHG I need more shotgun shells. LOL
11th of Aug, 2008 by 0 Votes
So I had a similiar experience, I got a Kohl's card, my name is all goofed up on the front of it, which they say is no big deal. I got my first two bills fine from them, but then I stopped receiving them for two months. Stupid me though, I didn't think anything about it untill I saw on my credit report that I had a delinquet account. So I called customer service they told me my address was incorrect, so I went through the automated recordings to fix it. I eventually talked to a real person who told me the address was right so it must be a problem at the post office. She waved one and a half late fees, but it left a big ding in my credit. Right after this I signed up to pay my bill online through their website. I paid my new bill from them online last month and then today I got an email from Kohl's telling me I had a payment do in two days. This place is ridiculous!
16th of Sep, 2008 by 0 Votes
I too am a victim of Kohls scam and while some people may only have a few bills and can notice that they didn't receive their first bill in four weeks, the rest of us have many bills and pay them as they come in and wouldn't notice if a bill that has never came in before was late or not. Not to mention that it is Kohls responsibility to send out credit statements (bills) to their customers and not every customers responsibility to make sure that they receive their statement (especially new credit accounts).
It was 5 1/2 weeks before I noticed the bill hadn't arrived. Not only did the bill never arrive but customer service gave me the run a round when I called and tried to find out what I needed to do to pay my bill that they still hadn't sent me. They said my bill would be sent out but it still never arrived and by the time I called them again they had already turned into their collection agency (that they own) and I found out that my $60 in charge was now $148!
Kohls changed my address from the one I entered on the credit application to one on my credit report. Not only that but they never called my phone until they had already closed my credit account and sent my case to their collection agency (that they own). That means they never bothered to resolve the issue until they had already tacked on $88 in bogus fees, closed my account and put the information on my credit report. I agreed to pay my bill if they would remove the erroneous information from my credit report. They refused to do so and to this day I haven't paid them one cent. Who is running this company? It is almost as though they hired a retard to do their data entry and instead of holding that person responsible for this obviously repeated unnoticed mistake, they continue to allow this person to work at their company. It's either that or they are doing this on purpose for some unknown reason to the public. I can't figure out how they would benefit from doing this on purpose unless they need tax write offs or something and even that doesn't make real good sense. Go figure. All I can say is if you are thinking of applying for a Kohls card, beware because this can happen to anyone (irrespective of the persons comment above stating that we all should have called Kohls within one month of not receiving the first bill).
16th of Sep, 2008 by 0 Votes
Not only did I not receive a bill, but I never received a credit card from Kohls either. My address was changed as well. Now my small charge (less than $100) is noted as delinquent on my credit report. They won't remove the information from my credit report so I'm not paying them. I can't believe this company is so mismanaged.
27th of Mar, 2009 by 0 Votes
They ripped us off as well, we even got a 12 dollar late charge well after we had already called and canceled the card.
27th of Mar, 2009 by +1 Votes
If you have an issue, all you have to do it call the 800- number and keep pressing "0" it will connect you to a live representative. Also, regarding not paying your bill beause you don't have it, all you have to do it go to the store, at any register, and say you want to pay your bill but you don't have your card. You can enter your SSN which will pull up your account, and you can make a payment right there, and get a receipt.
Also, Kohl's has a "Yes We Can' philosophy. If you complain enough, they will do pretty much anything. I worked there for years, trust me. They're not trying to rip you off, you just have to have common sense.
It's not that hard people...come on.
1st of May, 2009 by -2 Votes
My wife got a Kohl's card in Aug 07. She pays the bill, but doesn't really pay attention to the charges. Recently I reviewed the account online. There are charges every month going back 1 year (that's as far as you can review online) for something called "Account Ease". I called Kohls customer service and apparently this is some kind of credit insurance program whereby they will forgive the balance on the card if she were to lose her job or otherwise be unable to work. She assures me she never signed up for this program and these charges, going all the way back to November 2007, amount to theft. Kohls offered to refund only the last 2 months worth of charges. Kohls stated that they could not prove she signed up for this program. She did not sign up for it. The charges are currently averaging $20 per month. We have demanded a total refund of all "Account Ease" charges and the associated interest back to account inception. Kohl's refused. Complaints have been filed with the BBB and WI State Attorney General Office. Kohl's is sending us monthly statements back to the beginning of the account. We will pay off the balance for the merchandise we purchased, but we will never pay these "Account Ease" charges. They can file wit the credit reporting agencies and we will dispute that also. We have cut up the Kohl's card and will never shop there again.
3rd of May, 2009 by 0 Votes
I experience the same thing, I HATE KOHLS
19th of May, 2009 by 0 Votes
I have experienced the same exact thing. Was anyone ever successful in disputing the mark on the credit report with the Kohl's Dispute Department?
23rd of May, 2009 by +2 Votes
Dear Most Likely Annoying Unintelligent Customers -
Do you really think people will be clamoring to write down you SSN 24/7?
That aside, ask to write it down instead and keep the paper afterwards.
Also, anything regarding your account can be accessed in store, online, or over the phone (there is a number right on the card). Anything that goes wrong with your account is your own fault. Keep track of it, and late fees and APR and other "hassles" won't exist.
As for complaining to get your way, yes, it will work. If you say something is the wrong price, or that you lost a coupon, we will most likely honor it. It always depends on the person you get. If you get a person just starting there shift, there won't be any issue. If someone is finishing their 8 hour shift and had to deal with annoying idiots all day, they might give you a hassle (because you are usually either wrong or lying, quite frankly). But if you start to give a bit of a hassle yourself, the "Yes We Can" policy allows us to just do what you say. So, if you don't mind stooping down to the ranks of a criminal ("It's supposed to be 5 dollars, and that's what i'm gonna pay for it") or terrorist ("If you don't change the price, I refuse to shop here ever again.")
On a final note, for the love of god, try to treat the employees like they are people. It's hard being nice to idiots for an entire shift, and the occasional smile and thank you can go a long way. Try to remember how crappy you felt in your part-time job when people would not be pleasent.
Your Frindly Neighborhood Kohl's Employee :)
2nd of Jun, 2009 by +2 Votes
Ok excuse givers,
A) you charged stuff, obviously there is a bill coming, dont play retarded and assume you dont have to pay if it didnt show up, contact the 800 number.
B) KOHLS is not responsible, or the individual store for that matter of any charges you may get, CHASE is.
c) The Social Security # giver outer worry freaks, hey maybe we need that so some 1 doesnt fraud you, you cant just sign up for a CC with a first name and last name basis. "Bob Smith" - If you still have a problem with that, DONT do it and go on with your day
d) Working here I notice absoloute crap, you guys are worse than you call Kohls. We will give you basically 30% if you ask for it off. Every body is a Criminal, they take advantage of policies and play us like retards. The world is corrupt. People will cheat the system if there is no Penalty for there actions. Human Morals dont play into anything thats why laws exist because people can't be good themselves they need babysitters (law enforcement)
e) I believe the world would rather make excuses and point fingers than fix there own mistakes, don't sign up for credit, all the terms and agreements you guys are complaining about is right on the thing you X_____SIGNED_____ the other parts your complaining of is still your fault.
e) did you seriously make a website about this?
14th of Jun, 2009 by +2 Votes
Just to let you people know, these kohl's employees are right. We do have th "yes we can" policy in place.
As for the account ease, it is one of about 5 questions that are answered on the pin pad when you are filling out your kohls card. Its says yes or no. Obliviously your wife needs to read what she is getting herself into. I make sure all my customers opt out for that so they dont get charged.
By the way, if you have a credit card, then you should be on top of your bills, No matter how many you have. Create a system and a way to make sure you are getting your bills. There is a phone number, a website, and you can even go into the store and use the customer service phone!
You are the same idiots that sue McDonald's for gaining weight.
Get a clue!
16th of Oct, 2009 by 0 Votes
Kohl's uses a trick menuver when making payments on line at there website, when you enter payment there is a line below it that says what day you want it to post. If you do not state the date to post it will revert to default which may be 7 days later. Very easly it could have been programed to reject the payment until all info was entered. This of course is heavely infavor of Kohl's.
16th of Oct, 2009 by 0 Votes
Kohl's deceptive web site for making payments, when making payments on there site you must be extra careful after posting the amount to post the date you want it to post otherwise it will revert to a default posting which may be in favor of Kohl's so that they can tack on extra interest or penalties, this could have been easly programed to reject the payment until all info was filled out. Also, websit and your account is not up to date possibly as much as 5 days behind .
Kohl's tricky pricing be careful just so that know NYC 11 other states have a retail pricing law that each item must be marked at its sale price so that retailers can't get tricky, this law does not apply in Virginia and Kohl's uses it to there full advantage, although they do have scanners available for customers to use, again they know that most customers do not use it because of the extra trouble to scan.
Kohl's very tricky reatailer WATCHOUT
18th of Dec, 2009 by 0 Votes
I am not a regular Kohl's customer. Just to be clear from the start.
I happened to notice on the front cover of a recent Christmas advertisement that Kohl's was offering a portable television set for $69.99 after redemption of $20 Visa prepaid card by mail. So I think that the TV normally sells for $89.99.
Underneath in smaller print, but large enough to read it says that the TV is on sale for $89.99 and it is regularly $199.99
It is a 7 inch LCD TV with built in rechargeable batteries digital television.
Then below that marked with an asterisk it says, "Mail-in Reward Visa Prepaid Cards are issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A., Inc These cards do not have cash value and can be used at any merchants that accept Visa debit cards. Cards valid through the expiration date shown on the front of the card." ( What does this really mean? It is confusing.)
I searched Kohl's website. They say they are a family valued organization. Another section for investors talks about getting part of the "market share" This wording drew my attention since we are in an economic downturn and I see that the Meta Bank prepaid debit card is being promoted on the front page of the Kohl's 2 day specials advertisement booklet. Organizations might be tempted to take risks that they otherwise may not have in the past; I don't know.
Meta Bank was involved in a $4 Billion dollar lawsuit for fraud this past summer. The people with Meta Bank who should have been overseeing their employees practices pushed all the blame on one person within the bank. The hiring practices of Meta Bank look for people who are willing to work in a fast paced and ever-changing work environment. No where does it say they are looking for honest people with good customer rapport.
I cannot recommend Meta Bank to anyone. Please be advised not to use Meta Bank's services.
When I saw this advertisement, I went to our local Kohl's store. I wanted to speak with someone in customer service or the manager. What appeared to be the service department was the returns line and that was too long. I did not know how to find the manager. Clerks were few and far between. It is the Christmas shopping season. I did finally find one clerk who told me that the rebate offer is being made by the television people and that it has nothing to do with Kohl's and yet Kohl's is offering this on their front page advertisement. Meta Bank has used other long standing well known and reputable entities in the past to get their foot in the door to get access to their customers.
I would like to warn both customers and Kohl's Department Store that Meta Bank tends to use a third party to push their bank. Customers would be far better off by using a local bank to get their credit or debit cards. Customers should deal only with local banks. Kohl's should look very carefully into the history of Meta Bank; it is all on line if you are willing to spend some time doing research. I don't think that Meta Bank will help Kohl's in any way with developing good customer relations. This kind of relationship will not be good for Kohl's in regard to long term growth. Please understand that I am trying to be a friend here. Meta Bank could ruin Kohl's reputation. I personally would have nothing to do with Meta Bank or anything or anyone affiliated with Meta Bank.
If customers feel that they have been grossly mistreated by a banking institution, such as Meta Bank (the name Meta Bank may be in small print on the back of your Visa Card) if enough of you write to your state Attorney General's office, these practices can be stopped in your state.
National banking entities can be stopped from practices that are unsavory if all of you would write a letter explaining what happened to you to:
Office of Thrift Supervision
Department of the Treasury
Consumer Affairs Division
1700 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20552
Collectively, if we all write one letter just to explain what happened, change for the good can happen so that what happened to us will not be able to happen to another person. If some people had only written in sooner, perhaps we would not have experienced what we did. Please look at your card, if it says Meta Bank on it anywhere, a complaint has already been filed.
I wrote my letter. One letter is just a start. The organizations that are in place to help us need to see the big picture and to be able to see the big picture they will need to hear from anyone and everyone who has been hurt by Meta Bank's practices and customer service. Please write to the Attorney General's Office in your state and to the address above in Washington, DC
18th of Apr, 2010 by +1 Votes
I work at Kohls as of right now. There really is no "scam" reguarding the Kohl's card. Honestly, we are FORCED to pressure customers into applying for it because it's our job to. I on the other hand rarely do that because I dislike when I'm asked to apply for one. IF you are overcharged or are charged a late fee on your bill, DO NOT come stomping into a Kohl's department store to customer service demanding we remove the late fee or ask why we put the late fee. ITS NOT US! THAT'S CORPORATE KOHLS. It's ridiculous how many customers come in upset that I can't explain to them about their late fee, WE DO understand you're upset and have sympathy towards concerns. However, don't get pushed out of shape because YOU have to call about the card. Take advantage that we have the "yes we can policy", but don't push it. It's amazing how many customers will come in, and say they forgot their "25"% off coupon they received. Then customers become upset when I let them know that NO there is no coupon for that amount and we never have extra coupons. 1-We don't (In EASTLAKE, CA) have those coupons and if we did it is never that percent. 2-Ask nicely, and tell us you will use your Kohl's card and we will be happy to honor it for you.
Advice when you do shop at the store:
1. If we ask to see your identification card along with your credit card do not hassle us, it's for your protection, there has been numerous times that a customer will throw a fit saying they don't want to show it to us because it's their personal information. DUMB DUMB DUMB.
2. Don't ask if we have extra coupons, because we don't.
3. Don't hand us your card and ask whats your minimum payment because we don't have access to your account.
4. Give us any coupon you have at the beginning of the transaction, because once we've rung you up and you've paid, coming back saying oh I forgot my coupon, guess what we manually have to return all the items then ring them back up again to apply it.
5. WHEN STANDING IN LINE, seriously be ready with your wallet. It's quite annoying when a customer decides to look for all coupons/credit/debit/cash at the end. We don't mind waiting, but you should have been ready to check out.
6. Decide before hand what you want to purchase, don't come to the check-out and spend those extra minutes pondering if you like the item because it backs up the line when were trying to ring you up and it's a tiny bit annoying when your being indecisive.
7. BE courteous when you decide you don't want an item anymore. Don't just throw it in an aisle, or leave a shirt hanging in the shoe department, it's tacky, it's messy and you wonder why you're complaining about the messy HOME department you shopped through today, we clean our mess, you should too. If you don't want something hand it to an associate so the store doesn't become a mess.
15th of Mar, 2011 by 0 Votes
I have a Kolh's account that I can't seem to pay. I take payment into the store and they credit my wifes account which has a zero balance and then charge me a late fee. Imagine that. I call the "Can do butt nugget" on the other end and get jerked around for 30 minutes because he/she had a bad 8 hr shift? I own a business and I would be out of business if I treated people this way. I am not late and have a great credit score except for the "can do's" at Kohl's. Bad shift are you kidding me. Maybe that's why you are only part time. You couldn't work for me and treat people like this.
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Issue No.05 - May (2001 vol.27)
pp: 473-479
<p><b>Abstract</b>—This paper reports on an empirical research based on two software products. The research goal is to ascertain the impact of the adoption of a reuse policy on customer satisfaction. The results show that when a systematic reuse policy is implemented, such as the adoption of a domain specific library, 1) reuse is significantly positively correlated with customer satisfaction and 2) there is a significant increase in customer satisfaction. The results have been extended to the underlying populations, supposed normal.</p>
Software reuse, domain library, software metrics, empirical software engineering.
Giancarlo Succi, Luigi Benedicenti, Tullio Vernazza, "Analysis of the Effects of Software Reuse on Customer Satisfaction in an RPG Environment", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol.27, no. 5, pp. 473-479, May 2001, doi:10.1109/32.922717
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Talk:Scientific Revolution
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Why isn't this a real article? There was indeed a Scientific Revolution, spurred by the rediscovery by European thinkers of Greek philosophical traditions. Human 01:00, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
So the revolution was a rediscovery? What makes it a revolution? RSchlafly 01:22, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
We call the rediscovery the Renaissance. The rediscovery of principles of logical examination of the natural world led to the scientific revolution. I guess I understand why it might not be a nice topic for this site, since the nature of the revolution was the overturning of centuries of religious oppression... and eventually led to naturalistic explanations for many previously mysterious aspects of the world. If one held dear to some of the ideas held in the middle ages, it was a very threatening concept. The only "threat" to religion is when religious dogma refuses to accept scientific advances (cf Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, Einstein) rather than incorporate them in an ever more enlightened theology. There will always be an infinite amount of room in our understanding of the universe for God and Faith. Just leave a little room on the side for the things we have actually figured out. Human 01:37, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
PS, I don't mind if you want a paragraph calling it a "myth" (it's your web site, not mine), but at least describe it well first, k? Human 01:38, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
It sounds like you subscribe to several myths. Is there something wrong with the description in the first paragraph? RSchlafly 01:59, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
"It sounds like you subscribe to several myths" - I'll ignore the insulting language.
"Is there something wrong with the description in the first paragraph?" Yes, it's woefully incomplete. Especially when equal space is given to calling it a myth. How about a brief (succinct) history, say, from Galileo through the industrial revolution that the scientific revolution spawned? Human 02:21, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
Why stop there? There is a long history of science before Galileo. RSchlafly 02:46, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
Wouldn't that best be covered in History of science, with the scientific revolution as a subset? To quote from Science: Order and Reality (Hicks et al, 1993, A Beka Book, Pensacola Christian College), p. 349 "Almost all of what we know about the physical laws which govern the universe has been discovered by scientists since the middle of the sixteenth century (the 1500s)." (bold and italics in original), and on p. 350, "The nineteenth century was perhaps the era of most rapid advance for science. By the end of that century, most of the great theories we are familiar with today were well formulated." So that is essentially the topic of this article - the scientific advances from the 16th through the 19th century. There is also a nice timeline on pages 350-351 that could be sifted for a brief overview of major discoveries. Human 14:28, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
Yes, that is a good example of the myth described in the article. According to the myth, science started in the mid-1500s. The book's view is very distorted. Great theories like relativity and quantum mechanics came after the period described in the book. RSchlafly 14:54, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
(dropping indent) OK, if I can't turn to a Christian science text for homeschoolers for clarity when writing on this site, where can I go? I mean, this science text has a separate index for scripture quotations! Human 15:52, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
My opinion: There can be no doubt that there occurred a considerable change in the way science was being conducted sometime around the 16th century. Whether one calls this a Revolution or a Kuhnian paradigm shift or something else entirely doesn't really matter, but the Scientific Revolution is the traditional term. However, this does not necessarily imply, as RSchlafly says, an assertion that science "started" at that time. Quite the contrary - it was a revolution in science. The scientists of the Scientific Revolution most certainly did not conduct their business in the same way as their medieval predecessors, but they were still very much indebted to them. The article should probably try to reflect this quite complex development and relationship. --AKjeldsen 16:10, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
I am still waiting for a reply to my question: is my Christian Homeschooling science text really "very distorted" and containing "a good example of myth"? And, if so, what texts are not, so I can read the undistorted, non-mythological truth about this? Human 23:13, 24 April 2007 (EDT)
Yes, your text is distorted. It appears to have not even discovered 20th century science yet. RSchlafly 01:05, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
You're saying that the Pensacola Christian College, of which Beka Books is a ministry, has published (in 1993), an distorted Science textbook for the use of Young Earth Creationist Christian homeschoolers. You understand, you will be quoted on this elsewhere? You didn't answer my second question yet. Human 01:42, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
No, I don't know who might be quoting me, if anyone. Are there Young Earth Creationist Christian homeschoolers who are waiting for my recommendations? If so, I say to get some real science books, and ignore the YEC stuff. RSchlafly 13:15, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
To sort of answer your question, I do think there is a tendency for this site to be used by YEC HSers, so, yes, I suppose. As far as what references to use, thank you, I'll see what I can scrounge up that was published recently. Human 14:21, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
It's hardly a "modern" term...
...unless the 1800s count as "modern." Dpbsmith 06:12, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
Who used the term in the 1800s? RSchlafly 12:39, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
Oh, I now see the 1867 quote in the article. I am not sure what to make of it, as I do not have the book. Is it saying that the scientific revolution includes work in the 12th century? The article needs some work. I'll try to get to it later. RSchlafly 13:25, 25 April 2007 (EDT)
I don't have it either, but Google Books does. Click on the link. The entire book is available for reading online. Dpbsmith 16:28, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
"There was no intellectual revolution in the sense of a profound change in intellectual thought. Experimentation and research were just as important in the much older cosmological models. The progress of science has been gradual and continuous."
I have to disagree with this, the renaissance and the age of enlightenment DID change the western worldview: they were the basis of our human rights, freedoms and an exponential growth in scientific progress. MiddleMan
Yes, there has been growth since the 1500s, but that is not what the article says. It say that science began in the 1500s. That is nonsense, and I intend to correct it. RSchlafly 02:38, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
No, it does not say that, it does say, science as we know it (scientific method) began back then, it does not deny that discoveries were made before then, also the use of "supposedly" makes it look as if the author doubts his own article, very confusing for readers. And the growth since the 1500's has been exponential.
I also find a discussion of Galileo's conflict with the church completely inappropriate here, the same goes for attributing science to the catholic church at every turn. Yes, European scientists were often Christian, just as Arab mathematicians were Muslims and Chinese inventors were Confucianists.
By reading this article one learns that there is a vague and controversial term called the "scientific revolution" that did not really happen, but even though it did not happen, the church still caused it, and that in 1867 some guy wrote a book about some other guy called Galileo who was persecuted by the Church, but it was his own fault, and finally ones learns that only devout Christians make good scientists. But after reading this article, one still does not know what the scientific revolution actually is/was... MiddleMan
The "scientific revolution" is a big myth. The article describes use of the term. RSchlafly 16:10, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
The "big myth" line could use a decent citation. Right now it's you saying it and no one else. I'm sure you have sources, so would you care to share them? Human 21:36, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
Science did not "begin" with Galileo or Bacon or any one man. The idea of testing a theory about physics or astronomy, by comparing it with real-world observations, however, was not in vogue in 16th century Italy. Aristotle passed on at least one piece of dogma, i.e., the idea that the speed of falling objects is in proportion to their weight. It's not true for very dense, very heavy things like metal cannonballs.
It was not until the Renaissance that anyone did enough experimentation and observation to discover that falling objects pick up speed with each passing second. A cannonball which falls for 3 seconds will hit the ground at 90 feet/second (but you'd have to drop it from 140 feet for it to have that much time to fall). But a cannonball which falls for only 2 seconds will hit the ground at 60 feet/second after falling 65 feet. And a cannonball dropped from a height of 16 feet will hit the ground at 32 feet/second. You can drop a 5-pound, 8-pound and 10-pound cannonball together, and they'll hit the ground at almost exactly the same time. You'll hear a badadum sound as they hit within a fraction of a second. --Ed Poor 16:26, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
I once saw a demonstration in a museum of a feather and a rock being dropped simultaneously down a big evacuated cylinder that must have been about twenty feet high. Very impressive.
Of course, there's another way to demonstrate this, which is to take a fairly large, heavy book; hold it horizontally; place a feather on top of it; and drop the book, flat. The feather stays with the book. I didn't believe this until I tried it myself. Dpbsmith 16:38, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
P. S. I blabbed about this a lot in Talk:Galileo and tried to make sense of an English translation of Aristotle. I think that Aristotle's mental model was that objects have no inertia—inertia is in fact a very non-obvious concept if you didn't take high-school physics—so the speed of fall is directly proportional to weight and inversely proportional to air resistance. One of his reasons why there can't be a vacuum is that in a vacuum, all objects would move with infinite speed. At least that's what I think he was saying. Dpbsmith 16:41, 10 May 2007 (EDT)
Copernican Revolution
NItramNos has made a number of edits that reverse the meaning of several statements and I suggest reverted nearly all of it.
He admits that the Copernican theory was less accurate than the Ptolemaic, but insists on saying that the Copernican was a scientific revolution as defined by accounting for more observations. But it is just not true that the Copernican accounted for more observations. He inserts his own explanations of why the Copernican was less accurate, but they just aren't relevant. He deletes comments about the scientific nature of Copernicus's work. He also distorts Kuhn's definition of a revolution. RSchlafly 23:18, 23 May 2007 (EDT)
Alright, I've begun to include some good old-fashioned unbiased content to this article, so interested folks can actually see what history people are talking when they say "scientific revolution."
Also, I suspect it would be a good idea to retool the "Religion and Science" section to focus on actual influences during the time period (such as the religious drive behind Newton's inquiry, the lectures established by Robert Boyle to counter atheism, etc...). What we have now seems to fit better within an article on conflict/compatibility of religion and science, and is a bit vague and far reaching for an article such as this.
RodWeathers 15:39, 6 February 2008 (EST)
A few problems with the article
Reading through the article it makes the point that most of the scientific break throughs were preformed by Christians and that is true however, it really isn't relevent if the scientific revolution had happend in say China most of the break throughs would have been made by Confucians or Buddhists in Europe you were either Christian, Jewish or dead (Often dead regardless) and often both thanks to the various wars that occured so the fact that most break throughs by christians is really a matter of them being at the right place at the right time then anything else. Also the largest reason for the scientific revoultion is because of the Black Plauge killing off most the establishement that had previously suppressed most progress. As a side note the Roman Catholics at first suppressed the heliocentric view of the world (Copernicus' theory wasn't published until after this death) and it was the work of Gallieo (placed under hous arrest) and Johanne Kepler (Who had to defend his mother from the charge of witchcraft) that proved the heliocentric theory. On another note the fact there were so many wars shook up most worldviews allowing people to have new questions and the creation the printing press caused an upswing in literacy and scientific thought because more people were questioning things —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JCFreak (talk)
If you actually did read the article properly, you would have noted that not only did it make the point that most breakthroughs were by Christians, but also because they were Christians, and explained why. Yet you simply ignore this, and assert an opposing viewpoint with various unsubstantiated and false claims (for example, the "establishment", the church, supported scientific research). Philip J. Rayment 02:33, 5 June 2008 (EDT) | dclm-gs1-108380000 |
Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates are calling for prostitution to be legalised in the U.S. after playing historical hookers in a new period movie.
The duo portrays 1920s French courtesans in director Stephen Frears' new film Cheri, and the risque subject matter has prompted them both to question why the 'world's oldest profession' has been banned throughout most of their native America.
Pfeiffer says, "There is an argument to be made for providing some protection for prostitutes. It would solve a lot of problems for them. They're going to do it anyway."
Her co-star Bates agrees: "For health reasons, it would be better for people to enjoy those pleasures." | dclm-gs1-108390000 |
Commercial mediation
When confronted to a commercial dispute, litigation is not the best way to minimize resolution leadtime, costs, and energy - and above all, you don't control the outcome. There is a better way to go, compatible with your business imperatives: commercial mediation.
What is it?
What is the role of the mediator?
How does it work?
What are the benefits?
What are the cases that are the most adapted to mediation?
Why mediate with Convirgente?
Our rules of mediation
What is it?
Mediation is a dispute resolution process between two or more parties (organization or individuals). It is non judiciary, since it does not take place in tribunal, it’s voluntary, since all parties have to agree to participate, it’s based on collaborative principles instead of confrontation and it’s confidential since all parties, including the mediator, commit to the secrecy of the debates.
The commercial mediation process allows to continue the negotiation that was in most cases initiated by the parties but that did not have a positive outcome and that, for any reason, came to an impasse. In most cases, those disputes do have a solution and the role of the mediator is to facilitate the emergence of that solution. The presence of the mediator, as well as of the counsels, allows the parties to reinitiate the discussion and adopt a structured process that is focused on their interests, come to an agreement.
What is the role of the mediator?
The mediator is a facilitator selected by the parties, who has received a specific training and who assists the parties in their communication and negotiation. He/she is an independant and impartial professional, who does not take sides but guarantees the respect of certain rules and respect of the process. Jointly with the parties, he/she makes the list of what's on the table, of the interests at play, collects information and contributes in that way to the creation of a solution. The mediator separates problems from people, identifies key issues, help the parties to do "reality-testing" and stimulates a collaborative approach between them. The parties have a total control on the outcome of the process.
How does it work?
The commercial mediation process was created more than 20 years ago in the USA and then improved in the following years on the basis of the thousands of cases resolved. To summarize, here is how it looks (please contact us to know more):
The benefits of commercial mediation
Commercial mediation is a dispute resolution process very similar to what business managers are familiar with and this is one of the reasons of its sucess.
In a survey conducted in 2003 among 250 US companies of different size, the following benefits were identified :
After having implemented its “Early Dispute Resolution” program, in 1999, General Electric Oil & Gas Italy succeeded in the next 3 years to reduce by 80% thr number of litigations cases from 143 in 1999 to 30 in 2002. In the balance done in 2009, GE O&G Italy was 6 times bigger than in 1999, whereas the number of litigation cases were the same than in 2002, with around 25/30 cases/year and the associated costs were flat as well. According to Michael Mc Illwrath, General Counsel at GE O&G Italy, the use of mediation allowed to reduce the leadtime in the resolution of the disputes, the associated costs, the uncertainty and the negative impacts on commercial relationships.
What the cases that are the most adapted to commercial mediation?
The most adapted cases are those where:
• Commercial and legal realities diverge
• Difficulties/weaknesses have emerged as time was passing by
• Costs of litigation are out of proportion to quantum
• There is an history of difficult/non-communicative settlement
• The case is ripe for settlement & parties are seeking the best settlement possible
Why mediate with Convirgente?
Mediators from Convirgente have a very good understanding of business issues, based on their experience as executives and business owners. They are accredited by ADR Group and the IMI (International Mediation Institute). They speak Portuguese, English and French. Their resumes are available here. | dclm-gs1-108400000 |
The Prayer Requests of Crocker Bible Baptist Church
1. Jim Woodard - mild stroke
2. Bonnie's Grand-daughter Katie (4 yr old) w kidney stones
3. Church members with unsaved relatives
4. Treva Wesley - Health
5. Wednesday night prayer meeting
6. Bruce Taylor - taking chemo for cancer
7. Pastor Seel and Family
8. Church members un-spoken request
9. Our Friends at Old Pathway Baptist Church
10. Tim Oliver-Salvation
11. Michael Lucas - high school student recently diagnosed with MS
12. Terra (29 years old)-diagnosed with 3 inch inoperable mass in her brain update - byopsy came back as cancer - please pray for Terra
13. Michael Mason-health and eye surgery
14. Armed Forces -Daniel Seel and Katie Bushaw and all of those serving our country
15. Treav's son Leonard cancer,
16. Reserved for your prayer request
| dclm-gs1-108430000 |
[sword-devel] sword.js
Greg Hellings greg.hellings at gmail.com
Mon Jul 8 14:06:26 MST 2013
On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Ryan Hiebert <ryan at ryanhiebert.com> wrote:
> Have you looked at untar.js?
> https://code.google.com/p/bitjs/source/browse/untar.js?r=0eca1f06d91e1477e3708531939c8071fc877855
> On a tangentially-related note, I've done some work on a python sword
> zmodule reader. It's stalled a bit now, because I've seen
> recommendations to use the C++ libraries, and just bindings to other
> languages. I understand the desire, but I think that Javascript is a
> good example of why that's not acceptable in all cases. For some
> distribution methods, it may be necessary to have everything
> implemented in a particular scripting language, such as for a
> Client-side Javascript bible reader.
> I think that encouraging using the C++ library is good, but it's even
> more important to make sure that the file formats are well documented,
> to allow alternate implementations if they are necessary.
Since we offer
1) Perl bindings
2) Python bindings
3) CORBA bindings
4) A Java port
5) ObjC bindings
I don't see that we need to document the file structure any further. If you
want a client-side application to be able to read a module, then you are
more than able to setup and configure a server that can translate between
an installed module and any web-friendly format you desire. If you can't
find a simple web framework that operates in one of those 5 languages (and
one of them is already a web-services oriented binding) then feel free to
read the C++ or Java file reading architecture.
If you work it right, you can even have the library readily configurable
with multiple Sword remote repositories that can query for modules on the
fly, etc. Why the need to contort a client-side UI language like JavaScript
to read binary file formats?
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<D <M <Y
Y> M> D>
: Get out of Mordor free! Fred was talking about a site that compared lembas to Twinkies, and I found it: Tolkien Sarcasm. Also includes such gems as misleading summaries of Tolkien's works and 10 Rejected Lord of the Rings Plot Twists: "Balin emerges from the depths of Moria, claiming he 'fell asleep in the tub'."
: Strangely enough, string comparison seems to already work. I'm not complaining.
: Roger Ebert thinks he's Dave Barry.
: Test cases that fail: 8 (integer division is done as real), 9 (similar cause), 10 (weird constant thing), 11-13 (division again!!) 15-17 (operations on whole arrays), 19 (integer division gives same results as real division (bleah!!!)), 20 (nonexistant label). That's not good (there are 22 test cases, which means I correctly compile only half of them). I really have to fix the division. The weird thing is that the TA says we don't have to implement division, yet it's used in 9 of the sample test cases. If I fix the division I suppose I can call it quits.
: 8, 9, and 11 work now. I have to go to class.
: I'm not going to fix #19 because I object to its semantics (also, it's too hard). I fixed the conversion problem, but I'm not going to make the type of a division expression depend on what type the result is being assigned to rather than on what type is being divided by what type. I mean, come on.
#10 also looks hopeless because jasmin doesn't seem to want to accept negative values for its constants.
I'm working on the whole-array operations now. Then I'm going to quit.
: I don't know what the people in the other building are doing, but I'm fairly certain that they could do it at about 3% of their current shouting level. Unless, of course, what they're doing is shouting.
: 17 works now. 15 still doesn't work and isn't going to work because it assumes that arrays are stored in column major order and I store them in row major order. Therefore, the test cases that have stymied my compiler are 10, 12, 13, 15, and 20. I'm working on fixing 10, but it will be ugly.
: The great thing about having two techno albums is the variety! One techno album might get monotonous after a while, but when you have two, one or the other is always appropriate!
The compiler takes forever to make. I blame the Internet. Specifically, I blame HTTP v1.1.
: I fixed the problem with 10 but it shamelessly manifested another problem, so I give up. 17 out of 22 isn't bad. I'm testing the compiler for turnin now.
<D <M <Y
Y> M> D>
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: I watched the Enterprise premiere with Jason and Manoj; it was fun and then suddenly dull for the last ten minutes. There was so much cheesecake in that episode that Tom Ridge has decided to set the Homeland Security Cheesecake Advisory Level to HIGH. (Also, what happened to Daniels?)
My favorite part of Enterprise is when Archer is talking to someone he doesn't trust (which is basically everyone not his superior officer or a member of his crew). He'll talk and talk and be very reasonable and then suddenly yell "Why are the Vulcans spying on us?!?!" or "What have you done with my chief engineer?!?!". I think his character book says "his style is a mix of Kirk's and Picard's", and the writers are taking that too literally.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen in this episode, so there's no good reason for me to mention it here, except that now's when I thought of it.
Bonus: The Twilight Zone remake, starring Forrest Whitaker, of which we watched about a minute after Enterprise. It's insufficiently UPN! Forrest Whitaker's experiences in the Twilight Zone have left him so jaded that he's incapable of showing any emotion except for that evinced by his general hang-dog look. This is a great touch, but the show is incredibly lame anyway. So as long as they're running the franchise into the ground, they should replace Whitaker with a younger, hipper host who refers to the Twilight Zone as simply "the Zone". Jason suggests the kid from the Dell advertisements. "Dude, you're in the Zone!"
But how to get rid of a Twilight Zone host? There's precedent.
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