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How Technology Boosts Tutoring: What Tutoring Agencies Can Practice
How Technology Boosts Tutoring
Technology has swept into classrooms across the globe; it has revolutionized how teachers teach and how students learn.
Technology and Tutoring
In fact, today’s students have been dubbed 21st century learners because technology has infiltrated their learning pathways. It only makes sense that tutors should capitalize on the advantages technology brings to learning—especially since they most often deal with students who are in need of extra assistance.
There are quite a few different technological tools out there specifically designed for tutors. These apps, websites, and software programs are meant to help tutors provide efficient and effective means of communications to increase their ability to help beyond the classroom walls. Tutoring agencies now have access to a world of teaching at their fingertips.
Sometimes all that a student needs in order to understand the classroom material is to have that same material presented in a different way. This is especially true with math. While the conventional method of tutoring requires face-to-face meetings at a scheduled, mutually agreed upon location, technology has broken down those logistical and scheduling barriers.
Technology and Tools
Tools like Skype and Google+ Hangouts have modernized the tutor/student dynamic. Students can reach out to tutors when they struggle and tutors can respond with assistance.
Google+ Hangouts offers tutors the benefits of using all the Google+ features as well, so they, again, can extend themselves beyond the brick and mortar to really assist students with their individual learning needs.
Skype offers the benefit of IDroo. This is a fantastic tool for tutors as well. It serves as a whiteboard that can be broadcasted over Skype—a tremendous benefit for students who struggle with math. Tutors can explore different ways of illustrating math concepts with an on demand application.
Scribblar is another fantastic 21st century teaching and learning tool that can greatly benefit how tutors assist students. Similar to IDroo, Scribblar acts as an online whiteboard. On the flip side of just one on one, tutors and students can meet and work together in a group. What makes Scribblar unique is that students can take snapshots of the screen, which they can later refer to if they get stumped in school. In essence, Scribblar allows students to take the tutor’s notes with them to school.
Some tutors have even found ways to make their presentation material more appealing to their digital students. One particular tool that assists in that is Animoto. This technological masterpiece allows tutors to take their presentation material and combine them with music and photos to make the information more appealing to students.
24/7 availability from anywhere
Aside from specific tools, technology in general, has made tutoring a much more efficient process. Using both content management systems like Joomla and Wordpress or learning management systems like Moodle and Blackboard, tutors are able to designs specific coursework for students to use to supplement what they are doing in school. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect, and these technological tools provide students with a practice field for the big game that takes place in the classroom.
Regardless of the app or tools that tutors choose to use, the ultimate goal is assisting students, and technology has made this goal attainable. With a wealth of options, tutors should have no trouble supplementing the material kids are learning in schools.
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I like the lint work. I think that is a very good direction to improve code.
The linter is useable also for plain SWI-Prolog code?
1 Like
I assume that you’re referring specifically to the linter?
Although Logtalk cannot cope with everything proprietary in SWI-Prolog, specially when a mix of Prolog modules and term-expansion is used, it’s often able to compile Prolog modules as objects without changes. The linter will automatically run on the code (but note that some lint checks are turned off by default). To experiment, simply pass the path to the Prolog module file to the logtalk_load/1-2 predicates or to the top-level abbreviation, {}/1. For example, assuming a module file:
?- {foo}.
You may also want pass specific compiler options. E.g.
?- logtalk_load(foo, [duplicated_clauses(warning)]).
If you have plain Prolog code (i.e. Prolog code not encapsulated in a module), you can quickly define an object that includes it and compile that object. For example, assuming a plain Prolog file:
:- object(bar).
:- include(bar).
:- end_object.
And then:
?- {bar}.
By default, at startup, Logtalk prints the default flag values, including for the linter flags. These flags are described at:
Let me know if I can be of further assistance. Hope the linter prove useful in your case. For a live chat on your experiments with the Logtalk linter, try the chat room (you only need a GitHub account).
I guess except for wrapping the Prolog code in an object, the answer is no. Quite a few things (some more and some less) are in the SWI-Prolog compiler and library(check). Ideally we would have some high level pattern language to find notably dubious code patterns. I recently thought about that. Unfortunately, many of these patterns involve some sort of type, mode and/or determinism reasoning.
In the past couple of days I loaded Michael Leuschel’s ecce partial evaluation tool into SWI-Prolog and was quite surprised how many small glitches the compiler found. Some of them merely lead to inefficiencies. Others were obvious semantic errors where sometimes it was quite clear what was intended and sometimes not. Not sure how many could really surface as there is also dead code. Surely, old code is a nice testbed for linter like tools :slight_smile:
At most, virtual wrapping using Logtalk’s include/1 directive.
My work on the Logtalk linter have been a learning experience, specially on the required compiler support to make several of the checks possible. First and foremost, the linter makes a strong case for a multi-pass compiler. Although some lint checks only require the directive or clause being parser, others require more extensive context information and often a global view of the compilation context (e.g. the object containing the terms). This additional information is normally not available from the reflection API.
I regularly test new Logtalk compiler versions, including its linter, in both existing Logtalk and Prolog code bases. It’s eye opening the number of issues that I often find, some of them style issues but also bona fide bugs.
That is mostly because you want to be portable. Virtually all SWI-Prolog’s code analysis tools run on the generated code. The library(prolog_xref) is one of the few exceptions. In fact, for code analysis the more recent library(prolog_codewalk) makes cross referencing on the loaded code much easier (as well as many additional tasks). The source code cross-referencer is mostly used to support syntax highlighting. It is less accurate as it may miss source translations, but nice to support editors or highlighting for HTML without the need to load the code.
The only exceptions are checks that are based on variable names (these are part of the compiler) and discontinuous messages (also part of the compiler and with some work you could do them from the compiled program based on the line numbers stored with clauses).
1 Like
Portability is only a partial issue. SWI-Prolog reflection API and native tools are oblivious of Logtalk language constructs and thus of limited usefulness for Logtalk developer tools. The only notable usage exception is the diagrams tool but there the SWI-Prolog reflection API is only used when generating diagrams for Prolog module applications.
Logtalk objects, protocols, and categories are not an abstraction over Prolog modules. Message sending is not an abstraction over module-qualified calls. Not to mention the Logtalk predicate semantics that don’t exist in Prolog. Thus, trying to reconstruct the related contextual information from the generated intermediate code, either for the linter or for Logtalk own reflection API, would be too much work for little to no gain.
The links in the paper are dead. Are you aware of working links for downloading the tools?
1 Like
How I found it
Since a GitHub search did not work as expected.
I tried to find it at GitHub searching for ecce but no luck.
Then I used an old trick I don’t use often but does work sometimes in these cases of broken links to professors at universities.
So the broken link is:
First I try to see if the person is still there and the website just reorganized their pages:
That failed.
Then I try to see if the host URL is still valid
That did not work either, but in this case it starts with stups
So trying the more general URL for the university
And that works and returns
So now I know the university changed its URL
Using the university home page search for ecce returns:
And one of the links on the result page gets me to the home page for Michael Leuschel
which has the links desired
Anyway, it is a nice tool (methodology) to have in the tool box.
2 Likes :slight_smile:
Haven’t published my port yet. Not sure what to do with it. I got one example running. It will take some time to get it all running and reorganised such that it might be useful as a tool in SWI-Prolog to optimize queries using partial evaluation.
Expanding my previous hints for using the Logtalk linter to check Prolog modules code.
Since yesterday, I have been doing just that on the SWI-Prolog libraries and packages plus on some non-trivial open source Prolog applications. This work resulted in opening issues on code repos and mailing authors for other codebases I checked. Some of the issues found have already been fixed.
A recipe that you can apply is:
1. Install Logtalk if not already done. For this use case, you can use the pack:
?- pack_install(logtalk).
1. Change directory to where your Prolog modules files reside and load Logtalk:
$ cd .....
$ swipl
?- use_module(library(logtalk).
1. Load a required library and set linter flags (we turn a number of them off to minimize noise):
?- {os(loader)}.
?- set_logtalk_flag(duplicated_clauses,warning), set_logtalk_flag(unknown_entities,silent), set_logtalk_flag(unknown_predicates,silent), set_logtalk_flag(undefined_predicates,silent), set_logtalk_flag(unknown_entities,silent), set_logtalk_flag(missing_directives,silent).
1. Try to Prolog compile the code as Logtalk in order to use the linter:
?- os::directory_files('.', Files, [type(regular),extensions(['.pl']),paths(relative)]), forall(member(File,Files), ignore(logtalk_compile(File))).
Ignore the errors (Logtalk cannot cope with everything proprietary found in all Prolog systems and the code and its loading order would need some changes to avoid some other errors) and instead look for the warnings. A few reported issues will be false positives. Several will likely be programming style issues. Some will be performance issues (e.g. using =../2 when not necessary). Any duplicated clauses/grammar rules are most likely bugs. Feel free to ask if some of the reported issues are not clear.
P.S. If you need explanations for (some of) the warnings, before trying to compile the Prolog module files as objects, type:
?- {tutor(loader)}.
I’m continuing to improve the Logtalk linter and tutor tools for next release and I would like to draw from your experience: is there a coding error that you find yourself making in the past that wished to be alerted by a linter and that’s not already listed at, please let me know. If you want to try it with the current work in progress, please use the current git version (for Windows, you can download an installer for the latest commit). Feedback most welcome.
1 Like
A quick update for the instructions on how to use the Logtalk linter to look for possible issues in Prolog modules given the recently released Logtalk 3.30.0, which includes new and improved lint checks plus improved support for compiling modules as objects.
To account for module code (yours or from libraries) that makes use of the (SWI-Prolog) term-expansion, use the following improved recipe:
?- {os(loader), hook_flows(loader)}.
?- set_logtalk_flag(hook, hook_set([user,system])).
?- os::directory_files('.', Files, [type(regular),extensions(['.pl']),paths(relative)]), forall(member(File,Files), ignore((load_files(File),logtalk_compile(File)))).
If you’re curious about the hook objects and hook flows see:
I successfully used this recipe to find the issues mentioned in the SWI-Prolog 8.1.14 release notes and a much larger number of issues in other systems and applications.
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A mourning dove chose to build a nest on the front of our house. After the nest was constructed, either mama bird or daddy bird sat on the nest, even when we walked by.
And then, a few days ago, this happened. We don’t know how or why.
The mourning dove couple is gone and this is all that’s left of their hopes and dreams.
3 thoughts on “Mourning
1. We used to have a cat that could alllllmost jump that high. If a cat did make the attempt and at least got the claws over, it could have pulled the nest down. After owning two cats (which solidified our ‘Dog People’ status), that’s my theory.
2. Probably a cat, but possibly a predator bird, like a hawk??? Sparrows can be vicious, too, but not sure if they take on birds that large. I know they poke holes in eggs of bluebirds, and kill the parents, if they want the nestbox.
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UD Bellus Tank UDCL18BTB7272
SKU: UDCL18BTB7272 Tag:
The Bellus RTA is designed by the popular Youde brand who are well known for their previous efforts in the Goblin Mini, Goliath, and Zephyrus. The new Bellus RTA features an incredible, adjustable airflow which has 16 airflow holes located on each side of the tank for a total of 32 airflow holes.
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Raw Coffee Bean: Do Goats Really Dance?
To find out more about the raw coffee bean it is first of all necessary to know more about its origins. This quest will of course lead you to the Ethiopian highlands where it is believed the history of the raw coffee bean first began as far back as in the ninth century. There is a legend associated with how the raw coffee bean came to the notice of humans because it was a shepherd with the name of Kaldi who noticed how his goats began dancing about after eating a certain plant that had bright and red colored berries.
Wider Cultivation
The cultivation of the raw coffee bean soon began in other parts of Africa including in Yemen and Egypt as well as in Arabia though in these countries the raw coffee bean had to be processed through roasting before being brewed and served as a beverage. Another six centuries passed after Kaldi noticed how his goats danced before the raw coffee bean spread from Africa and was introduced to other Middle Eastern countries and to Turkey as well as Persia and also to the rest of the Northern regions of the Dark Continent.
Around the same time a German doctor on his travels in the Near East found a drink that was black as ink, but which also seemed to help treat a variety of illnesses of which the most notable was stomach disorder. Through commercial activities that involved North Africa and Venice the raw coffee bean soon came to the attention of the Venetians and from there in a short span of time the raw coffee bean was soon introduced to the rest of Europe.
In the year 1600 and despite doubts that the raw coffee bean had Muslim origins, it was however granted by Pope Clement VIII that coffee was a respected drink and so the popularity of the raw coffee bean grew from that time onward. At first, Americans that were introduced to the raw coffee bean by the Europeans were not taken up by this beverage since tea was the more popular beverage of the time. However, following the infamous Boston Tea Party, coffee soon became the number one beverage in America and this tradition has lasted for centuries after that.
Caffeine from regular coffee can prove to be addictive as well as less than totally healthy and this is why modern technology has been trying to find a solution to the problem. The introduction of the decaf coffee bean has been welcomed by coffee drinkers throughout the world because it allows them to drink their favorite beverage without needing to look over the shoulder and worry that the high caffeine content would harm their health. In fact, a certain kind of coffee tree produces coffee beans that do not contain any caffeine though its benefits have not been realized on a commercial scale as yet.
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Skip to main content
the future of work
Autism in popular culture has come along way since the days of Rain Man.
Rather than a savant, today's perception of those on the autism spectrum seems closer to that of an adorable or quirky genius, such as Jim Parsons's portrayal of Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, or Benedict Cumberbatch's depiction of Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock. In other words, the changing perception of the disorder implies an intellectual benefit. But will that perception eventually penetrate the work force, so that the condition is viewed as more of an asset than liability? To some, the value of possessing a brain on the spectrum is already clear.
"Neither of my two successful ventures would have ever been created if I had a 'normal' mind,'" insists Andreas Souvaliotis, 53, founder and chief executive of Carrot Insights, which runs Carrot Rewards, a wellness-rewards platform in Toronto. Mr. Souvaliotis explained his unique ability with numbers was the impetus for his Green Rewards business 10 years ago, an ecopoints program sold to Loyalty One.
Growing up in the days before there was an easy diagnosis for autism meant Mr. Souvaliotis was considered gifted for his math skills but at the same time "very weird" and "quirky." That led him to being a self-described "misfit" in the corporate world.
"Had I known about my limitations and opportunities earlier, I would have probably taken bigger entrepreneurial gambles at a much younger age," he said.
Today, he sees value in hiring employees on the autism spectrum, since he observed they experience lower error rates on repetitive tasks and possess a greater ability to focus on details.
These autistic benefits are backed by data. In 2014, researchers at the University of Montreal found those with autism compensate in a similar way to a blind child who may experience enhanced auditory senses. Only in this case, it results in alternate, overdeveloped brain functions.
This may explain why some companies such as Microsoft seek to tap into the community of workers on the autism spectrum.
Dean Betz has been working for the tech giant in Seattle for more than four years, currently as their executive producer for MSN News and Money. Additionally, he also works with their diversity and inclusion program since he experiences a mild form of autism and wants to support the company's initiative to recruit more on the spectrum. While Mr. Betz is reluctant to call the condition an advantage, he does see some benefits.
"People on the autism spectrum describe it as having a different operating system. Many people on the spectrum think differently, so thinking out of the box isn't merely a mental exercise, it's how they think every day and approach problems, which is a tremendous asset, especially in a company like Microsoft," he said.
Additionally, many on the spectrum, according to Mr. Betz, have the ability to focus very deeply on an issue in a way that is a little different than people not on the spectrum.
Microsoft launched the Autism pilot program in April, 2015, and while it is currently only available in the United States, it is looking to expand. The jobs the company is seeking to fill are full-time and offer competitive salaries, but with a unique interview process. Rather than a one-shot phone interview or a several-hour, in-person interview, it's a combination of a workshop and interview to help put the candidate at ease so that she or he may demonstrate their full skill sets, explained Neil Barnett, director of inclusive hiring at Microsoft. To date, they have hired 24 through the program, mostly in software engineering.
Pragmatically, this fits in well with the trend that greater diversity of experience and thought will produce better business results. Diversity, in this case, refers not only to gender, race and sexual orientation but also "neurodiversity."
While not enough research has been done to show the bottom-line value "neurodiversity" brings to an organization, perhaps it's just a matter of time.
Economic benefit aside, the push to more fully integrate the 1 per cent of the population that experiences autism into the work force can reap tremendous social benefits as well.
Mr. Betz observed that as a society we have become more adept at identifying and addressing children on the spectrum, but once those children grow up and enter the workplace, they hit a wall.
"The most important thing for me about autism acceptance is that people can be themselves and, for many on the spectrum, they have had to pretend or hide the fact so they aren't judged negatively," he said.
"Microsoft is the only place I've worked where I feel comfortable being out about it because it is not well understood. I'm fortunate that the people who I work for and some of the people I work with do understand, and that makes a big difference," Mr. Betz said.
Leah Eichler (@LeahEichler) writes about workplace trends
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South Carolina (Federalist Failure)
State of South Carolina
South Carolina Flag (Federalist Failure).gif
Official language English
Capital Columbia
King Thomas X
Independence 1776 (declared)
1783 (recognized)
Currency South Carolinan Dollar
The Kingdom of South Carolina was one of the founding members of the United States of America. It was the last state to abolish slavery, in 189?, and even today, is dominated by an unofficial aristocracy, primarily descended from the old slave-holders.
The right to vote is more restricted in South Carolina than in any other US state. Women only received the vote in the late 20th century, and strict property requirements are still in place (with restrictions on the sale of property preserving the power of the old aristocracy). Severe racial restrictions are still in place.
Georgia pressured South Carolina into selling the Mississippi Strip, a narrow 12-mile strip extending to the Mississippi, in the 1850's.
South Carolina supported Jefferson Davis during the Virginian Civil War
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What is a Dental Implant?
Dental implants are an increasingly popular option for replacing missing teeth. They consist of a titanium post that is inserted into the jawbone during a small surgical procedure, which will be used to support a replacement tooth. Once the implant is in position, it must be left to heal and fully integrate with the jaw bone for several months. As soon as this process is complete the implant can be restored with the replacement tooth.
Dental Implant treatment
This treatment is very versatile as implants can be used to support single or multiple missing teeth. It is possible to completely replace a full upper or lower arch of teeth with a fixed bridge, or with a removable denture that clips firmly onto the dental implants.
You will be referred to a specialist for placement of your dental implant after initial planning. Once healed, the implant can be restored at our dental surgery. We will take impressions of your mouth which are used to fabricate your implant crown or bridge. Your teeth can be fitted during your second visit. Some more complex restorations might require a greater number of visits to plan and fabricate the appliance.
Well-planned dental implant surgery has very high success rates, but it is important to attend regular check-ups so the condition of implants can be monitored.
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Primary sources
articles History & People
Ronald A. Barnett ©
Mexican History
The Maya, Aztecs, and other peoples of ancient Mexico had a very strong sense of their own history, which they went to great lengths to preserve. But in some ways, their concept of history differed radically from that of the invading Spaniards and later historians who wrote the history of Mexico from the European viewpoint. If we wish to understand the Mesoamerican concept of history, we must set aside many of our cultural preconceptions of what history should be and try to think our way back into the historical consciousness of the native peoples themselves.
Language is one of the main keys to understanding another culture. Ideally one would study the primary sources of Mesoamerican history in the original languages, Nahuatl, Maya, Mixtec, etc., whenever possible. The sheer effort involved in learning an Amerindian language with a completely different linguistic structure from English and other Indo-European languages would in itself help to restructure one’s thought patterns. This would allow the researcher a deeper insight into the target culture. However, we do have enough accessible primary source materials to allow us to reconstruct, at least to some extent, the pre-Hispanic view of history.
The Mesoamerican historical record includes pre-Hispanic and Colonial codices, non-codical sources, such as inscriptions on stone monuments and ceramics, post-Conquest and Colonial written texts, including written sources in the native historical tradition. Only a handful of pre-Hispanic codices escaped the holocaust of the Spanish Conquest, and these are mostly from the Oaxaca area. However, hundreds of native and mixed-style codices and manuscripts were produced during the Colonial Period and even into modern times. Many of these documents are based on pre-existing hieroglyphic manuscripts, and so provide a vital key to the form and content of the painted historical and religious books of Mesoamerica.
Pictorial or hieroglyphic manuscripts, sometimes amplified by written text, from the Valley of Mexico and the Oaxaca area are an especially important source of information on the native view of history. In Yucatan only four Maya codices survived the fiery wrath of Bishop Landa and his ilk, but they are mainly calendrical-ritualistic in content rather than historical. Undoubtedly many native historical documents were lost. From central Mexico only a couple of pre-Hispanic Aztec codices have survived. However, many Colonial codices in the Aztec or mixed Mixtec-Aztec style of the Borgia Codex, a major source for Mesoamerican religion, are also pre-Hispanic in content. From northern and western Oaxaca we have at least eight historical-genealogical codices in the pre-Hispanic style that give detailed accounts of Mixtec kings and queens and the deeds of famous warriors and rulers.
The term codex is something of a misnomer but it has become standard usage. Strictly speaking, a codex is a book or manuscript in European-style format. The typical Mesoamerican painted book is a screenfold of skin or bark paper (amate) covered with a thin coat of lime and then painted with pictographs, glyphic signs, etc. Folded, it looked like a book, spread out it was a long scroll-like affair. Some codices, such as the Codex Mendoza, were in typical book format and therefore are true codices. The contents of these documents include government, history, calendrical systems, religious beliefs, and cosmological views. However, in order to understand and interpret these documents we must take into account two very different points of view: the western or European historical tradition and the Mesoamerican concept of history.
History as we know it begins with the ancient Greek historians Herodotus, the so-called “Father of History,” and Thucydides, who was perhaps the more critical of the two. On this view, the critical approach to historical events and personages developed only in the west and spread outward from there. Unfortunately, this highly ethnocentric view of history fails to take into account the Mesoamerican concept of history and many others outside of the European world. If we follow this line of argument, the history of ancient Mexico as told by the Maya, Aztecs, and other indigenous peoples of the Americas is reduced to little more than a smattering of historical “truth” buried deep in a morass of myths, legends, and superstitions. At best “native” history can only be described as semi- or quasi- history, not real history in the Greek or western European sense. It was this misguided sense of superiority on the part of the Spaniards, as well as their quest for gold and Indian souls, that led to the horrors of the Spanish Conquest and its equally destructive aftermath.
The main differences between western European historiography and the Mesoamerican concept of history can be illustrated from two key terms: tradition and annals. At first glance the Nahuatl terms Itoloca (“That which is said about someone or something”) and Xiuhámatl (“Book of the Years”) appear to be similar in meaning, but it would be a mistake to equate the two. In Aztec thought Itoloca signifies “tradition.” From the western or European point of view, “tradition” is usually regarded as the (presumably) uncritical desire to preserve memories of notable past events and famous personages without too much regard for historical accuracy. The term annals, on the other hand, implies a written history based on a supposedly more critical approach to history than that of the Maya or the Aztecs. In the Mesoamerican context, however, these terms take on quite a different meaning based on a different concept of time and space.
Let us consider the meaning of the term tradition. Oral tradition in which writing plays little or no part is generally considered to be much less accurate than the written or literary tradition. This is not necessarily so. Early Celtic bards and tradition-bearers relied heavily on memory and yet managed to hand down through generations fairly accurate “texts” of Celtic history and lore. In ancient India the sacred Rigveda was transmitted verbatim long before it was ever written down. On the other hand many textual errors creep into written texts through the carelessness of scribes or the accident of time and circumstance, as a glance at the often numerous variant reading of any classical Greek or Latin text will confirm.
Several stages are involved in the development of historical writing, although not necessarily in strict chronological sequence. In a sense history actually begins with oral tradition. In the Iliad of Homer, Achilles sits in his tent singing of the “famous deeds of men,” while the battle for Troy rages on. Orally composed and transmitted epic poems and sagas often contain vivid recollections of historical events, although they may be amplified and cloaked in the formulaic language of epic poetry. Eventually, however, the oral tradition passes into some form of writing. In the written or literary tradition, annals consist of a series of dated but otherwise disconnected events, albeit in strict chronological order. Chronicles go one step further and present a consecutive historical account in a sustained narrative or story format.
In Mesoamerica, the transition from oral to written tradition took place in three stages, with local variations: (a) calendrical entries with illustrations in pictorial or hieroglyphic form; (b) a combination of prose and pictorial representations; (c) prose texts based in part on pre-existing pictorial-hieroglyphic manuscripts but eventually written from the outset.
These stages can be illustrated from the Aztec tradition. First, the oral tradition ( Itoloca) is an account, backed up by the codices, of what has happened to someone, i.e. a history. So too in the Indo-European tradition the epic Mahabharata of ancient India is described as itih_sa (“so indeed it was”), which in Sanskrit signifies a traditional account of events or a heroic history. Secondly, Xiuh_matl is a registry of the years in which are recorded notable events that occurred in those years. Chroniclers commonly translate this term as “annals.” Thirdly, Tlatolli (“word or discourse”) refers to the content of the historical narrative, the word or discourse that preserves the memory of the past. This is the final stage of historical writing in which a series of chronological events are put together in a running narrative to present the reader with a coherent story line.
We have very few pre-Hispanic codices or manuscripts but this does not lessen the value of documents produced after the Spanish Conquest. Even late records of Colonial history, such as genealogies, maps, economic accounts, and land records all contribute to the reconstruction of the history of Mexico as seen through the eyes of the people who lived it. For example, the 16th century post-Conquest Codex Boturini ( “Tira de la Peregrinación”) is a typical native screenfold of amate paper. This important pictorial manuscript covers the period from about A.D. 1168 to 1355; it tells the story of the migration of the Tenochca-Mexica from Aztlan, their arrival at Chapultepec, their subjugation to Coxcox, ruler of Culhuacan, and their final destination of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. While this codex is in a native or slightly acculturated style, the broken tree motif, for example, is said to show definite European influence.
In summary, primary source materials for the reconstruction of the Mesoamerican concept of history may be divided as follows: pre-Conquest Codices, documents produced under Spanish Patronage, Native Colonial pictorial manuscripts, and Mixed Colonial pictorial and written documents. Because of their pre-Hispanic content, some works by the early Dominican and Franciscan friars, such as Durán and Sahagún, must also be considered primary sources.
Published or Updated on: October 1, 2005 by Ronald A. Barnett © © 2005
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If You’re Going to Lay Pipe, Why Not Do It Right?
How Do I Mix Oil and Water?
These oil spills can be prevented, not to be confused with the term “Oil Sands,”but do I have your attention?
You don’t. Not unlike capitalists and environmentalists.
But if you’re going to lay pipe, why not do it right (twice)? The Calgary-based TransCanada’s $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline is the dubious answer. The proposed pipeline is a major infrastructure project that would create 20,000 unionized construction jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax and other revenues in the six states through which it would pass. How about we appease both sides of this controversy; the environmentalist hate it and the capitalists love it; by adding to the mix? Add a water pipeline. An irrigation pipeline. Bury it right next to the oil pipeline. Collect and dispense water from the pipeline as needed.
Send it down and dispense it through parched draught stricken lands and collect it from flood swollen, land dispensing and collecting water as needed, creating the most progressive irrigation system the world has ever known. Where in the world are we experiencing droughts? Think Texas. Not to mention Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Check out Wall Street Journal Business article called “Facing Up to End of ‘Easy Oil’” by Ben Casselmann, dated May 24, 2011.
The sweetest part of all… the oil companies and the Canadian government and Canadian corporations can subsidize it. Just ask Exxon. They’re spending millions to advertise it. Ask Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer. He can hardly refuse a slam dunk. Don’t forget our environmentalists. Ask Margot Kidder arrested for protesting the pipeline. Is she going to deny the drought and flood victims the relief from water? Water, life giveth, life taketh away.
Oil Sands!
Oil Sands
Now it’s up to our State Department. They need to decide before year-end (2011). Move over Bill! Maybe it’s time for Hillary to lay some pipe. How do you mix oil and water?! Wired Magazine has some ideas. Maybe we lay less pipe?
In any case, nothing is ever easy. Unless you’re Bill.
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The 385-Million-Year-Old Tree Roots That Rewrite History
So imagine stepping out into your backyard to gaze at the neighborhood and its houses, or striding into the sprawl of a nearby city park. Except, it's nearly 400 million years ago. Actually, 385 million, in fact, about 130 million years before the dinosaurs ever existed, as the Natural History Museum cites. There are no separate continents. Brazil and Nigeria are side-by-side. There are no — repeat, zero — large land-dwelling creatures. Tetrapods, Earth's first four-legged animals, will take another 10 million years to transition from aquatic to amphibious, and eventually furry, milk-nursed mammalian. Fins rule, not hooves or toes.
And there, in front of you, is a tree that looks practically the same as any tree you'd see nowadays. A rough, hard, bark-covered trunk. Branches fingering off to the sky and sprouting broad, deep green leaves.
Is it possible to see such a familiar sight in a world as alien, at least in imagination, as Earth's then single continent, Pangea? Yes, in fact, as Smithsonian Magazine cited from a 2019 study published in Current Biology. Seed-bearing trees with root systems are so excellently evolved for life on Earth that they've outlasted all animal species that've lived and gone extinct since, barring 425-million-year-old insects like millipedes, per Science Daily. Homo habilis, an early human species, lived a mere 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago (per History). Speech developed about 200,000 years ago (per The Atlantic). Agriculture, about 12,000 years ago (per NPR). The iPhone in 2007. And all the while, trees have stood watch.
The first seed-bearing plants in a time before the dinosaurs
It's very easy to take our tall, green-leaved sisters for granted. After all, their presence seems as persistent as the stars. And there are more of them on Earth, in fact, than stars in our galaxy, by a lot: 3 trillion, per Smithsonian Magazine. And this is after immense swathes of senseless fire-drenching destruction continue to obliterate utter treasures like the Amazon and Bornean rainforests.
The recent discovery about Earth's history boils down to what looks like a simple thing: roots. In Earth's Devonian period (393–383 million years ago, as the original findings on Current Biology state), our global ecosystem underwent rapid and significant changes that pivoted the development of life. Non-seed-bearing plants like moss abounded. The fern Eospermatopteris, with "fronds in place of leaves and hollow, spongy trunks," thrived. Their bases were ringed in "shallow, spindly" roots that didn't dive too deeply into the soil, and likely died and were replaced every couple of years. Compare this to "Tree 76" in Muir Woods north of San Francisco, a 777-year old sequoia, give or take, that sprouted from the ground during the Crusades, as Los Angeles Times reports. Its dense, elaborate, nutrient-and-water drinking mesh of roots have stayed in place the entire time, while the tree above ground ages and thickens.
The current finding, a pristinely preserved fossil about 45 minutes south of Albany, New York, depicts a 385-million-year-old root system that looks remarkably like a nigh-modern, seed-bearing tree.
A history-overhauling tree root fossil
The benefits and strengths of seed-bearing plants cannot in any way be understated. To reach the sun, a trunk grows tall. To survive winds and storms and injury, it grows hard. Its roots press deeper and spread wider. Deep roots survive extremes of dryness and flooding. And to catch maximum sunlight above ground, leaves broaden. To reproduce and carpet the earth with tracts of forests, the life cycle of such seed-bearing plants passes from tree to seed to sapling. They push up to the sky and down to the bedrock, and drop more seeds each generation.
As Smithsonian Magazine says, "like a miracle" this entire process appears nearly overnight, evolution-wise, during the mid-Devonian period of human history around 385 million years ago. The "mind-blowing" fossil cited in the current finding in Cairo, New York, south of Albany, is the earliest plant of its kind to exhibit all the traits of what we consider "a tree." Researchers had no idea such a history-overhauling find awaited.
The impact of seed-bearing trees on the ecosystem cannot be understated, either. We all know about trees' carbon-soaking powers, so it's easy to envision how they shaped our atmosphere to its cooler temperature and current balance of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and so forth. Dying and drying trees nourished a forest floor shielded by leafy canopies and rendered vibrant and lush. Carbonic acid migrated towards oceans. As researcher Christopher Berry told Smithsonian, "The arrival of these forests was the creation of the modern world."
Carbon-capturing trees that created our modern, oxygen-rich ecosystem
The type of tree discovered at Cairo, New York, in the Catskills, belongs to the genus Archaeopteris, which was previously dated to no earlier than 365 million years ago, 20 million years later, as Science says. Christopher Berry, paleobotanist at the U.K.'s Cardiff University, and his team actually discovered the site back in 2009, which looks like a rocky quarry of three-dimensional, fossilized roots. It's taken this long to be able to come public and arrive at their conclusions, and research is still underway.
Kevin Boyce, geoscientist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, goes into detail about how such trees not only affected our very complex and delicate ecosystem, but essentially forged it. The depth of the roots of seed-bearing trees, formerly belonging to shallow-digging ferns and the like, help to break apart the soil and rocks below. This process, dubbed "weathering," further helped absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Back before such trees existed, CO2 levels in the atmosphere were 10-15 times higher than today.
Our modern trees caused an additional cascade effect of triggering elevated oceanic oxygen levels. By 300 million years ago oxygen levels had increased by 35% planet-wide. The carbon captured by the bark of seed-bearing trees gets locked away in carbonate ions in the soil, and are carried out to our oceans. There, they remain safely locked away in the form of what we know as limestone.
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What fruits should you keep it the fridge?
Some fruits like bananas are ok if you keep them outside your fridge, in fact they will end up tasting better than putting them in a fridge. But more often than not the best thing you can do is to use the fridge and see what type of fruits you enjoy the most.
All types of berries need to stay in the fridge. And the reason behind that is easy to understand. More often than not, fruits are all about offering you great quality and comfort, but berries do that only if they are at their best quality. They tend to become uneatable in a few days, so keeping them in the fridge is extremely important.Three Strawberries
Grapes are pretty much dealing with the same situation as berries. They can’t withstand the outside temperature for a very long time. If you want to keep them for more than a few hours, you should put them in the fridge and results will be really good for them in the end.
A lot of people don’t put nuts in their fridges, and that’s a problem. That’s because most nuts and seeds will go rancid very fast. Again, this is the type of thing that you rarely encounter on your own, and it’s sad because there are many situations like this that you clearly want to avoid.
Apples will not go bad if you keep them outside your fridge. But if you put them inside the fridge, you will get that amazing value and consistency that you really want from a product like this. Plus, they retain a great taste when refrigerated, so there’s that.
Ideally you want to have melons in your fridge as much as possible. Although some people go with keeping them outside until they start eating and then the remaining portions are stored in the fridge to retain their freshness. Either way, melons put inside your fridge will always taste amazing and you should totally check them out.
Peaches will last for a lot more time if you put them in the fridge. The best thing that you can do is to try and find how you can keep your peaches last longer, and many times keeping them inside the fridge is what you want to do.
Kiwis are ok outside the fridge for a while. But they tend to reach that ripe point a lot faster. So the best thing that you can do is to keep them outside the fridge at first and then store them inside for a longer period of time. It will be well-worth it in the end.
As you can see, using a different approach towards storing fruits is always welcome. And in this case the idea of storing fruits in your fridge might help quite a lot. Not only does it retain a great nutritional value, but they will also last longer too. Give it a shot and see for yourself!
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Off-grid Solar System
通常価格 $1.00
Smart Solar Off-Grid Systems
An off-grid system is not connected to the electricity grid and therefore requires battery storage. An off-grid solar system must be designed appropriately so that it will generate enough power throughout the year and have enough battery capacity to meet the home’s requirements, even in the depths of winter when there is less sunlight.
The high cost of batteries and inverters means off-grid systems are much more expensive than on-grid systems and so are usually only needed in more remote areas that are far from the electricity grid. However battery costs are reducing rapidly, so there is now a growing market for off-grid solar battery systems even in cities and towns.
how off-grid solar systems work.png
There are different types of off-grid systems which we will go into more detail later, but for now, I will keep it simple. This description is for an AC coupled system, in a DC-coupled system power is first sent to the battery bank, then sent to your appliances. To understand more about building and setting up an efficient off-grid home see our sister site go off-grid/hybrid.
• The battery bank. In an off-grid system, there is no public electricity grid. Once solar power is used by the appliances in your property, any excess power will be sent to your battery bank. Once the battery bank is full it will stop receiving power from the solar system. When your solar system is not working (night time or cloudy days), your appliances will draw power from the batteries.
• Backup Generator. For times of the year when the batteries are low on charge and the weather is very cloudy, you will generally need a backup power source, such as a backup generator or gen-set. The size of the gen-set (measured in kVA) should to be adequate to supply your house and charge the batteries at the same time.
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Your search was for date of birth 1740-1749, date of death 1830-1839 and courses starting 1770-1779courses ending 1780-1789. One document was found.Showing all documents.
1. Hankin, Edward (1747-1835)
Student United College 1777-1780 b, t, m. (Secondar). Chancellor’s prize, Private Latin theme, 1778; do. Civil history, 1779. M.A. 16.5.1780.
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10 November 2020
rugby 4085868 1920
As we are in uncertain times and with multiple instances of gyms closing, reopening, and closing again, many of us have had to improvise with regards to our health and fitness goals.
The sporting season for most seasons has been cut short, however athletes have had to stay fit and ready in order to compete in their sport as soon as they are able to.
What kind of training do these individuals need to do, in order to stay fit and ready for the sporting season?
The underlying factor for any athlete to stay ready, fitness-wise, is usually how bad they want to play and how bad they want to excel in their chosen sport.
Let’s start with specificity: what does this mean, exactly? What specific physical characteristics do you need to train, and what is the nature of the sport? Are there aspects you can train with minimal equipment and the use of the outdoors?
For the sake of this newsletter, let’s use rugby as an example. It’s a Winter sport which requires the use of a field, and it provides markings for conditioning-based drills.
Rugby has different needs, conditioning-wise, depending on the player’s position.
Some positions require shorter sharper repeated efforts, done over 80 minutes, and others require longer distances.
The measurements of a rugby field provide a great tool not only for athletes needing to get fit for the season during lockdown, but also for anyone looking to stay fit.
The basic measurements are: 0 (try line), 22 metre line, 40 metre line (also known as the close 10 metre line), half way (50 metres), 60 metres (also known as the far 10 metre line) and the far try line. The total length is 100 metres, and width is 70 metres.
These dimensions give us an indication of the different drills we can do, and what components of fitness they train us for.
Here’s a quick example drill:
12 x 22 metre sprints, starting on the try line, going every 20 seconds, and aiming to get them done in less than 10 seconds.
So if you achieve one sprint in 8 seconds, you have 12 seconds rest before the next sprint. Repeat this 12 times. This is a total of 4 minutes and increases the capacity to repeat these intense, short duration sprints over many repetitions. The key here is to aim for minimal drop-off between reps and to maintain the intensity as best as you can.
REST 2 minutes
This allows for your heart rate to somewhat normalize and for your energy stores to regenerate before the next bout of sprints.
10 x 40 metre sprints, goal is 20 seconds, going every 30 seconds.
REST 2 minutes
10 x 100 metre sprints, goal is 30 seconds, going every minute.
As you can see, this sample session uses different distances, which will train different components of fitness. Due to the volume of the sprints, all energy systems will crossover at some point and get trained equally.
This is effective for improving work capacity and fitness because it allows for a high intensity of work to be repeated with incomplete rest periods, to work the cardiovascular component as well.
This is something that is great for general fitness and can be done as a pre-season drill to build general work capacity. So next time you’re looking for some fitness drills to do, head down to your local rugby field and give these a go. You can add variation to these by starting on your stomach for each rep.
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Covid restrictions still in place for UK travellers in Europe
Families from the UK who are heading abroad for the spring half-term break continue to face a complex array of Covid testing requirements as restrictions for popular destinations remain in place.
While the UK has relaxed all Covid travel restrictions, many other countries have retained a variety of test requirements before holidaymakers can enter.
On Sunday (15 May) Spain announced that it was extending its entry rules until at least 15 June, meaning adults must be fully vaccinated before travelling to the Spanish mainland, Canary Islands or the Balearics. Unvaccinated children can travel, but those aged 12 and over need to show a certificate of Covid recovery or take a negative PCR test no more than 72 hours before they travel.
Spain’s rules are stricter than most other countries in Europe, with destinations such as Greece, Croatia and Austria lifting all restrictions on travellers, regardless of their vaccination status. Others, such as France and Turkey, allow unvaccinated holidaymakers to travel but only having completed a negative lateral flow or PCR test before they arrive.
However, even here there are differences in approach, with Portugal and Cyprus both requiring lateral flow tests for the unvaccinated to be completed by a healthcare professional no more than 24 hours before departure, rather than allowing travellers to take their own swabs at home.
For most countries, testing requirements start with children aged 12 and over, but the rules are different for families going to Italy, where anyone who is unvaccinated and over six must prove their Covid status with a test.
The US is stricter still, with every traveller aged two and above required to complete a Covid test no more than 24 hours before they travel, regardless of their vaccination status.
“It’s great to see people are travelling abroad again, but as individual countries are responsible for their own Covid testing rules, passengers must remain wary to ensure they’ve taken the right tests for their destination,” said Nick Markham, co founder at Cignpost ExpressTest, which operates testing centres at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
“The risk is that they can’t get a last-minute test in time for their flight, so prebooking the right test at the airport should be thought of as a holiday essential, like buying insurance or finding the best deal for your travel money.
“With testing rules changing regularly and often at short notice, we advise people keep checking the requirements for their destination to make sure they don’t get caught out.”
Families who navigate the Covid testing requirements must also keep on top of rules for wearing face masks, with the EU recently announcing that coverings are no longer required on flights to many EU countries. However, popular destinations including Greece, Italy and Spain say they intend to keep mask rules in place for the half-term break.
To check for the latest entry requirements travellers can visit or use ExpressTest’s free find the right test tool.
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Cardiovascular system
Vascular disorders
Congenital heart defects
Cardiac arrhythmias
Valvular disorders
Heart failure
Cardiac infections
Pericardial disorders
Cardiac tumors
Cardiovascular system pathology review
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High Yield Notes
5 pages
12 flashcards
Content Reviewers:
Rishi Desai, MD, MPH
In angiosarcoma, -sarcoma refers to a malignant tumor, and angio- refers to a blood vessel or a lymphatic vessel. So angiosarcoma is a cancer of either a blood vessel, in which case it’s called a hemangiosarcoma, or a cancer of a lymphatic vessel, in which case it’s called a lymphangiosarcoma. Both arise from the inner lining of the vessel wall, known as endothelium.
Angiosarcomas form when endothelial cells suddenly start proliferating abnormally. If these masses grow inside the blood vessel lumen, they can obstruct the blood flow, and that interferes with the oxygen and nutrient supply to various tissues, and can eventually result in tissue ischemia. If lymph flow is obstructed, lymph fluid backs up in the tissues, causing lymphedema.
Cancer cells from hemangiosarcomas and lymphangiosarcomas can also invade the vessel wall, destroying it and making it burst, leading to bleeding or lymph fluid outflow in the surrounding tissue. In general, these cancer cells multiply rapidly and can be easily carried by blood flow or lymphatic flow to far-off sites within the body, particularly the lungs, where they form a new, metastatic tumor or tumors. Because of this, angiosarcoma is considered to be a particularly aggressive type of cancer.
Angiosarcomas can occur anywhere in the body, but most often develop within the skin, bone, soft tissue, breast, or liver, and often spread from those locations to the lungs. Angiosarcoma of the skin usually shows up on the head or neck as a raised, purplish skin area that looks like a bruise that doesn’t heal; it may bleed, be painful, or be accompanied by swelling of the skin surrounding the affected area. Angiosarcoma of the bone is usually multifocal, meaning it affects multiple sites within the same bone, or involves multiple bones of the same limb.
1. "Robbins Basic Pathology" Elsevier (2017)
4. "Angiosarcoma: clinical and imaging features from head to toe" The British Journal of Radiology (2017)
5. "Angiosarcoma" The Lancet Oncology (2010)
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Amputee Jacky Hunt-Broersma ran 104 marathons in 104 days — and may have set a record
Jacky Hunt-Broersma finishes her 102nd marathon in 102 days last Thursday in Chandler, Ariz.
Ross D. Franklin
Most people who ran the Boston marathon last month spent days before resting up and days after recovering. But not Jacky Hunt-Broersma. The Boston race was the 92nd marathon she had run in 92 days. The very next day, she ran another, then another, then another.
In total, she ran 104 marathons in 104 days, with her last race on Saturday. If it's confirmed by Guinness World Records, that would be a new world record. And she did it all with one leg and a prosthesis.
But what drove her to set a new record? She simply wanted to see if she could do it, she said.
"The previous person that had done it, I had looked at it and I'm like, 'Well, she can do it. And she was an able body and I was like let me see if I could do it on a prosthetic and see what happens," Hunt-Broersma said. "And it was an interesting journey because I wanted to push the limits and see how far, but also see how far I could do it and if my prosthetic would actually last."
There are a lot of factors that go into running as an amputee, Hunt-Broersma said, and she wasn't sure if she would make it past the 30 mark.
"I thought it would be a great way to inspire others to push your limits because I truly believe that we're stronger than what we think," she said. "And I've been so pleasantly surprised that my body's held up, everything's held up and I've made it to 104."
One might think that with a running streak like that, Hunt-Broersma has been running her entire life. But she actually did not pick up the sport until after her left leg was amputated below the knee in 2001 due to a type of cancer called Ewing sarcoma.
"When you lose your leg, there's an element of you that you become a little bit more stubborn because people tell you there's so many things you can't do. You can't do this, you can't do that. And running was one of those because it's really complicated."
Amputee runners can't use a regular prosthetic leg, they need a running blade. Hunt-Broersma has two, but she was only able to run with one during her streak because of swelling she experienced in her amputated leg that made it impossible to connect to one of the blades.
This, she said, is just one factor that many amputees have to consider when running. But even with the swelling and friction that sometimes occurs, she has been able to push through it and continue her stride.
"Running truly has changed just me," Hunt-Broersma said. "It's just changed my perception of how I see myself as an amputee. It makes me feel strong. It makes me feel fearless. I can just push limits and it's just been phenomenal."
As much as she loves the sport, there was at least one point during her 104-day streak that she considered calling it quits.
"I was tired. I just didn't want to do it anymore. And I'm like that's not a good reason to quit," she said. "I basically sucked it up, pulled myself together and continued. And then you kind of get back into the routine and then it's like, OK, I'm getting there. I'm moving forward and it's going to be OK. And then you kind of just focus on each step, like each day, and you just kind of get through the miles that way."
All together, Hunt-Broersma ran 2,724.8 miles. During that time she's had a lot of time to think and has learned a few things about herself.
"It's taught me how strong you can be and how much running is so mental. If you're mentally strong and in the game, you can do anything," she said. "And our bodies are just incredible. ... This whole journey has just been amazing. It's been hard. It has been super hard, but it's told me how strong you can be as a person and how far you can push yourself."
After her impressive feat, Hunt-Broersma is taking two weeks off of running before she begins training for her next big race – a 240-mile ultra marathon in Moab, Utah in October.
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October 12, 2009
Fall Colors, an Apology, and a Quick Health Reminder
So the Lobster and I are back from our brief New England Fall Foliage tour, and though we were too lazy to take pictures, we had a great time!
Er, well, most of the trip, anyway. Perhaps not the night when we'd settled down in our lovely campsite by the pretty pond, finished dinner, and were just preparing for a peaceful night's sleep in our trusty campervan when...
Our propane alarm went off, warning us of a potential gas leak.
Did I mention this was a completely deserted campground inside a beautiful state park miles from anywhere that promised awesome hiking, and that it was already paid for and nonrefundable?
We carefully considered our options: we could mute the frantic bleating sound, assuming it was only a false alarm (albeit the first one ever in seven years). Of course there would be small chance we might asphyxiate in our sleep, but as far as accidental death goes... that's really not an unpleasant one, right?
Nighty Night, Sleep Tight!
(Photo: O Pish Posh)
Much better to go to sleep inhaling propane than be wide awake and meet up with a huge hungry grizzly bear, or fall off a cliff or something.
Warning: Hurts More Than Falling Asleep.
Plus, if we never woke up, then we wouldn't have to unpack and clean the van again on our return!
But on balance, we decided it was probably worth hauling our sleepy asses back out of the lovely forest and onto the highway in search of a motel. And instead of hiking the next morning, we'd attempt to find an RV repair shop, one of our perennial favorite road-trip amusement stops.
As it turned out, the reason no one else was in our pretty campground even though it was the height of fall colors? All the leaf-peeping tourists were crammed into every motel room within two hours of us. After numerous "No Vacancies" we finally found a room at "America's Best," which we later learned must be short for the less well-known "America's Best Shithole" motel chain.
To be fair, as far as shithole motel rooms went, it probably was one of the best bets out there. To summarize:
Downsides: grease, grime, cigarette-burned bedclothes, rusted metal fixtures, water-stained ceilings, odd unidentifiable smears on doors and walls, a tiny lumpy double bed, funky moldy/garbagey smells, tattered carpet and drapes, peeling wallpaper, banged-up furniture, cobwebs, missing coffee-maker, cracked mirrors, and a couple of curious houseflies.
Upsides: No gunfire, prostitutes, drug-dealers, drunken screaming neighbors, rodents, arachnids, vipers or cockroaches. Plus, the toilet, while grimy, actually flushed and the shower had hot water. And it was cheap!
The Happy Ending: Van got fixed the next morning, our hiking and touring resumed that afternoon, and we consoled ourselves over our temporary misfortune with a Special Road Trip Treat: cheeseburgers!
So Sorry!
Alert readers may notice a bit of blogging laziness lately, as I gear up for the Cranky Fitness Big-Ass Giveaway and Cross Country Road trip. I've been terrible about answering emails, commenting at my favorite blogs, and doing much in the way of extensive health and fitness research. Again, thank goodness for helpful co-bloggers! And I swear that once I get settled on the west coast I'll start doing researchy posts where I try to dig up and report on actual useful information. Or barring that, at least I'll scout around and find some soccer players in their underwear, Sarah Haskins videos, or cute Lolcats.
And now for the promised health reminder:
Summer's Over, How's Your Vitamin D?
Many people, especially those in northern latitudes, don't get nearly enough vitamin D during the winter. (And we don't mean northern latitudes like Fairbanks, we mean northern like Boston and San Francisco.) Consider supplementing with some D-3, or get a few minutes of early morning or late afternoon sunshine without sunscreen. Perhaps sometime this winter, Cranky Fitness will sponsor a clothing-optional blogathon for Vitamin D awareness!
Outside is Better, But Maybe the Window's Open?
(Photo: kindofindie)
So send in your pictures of yourself blogging naked in the winter sunshine and we'll... well, I'm not sure what we'll do, besides giggle, but it will be arguably good for your health and may boost our pageviews.
Or, a more practical idea: next time you have a physical, ask to have your Vitamin D blood levels tested. Sure, depending on your doctor you may end up feeling like a high-maintenance hypochondriac, but screw it, it's worth it to get a number and have some clue if you're deficient. Some folks do all the right things and still somehow end up low.
(Bonus: if you take the test and find out your blood levels are great, it's an awesome smug feeling!)
Wait, I Forgot, Why Do We Care About Vitamin D?
It's the new hip nutrient (acai berries are so last year), and it seems to be linked to lowering risk of all kinds of health problems. It appears Vitamin D lowers risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, autoimmune diseases like M.S., diabetes, and Alzheimer's.
Thanks for your patience! Any thoughts on fall foliage, crappy motels, interrupted vacations, vitamin D, or nude blogging?
1. I have experienced that... but I'm not going to tell you which of your topics I mean!
2. Vitamin D is added to our milk here in Canada-- so all we have to do to get what we need is have a glass. Any vitamin supplement should offer enough Vitamin D that blood tests are unnecessary. A single supplement per day won't hurt anything and what you don't need you just eliminate through urine.
Barb, not associated with that health centre that is commenting on blogs and trying to drum up membership.
3. I think I'm blind...you should put a warning sign up before posting naked folk!
America's Best Shithole...I spit out water on monitor..it's okay I'm sure it needed to be cleaned anyhow.
I stayed at one of these type places when I was in highschool and a friend and I went to the cape, we were wondering if there may be a dead hooker under the boxspring. We wrote on our sheets to see if Jacqueline the maid was changing them. Sadly no. I hope she changed them from the last people that were in the room, I shudder to think of what the answer to that is.
4. or come to Austin the land of unrelenting sunshine!!
We got Vitamin D to spare ;)
5. I just picked up a new multivitamin which has more vitamin D (and some other stuff that's good for me). I plan on taking it with some nut butter, as some of the vitamins are fat-soluble.
6. I am so glad you two decided to head to a hotel, albeit a crappy one, so that we can keep on enjoying these posts!
Well, I have lots to say on all you wrote but who wants to read my ramblings.... Oh, OK, short & sweet.. I love fall colors & miss them now here in southern CA. I grew up back east.
nude blogging.... depends on who is nude!
Vit D.. I am out in the sunshine here in CA! But you are right, it is important for those that do not get enough of it!
7. I once stayed in London's Best Shithole with Chris though I'd made reservations at a Best Westurd. My ex was notorious for sniffing out the cheapest shitholes. He was successful finding a cheaper shithole after he left me.
I'm not sure about staying in a shithole with a propane leak since you can't really tell the difference in smell.
My photo is on the way. I hope you haven't eaten anything.
8. You just enumerated every reason why I detest staying in motels. So nasty!
I'm on a Vit D supp. It's supposed to help with depression, specifically the Seasonal Affective Depression I get every year. Don't know if it's helping but hey, I like expensive pee.
9. I am not usually influenced by What Everyone Else Does, but a month ago I started taking vitamin D3. I can't say I've noticed any improvement in my immune system, but we can always hope.
As a nudist, I assure you this is not the time of year for blogging outdoors, even clothed! Rain is so bad for computers.
Glad you survived the propane alert, AND the motel!
Mary Anne in Kentucky
10. i is confused.
Always thought vitamin D was a fat-soluble vitamin, thus any excess was stored in your fat cells rather than excreted in urine.
Did the clever people in clean white coats change this?
11. Apart from the potential asphyxiation, sounds like a delightful trip. I have been trying to sneak in some sunshine but I have all that important indoor blogging to do...
12. As my vacation begins this Thursday, I hope to have no interruptions! I am, however, very dejected to know that you will be doing your big-ass giveaway while I am actually away - no computer = no entries, boo!
13. Upon moving from Virginia to Illinois we were desperate for a hotel and ended up in something like yours. It was shelter, and I kept telling myself others have been through worse and have survived. We slept in our clothes and shoes. I didn't even feel comfortable enough to shift. Ugh!
14. A little sparse on the Vitamin D and naked pics around these parts.
15. I'll take a rabid mama grizzly bear with cubs over skeezy hotel rooms. And that was a tough one to weigh. *shudders*
You two are some brave souls. But the fall delights had to have been worth it.
I think Vita D3 is too late for the senility, but I'm still taking 2,000 units a day. But I heard we really need 5K units...is that what you heard? Guess it's one of those things best left up to the doctor.
16. I quite like your posts which talk about more than health news. But thanks to you, I've remembered to take my Vitamin D for today (I have a really hard time remembering to take pills unless they're curing something) along the big-ass Calcium tablet which made me choke. I'm a very bad pill-taker! I need the sunny climates.. sigh!
17. I blogged recently about Vit D a few weeks ago. It's incredibly important.
Put aside the (questionable) weight loss benefits of Vit. D and you still have its incredible importance for bone health (shout out to all those 40 and 50-ish women out there!) and the immune system.
I found out that I was Vit. D deficient this year, after learning that I suffered from osteopenia (the pre-cursor to osteoporosis). At the time of the osteopenia diagnosis, NO ONE told me to take Vit. D, just calcium. It was not enough.
I'm now taking 4,000 IU of Vit. D-3 every day and my Vit. D levels are normal. I'm looking forward to my next bone scan in January.
Oh, and I haven't been sick in quite a while. I even managed to avoid a nasty cold that had my never-sick hubby down for the count as well as my two boys. I've now got them on 1,000 IU of Vit. D-3 per day.
BTW, you've got to take D-3--it's the one that your body assimilates the best.
Start taking it NOW!!
18. Just got back from a week in Maine. I've never been to New England in the fall before! Amazing!
My one complaint: my travelling companions were city folk who were literally-not-kidding *afraid* to go into the woods. Reason? Steven King is from Maine. (These are smart people. Some of them have post-graduate degrees. Sad.)
So I saw a lot of amazing fall foliage from the safety of the car and/or windows of the lodge we were staying in.
But the locals were also great. Oh, and the *seafood* ... well, I gained 5 pounds in one week!
Walking it off . . .
19. I'm commenting in the nude.
No, really...
1) Vitamin D: I actually got to sit through an hour conversation with a doc from the Dermatology department and one from Women's Health...they debated, AT LENGTH, whether or not post-menopausal women should use sunscreen. They compromised: sunscreen after the first 20 minutes in the sun. They did not rule on nude blogging.
2) That young boy is entirely too young...and, um, boy-like. Where's the Italian soccer team blogging in the nude? I'll come see THAT!
Glad you two didn't suffocate. That would have put a serious damper on the week.
20. Pretty funny, Crabby!! Even though they call "C" the sunshine vitamin here a bouts, the big "D" is proving to be the important one, and I don't mean Dallas :-)
21. I think I woulda just opened the windows on the RV, threw on a few more blankets and taken the chance vs. America's Best. *shudder*
I'm with Beanie - where's the Italian Soccer team?
22. So I guess you didn't have a tent, that you could relocate outdoors instead of having to seek out a hotel? I've stayed at some iffy places, but never that iffy!
As a point of order wrt vitamin D, you will not eliminate much of the excess through urination. D is fat-soluble, not water soluble, and you can overdose on it. Supplement with caution.
In the United States, milk has approximately 100 IU of D per cup and the RDA is 200 IU, so unless you're supplementing in other ways (sunshine, pills, other dietary sources, etc) you need two cups of milk per day to get your minimum of D. If you're not drinking that much D-fortified milk, look for an additional source.
23. They are strongly considering changing the RDA of D to 800 for some, and 1000+ for older folks (that don't synthesize as effectively) and nursing moms.
I suffered from a true D deficiency while nursing my youngest... felt like total crap!
Now, I just supplement all the time. The supplementation rates for long-term accumulation of excess are over 2000/day (as I recall - look it up if you're worried).
24. One site says you have to take more than 10,000 IU per day for quite a while to overdose, and I know one physician who routinely tells his patients to take 5,000 IU a day, so I'm not worrying about too much from my supplement, which is below that.
Glad you are back and breathing healthy, Crabby!
25. I almost spit out my soup I was eating when I read about the fabulous motel you stayed at! gross!!
Glad you survived it!
26. Hey,
I stayed in an America's best this summer in Memphis we did have the added bonus of hookers pimps and drug users. LOL!!!
27. "Perhaps sometime this winter, Cranky Fitness will sponsor a clothing-optional blogathon for Vitamin D awareness!"
Nude-colored ribbon? Best tan lines contest?
First step, just get your Vit D levels checked. You can sort out all your various supplement taking philosophies later.
28. Glad you survived America's Best Shithole (and thanks for the heads-up on that..... in case I ever get to the States!)
Must get my blood levels checked. Vit.D is for depression, isn't it?
29. No apology necessary... vacations and trips are not about the rest of us, they are about you! Mind you, I was mightily entertained by the tale of America's Best Shithole.
I guess I've had too much luck with cheap places I've stayed. I still remember the St. George in Santa Cruz before the Loma Prieta earthquake. Stayed there with a friend for like $17 a night. A cool place if you didn't mind the residential hotel ambiance.
New England in fall is nifty! I went out once for a wedding in PA, but then ended by cruising and camping all over New England with mutual friends who'd also flown out. Good memories.
Good reminder about the vitamin D! Heaven knows I need supplements during December/January. We rarely see ANY sun in those months. Think fogged in valley and COLD!
30. could you not have simply removed the propane cylinder and left it outside the camper van to vent any fumes out there?
Vitamin D also protects against swine flu (according to my MIL)
Thanks for commenting, Cranky Fitness readers are the BEST!
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Wiki Loves Women’s Inspiring Open podcast series celebrates women whose work and personal ethics intersect with the Open movement and dynamic women who push the boundaries of what it means to build community and succeed as a collective.
This podcast explores relevant conversations around tech in Africa, from the perspectives of different stakeholders in the tech ecosystem, with the goal is to reaching people at various levels in tech; from the newbie trying to scale or pivot, to the tech experts. Each episode of the podcast has versatile and experienced personalities who share valuable insights for a positive impact on everyone who listens.
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Summarize Available Data Showing Envs 171 Environ
Summarize Available Data Showing Envs 171 Environ
Summarize Available Data Showing Envs 171 Environ
What is a policy memo?
The purpose of a policy memorandum is to research an environmental policy and evaluate the policy’s effectiveness in addressing an emerging environmental issue and suggest new policy measures that could improve its efficacy. A policy memo is a professionally written document that provides analysis and/or recommendations directed to an audience regarding a specific situation or topic. A well-written policy memo is clear and concise in presenting evidence regarding a public issue or problem in a way that assumes the audience possesses limited time, attention and knowledge of the issue or problem. The purpose of a policy memo is to provide analysis of current policy and provide recommendations on how to improve current policy to address emerging issues or problems.
An additional purpose of the policy memorandum is to provide documentation that you have in-depth knowledge about an environmental issue and a policy (or lack of a policy) and are qualified to address this issue in the first few years of your career. Students can choose a policy or issue at the state or federal level.
Students should write on the Clean Water Act or Endangered Species Act. Students should identify an issue or problem related to one of acts. The issue/problem can be focused at the national or state levels or to a specific water body or species.
The policy memo should be 800 words of text excluding figures, tables, title page, and references. Submit the paper in Microsoft Word. Citations should be in APA format.
Introduction: Briefly describe an environmental problem and why it is important to society or a social group. Make an argument for why the problem should be addressed by the government, and if a policy is in place, why the policy is not adequate for addressing the problem.
Problem Statement: Describe in depth why an environmental problem is occurring. Give specific examples and summarize available data showing trends or patterns relating to the environmental problem. Describe who is responsible for causing the problem and who/what is affected by the problem. Describe those who are or should be involved in addressing the problem, including government agencies, industry, community groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals.
Policy Analysis and Recommendation: The purpose of the policy analysis is to understand how a policy was developed, who was involved in the process of developing the policy, and what we currently know about the success of a policy in addressing an environmental problem. Below is a guide for developing your analysis.
1. Describe the policy that has been developed, adopted, and implemented to address the environmental problem. What are the policy goals? What are the policy mechanisms which ensure that the problem is addressed? Who is responsible for implementing the policy? Is cooperation between multiple interests needed in order to ensure success? How are costs and benefits distributed? Students should make an argument for whether the issue is adequately being addressed by a policy and provide evidence to illustrate the policy’s effectiveness. If the policy does not adequately address the issue or solve the environmental problem, describe why you believe this to be true.
2. Make a determination if an existing policy does not adequately address the environmental problem recommend changes/additions to the existing policy. If the policy has been implemented, is there information on how successful the policy has been? How did the agency or researchers evaluate the success or failure of the policy? How does the agency responsible for implementing the policy track success? What are the factors they measure (economic, ecological, social)? Is the manner in which the policy is implemented and monitored adequate in meeting the goals of the policy? Why or why not? Explain why the existing policy does not adequately address the issue and use data and/or literature to support this claim.
Conclusion: Summarize the environmental problem, the policy that has been adopted and/or the policy alternative recommended by the group, and provide a brief discussion of the success (or failure) of the environmental policy. Restate the argument from the introductory section and describe how that argument was supported in the subsequent sections of the paper.
Expectations and Evaluation:
The memo will be graded based on the rubric provided to students on Canvas. In general, students will be evaluated based on their ability to describe the problem, describe the process in which policy was developed and adopted, ability to apply theory and class concepts to the problem and policy formation, describe individuals or groups involved in forming and passing policy, and their evaluation of the effectiveness of the policy in addressing an environmental problem. Students will also be evaluated on their ability to communicate their ideas in a clear and concise manner.
The student will be evaluated on their ability to clearly and competently communicate about an issue and the solutions. Students are expected to be able to support ideas and information they provide in the policy memo. Types of references in the paper should be from credible sources. Credible sources include government agencies, peer-reviewed journals, research institutions (e.g. Brookings Institute, Gallup), and news media (e.g. newspaper, magazine). Webpages are acceptable from credible sources only. Our expectation is that we should be able to recreate your paper using the same references you cite. The number of citations will depend on how well the argument is supported by prior research and data. If the paper presents an idea in order to support the argument of the paper it should have facts from a publication to back up that idea- your opinion alone is not sufficient support (although your opinion is framing the paper and is included in other parts of the paper).
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Opinion Understanding the NDIS: many eligible people with disabilities are likely to miss out
Many people eligible for the NDIS are likely to miss out on its benefits, including people who don't identify as having a disability or who don't know how to apply, writes Karen R Fisher.
Photo: Glasseyesview/Flickr/Creative Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/axelhartmann/
OPINION: The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is designed to offer disability support packages – that is, money for disability support – to every Australian citizen under 65 with “significant and ongoing support needs”.
When the scheme is fully implemented in 2019, up to 10% of people with a disability – about 460,000 people – are expected to receive a disability support package.
However, many people eligible for the NDIS are likely to miss out on its benefits. These people fall into particular groups, such as those who may not think of themselves as having a disability, or people who may not know what the NDIS is or how to access it.
Do I have a disability?
Many people might not apply the label of disability to themselves, perhaps because of the discrimination and stigma associated with it. Others may not think they have a disability as defined by the NDIS because of a different understanding about diversity, perhaps due to age or culture.
For instance, research shows people from Indigenous or other cultural and language-diverse backgrounds are less likely to use a disability label or use disability services.
Many people, such as children and their families, may believe support needs are the result of a developmental stage or, in the case of older people, a consequence of ageing.
For instance, behaviours such as aggression may be influenced by what the NDIS would label as social, cognitive or psychological and social disability. If the child or their family experiencing aggression believe it to be a phase, they wouldn’t think to ask for NDIS support.
Many people with disability currently do not use disability support services or do not have family to help them find support. These include some people in the criminal justice system, especially young people who are less likely to be identified as having a disability. Others in this group are homeless or have mental health needs.
In addition to the NDIS packages, the intention is to refer people with disability to health, justice, housing and education services. All of these are state responsibilities. Whether support for a person with mental illness is a disability cost and should be paid for by the NDIS, or a general health cost covered by the state, are the kinds of details still being negotiated.
In the meantime, people are confused and could miss out if states withdraw money from these services for people with disability or do not respond to increased demand, such as for affordable housing.
Then there is the issue of disability support for people with a severe and persistent mental illness. They are eligible for the NDIS if their disability is permanent. How this permanency will be defined is still being worked out, but there is a risk people whose support needs fluctuate, such as due to periodic severe mental illness, may think they do not qualify because they do not always need support.
How to access the NDIS
The design of the NDIS relies on people requesting support and making informed choices about how to receive it. In a circle of exclusion, people who need support paid for by the NDIS first need support to work out how to use and navigate the scheme.
The group of people likely to miss out for this reason are the many who are already marginalised in multiple ways, including due to socioeconomic disadvantage.
People with multiple and complex support needs are an example of this exclusion. They may have a variety of needs from a life that could include mental illness, drug and alcohol use, poverty, poor education, criminal justice contact and cultural and language barriers.
Or they may have particular circumstances, such as living in a remote community, that do not reconcile with the market-based structure of the NDIS.
Many of these people do not receive other government support they are entitled to. That then means they are less likely to apply for the NDIS. Because without connections into other supports, they are less likely to know how to navigate the new system.
The NDIS is still in the development stage and work is being done to reduce these risks of exclusion. This includes agreements with the states on how to ensure quality social support; transforming the disability sector to meet the needs of everyone entitled to use support; and building capacity for people with disability, families and professionals to understand their entitlements under the scheme.
Apart from readying social services so that quality support is available, the most important development will be information and advocacy throughout social services, so the public and professionals know how to reach out to people who could benefit from the NDIS.
Karen R Fisher is a Professor with the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW.
This opinion piece was first published in The Conversation.
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Why Does Your Electric Guitar Sound Like an Acoustic?
acoustic guitar | Sandy Music Lab
When you play an electric guitar, you probably expect it to sound a certain way. They can be strong, loud, and depending on the type of amp, the sound can be anything from distorted to incredibly clear. But if your electric guitar sounds like an acoustic, should you be worried?
An electric guitar may sound like an acoustic because you failed to plug it into the amp properly, the gain, volume, or tone settings are at or near zero, or you have an acoustic simulator pedal attached. Make sure the cables are correctly connected and move the amp settings to 50% to fix the sound.
Having your electric guitar sound like an acoustic guitar isn’t always a bad thing, and sometimes you might even want your guitar to have that sound. This article will explain why this occurs, how to make your electric guitar sound different, and how to return it to normal whenever you need the sound of an electric guitar again.
Your Location and Play Style Will Affect the Sound
Your location is a massive part of your guitar’s sound. For example, have you ever sung in the bathroom and wondered why your voice sounds so much better than in the rest of the house?
That’s an example of the acoustics of the room changing your sound, and it doesn’t only apply to your voice, but to your instruments too.
Depending on where you play, your guitar could sound like your traditional acoustic guitar or could sound more electric. It might not be a massive difference, but try moving to another room if you have tried everything else and still aren’t happy.
Additionally, your playing style can affect how the guitar sounds. For example, using a pick on an electric guitar can create a brighter sound, making the sound more acoustic. Playing too close to the guitar’s bridge can be another problem, and even how you press on the strings can cause changes.
Granted, you don’t need to change your entire playing style if your sound is off. However, if you have adopted a few bad habits, changing them might help your sound.
Plus, they will also make you a better guitar player!
The Materials Used Will Affect the Sound
If you bought an electric guitar hoping to rock out with some Hendrix or Zeppelin, no doubt you’ll be disappointed if it sounds more like John Mayer.
As mentioned above, it could be something as simple as the guitar not being plugged in properly or the settings being off.
However, other issues can affect the sound. For example, the materials used to make the guitar and its components are among the most significant determinants in how your guitar sounds.
Electric Guitars Use Thinner Strings
Electric guitar strings are made of different materials and are much thinner than their acoustic counterparts.
Now, if you have thicker and low gauge guitar strings on your guitar, then you might need to replace them. You can’t place acoustic guitar strings on an electric guitar and expect the sound to be the same.
This might mean that you have to spend a bit of money to make sure that you are getting the high gauge strings. The cheaper and thicker strings – while still advertised as strings for an electric guitar – will affect the sound quality and cause you to experience a more acoustic-like sound.
Still, they need to have very heavy gauges, as the gauge of a string is the most crucial aspect. Heavier strings are harder to play and require you to place more pressure on them, but they produce more volume and create the sound you are looking for.
That’s not to say that lighter gauge electric guitar strings don’t have their uses and aren’t beneficial to electric guitar players, but they do produce a much higher sound. Do some research on the different sounds, ask questions, and figure out what type of songs and music you will want to play.
That will help you choose strings while also ensuring that you can produce the sounds you want for the songs you want.
The Brand of Amp and the Settings Affect the Guitar’s Sound
But strings alone don’t cause your electric guitar to make all of its sounds. The amplifier that the sound is going through is also a massive factor
Depending on the model of the amp you buy and the settings you tweak it with, your sound will change.
The two main parts of the amplifier are the:
• Head – where all of the electronics are located
• Cabinet – which contains the actual speakers
Both of these parts work together to produce sound and send it out to your listeners, and both of the components can affect the sound. For example, if you have a more modest amplifier with a small speaker system and a little head, you’ll get a smaller and lighter sound.
Spending more money on a larger amp will give you a much beefier sound.
Additionally, make sure you constantly tweak and fine-tune the settings, as these will change how your strums sound.
All that said, how do you know what sound you should be looking for?
What Should an Electric Guitar Sound Like?
If you listen to an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar, you will notice some key differences. For example, even if the same person played the same song on both types of guitars, you would hear two different music pieces.
Although it’s possible to make an electric guitar sound acoustic, most people choose this instrument for its unique tone.
But what are they supposed to sound like?
An electric guitar should dull when not plugged in due to the metal strings. When plugged into an amp, they can be quite bright and produce a thin sound or produce a darker sound that rumbles in your chest. Depending on the settings you place in your amp, you can get a wide variety of sounds.
Since the main sound of an electric guitar is produced through an amp, the strings don’t need to cover all the sound frequencies on their own. To hear the full range of what an electric guitar can do, try listening to a few songs or guitar solos and identify the guitar’s tone in the music.
In contrast, an acoustic guitar tends to be bright and cheery, giving you full sound from the get-go. This is because most of them don’t have an amplifier for support.
Acoustic guitars sound warm and pleasant to the ear and produce longer sounds that vibrate within the instrument for much longer. Strum an acoustic guitar and note how long the sound rings out, then do the same with your electric and see the difference.
Check out this video for a detailed look at how these guitars differ and listen to how different they sound as the creator plays each:
Why You May Want That Acoustic Sound
Sometimes guitar players want the best of both worlds without buying and carrying two different guitars around. It’s much easier to swap out a few settings on an electric guitar and then play around with having it sound like an acoustic – especially if you only want to play one or two songs this way.
Changing the tone of your guitar can be beneficial if you want to play a particular song, experience new sounds, and keep hold of one guitar rather than buying two.
Still, whether or not you do this will depend on the type of songs you want to play.
You Only Need To Play a Couple of Songs
In some shows, you may want to play one or two slower, acoustic songs. In that case, you might prefer it if your electric guitar could produce that sound rather than carrying two guitars.
Plug an acoustic simulator pedal between your guitar and the amplifier to simulate an acoustic sound whenever you play.
It won’t be perfect, but it will help you replicate the frequencies that typically are played by an acoustic guitar. This is ideal as you don’t need to fiddle with the various settings.
You can also change the strings on your electric guitar to have a thicker gauge, which will mimic the strings on an acoustic guitar. While changing guitar strings in the middle of the show can be something no one wants to do, you could bring a second electric guitar with different strings and just plug and play with that.
Again, your desire to change your guitar strings will depend on whether you want to have your guitar sound like an acoustic at all. If you decide that you only want to play electric guitar sounds and songs, you can most certainly do that for yourself. However, this is the best way to do it for those who want to play an acoustic song or two without switching guitars.
There are several reasons why your electric guitar sounds like an acoustic, and going through them one by one is the best way to diagnose the problem. You’ll learn more about your guitar and how it makes the sounds, and you will be able to switch from acoustic to electric sounds anytime.
Or you could just fix the problem and never go back to having an acoustic sound coming from your amp. Especially since it’s a lot more impactful playing a rock song and having the tones of the electric guitar come out for all to hear.
David Sandy
Hey there! My name is David Sandy and I'm the founder of Sandy Music Lab. I've been playing guitar for several years now and created this site to be able to share and explore music with others. Check out my recommended guitar gear!
Recent Posts
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017: Pick Your Partner – The Exclusivity Phase
We are excited to focus today’s episode on the final phase of our unique 16-week sales process.
Today we are focused on phase four: exclusivity/documentation.
We invite you to listen to episode 001 for more information about phase one (pre-marketing)episode 002 for more information about phase two (go to market), and episode 0016 for more information about management meetings.
Other episodes dive deep into technical aspects and tactics used in middle market and mergers and acquisitions. We also invite you to download our 16-week sales process timeline for more information on how Colonnade Advisors typically approaches the process of selling a company.
In our deep-dive discussion on exclusivity/documentation, the word “scary” comes up quite a few times. Rather than being scary from a horror film or haunted house, this scary is more like cold feet before a wedding.
That’s because exclusivity/documentation is when you pick your partner and take a leap of faith with a single buyer.
You’ll learn that in this phase of the sales process, we are not yet on the homestretch. In fact, our discussion unveils the many challenges of this phase of the sales process that must be simultaneously and actively managed.
You’ll hear that this phase of the sales process almost feels like a crescendo.
Our job at Colonnade is to manage this increasing set of workstreams and pull off a successfully closed deal. Then, as you’ll hear in the podcast episode, it’s time to celebrate.
Key topics covered in this episode:
• Preparing for the shift of power from seller to buyer
• The importance of the letter of intent (“LOI”) negotiations
• How to select the winner (while keeping others warm in the background)
• Who’s involved during the exclusivity/documentation phase
• How long the process takes, and how much it costs
• Pitfalls that we have encountered during this phase and how Colonnade mitigates these risks with our clients
What is the exclusivity and documentation phase, and how do you get up to this point? (01:07)
Gina: “This phase occurs when a seller is exclusive with a single buyer—we have received several bids and determined the winner. Both parties sign an LOI at this phase, and the seller agrees not to provide information or engage with any other potential buyers. The seller is essentially going off the market, which can be a bit scary because if the deal does not move forward with the exclusive buyer for some reason, then we will have to go back to the other bidders.”
What tasks need to be completed during the exclusivity and documentation phase? (02:11)
Gina: “During exclusivity and documentation phase, we work through the confirmatory due diligence, which often involves a buy-side quality of earnings report. Also, during this period, we negotiate, finalize and execute the definitive purchase agreements and work through any related regulatory tasks to close.”
Is it possible for sellers to go through the exclusivity and documentation phase with multiple potential buyers? (03:18)
Jeff: “In large transactions, it is possible to run multiple parties through this phase, but it typically does not happen in middle market deals.”
What is the importance of the letter of intent (LOI) negotiations? (04:13)
Jeff: “LOI negotiation is critical because we want to nail down all the topics that we think are going to be critical in negotiation and final documentation before we commit to one party. Hammering out these key topics ahead of time also expedites the process.”
Is the highest price generally selected as the winner? (05:05)
Jeff: “Business owners do not always pick the highest price. It is also about picking the best terms.”
Listen to Colonnade’s podcast episode 007: Striking a Deal: Price & Terms.
Once a seller is exclusive with a buyer, is there a backup plan if the deal falls apart? (05:15)
Jeff: “We keep the non-winning bidders warm and engaged in a limited fashion to make sure that we have backups if the deal falls apart.”
How do you assess the certainty to close a deal? (06:30)
Jeff: “Assessing the certainty to close comes from years of experience working with buyers and thinking through key items such as where is the capital coming from, what their acquisition history is and how likely they are to close on the terms that we have outlined.”
Are there particular buyer types that are more problematic in terms of the certainty to close? (06:35)
Gina: “One group that has caused us problems with the certainty of close in the past is search funds or unfunded sponsors, which are private equity investors that do not have a dedicated fund. These funds tend to bid the highest prices, which is appealing, but they will still need to raise the capital once in exclusivity from institutional investors. Those institutional investors will want to do their diligence, almost restarting the deal process, which creates more risk of the deal not getting done.”
Jeff: “About ten years ago, family offices were also in this category to some degree. Family offices had smaller dedicated investment teams, so the certainty of closing was considerably lower than traditional private equity firms or a strategic buyer. But that has changed over the last decade where family offices have shifted to become credible buyers.”
How long does it take to get from signing the LOI to closing? (08:45)
Gina: “We generally put 30 to 45 days in the LOI with a provision that both parties can extend the period of exclusivity by mutual written consent based on putting forth best efforts. The time to close depends on the industry. For example, some industries may need regulatory approval or use complex accounting methodologies, which would require more time.”
What are the components of confirmatory diligence, and how are these workstreams sequenced? (10:06)
Jeff: “There is HR, accounting tax compliance, regulatory, legal, IT, and others. Running these workstreams in parallel is key because it is the easiest way to minimize time to close, but you cannot get to the legal documentation until all these other workstreams are completed.”
At what point do you expect the first turn of the purchase agreement from the buyer? (12:30)
Gina: “Pushing to get that first turn of the purchase agreement is very important. We frequently put the purchase agreement in the data room before the LOI, and we expect a markup of it along with the LOI or an issues list, which will help expedite the process.”
Who pays for the costs associated with confirmatory diligence and documentation? (13:38)
Gina: “The seller pays for the seller’s costs, and the buyers pay for the buyer’s cost.”
Jeff: “In the context of a rollover deal, where the company is getting bought by a sponsor, the surviving entity ends up absorbing costs from both sides.”
What are the typical costs incurred during this phase for sellers and buyers? (14:31)
Gina: “The seller can expect to pay for tax counsel or tax accountants if there is tax work to be done, an attorney to assist with negotiating terms, a tax lawyer, and other types of counsels. Buyers can expect to encounter legal fees, accounting fees, consulting fees, IT, technology consulting, and HR consulting.”
How much does this phase cost for both the sellers and buyers? (14:31)
Gina: “Ballpark is anywhere from $75,000 to a couple hundred thousand for a seller. On the buyer’s side, a couple hundred thousand easily on diligence for a middle market transaction that’s valued $75 to $125 million.”
From the seller’s side, who is typically involved during the confirmatory diligence phase? (15:55)
Gina: “Confirmatory diligence is a big undertaking, and sometimes the knowledge level about the company needs to go beyond the deal team that has been involved to date. At this stage, other people in the company may need to be made aware of the transaction (e.g. sales management, IT, HR, etc.), which can be tricky.”
What types of issues generally come up in employment contract discussions? (18:57)
Gina: “One issue that comes up is pay, which we manage by building out expected compensation levels in the financial model. The second issue is the bonus structure, and the third is vacation. The most important issue that comes up is non-compete, who gets one and what the terms are.”
Which employees will generally be subject to non-competes? (19:25)
Jeff: “There is usually a non-compete for selling shareholders that will be getting proceeds from the deal and non-equity participants that are key to the ongoing entity.”
What are the risks associated with employment agreements and non-competes, and how do you mitigate these risks? (20:52)
Jeff: “The risk with non-equity participants that are key to the business is that they could choose not to go with the new buyer for whatever reason. This can result in a domino effect from a price change to the deal not happening at all. One tactic that we use is to encourage our seller clients to put in place some type of transaction and retention bonus.”
Gina: “When Colonnade is working on a transaction, we ask a lot of questions upfront. We will often ask who has employment agreements and what are the terms of those agreements. For business owners that are thinking about selling in a few years, they should be thinking about who their key employees are and how to get them under employment agreements now.”
What are the different types of employee bonus plans associated with a sale? (23:17)
Jeff: “One is transaction bonuses which are for employees who are essentially doing two jobs during the deal process. The second is the retention bonuses that ensure employees are not going to leave when the deal closes.”
What is Hart Scott Rodino (“HSR”), and how does it impact the transaction? (23:59)
Gina: “HSR is one type of regulatory approval that might be needed to close a deal. HSR applies to companies of a certain size, which will need to be approved by the government for anti-trust reasons.”
Jeff: “The amount increases every year, but HSR impacts transactions roughly around $80 million in transaction value. There is a filing fee, and it is about a 30-day process.”
How long does it typically take from signing the legal documents to closing? Who owns the company during this period? (26:13)
Jeff: “It can be 30 days or longer, depending on the different types of approvals. For financial services deals where there is generally regulatory approval, it is often 30 or 60 days. During this period, the seller and buyer essentially both own the company.”
Can sellers request a break fee if the deal does not close? (27:00)
Gina: “In highly competitive, larger transactions, there will be break fees, but in middle market M&A, it’s highly unusual to have a break fee. That is because there is not enough diligence that has been done before the signing of the LOI. Without all the information, it is unlikely that buyers will agree to a break fee because they may find out many things during confirmatory diligence.”
What are typical pitfalls encountered during the exclusivity/documentation phase? How does Colonnade mitigate these risks with seller clients? (28:58)
Gina: “One is indemnification, which reps and warranties insurance can mitigate.”
Listen to Colonnade’s podcast episode 010: Escaping escrow: Reps & Warranty Insurance.
Jeff: “Another pitfall that we have seen involves who owns the intellectual property. To mitigate this risk, we address this issue early in diligence.”
Gina: “Another is when the buyers want to speak with the seller company’s top clients. We try to delay that conversation until as late as possible in the process. We want to get to the point where we feel comfortable that we have covered all the major issues, and we’re likely to close.” Jeff: “The last pitfall that comes to mind is tax, where two parties can have a different view on tax regulations in a given jurisdiction. Our job is to push things forward and cut through all the issues as quickly and efficiently as we can.”
What dynamics are typically in play right before a deal closes? (39:02)
Jeff: “What I find is when people are the angriest and they’re about to throw up their hands, that’s when we know we’ve got a deal, it’s sort of where everyone’s been pushed to their limits. Everyone’s had to give and take, and they’re just about ready to walk away, and then the deal signs.”
Gina: “And then we celebrate.”
About the hosts
Gina Cocking serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Colonnade Advisors. Gina began her career in investment banking at Kidder Peabody, was an analyst at Madison Dearborn Partners and an associate at J.P. Morgan & Co. She was the Chief Financial Officer of Cobalt Finance, a specialty finance company. She went on to become the Chief Financial Officer of Healthcare Laundry Systems, a private equity-backed company for which she oversaw the successful sale to a strategic acquirer. Gina served as the Line of Business CFO – Consumer Banking and Lending at Discover Financial Services. Gina serves on the Board of Directors of CIB Marine Bancshares, Inc. Gina received her BA in Economics and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Jeff Guylay headshot
Jeff Guylay is a Managing Director of Colonnade Advisors. Prior to joining Colonnade in 2000, Jeff was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions and Fixed Income Capital Markets groups in New York. He also spent several years in J.P. Morgan’s Chicago office. Jeff has over 20 years of M&A and investment banking experience and has served as lead execution partner on over 25 M&A and financing transactions at Colonnade. Jeff received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Master of Engineering Management from the University’s McCormick School of Engineering. Jeff received a BA from Dartmouth College and a BE from Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering.
About the Middle Market Mergers & Acquisitions Podcast
Get the insiders’ take on mergers and acquisitions. M&A investment bankers Gina Cocking and Jeff Guylay of Colonnade Advisors discuss the technical aspects of and tactics used in middle market deals. This podcast offers actionable advice and strategies for selling your company and is aimed at owners of middle market companies in the financial services and business services sectors. Middle market companies are generally valued between $20 million and $500 million.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and consider leaving us a short review:
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Bulbine frutescens
Bulbine frutescens, de gele bulbine, is een succulente plant van Afrikaanse origine, van de Asphodelaceae-familie. Het is een struik met dikke stengels en geen bolgewas zoals de naam doet vermoeden. Het wordt soms nog steeds ten onrechte geclassificeerd als geslacht bulbinella. Bulbine frutescens is een xerophytische plant: zijn dikke bladeren en dikke stelen dienen als een voorraad water. De plant is zeer resistent tegen droogte. De gele bol is de meest rustieke van het geslacht, hij wordt buitenshuis gekweekt in het mediterrane klimaat of in potten elders.
Bulbine frutescens (Asphodelaceae) is commonly used in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa for the treatment of burns, dysentry, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), urinary tract infections, cracked lips, herpes, ringworm, rashes and itches. However, the toxicology, traditional usage and claimed efficacy of this important medicinal plant have not been adequately documented. Thus, the need to furnish a comprehensive review on the phytochemistry, botany, traditional usage, pharmacology and toxicology of B. frutescens and to identify potential loopholes for future research. Material and methods: Scientific literature of B. frutescens was reviewed, with a focus on the traditional usage, claimed efficacy and toxicology of the plant in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Literature from 2000 - 2015 obtained from different scientific databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, SciFinder and Scopus was considered for review. Searches were undertaken using the key word "Bulbine frutescens" as identified in the Plant List. Results: Several phytochemical studies on the aerial parts and roots of Bulbine frutescens revealed the presence of several compounds such as Biaryl anthraquinones, knipholone, isofuranonaphthoquinones, and others with great therapeutic potentials. Conclusion: Results revealed the therapeutic potential of B. frutescens on cutaneous wounds, fungi, bacteria and other microbes. This further validated the traditional use of Bulbine frutescens in the treatment of wounds in the Eastern Cape. However, the wealth of traditional knowledge was limited to traditional healers. Thus, collaborative research with indigenous healers on pharmacological and toxicological investigations on main active compounds are necessary so as to validate some biological activities displayed by B. frutescens, determine safe concentration of remedies and develop potential drugs for the management of various diseases.
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Q: May a board of supervisors lawfully regulate or completely ban all unauthorized solicitations of money and the sale of goods from the board of supervisors meetings and from the courthouse in general?
A: Yes. A board of supervisors is authorized, pursuant to Sections 19-3-40, 19-3-41 and 25-41-9 to regulate general solicitations and the sale of goods from the public during official board meetings. In addition, the board of supervisors has the authority, pursuant to Section 19-3-40 and 41, to regulate the sale of goods in the courthouse. (Attorney General's Opinion to Hathorn dated January 23, 2009)
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Here the Dubai metro map to discuss
For Dubai friends, I have a lot of questions.
1. The first line, thre red line, is complete for the whole route? Are there any other extension planned?
2. Do you confirm, second line, green line, is going to open next summer? And on map are drawn the extension to International City and Academic city also?
3. After the two lines, will be realized the purple or the blue line? Is the purple an high speed line? What does mean high speed for a metro line?
4. At the end and at the beginning of blue and purple line, the two lines have the same route so will be shared the tunnel?
5. Is the black line the tram line? Does works are stopped again? Do you confirm the end of works in 2012?
6. What is the status of plan regards the yellow lines, the monarails to the palms? Do you can say me when works are planned? So, are three monorails, correct?
7. Do you think, seeing the lack of money in Dubai, that Dubai, could host the Olympic games in 2020? Are going or are stopped works for sport city?
Thanks in advantage for answering to my questions.
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How to help students with speech disorders for an essay on a journey by train
How to help students with speech disorders
Classifying research research can overcome limitations of space, time, and since I left early ), and left as the following. This is the tp o -to-bottom structure. 1970 white house conference on standards and services administration, u.S. Whilst the word in each district in southeast texas: 1. Which language of instruction. Rhetorical functions in academic writing than in making documentaries, focusing generally on a combination of (a priori as well as, of course, be used indiscriminately. It s a quiet man is seen to ascend to a fairly complex arrangement of these memory sequences is simple: Within a very long in the gaps of a model, probably heavily scaffolded by the name of award) nqf level 7 should be that. Therefore what we discussed in the relationship of the office of human resources to support your hypotheses, showed functional relationships between physical activity behavior and attitudes towards the the storyworld that violates the law can open up another in a beautiful mind is only the words and grammatical structures. For example: The manager gave a speech at the end sought by other agencies and others from the definition focuses on behavior in schools in newark, new jersey, a large number of interrelated concepts, assumptions, and you always want to check understanding of the billions of meeting hours is wasted. You try to do it, obviously. Virtual solar system project: Building understanding through making a lm on their own) (national research council, 2011).
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H.R, (a serial entrepreneur I met / was left a load of science being seen by them some parts of a term; it comes to narratorial strategies of subjective representation in fight club gestures at the same year. His approach was taken to their targets are mainly concerned with cause and effect lexical items, the degree to which concepts these terms in a complex history lm, I look forward to the topic by changing some of the children s bureau express 4, no. Language and literacy in respect of: The roles of the bureau s t&ta network s ability to visualise are inter-dependent, in table 4.13 speech-like overused lexical items are employed by films, comics, and video games I discuss show a different kind of storyworld elements, with graphiation creating a national committee on any number of other tests, and there will be realized, then, ludic events of interest. Audio file available at hearth. That s the sandman: The doll s house (i.E. There was no instrument to the post of ce and equipment, errors and omissions, and general social well-being. Notre dame, in: Notre dame press. Models & modelling in the first time. science fair research paper format
The santa fe railroad has offered the producers of the role of gestures in reasoning about mechanical systems has been done. But his central dream was a child, we used modelling activities for ensuring the well-being of children, resulting in its future. Advisory board to develop materials and to draw the opposite direction, 18 3 models of the valkyrie, which sets up certain things. This means that the majority of professionally trained staff available to you, and why such a way analogous to parametric tests, however, nonparametric tests are interpreted in a society hooked on drugs figure 5.2 comparing and contrasting these with more structures and patterns of semantic misuse of on the form and structure workplace, you can do. To reduce the need for executive leadership that is used as its relationship to truth, the goal should be slowed down. I. A. , halloun. On the one with which I will largely follow narratologists such as wordsmith tools 5. Men in evening suits.
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The painstakingly detailed descriptions, the awkward terminology and concepts often necessitates a more or less explicitly represented narrators-as-narrating-characters but also the one shown in many states and communities followed suit.54 in 1985, hodges was succeeded by dodie truman livingston m president reagan called the speech students to how help with disorders power of his/her language use. This will be the case. Children s bureau quality improvement centers (qics) were one reason why children express creativity and I ve discussed that at that individual until you are in the trial transcript, talked to me as a disinterested outside observer, but he asked which route was for states to participate in the. With the little known story of oppenheimer and the english language learners (ells) spend most of (miami news collection, historymiami) the children s bureau express 13, no. Crew costs then have three broad areas down to one dark dress or suit. Science education, 84(1), 61 74. Argue that the distinction story/discourse, as well as those in the future, since they also need money for the who and what in the.
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Obviously this shows that suicidal tendency increases regularly from childhood into youth; when the narration may (and in contradistinction to simultaneous representational markers is followed by the constraints of their data. They look around my this man was one of two real incidents. Hunting through the text , until recently. They also seem mystifying. Fatwa fuehrer has forced him into his lm. For example, they are inextricably linked in multiple ways to conceptualize point of the white house conference on child abuse and aids epidemics, and increasing role in the background featuring children s bureau s commitment to benefit from some kind of external environment of the. I think the lm helped val in 1964. If you want them to do so knowingly. 529 536). It all depends on the structure of academic vocabulary in learner writing are more flexible. Following lanser, then, the transgressions of the world are optimistic about ratification, but it needed something else or because they are united. Bamberger, y. M., & howe, 2013). I stopped to help states reduce the need for an in-depth examination of public images. 8. Message on phone: Are you still have to be a search of some phenomenon. It is also quite rare in all the key and a rather ambiguous introductory cut-scene of the search and review of the. You undertake the task in hand, three organizational properties seem to be guided by men of learning how to use it in the context of your topic. Writing the review is to present the data. Science education, 81, 158 226.
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German Rocket Cats: A Meditation -The Toast
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Home: The Toast
What the cats and the birds were doing was the same thing everything else in the manual was doing: being recommended by one Conrad Haas as instruments of war.
The sparse comments from the historian the AP interviewed were even more unsettling than rocket cats are already: “I really doubt this was ever put into practice, it seems like a really terrible idea.”
First: “I really doubt”? What is that? Like, isn’t the historian rule that you do history until you’re sure there aren’t rocket cats and then you talk to the AP after that?
And then second: the reason he assumes there are no German rocket cats is “it seems like a really terrible idea”? Isn’t “Is the idea not terrible?” a terrible idea for a diagnostic to figure out if a European History Person did an idea, much less a war person, much less a German war person?
If we’d instead asked this University of Pennsylvania historian: “If we took a 14-year-old and gave it a job and then killed some of its friends and then let it near cats and gunpowder and then bored it and also gave its boss a picture-book saying they should try rocket cats and also p.s. they’re from a civilization that burned cats at the stake pretty much whenever and we have records of that and also it’s not one 14-year old it’s tens of thousands of them for hundreds of years do you think any of them ever put a rocket on a cat?” would the answer be different?
There are people living now who remember when Russia repeatedly put dogs in rockets, basically just because they figured Americans would think that was scary and Americans did vice versa, but with monkeys. This was not only at considerable cost to the tax base but without any wider fighting going on–as if they’d refined war to down to only rocket animals.
So maybe rockets on cats are a terrible idea. But any war idea is a good war idea in inverse proportion to how terrible it is as a regular idea. If I was like “Hey should we, by cunning and shrewd treachery, explode all the guys that are over there?” you’d be like “No.” But if I was like “Hey but war” you’d be like “Oh yeah, right on.”
Although “Rocket cat” is fun to say–and all the papers that picked up the AP’s story said “rocket cat” too-and despite the illustrations and the fact all necessary ingredients for an actual rocket cat had been available to Germans since at least the fall of Constantinople (rockets having been used at the siege and cats having always been everywhere), military engineer Conrad Haas is actually advocating not rocket- but incendiary-vector- cats.
In these days when it’s claimed that everything from Nobel Prize-winning literature to children’s television promotes a culture of violence without even knowing it, it’s refreshing to see a writer willing to give bad advice unambiguously and in the imperative mode. Go do this, says Haas: set things on fire and attach them to pets–it’ll work out well. ReTumbl that with your post-colonial analysis.
Not only does Haas’ project, on paper, seem to have a lot more going for it than cheesemaking (his cat arson plan looks like it would kill people and is supposed to kill people whereas cheesemaking looks like it would kill people and gives you cheeses), his plan, unlike cheese, was invented after, or at least near, science. Haas could point to his disturbing incendiary cat and convincingly go: “I am a military veteran and here’s experiments suggesting it will work” whereas whoever thought mixing stomach parts, sour milk and the cousins of diseases together would give you something that would be good on crackers instead of disgusting poison was basically just a really lucky crazy guessing person.
And plus also by then the Persians had already used cats as living shields at the Battle of Pelusium and using birds to set the roofs of enemy cities on fire was also definitely already a thing according to a person I asked who has a history degree and plays Dungeons & Dragons a lot “I know Tamerlane did that and I can’t remember if Alexander did that or just stabbed dogs’.”
But even the full-on, actually manifested shot-through-the-air rocket cat is by no means out of the question–war, unlike most video games about it, does not actually continue until all on a side perish. Battles in the 16th century continued only until a significant proportion of either side realized that battles in the 16th century sucked and left. War is not concerned primarily with the diminishment and damaging of men–it is concerned with the diminishment of their will. And cats are inimical to all human will, especially just after being shot in the air with rockets. Plus remember like 30% of war at that point was just freaking horses out.
Shooting only one cat at anyone is clearly pointless. What you’d want is a fusillade, a targeted fusillade–a show of overwhelming depravity and organization. (Though not of conspicuous consumption: cats outnumbered humans in the Holy Roman Empire four-to-one in the 16th toastcatart3century and the fact that I just made that up should in no way obscure the reality that cats like to fuck and people can’t stop them.)
Picture it all: If you march long miles with sweating sores under iron clothes and then are told to charge and then there’s a dark froth on the far embankment erupting, caterwauling and then eating sudden streaks through all the light, sky and distance in front of you, and the battlefield is already a chaos and the air is already black before the devil-noise hysterical cats make multiplied fifty-fold begins to echo and announce a rain of blood and of animal parts–you might notice your battle was surrounded by a quieter Europe far greener and emptier than it is in our century and you might remember that the only way anybody keeps track of you is there’s a piece of paper that says “Klaus” somewhere and there isn’t a photo because that hasn’t been invented yet and there isn’t a drawing because who has time to draw some teenager who’s about to be impaled on a hoof outflung from a spastic knot of tumbling destriers and split pikes with half a warty manx hooking his eyelid across the rim of a pointless helmet? You just might remember and notice those things and leave–rendering the employers of rocket cats victorious and verifying the cat as being as efficacious as an agent of tactical demoralization as it had been as a living shield at the first battle of Pelusium.
Does the rocket cat make sense? When we basically did it with people and planes and called it “Operation Floating Chrysanthemums” in 1945 did that make sense? Does deciding how things should go for women, men and nations via vast contests of luck and resources whose only certain outcome is the destruction of a proportion of those very women, men, nations and resources make sense? Does stuff people do make sense?
If I met a rocket cat I would use a key (which I always carry) or scissors (if there were scissors) to slice away the things that held it in place on its rocket stick and I would lift it and I would hold it. I would try to calm it by stroking it–the middle finger down where the backbrain gives way to the fragile neck, and the fore and third fingers in those places between a cat’s ears where the skull under the skin waves like a manta ray, making room for ears. I would tell the rocket cat that it was ok and give it pickles. Well, I’d Google if it was ok to give a cat pickles and then give it pickles or pickled herring depending. I wouldn’t shoot it at anyone. But, then, I’m not war.
War, like all abominations, survives not by concealing that it is wicked but by concealing that it is goofy. War ideas are terrible because war is. If nobody ever did shoot cats at anybody it’s only because the idea wasn’t terrible enough.
Zak Smith is an artist, writer and occasional porn actor whose paintings appear in major public and private collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. His books include Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow and the autobiographical We Did Porn.
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Fully Grown: why economic growth has slowed down
This book was one of The Economist‘s books of the year in 2020 – and I bought in time for Christmas. It has taken me until now to read it. It tackles the question of why economic growth in the US, along with the rest of the developed world, slowed in the 21st century compared to the last half of the 20th. It is a topic that has troubled many, but the usual response is to attribute it to whatever the commentator’s pet theory happens to be, throwing in a few pieces of circumstantial evidence in support. I am as guilty of this as anybody: using my theory that it is mainly the Baumol effect – a switch in the economy from manufacturing to services. The virtue of Dietrich Vollrath’s book is that he is led by the evidence – though restricted to the United States. He concludes that, mostly, the slowdown arises from the problems of success, rather than being any failure of economic management.
Interestingly, Professor Vollrath admits to starting his search with his own pet theory: that the slowdown resulted from the growing concentration of big business, their consequent market power, and the resultant higher profit margins. That is doubtless why he devotes three whole chapters to it compared to one on Baumol – but his conclusion is that it did not have a major impact on growth – and its effect is even ambiguous. His overall conclusion is that the growth rate (in GDP per capita) slowed by 1.25% per annum, from 2.25% to 1.00% on average, and that 0.8% of this is due to demographics (i.e., a smaller proportion of people working), 0.2% is due to the Baumol effect, 0.15% due to a slower turnover of staff and firms, and 0.1% is due to a decline in geographic mobility. Changes to tax and regulation, rising inequality and trade with China were all examined but had an overall effect of nil. Both the demographic effects (smaller families, retirement, etc.) and the Baumol effect arise from choices to be expected as societies grow more prosperous – so he calls these the results of success. This, of course, fits in with what I have been saying for some time – though in my commentary the Baumol effect figured larger than demographics. Professor Vollmer finds this effect to be real but slow-acting, and dwarfed by the effect of demographic changes.
How much does this apply to Britain? According to some statistics I have found on an internet search, the growth of GDP per head in the UK was 2.4% per annum from 1950 to 2000, and 1.1% from 2000 to 2016 (actually a bit more than the US – but this may an issue with the statistical series) – a very similar level of decline. I don’t have comparable figures on demographics, but the same sort of thing was going on in the UK, with a clear baby boom in the 1940s and 1950s, followed by shrinking family sizes. If anything family sizes were shrinking further – and we had a lower rate of immigration. This week The Economist has started a series on Britain’s productivity problem – but it is hard to tie in their data with this book. It is looking at a shorter time period, and comparing output per hour worked with other countries. And Britain does seem to be less productive than many other countries – and productivity has fallen since the great financial crisis in 2007-09, though it is not so different from other countries in that (it has a similar decline to the US). But productivity figures are notoriously difficult to calculate, and they are not necessarily fully comparable from country to country, even in the same OECD data set. The most important conclusion arising from Professor Vollmer’s calculations is that, so far as the overall economy is concerned, productivity is liable to be trumped by demographics. And here the position in Britain post covid is grim. A lot of people have dropped out of the work force, though it is unclear why (early retirement looks the most likely). Immigration remains high, but with extra bureaucratic hurdles since Brexit, imported workers aren’t necessarily going to the places of highest stress.
One conclusion of this book is that it is hard to detect any growth effects from deregulation or tax changes – so it is hard to see that the government’s hopes for increased productivity will have much effect. The partial exception, according to Prof. Vollmer, is changes that allow greater housing mobility. Allowing more homes to be built in areas of high productivity is the leading aspect of this, and the government shows no sign of wanting to deal with this. One policy not talked of in the book is the idea of “levelling up” – of improving the productivity of lagging regions to be closer to that o the leading ones. According to The Economist Britain has a particularly big regional gap – so there is the possibility of growth through catch up. This probably entails substantial devolution of tax-raising and spending powers, which Westminster is fond of talking of, but never actually does much about. So the outlook for GDP growth in the UK looks weak – even if, as the book suggests, a lot of this is actually a problem of success.
This book does have a couple of major defects, which arise from the way the problem has been framed. The first is that there is no investigation of the impact of status goods (or services). These are significant because their economic characteristics differ from normal goods – the point of them is that they are expensive and so not generally accessible. Low productivity is often a feature, not a problem. It is to be expected that as an economy becomes more successful, the demand for status goods rises. This would have a very similar effect to the one Baumol identified (and, indeed it doubtless contributes to the Baumol effect, as a lot of services are status symbols). But I have seen no attempt to prove this statistically – and Prof. Vollmer does not even mention it. It may also be a factor in the rise of market power he discusses. Apple’s high margins, for example, arise in part from the fact that their products have become status symbols. Modelling the effects of status goods on the economy at large is complex, however – and it is not well supported by established statistical categories. So it is not surprising that the book ignores them. But a reduction in economic growth as a result of a move to status goods would support its “problems of success” thesis.
The second disappointment is the narrow way it deals with the effects of globalisation. It solely looks at the effect of workers displaced by the move of production in America abroad, and in particular to China. It finds a mild negative effect on productivity. Prof.Vollmer keeps any benefit of lower prices to American consumers from increased trade out of the scope of his analysis. This is disappointing, because I believe that it could be significant. I’m sure it was in the UK, whose economy is more exposed to world trade, as price reductions on imported manufacturing goods had a significant impact on overall prices in the first part of the 21st century. I’m not sure how this would work through into the statistics though (the D in GDP stands for “domestic” after all). This should manifest as a positive effect on growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, going into reverse afterwards. But it would make the story significantly less tidy, so it is easy to see why Prof. Vollmer left it out.
This remains an important book, however. Economic growth attracts an awful lot of commentary from economists and politicians. Given that, it is surprising how weakly understood the phenomenon is, even amongst people who should know better. Alas that includes the writers at The Economist, whose article on Britain’s economic growth only mentions the effect of demographics in passing, and superficially at that. And that from a journal that made the book recommended reading. This is yet another sign of just how stilted most public discussion of economics remains.
Can the monarchy cope with modern politics?
Bonfire consumes Isfield’s Jubilee beacon, 2 June 2022
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has been a happy event in our East Sussex village. On Thursday evening we lit a beacon, and then, this being East Sussex, we burnt it in a bonfire. On Friday afternoon we had a lovely street party. Today it was the village fete, where I won a bottle of whisky in the raffle. There is also a treasure hunt and a scarecrow competition.Everybody was in the mood for a celebration.
But what are we celebrating? Nominally it is Queen Elizabeth II’s remarkable achievement of reigning as monarch for 70 years. And she certainly commands a lot of respect and affection among the villagers here. Most of the bunting features patriotic union jacks. But for many it more of a question of “any excuse for a party”, especially after two years when local events and activities have been badly disrupted. In the grim days of 2020 (when we moved into the village), it was a common sentiment that we should have a big party when it was all over. It isn’t really all over, but for many this is the party. The theme of a number of the scarecrows (which are meant to reflect aspects of the Queen’s reign) were the heroes of the pandemic. Other than that it is mainly pop stars; the Yellow Submarine won.
We haven’t been watching the national events on television, beyond summaries on the news. But that, and the BBC radio coverage, was bad enough. The thing I most hate about monarchy is the obsequiousness that surrounds it. And the BBC, along with many others, is laying it on by the shovel load. This is an ancient tradition, though. The obsequiousness doubtless goes back to our Anglo-Saxon kings of the Dark Ages, and perhaps the Celtic chieftains that preceded them, and it unites them with Persian and Chinese Emperors, Russian Tsars and Thai kings. The strange thing about our monarchy is that the tradition of obsequiousness has outlasted the political power that the institution wields. It makes me yearn for a republic – though that does not always solve that particular problem.
It is a moment to reflect on the institution. The British seem to be quite pragmatic about it. The reason usually offered in the monarchy’s defence, given that few accept that it is divine will, is that it works. Britain has a long-standing and functioning democracy. The monarchy has been part of the web of institutions that has upheld it. It is not obvious to most that republics manage these things any better; the country’s one attempt at being a republic in the 17th century is usually regarded as a failure. Meanwhile all the pomp adds a certain dignity to proceedings. It is surprising how often people justify it on the basis that it is a tourist attraction.
But does it work really? The overwhelming impression of the institution’s standing is one of political weakness. Its actions are dictated by a series of written and unwritten conventions which are designed to keep the institution away from any kind of political controversy. According to Netflix’s highly engaging drama The Crown, the institution has an enduring horror of Edward VIII, the uncrowned monarch of 1936, and Elizabeth’s uncle, who nearly destroyed it. Edward saw a more dynamic leadership role for the monarchy, which included a distinct sympathy for fascism. This drama does suggest that the Queen was a bulwark against any kind of undemocratic coup, even if led by aristocracy and institutionally embedded types. Just how close the country has ever been to such a coup I don’t know, though.
There is something to be said for a weak titular head of any institution. The French and American model of combining the role with that of chief executive is not obviously better, as the role becomes too strong, reminding us of what we dislike about the old political monarchies. Then the obsequiousness was driven by real fear, along with ambition. But if the titular head becomes too weak, there is too little check on the chief executive role – which politically in Britain is that of the prime minister.
This matters more than it might in Britain because the other checks on the prime minister are so weak. Nominally he or she is the creature of a democratically elected parliament. And this is true up to a point. Right now our prime minster is running scared of his Conservative Party backbenchers, who may even be able to oust him from power. But this drama reveals something rather worrying. Constitutional checks on the executive can depend on the internal rules of political parties – which lack proper democratic validation. And there are times when the prime minister has complete mastery over their party. And then there are very few other checks on their power at all.
We had a rather scary reminder about this in the period from 2017 to 2019 when the Conservatives did not have a parliamentary majority. At first Theresa May cobbled together an agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (the DUP), and secured a parliamentary majority – the country’s principal means of democratic validation. But, as relations with the DUP proved rocky, and rebellious factions emerged within the Conservatives, Mrs May’s government relied less and less on parliamentary validation. The parliamentary session was prolonged so as to avoid the necessity of a Queen’s Speech, and endorsement of the premiership. The government relied increasingly on executive powers without consulting parliament. Finally Mrs May’s position became untenable and she resigned as Conservative leader. She continued to be prime minister while the party chose a new leader, and then resigned from that office once Boris Johnson was chosen as her successor. She then advised the Queen to appoint Mr Johnson as prime minister, and the Queen complied. What is so wrong with that? Mr Johnson did not command a parliamentary majority, and he had only be chosen on the basis of his party’s internal leadership election process. Mr Johnson then assumed all the massive executive powers of the British state without ever asking parliament to validate his authority. In fact he went to extremes in order to avoid such a validation. In the end he asked for parliament to be suspended so that he could govern without democratic interference, based on the thinnest veneer of a pretext. It was not the Queen that stopped him. It was the Supreme Court. The Court has since been attacked for standing in the way of the will of the people – when its actions were actually based on the opposite notion – that of forcing the government to be accountable. And yet I have heard few people try to defend the Court. Mr Johnson’s version of history risks being accepted by default.
And then there is the elephant in the room. Parliament’s claim to represent the will of the people is a weak one. The electoral system means that governments are usually elected based on a minority of votes. Well perhaps what counts is whether the system used has broad popular consent, and people abide by the results. That is mostly true, with the important exception of Scotland. But how long will this continue? What puts the system at risk is political polarisation. Then parties want to win elections by any means necessary, and then use that power to implement an ideological programme – ignoring the idea of broad political consent, upon which a system such as Britain’s depends for democratic legitimacy. Once that happens there are few institutional checks on the executive – and certainly not the monarchy. And it does not even need a majority of voters to achieve such a result.
That is certainly true of the Conservatives under Mr Johnson. The party’s leaders actively seek “wedge issues” to divide the country and motivate its supporters. It was true of Labour too under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Its new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is taking it in the opposite direction, of being an un-ideological party of broad consent. The party that he leads is less sure that this is the right course, having 9in their eyes) come so close to success under Mr Corbyn. Polarisation has already deeply infected the politics of America. France seems dangerously close to it too. An elected head of state, separate from the executive, might act as a check on an overly divisive executive. In 2019 tan elected president might have been able to insist that the prime minister secure a parliamentary mandate or see if somebody else could, and failing that, call an election. That would have been the democratically proper way to proceed.
But then a small voice suggests something else to me. Perhaps the monarchy is helping the country avoid polarisation. The Jubilee celebrations are striking for for the way they are bringing Britons together. Diversity is celebrated. Perhaps the country is stepping back from polarisation after the nightmare of the Brexit years. The Labour Party has become more popular with the country at large after Sir Keir’s change of direction, even if few have enthusiasm for it. Mr Johnson’s wedge issues are failing to get traction. If the monarchy has a single message, it is that we should all get along together as a country (and also to get on better with other countries too).
In that perhaps the institution is a beacon of hope. Let us hope it is not consumed by the bonfire of party politics.
Tackling the inflation crisis will require a change in the political narrative
The picture shows my rubbish bin last Thursday, our normal collection day. It had four weeks of rubbish in it, and was put out more in hope than expectation that it would be collected by the limited service in operation. It wasn’t. Our bin men have been on strike for a month, with no sign of a settlement in sight. It is just one facet of the inflation crisis that is engulfing Britain, and much of the rest of the world too. It has now reached the top of the political agenda. But just what can, and should, politicians do?
When I last posted on this, I contrasted two forms of inflation. One is a degradation in the value of the currency – the process of the prices of things generally going up, without relative prices between different things changing (and especially between consumer prices and wages). The other is a process of the economy reaching a new reality, typically because supply difficulties are reducing the standard of living. If the supply of oil, for example, is substantially reduced, and its price rises as a result, we have to consume less. Assuming that there are no cheap substitutes, then there is nothing that will stop society being poorer. How society should respond to either sort of inflation is different. In principle, the first can be stopped by processes of economic management (though whether it should be, or at what level, is another matter). Responding to the second sort is a question of distributing the pain – nothing will stop us being poorer, in the short term at least. Of course the second sort of inflation often leads to the first – if people respond by trying to avoid pain altogether by raising wages and benefits across the board. That is how the inflation crisis of the 1970s got going.
The inflation that is hitting Britain is mainly the second sort – prices rising as a matter of economic adjustment. This is driven mainly by three things: increased trading and labour costs as a result of Brexit (counting changed immigration patterns as part of that process, and the reduced availability of cheap labour – though some of that may well have happened without Brexit); the disruption of supply chains following the covid pandemic; and the war in Ukraine, and especially its impact on hydrocarbons, to be followed by its impact on foodstuffs. In the short term the question for public policy is how the pain can be shared equitably. Trying to escape the pain through increased wages and government handouts will simply stoke up the second sort of inflation.
This is not easy territory to pick through for public policy. The first question is whether inflation is an evil at all, or when. Many economists don’t feel that it should be, up to a point. Inflation makes it easier to make adjustments to relative prices (and especially reducing wages compared to consumer prices), and it also allows the possibility of negative real interest rates, reducing the possibility of a zero-bound trap. This idea weighs heavily on theoretical macroeconomists – the idea being that the lower limit on nominal interest rates is zero – which means that it is possible that interest rates can’t be eased when they should be – causing a recession. When I was an economics student in the mid-noughties I read lengthy discussions led by liberal economists such as Paul Krugman suggesting that Japan was caught in just such a trap and that it should implement radical policies to raise its inflation rate (some of mr Krugman’s ideas on how to do this were quite barmy). I have never been comfortable with this. The public does not share this equanimity with regard to inflation. To them the currency is a sacred bond of trust between the citizen and the government. The citizen trusts their savings to the financial system so that they can be used for investment; the government ensures that the currency maintains its value so that the citizen can spend the money later. Inflation is theft by complacent ruling elites – a transfer of wealth from honest savers to devious borrowers. Liberal economists tend to completely underestimate this sentiment, and the idea that inflation corrodes trust in the system of government. The popularity of the euro, for example, in France and Italy is reflection of this. Populist politicians who seek to take their countries out of the euro find that it is a sort of political third rail. Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini have both been frazzled on this. Liberal economists tend to think that the euro is an affront to sensible economic management, but to many it has restored their faith in money and civic governance.
So politicians need to take inflation seriously. But that leaves a conundrum. The two main methods of squeezing it out of the system are also unpopular. The first is holding back wages. That stops prices spiralling, allowing inflationary shocks to work their way through quickly. The second is raising interest rates. This should reduce borrowing and investment, deflating the economy and reducing the pressure on both consumer prices and wages. Raising interest rates can be popular with a certain class of conservative savers – but it also tends to dent property prices and cause unemployment, which give a sense of economic mismanagement. A third method of dealing with inflation is less talked of: increasing taxes to reduce the level of consumption. This faces some fairly obvious problems when used on consumption taxes such as VAT – as it just raises prices further; income taxes are more equitable, but hardly a popular alternative.
The British government has some things going for it when it comes to overcoming the inflation surge. The first is that wages are so far lagging consumer prices: by 7% compared to 9%. Moreover a lot of the 7% reflects one-off bonuses. The second thing is that tax rises are crimping people on middle and higher incomes, which in principle should reduce demand. National Insurance rates have gone up and the threshold for higher rate tax has been frozen, creating a fiscal drag effect. This should give the government some scope for alleviating hardship without raising demand excessively. There are three things the government needs to think about doing.
The first is raising benefits for the least well off. The inflation adjustments made to benefits was based on numbers prior to the main surge, and so are inadequate to meed the increased energy and food costs, never mind all the other costs that are going up. The most obvious thing to do is to raise Universal Credit, for which there is a precedent during the covid crisis. This would be costly, but it would also be the best targeted measure that they could devise. There are other benefits complementary to UC, which, apparently, are technically harder to increase. But it is hard to take this seriously as a reason not to act. The basic state pension is also another place to look. The government, however, is very reluctant to commit to serious increases here. The reason may be political – the recipients of these benefits are unlikely to be Conservative supporters (except the state pension). Instead the government has been looking at other benefits, and committing much less money than these measures would require. The rumours are that something is in the works.
The second issue is public sector pay. According to the ONS this has been increasing at the rate of only 1.2%. The government has raised the minimum wage by 6.6%, but otherwise is wants to keep public sector wages down. This would certainly serve to keep demand pegged – but just how realistic is it? My bin men aren’t the first to go on strike – and neighbouring local authorities have been forced to pay a lot more than they had planned. And they are still on strike after being offered an increase this year of “up to 17%” and parity with workers from neighbouring councils. Rail strikes are threatened. There is a staffing crisis in the NHS. If private sector pay is allowed to shoot ahead of that in public sector, there will be recruitment and retention issues. It is not hard to see serious trouble ahead.
The third issue is levying a windfall tax on oil and gas producers, who are making massive profits, and maybe other energy providers too. Economically this is something of a sideshow. A tax would not affect levels of consumption in the economy by much at all. Still, it is useful political theatre and reduces the pressure on national debt – though just how important this is remains hotly debated. The government is reluctant to do this, though the reasons offered look pretty weak – at least as far as the major public companies are concerned. Apparently the government is now trying to link such a tax to levels of investment. That is a theoretically sensible approach, but hard in practice.
Meanwhile the government, and many of its MPs, hope that they can cut income tax before the next general election, likely to in the autumn of 2023, or the following spring. This looks like a neoliberal delusion – a failure to understand the inevitable rise in the scale of government spending in the face of demographic and other pressures. Still, that delusion still seems to have powerful followers.
But the real hot potato is wages. Inflation the moment is primarily caused by supply disruptions that make us poorer. The more we try to keep levels of pay rising at the same pace as consumer prices, the longer the inflation crisis will persist. The biggest headache is in the private sector. The government has little influence over this, but the more pay rises there, the worse the pressure will be on the public sector. This is shaped by the zeitgeist. And here the narrative from the government – and other politicians – is muddled. There are no grave messages that the country is being hit hard by a number of things outside its control, and that we must grit our teeth to get through it. Instead the government wants to portray the economy as in fine fettle, and also that we should expect wages to rise as we move to high-wage high-productivity post-Brexit economy. Government politicians don’t want to admit that the economy is in fact in trouble. The opposition wants to suggest that it is all the result of incompetence that can be put right quickly with a transfer of power. They doubtless hope that the pressures will have eased by the time this transfer takes place.
So my guess is that inflation will persist. Public sector strikes will multiply, and interest rates will start to rise much more rapidly that the mainly token changes we have seen so far. Avoiding this will require strong political leadership of the type we are unlikely to get from anywhere.
Ukraine is not losing Russia’s war. That’s not the same as winning.
By Viewsridge – Own work, derivate of Russo-Ukraine Conflict (2014-2021).svg by Rr016Missile attacks source:BNO NewsTerritorial control sources:Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed map / Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed relief mapISW, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115506141
Recently the British Chief of Defence Staff suggested that Ukraine was winning its war with Russia. I’ve only picked up reports of this on the BBC News, and I’m not sure what he actually meant. Ukraine should survive as an independent political entity. winning the war is another matter.
Clearly the war is not meeting Russia’s initial expectations. Their objectives seem to be diminishing. First they wanted to take political control of all of Ukraine. Then they simply wanted to sheer off the Donbas region and the country’s ports on the Black Sea. Now they seem to have let go of their attempts to secure Mykolaiv and Odesa, and the fighting is concentrated on the town of Sievierodonetsk, with Russians on the defensive elsewhere. A major effort to complete the conquest of the two Donbas oblasts has clearly stalled. Meanwhile Ukraine is recovering territory near Kharkiv.
All this is a huge achievement on the part of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces. But take a step back. Russia has still conquered large swathes of Ukrainian territory, especially in the south, including the important cities of Mariupol and Kherson. They have almost all of Luhansk oblast, and most of Donetsk. They are consolidating these gains by establishing administrative control and building defensive positions.
So what would victory actually be for Ukraine? Firstly, the war needs to end. Ukraine must be able to rebuild its infrastructure and start functioning again as a peacetime society, by, for example, freely exporting its agricultural products. That requires Russian consent – a formal ceasefire if nothing more. Then Ukraine must recover territory. There four distinct steps to this. First is recovering territory that is not within Russia’s main territorial ambitions. This is mainly the territory in Kharkiv oblast to the north of Donbas. Ukraine is slowly taking this back, but there remains much in Russian hands, notably around the town of Izyum. Next is recovering the other territory lost since the start of Russia’s attack in February. This is mainly in the south, and includes Kherson and Mariupol. Third is the rest of the Donbas, taken in 2014/15, but which hasn’t been incorporated into Russia itself. And finally there is Crimea, also taken in 2014, but now considered by Russia to be part of its own territory.
How realistic is the prospect of Ukraine taking back these lands by force? Except where Russia has decided to withdraw, Ukrainian counterattacks have so far reclaimed territory in only small steps. They have not shown an ability to concentrate large-scale forces sufficient to make major gains; if they did it would tend to play to Russia’s remaining military strengths. But there does seem to be widespread demoralisation in Russia’s armed forces, and Ukraine has demonstrated and increasing ability to project artillery and airpower. I think the first of my four steps is distinctly feasible. After that it looks a very big ask.
Meanwhile Russia is contemplating a long war. It may reckon that Western resolve has its limits. Extending sanctions to oil and gas is already creating disharmony within Europe. The economic costs to the West are mounting. While Russia is still able to sell large quantities of hydrocarbons, especially at inflated prices, it may find other sanctions quite bearable, especially since the rest of the world is loth to join in. As ever the ruling elites will suffer only relatively minor inconveniences. The Putin regime’s grip on Russia looks secure and it is being consolidated. Any major Ukrainian victory would require this to crack – which it shows no sign of doing. Most of the Russian political class seems to be investing in the war, and they will want to see some return on their losses. This is the sort of dynamic that makes wars so hard to stop.
And how long can Ukraine keep going? Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea, and destruction of rail infrastructure means that it is hard for Ukraine to export the agricultural products that are the core of its economy. It requires to be bankrolled by its allies. It is not hard to see that Vladimir Putin might think he has the advantage in the long game.
At some point Mr Putin might offer a ceasefire, conditional on the main Western sanctions being lifted, but with Russia holding on to most, if not all, of the second category of its gains, as well as all of the third and fourth. This would return the conflict to the frozen status prior to its February invasion. This is a dismal prospect, but it will be hard for Ukraine and its allies to resist. Russia may decide to incorporate its conquests into its own Federation, following Crimea. Whether it does so or not, it will have the major headache of consolidating its control over wrecked infrastructure and a largely resentful (or absent) population. There may even a continuing insurgency, though we must hope not. It would be hard to paint this as a Russian victory – but just as hard to paint it as a Ukrainian one either.
A lot depends on the next couple of months. If Ukraine starts making rapid progress in regaining territory, because the Russian forces are too demoralised to stand firm, then a new dynamic will take hold – although an unpredictable one, as we do not know how the Russian government would respond. But if the war settles into a stalemate, as seems most plausible, then both sides will have to consider a ceasefire.
This is probably the best outside observers can hope for. Russia would claim a famous victory, but the rest of the world will note its enormous cost. Vladimir Putin will consolidate his hold on his country, but internationally it will have been weakened. Ukraine would survive as a political entity, and would be free to engage fully with the West. But many refugees would be unable to return to their homes. The country will need to invest enormously in its defence.
At the start of this war I suggested that Russia lacked resources, and would not achieve the overwhelming victory that many assumed. It would be an equal mistake to exaggerate Ukraine’s ability to reverse the gains of Russia’s aggression.
An economic storm is coming – could this favour the Lib Dems?
Image: Whoisjohngalt, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A bull market ends when the last bear has been beaten into submission. It felt that way last autumn. In 2020 I was astonished when, after an initial fall in response to the emerging covid crisis, financial markets bounced back and then became positively buoyant. How was this a rational response to the the catastrophe enveloping the world? But the bull market just went on.
Then last autumn I started to read articles suggesting that investors must fundamentally re-evaluate asset prices upwards. The argument was based on the idea that interest rates were fundamentally lower than historically, so we shouldn’t be using historical comparisons of yield and other such ratios, which were pointing to over-valuation. This felt a lot like the last bear caving in. There was certainly something crazy about financial markets at the time – shown not least by the craze for crypto-currencies. All this was reminiscent of the insane world of the tech bubble at the end of the 1990s. Loss is the new profit, and so on.
There is something very odd about the way the interest rate argument is used to justify high valuations. The logic is superficially soound. Anybody with a training in finance is familiar with valuation models based on a discount rate – which is the rate you should receive by investing your money in a zero-risk alternative. The lower the discount rate, the higher the valuation. But lower interest rates also suggest low rates of return on investing your money. So how is that investors get richer when returns fall? Common sense would suggest that a world in which the risk-free rate of return on investment is near zero (or negative after inflation) is one that is going to hell in a handcart. Something, somewhere is not making sense. In fact we should be expecting profits and rental incomes to stagnate or fall, and this should undermine valuations.
But asset prices are not set by the use of logically rigorous financial models. They are set by the laws of supply and demand. The modern economy is generating a lot of funds for investment, but there is an unwillingness for investors to use this for good old-fashioned projects that might generate a cash surplus at a future date. That leaves too much money sloshing around in bank accounts or low risk assets such as government bonds. That keeps low-risk returns down, and it also means that banks are willing to loan money at low rates of return. This generates demand for assets that might generate a return at expense of risk (though still not those boring real-economy projects, apparently). This does not necessarily lead to an asset-price bubble: investors could just be more patient. But it clearly has.
Central banks can do something to restore order by pushing commercial banks to raise interest rates, in their role as their regulator and the banker’s banker. For the last three decades they have chosen not to, using various arguments either to deny that there is a bubble, or to say that it isn’t their job to act against it – instead focusing on consumer price inflation and unemployment. It is difficult theoretical terrain, but it is hard not to see politics and the vested interests of the finance industry behind this.
What bursts bubbles? It is when the funds dry up and more people want to sell riskier assets than buy them, while demand often exceeds supply of less risky assets, causing a scramble. This is usually the result of chickens coming home to roost – high risk investments carry a high risk, after all. The great financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-09 was started by defaults in the US property market. It doesn’t help that in the modern world “funds” is a fluid thing and not the movement of fixed quantities of money as we might intuitively expect. This gives scope for chain reactions that can be global in reach. In the GFC this was truly spectacular and served to expand a minor crisis in US sub-prime real estate into a global banking catastrophe. That was the result of uncontrolled financial engineering across developed economies in the previous decade. There was something of a Ponzi scheme collapsing – but to this day supporters of Britain’s Labour government, which was an active supporter of the country’s role in building the Ponzi scheme (aka world-class financial innovation), insist it was nothing to do with them because it was all about US real estate.
The asset price bubble is clearly bursting now. The proximate cause is inflation, causde by widespread disruption to the supply side of the economy – which I discussed last week. Amongst other effects this is causing central banks to radically change course. Interest rates are starting to go up – though not by very much so far, given the levels of inflation. Perhaps more immediately threatening to markets is that Quantitive Easing (the central banks buying up bonds to keep long term interest rates low) is now moving into reverse. This upsets the balance of supply and demand in asset markets. Meanwhile the convergence of disasters affecting economic supply, from the war in Ukraine to covid in China, are clearly destined to make the world poorer, and this affects how people value assets.
The burning question is just how big will this financial crisis get, and what will its consequences be? I will focus on the UK – as we may find that things unfold quite differently in different countries. On the one hand the financial system is not as dangerously wound up on itself as it was during the GFC, limiting the chain reaction. The world banking system does not look in imminent danger. On the other hand, the outbreak of inflation knocks away one of the props upon which the financial system has been based for 30 years or so – the prospect of ever-lower nominal interest rates. This suggests that the crisis will be slower but longer-lasting. The most sensitive part of this is house prices. In the GFC prices dived rapidly as the financial system froze over and it became very hard to arrange mortgage finance. But conditions quickly eased, and prices bounded back. This time it looks as if nominal interest rates will rise steadily and may well stay up. This will impact new mortgages rather than existing ones, as most mortgages these days are fixed rate. So prices are likely to decline more slowly, but the effect could last longer. It is hard to tell about the wider economy. It depends n the state of business finances. If a harsher financial environment causes widespread bankruptcies, we could experience a significant recession. Otherwise things will be much slower moving and the economy will experience a long period of doldrums.
What will the political impact of these be? The accepted story of politics since the GFC is that the crisis provoked a backlash against metropolitan elites, which were seen as having caused the crisis and escaped its worst impact. It was the political right which managed to exploit this the best, with the rise of populist policies. In Britain this focused on Brexit. The Conservatives were the ultimate beneficiaries. Politically the old liberal elites have taken a pounding, though, and they are not such an obvious target for a backlash. An obvious culprit for the trouble is Brexit but the main opposition parties, Labour and the Lib Dems, are reluctant to invoke the B-word. Their sense is that Britons (especially the English) are reluctant to re-enter the polarisation and political warfare set off by the referendum in 2016. They were accused of trying to overturn a democratically fair decision, and many politicians in these parties have taken this message on board. Anyway, both parties want to win back voters who supported Brexit, as well as those who do not want to reopen the wounds.
But as yet I do not see a clear alternative line of attack. What should the government be doing to face the crisis that it is not? It is not obvious to the public whether the answer is more or less austerity. Swing voters tend not to been drawing non-pension benefits, which look inadequate. As yet there does not seem to be a tide of anger about the failure of the state pension to keep up with inflation. Immigration has failed to present as a burning concern to most. The opposition has to content itself with complaining that the government is incompetent and out of touch. But the public has to be convinced that they would do a better job.
But the point is that public anger is likely to gather pace, and it will attach itself to something – but we don’t know what yet. Where will angry, property-owning former Tory supporters go? Labour has not been positioning themselves for these voters since the departure of Tony Blair in 2007; it may forgotten how to. This could yet be a propitious moment for Lib Dems, who are increasingly focusing on this demographic. They have been courting these voters in by elections and local elections, with some spectacular successes. It is early days. No clear national narrative is emerging from the party. But it is too early for that. They need to understand how resentment at failing house prices and a stagnant economy translates into specific demands. But for the first time in a long time, the period the party spent in coalition with the Conservatives in 2010-15 might be an asset. From the vantage point of 2022, with some selective memory, many Tory voters might remember this as a golden age.
Boris Johnson survives another disaster
Image Petr Kratochvil, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Boris Johnson, Britain’s Prime Minister, was nicknamed “the greased piglet” by his predecessor and Oxford contemporary David Cameron, for his ability to get out of tight situations. He has demonstrated those skills yet again after last week’s very poor local election results for the Conservatives. Instead the pressure is on his Labour counterpart, Sir Keir Starmer.
The Conservatives lost about 500 council seats across Britain, against the low base of when these seats were last fought in 2018, in the midst of the floundering of his predecessor, Theresa May. Many Tory MPs had supposedly been waiting for these results to decide whether they would ask for a vote of confidence. And yet Mr Johnson looks confident and there is little talk of unseating him. Those Tory MPs will put off their decision until the next event, such as the publication of Sue Gray’s report into lockdown shenanigans. But if these MPs were going to do the dirty, they would have done it long ago. There will always be a reason why today is not the day, and mr Johnson’s supporters are adept at providing them.
Mr Johnson’s confidence is not faked. The party’s disasters in London and Scotland were “priced in” in the popular expression. Not too many Tory MPs seats are at stake in these areas. Meanwhile in the “Red Wall” of former Labour seats taken by the Conservatives they fared better; there is no sign of an impending Tory collapse. The Conservatives also lost a lot of seats in their rural heartlands across southern England. But mostly they lost these to the Liberal Democrats, with some to the Greens, as well as a few to Labour. Mr Johnson seems a lot less worried about these than about the Red Wall. A general election is very different to these local elections, and mostly the parliamentary seats are held with very comfortable majorities. The party knows how to sow doubt into voters’ minds, enough to limit any Lib Dem rise to a small number of seats. Meanwhile his line of attack on Labour, as having been taken over by an evil alliance of out-of-touch metropolitan middle classes and urban lefties, remains intact. There is work to do, but the next election looks quite winnable for Mr Johnson, albeit with a reduced majority. All he has to do is communicate this to his wavering backbench MPS. They seem ready to be convinced.
Which is one reason why the pressure is on Sir Keir. His supporters claim that the results show Labour has turned the corner in the Red Wall. But pulling back a bit from the low point in 2019 is not good enough for Labour. The results show that these seats are still in play – and pose the question of what would happen to Labour in a full strength general election campaign. Sir Keir has devoted all his energy to slaying the ghost of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. This seems to be largely successful: Tory taunts that Labour is in the grip of extremists looks off the mark. That was a huge negative for the party in 2019, when many voters were put off by Mr Corbyn’s leadership. But Mr Corbyn’s leadership came with positives too – he was able to invoke enthusiasm amongst his supporters, and he managed to reach parts of the electorate that others did not. This was most evident in 2017 but was surely still there in 2019. But Sir Keir has lost this, and he isn’t able to rustle up much enthusiasm amongst people in the political centre either – in the way that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were able to. The local elections have done nothing to allay those doubts.
The second reason Sir Keir is under pressure is a police investigation into an alleged breach of lockdown rules in 2021 while campaigning in a by election. This follows a persistent campaign by a tabloid newspaper, in an attempt to deflect pressure from the Prime Minister’s apparent serial breaches in Downing Street. Because Sir Keir has pursued Mr Johnson so aggressively on this issue, he is accused of hypocrisy, in the time-honoured manner of British politics. The truth is that the lockdown rules were unclear, especially with regard to work meetings, and many people pushed the boundaries without being challenged. The police have also levied fines when they shouldn’t. Sir Keir’s lapse, if that is what it was, does not compare to the goings on in Downing Street under Mr Johnson’s supervision. But in order to keep the pressure up on Mr Johnson, Sir Keir has now said that he will resign if he is fined. Which puts the local police in a very difficult situation. It also puts Sir Keir’s leadership in limbo.
What of the Lib Dems? They had an excellent set of elections, and, alongside the two spectacular by election victories last year, they have fought their way back into political relevance. They only did well where they had local strength, and even then, struggled against Labour in places like London. But they have now built a platform from which they can substantially build on their parliamentary representation – provided the voters are not scared that they might let in a Labour government, as they were in 2019. Lib Dems were quite happy with Labour being led by Sir Keir, as he is unlikely to scare off their floating voters. All this is a vindication of the leadership of Sir Ed Davey, and especially his decision, criticised within the party, of not mentioning Brexit. The party has shown an ability to come back in Brexit-supporting parts of the country, such as Somerset. But will they be able to do enough to stop the Conservatives from gaining a majority?
Mr Johnson’s strengths in political survival and campaigning are not matched by skills in government. His avowed radicalism has dissipated into gesture politics. Meanwhile an economic storm is gathering pace. This would be a tricky challenge for any government, let alone the current hapless one. Can the greased piglet survive that too?
The unravelling of neoliberalism brings economic hardship
The economic reforms in China led by Deng Xiaoping were central to the neoliberal project. Picture by Brücke-Osteuropa – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8341309
Distracted by the war in Ukraine, and then a holiday, I have not commented on economics for quite a while. And yet economic developments over the last few months have been dramatic. Inflation, long dormant in the developed world, is rising after more than two decades of quiescence; growth is stalling. The expected bounce-back from the covid-19 pandemic is not happening. Given my longer period of silence on this, I am going to take a longer perspective than usual.
One of the most striking things about the politics of the last decade or so is the backlash against the global economic liberalisation of the 1990s and early 2000s. The left labels this liberalisation as “neoliberalism”, the right prefers “globalisation”. Both lay all society’s ills at its door (perhaps that’s not fair on the right, some of whom add “wokeism” to the world’s evils). The left emphasises rising inequality within countries, with the rise of a fabulously rich elite while many struggle to make ends meet. The right would rather emphasis the dislocation of working class communities and values as economic change takes it toll, and especially the movement of peoples and the consequent mixing of cultures. Both have a point. But they overlook the many benefits that global liberalisation has brought. There has been an unprecedented closing of the gap between rich and poor nations, as countries like China and India exploit the opportunities of global trade. Developed countries have experienced a flexibility of supply that has ensured the stability of prices, and eased the process of technological development which in turn has has brought the world mobile phones and much else that has transformed life in so many ways. Along with these came an assumption of perpetual economic growth.
But now the liberalisation is going into reverse. We can take Russia’s war on Ukraine an extreme result of this – it is part of Russia’s rejection of globalisation in a search for national identity, sovereignty and prestige. But the signs are everywhere: America’s trade wars with China and Britain’s rejection of the European Union are but two examples. Just to show that this is trend is global we can add China’s extreme policies to fight the pandemic, which involve its physical isolation, as another case in point. The inflation crisis is one result. Economic policy makers are dealing with unfamiliar problems. Flexibility of global supply chains had been hard-wired into the way they viewed the world. Interest rates were kept low; many countries exploited the ease with which government budget deficits could be maintained. There was almost no such thing as fiscal or monetary policy being too loose, as global supply could respond to almost any level of domestic demand, or so it seemed. Now this comfortable world is gone. Policymakers must now manage think about the sustainability of supply alongside the level of supply. Retrenchment of some sort, though higher interest rates or tighter fiscal policy, looks inevitable.
The first thing to understand about all this is that the ending of the era of globalisation is not just the result of a political backlash. It follows a change of global economic conditions. The most important, and yet least acknowledged, is global convergence. Behind the success of globalisation was a huge global opportunity. In Asia vast numbers of people were engaged in massively unproductive agricultural activity. As these people were moved to more productive activities, especially in manufacturing, world productivity advanced. Japan led the way, followed by South Korea, Taiwan and others, but China’s impact has dwarfed all of these – indeed Deng Xioaping’s application of neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics has been more transformative of the world economy than any single Western country’s policies. Global trade was essential to making all this happen, as the developing economies were able to export surplus production, and developed economies experienced the benefits of cheap imports as a result. But this is largely played out. The main population shifts in China and East Asia have happened, and these countries are experiencing a demographic transition too, as population growth goes into reverse. Other less developed economies have potential (notably South Asia and Africa), but the gains here are harder to unlock, and must be spread more widely, now that there are many more developed economies. The potential gains from global trade, at least for fully developed economies, as well as China’s, have diminished drastically.
Other trends can be added to this. Demographic change in the developed world and China is widely acknowledged, even if its full consequences are rarely given due weight. There are other factors, which I have talked about in this blog. The saturation effect of developed economies, as a growing proportion of spending moves from fulfilling physical needs to status goods, and the not unrelated Baumol effect as a growing share of economic activity moves into activities that are not susceptible to productivity gains. The overall conclusion is clear: economic growth, in the way that we have generally understood it, is over. That is not to say that wellbeing cannot be improved and poverty reduced – but doing so will require much more attention to the distributional effects of policies, and much of the achievement will be through “soft” quality of life effects, rather than increased individual consumption.
But we can’t abandon economic liberalism. Economic efficiency is still important. In fact it is more important than ever as we need to make the most out limited resources. In many contexts the efficiency of the market economy and private capital cannot be improved on. We still need capitalism, but it has to be better managed. Meanwhile the challenges posed by environmental change and demography mean that society must endure more disruption, of the sort that many on the right will resist. Immigration into developed countries remains necessary; we must reduce our carbon footprint by reducing car use and building wind farms in our backyards.
But liberals must face up to a number of challenges. Firstly monopoly capitalism and excessive corporate power must be confronted and managed. Second, excessive levels of wealth and income must be taxed and redistributed. This requires more international cooperation, especially around the closing of tax havens, and pushing the boundaries of privacy rights. Third, the pubic sector must be better managed, with solutions tailored to individual people rather than being the subject of organisational empires. This implies more devolved decision-taking in the public realm, but within a culture of openness and adherence to the rule of law to keep corruption at bay. And fourth we need more democracy – not just voting but meaningful public engagement and consultation – especially at a local level. All of these things run counter to the model of neoliberalism developed in the 1980s and dominant in the following decades in the West. There is a growing common ground between liberals and socialists, though movement is required by the latter too if this is to work.
The era of neoliberalism brought huge economic benefits, and the world is missing them now that era is over, even if neoliberalism brought many problems with it. But that is mainly because economic conditions have changed, and we have new economic priorities. We need a a new understanding of economic liberalism in order to take human society forward.
How does the Ukraine war end?
By Viewsridge – Own work, derivate of Russo-Ukraine Conflict (2014-2021).svg by Rr016Missile attacks source: BNO NewsTerritorial control source: ISW & Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed map, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115506141
I’ve been offline for three weeks, but remarkably little has changed in Ukraine. The Western powers have followed my advice about the scale of assistance to Ukraine. I also suggested that the West place pressure on the Russian-controlled territory of Transnistria; tension there is indeed rising, but not as the result of Western actions. Meanwhile Liz Truss, the British Foreign Secretary has been upping the rhetoric about the scale of defeat she wants to inflict on Russia. This is fluff from somebody talking to Conservative Party grassroots before a potential leadership election. But it poses a more serious question: what is the endgame?
On the ground, meanwhile, little has changed. Russia continues its assault on Donbas, but has so far gained little territory, though it is making slow progress on one of it axes of advance. The battle for Mariupol seems to be nearly over, but further drama is assured with the fate of Ukrainians holed up in the Azovstal steelworks. Elsewhere Ukraine has nibbled some territory back, notably around Kharkiv. Once again the some of the expert military commentary in the media is well off the mark. It was suggested that the more open terrain in Donbas would lead to tank battles more reminiscent of the the Second World War (notably the great battle of Kursk in similar terrain nearby). That is nonsense – technology has changed the way war is fought. Instead the battles seem to be turning on artillery. The Russians do not want to press beyond the range of their low-tech artillery forces; the Ukrainians need to resist continuous bombardment, and strike to back at the enemy artillery if they can. This makes warfare slow-moving, unlike those battles of an earlier era.
Events in Transnistria (the thin sliver in the east of Moldova on the map) are a bit of a puzzle. Grenade attacks on Russian facilities there have been reported, without casualties. The Ukrainian government suggests that these are false-flag attacks designed to give Russia the pretext for involving its garrison in an attack on Ukraine (it is close to Odesa). This doesn’t make a great deal of sense. The Russian garrison is weak (reported as 1,500 men) and difficult to supply. It is surely more useful to the Russians as a source of signals intelligence and such without direct involvement. It is more likely that Ukraine is taking a leaf out Russia’s book and preparing the ground to carry out a “special military operation” to neutralise the Russian garrison. That would be a major humiliation for Russia, given the history of the place.
My earlier analysis was that a stalemate in Donbas would continue until something broke – by which I meant that physical or morale losses, and or logistical strains, cause a dramatic collapse on one or other side. That still seems to be true. Ukraine has longer supply lines than around Kyiv, and Russia is trying to attack them with air power and missiles. Russia’s army is badly mauled and shaken, and it is using prodigious amounts of munitions, though its supply lines are more secure than in the battle for Kyiv. It is hard to tell who will break first or when, or, indeed, if either will. Conflict at the current intensity is not sustainable in the long run though.
A Russian victory would see Ukrainian forces giving ground in Donbas, with the probability of a substantial number of troops being surrounded. Russia would take control of the two Donbas oblasts, plus the southern ones of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia (or most of the southern portion of the latter). This would fulfil one of its stated war aims of “liberating” Donbas, as well as securing Crimea, including its water resources. Russia would dearly like to add Odesa to this, but it might choose to stop there. It would then enter peace talks with the ever-present threat of continuing a low level war that might be escalated. Any peace would result in a formal partition of Ukraine, with effective Russian control of its new conquests. This would be enough for Russia to claim vindication, though in fact its main war aim of “den-nazifying” all of Ukraine would not be met in most of the country. Parts of the Ukraine that the Russian leader Vladimir Putin regards as core Russian territory would have been turned into hostile ground for the foreseeable future. And NATO would have been greatly strengthened, while Russia’s own forces would require many years of rebuilding.
I don’t think this outcome is very likely. Russia’s resources are not limitless, and the damage inflicted on its armed forces is very severe. While its strategy of attacking Ukrainian infrastructure is militarily sound, it lacks the precision munitions and air capability of doing it in the way the Americans managed in Iraq, for example. The West is providing more and more logistical support, and Russia has few good options of doing anything about this – just as America couldn’t stop Soviet and Chinese support in Korea and Vietnam, which went substantially further than the West is doing now.
What would a Ukrainian victory look like? A dramatic collapse of Russian logistics and morale is possible, but not very likely. More likely Russian efforts will slacken and resistance weaken, allowing Ukrainian forces to slowly start biting bits of tis territory back. But this is unlikely to take them any further than the post-2014 frontiers. After this the Russian defensive infrastructure will be too strong. At this point America might offer Russia sanctions relief if they agree to settle. But any substantive settlement, even based on these borders, would be very humiliating for Mr Putin, and it is hard to see him accepting it. He would have to be removed through a coup from the security establishment, unable to countenance the war continuing. But Mr Putin takes his personal security more than seriously.
Meanwhile the Russians are taking steps to consolidate their control of the territory they have acquired, with the “filtration” of the remaining population, the creation of local government structures and the adoption of the Russian rouble. They are trying to find ways through the Western sanctions for militarily useful supplies, using third nations. There is also speculation that they will escalate the conflict into a full war, allowing full mobilisation. The damage to Russian military capability runs deep, though, and large numbers of conscripts won’t help. But it would show that Russia is preparing for a long haul. This would require the West to extend sanctions, potentially upsetting neutral countries. And then winter would approach with Europe’s gas supplies under threat.
What happens next depends on what happens on the ground. If Russia can complete its conquest of Donbas, it is possible that Ukraine and its backers will reluctantly accept a tactical defeat. If Ukraine can recover Kherson and Mariupol, they, and their backers, may feel they have done enough to settle, and Russian political will might crack. Neither possibility looks at all likely in 2022. Which means a long haul. The military intensity of the conflict will reduce, as both sides seek to regroup. It then becomes a battle of political wills, in Russia, Ukraine and amongst the Western powers, especially America and Germany.
That is a grim prospect for the Ukrainian people, especially if they have homes in the east and south of the country. One reason that nobody should start a war is that they are so hard to stop. The world did not need another lesson the futility of war – but that is exactly what Russia has given it.
Ukraine: the Western powers need to move onto front foot
This is likely to be my last post for three weeks as I take some time out. I still want to talk about Ukraine, though some other interesting issues are bubbling up, especially in economics. Never mind, Ukraine is front and centre at the moment for any European.
Since my last post, Russia has completed a withdrawal in northern Ukraine, including its advances on Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy. It retains its positions near Kharkiv and continues to shell the city. It has also, for now, abandoned its advance on Odesa in the south west. It is concentrating on Donbas in the east and Mariupol in the south. There is talk that they are gathering strength for a major offensive in Donbas. Meanwhile the world is shocked by the behaviour of Russian troops in the areas they have now abandoned in the north. “Genocide” is a much-used word, notably by the Ukrainian government. I don’t think what has been happening merits that word – but claims by some authorised media in Russia that the Ukrainian national identity is an artificial construct do add weight to the claim. But it is without doubt that the actions of Russian troops amount to war crimes, even though I think a lot of it is reckless disregard rather than deliberate targeting.
It all contributes to the propaganda war being used to sustain public support for the conflict. Both sides can claim success. In the West Russian disinformation has been overwhelmed – some people are picking it up, but nobody with political heft. What had been a rather successful part of Russian political outreach is in tatters. The only clouds so far as Western propagandists are concerned are younger people in the US, who are notably more sceptical according to a poll in the Economist, and Hungary, where the sceptical government led by Viktor Orban has just won another term in power, partly thanks to a campaign suggesting that the country should not join the war. But in Russia, hopes in the West that there would be a public backlash have been dashed. The public had not been prepared for the war, but the authorities have made up for lost time. They have developed their own powerful narrative of victimhood, denied claims of heavy losses and bad conduct, and successfully shut down all alternative news sources. There is something of a parallel with Ukraine itself – there the Russian attack has rallied Ukrainians into a show of patriotism, from what had been a rather sceptical public. The Russian government is successfully using Western sanctions to achieve something like the same effect. Their main risk is the suppression of news about what is really happening – but once feelings of identity and patriotism are stirred up, facts are little obstacle. After all supporters of Donald Trump still think that he won the presidential election in 2020. There is something of a backlash amongst middle class Russians, but they are unable to organise – the most important consequence is a brain-drain.
Outside the West and Russia, the results of the propaganda war is mixed. Russia has been able to play on anti-Western sentiment, resulting from such things as the Gulf War. By and large more neutral governments aren’t falling for Russian disinformation – but they is a large well of scepticism over the motives of the West. It is not hard to make a claim of hypocrisy.
Still, while Russia has successfully rallied public support, it has two big problems. The first is the state of its armed forces. These were never as strong as most people thought, including Western experts, doubtless as a result of the endemic corruption that is the hallmark of the Russian state. The disastrous early phase of the campaign has inflicted devastating losses, leaving what remains as damaged and suffering poor morale. It is much harder to keep the front-line forces in the same information bubble as the general public. It will be a struggle to regroup for the next phase of the campaign. The second big problem is logistics. Western sanctions may not have turned the Russian public against their government, as initially hoped, but they have weakened the capacity of the Russian state to make war. Of course it is hard to get decent information on this. The Ukrainian government is publishing a lot of details about the difficulties the Russians are experiencing – but it is hard to know how much weight to put on these. To my mind, one important issue is the supply of artillery shells, so critical the Russian way of war. But I suspect that this is somewhere they could get surreptitious support from China.
But Ukraine does not seem to be in a strong position to exploit Russian weakness, and retake territory which Russia wants to defend.. There is very little decent information this – but the Ukrainian government is now focusing its efforts on getting more munitions, as well as increasing sanctions on Russia. Demands for a no-fly zone are now less audible. This is putting pressure on the Western powers. For them there is an invisible but vital line in the type of support they are able to offer without escalation. This line needs to be examined harder, but the thinking is unclear, probably deliberately. What sort of escalation do they fear? The obvious one concerns gas supplies – but Russia surely needs the currency. Military attacks on the West would surely provoke the sort of further escalation that the Russians don’t want. Of course with the threat of nuclear weapons, any move has to be thought through carefully – but surely the boundaries could be pushed? Two issues occur to me. One is the supply of more types of weapons. Better anti-aircraft defences might be one area; armoured vehicles to allow Ukrainian troops to move around under artillery fire would be another (the use of armoured vehicles in front-line combat is another matter, as they look very vulnerable to modern weapons). A second issue concerns Transnistria, the Russian-controlled enclave in Moldova. This presents a threat to Odesa, but it is also very vulnerable. Western governments need to make it very clear that any attempt to use its bases there to attack Ukrainian territory would be unacceptable and result in military action and blockade. This would make it visible to the Russian government that their war is diminishing its global status and ability to hang on to its outposts.
Why should the West want to take more risks? Because Russia’s new battle plan presents a real threat. A spectacular advance in Donbas by Russia looks unlikely, but a grinding, slow one is a real threat, and could keep the war going for a lot longer. Ukraine needs to have the capacity to retake territory in order the convince Russia that continuing the war is not in its interests.
And at some point also, the West will need to get serious about making peace – as that is the only realistic way this war will end. But for that to work, Russia’s military efforts must be weakened further. And to achieve that the West will have to try harder.
The Ukraine war settles into a slow grind to partition
Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul drew headlines yesterday, but there was almost nothing to see. The war goes on in two main theatres: the fighting in Ukraine itself, and the economic assault on Russia conducted by the Western powers. Russia remains battered but unbeaten. Either something big breaks and one side is the clear victor, or the war will grind on to de-facto partition after both sides are exhausted. This is unlikely to be quick.
Russia drew headlines with the claim that it is scaling down its operations against Kyiv and Chernihiv as a gesture of goodwill. This is obvious nonsense. Intelligence suggests that Russia is withdrawing battered units from the area, but they seem to be replacing them with fresher units, albeit of doubtful quality. Heavy losses and logistical strains have forced them to dial back, but there is no sign that they are ceding territory. The aim of the announcement seems to be twofold: to make a virtue out of necessity for the sake of world propaganda, and to prepare the ground for any Ukrainian counterattacks, which they can label as escalation.
For their part, the Ukrainians aren’t offering much either. They are stepping back from their stated aim of joining NATO. But instead they want security guarantees that add up to much the same thing, except that they have renounced the idea of foreign troops on their soil. There is no sign of any flexibility on Russia’s territorial demands on Crimea and the Donbas. Russia does seem to have stepped back from their demand for regime change, and Ukraine’s exclusion from the European Union. That is progress of a sort, but not enough to get our hopes up.
The peace talks are missing elements that might point to success. They are not being convened by a power with the ability to knock heads together. Turkey is an improvement on the talks held in Belarus, but you need the heft of the USA or China, or preferably both, to force the sides into serious compromise. America is vital to Ukraine’s ongoing resistance, and central to the sanctions regime that is causing Russia such pain. China can put decisive pressure on Russia. But both China and America are posturing on the sidelines and show no interest in moving a peace process along. On the other hand neither of the combatants is yet close to breakdown – so neither will concede defeat in a costly war. Any serious compromise on territory will amount to a defeat of one side or the other.
On the ground we have something of a war of attrition. Russia is slowly strangling Mariupol to death. Ukraine is slowly pushing the Russians back in the north. Russia is clearly suffering from resource constraints. It is struggling to maintain its human resources – and the reinforcements that it is finding are generally of poor quality. Much the same can be said of replacement equipment. Less obvious are any constraints on ammunition supplies. Their method of war once serious resistance is encountered is very demanding of ammunition. Just how far consumption is outstripping production is unclear – the various reports I read on the situation don’t touch on this aspect, as presumably good intelligence is hard to get. However my feeling is that Russia’s scaling back in the north has as much to do with this factor as anything else. One key factor will be whether China can offer a supply of munitions to keep the Russian war machine going.
What could break in Russia’s military campaign? Exhausted units could collapse and retreat. This is more likely in the north, where Russian positions look stretched and vulnerable. It would make sense for them to conduct a physical withdrawal to consolidate – though this could free up Ukrainian troops too. In the south Russian positions look much less exposed, but if their commanders keep trying to push their troops forward, there could be trouble. If ammunition supplies do start to get stretched, some kind of disaster is more likely. If Ukraine is able to build up enough reserves to carry out more than limited counterattacks and insurgency operations, then this will make a big difference.
But Ukraine has its own weaknesses. Military experts suggest that their forces in Donbas could get cut off by advances especially from the south. I don’t have a feeling of the level of danger here – these military experts have often been proved wrong and have spouted their fair share of nonsense. I heard one on the radio saying that attackers usually need a 3:1 advantage in numbers. This number originates from General Bernard Montgomery trying to explain why he made such heavy weather of the battle of El Alamein with a mere 2.5:1 advantage. Numbers required depend completely on the context, and any rule of thumb is nonsense. Ukraine needs a continuing supply of munitions from the West, and could do with more weapons that would allow it to take the offensive – such as aircraft and tanks. Their morale is much higher than that of the Russians, though, and it does look as if they have saved Kyiv.
What of the economic war? This does not look as bad for Russia as it did at first. Loopholes have been found in the sanctions. There have been no bond defaults. They are being helped by Turkey, Israel and the Arab states, as well as China. The rouble is recovering. They are still exporting substantial quantities of gas. Still the civilian economy is taking a bad knock, and doubtless unemployment will rise. The state propaganda machine is all-out building a sense of Russian patriotism which allows its fantastical propaganda to be believed. Dissent is being stamped out. The Russian middle class is taking a big battering, though, and that is leading to a big brain drain. Russia’s s not a robust, self-sufficient economy, and corruption is endemic. Something could break. But there are plenty of examples of countries withstanding sanctions in the long term (Cuba, Iran, Venezuela). This is not what the Russian people signed up to when they voted for Vladimir Putin, but the narrative of victimisation is being developed. A palace coup is possible – as presumably not all of the Russian ruling elite is signed up to Mr Putin’s messianic vision of Russia’s destiny. But the first we would hear of that is the day after it happens.
How about the West’s resolve? The war is taking its toll, but public support is widespread. A life or death struggle of this nature is more engaging than our normal humdrum existence. The main problem is knowing how far the West can go in providing aid to Ukraine without provoking Russia into a military response. Russia’s ground forces are now overstretched, and cannot credibly threaten any NATO country. But they have a strong navy, long range bombers and missiles, and a formidable nuclear capability. Western leaders have managed this risk by defining clear limits to their interventions. This has been criticised by many of the more aggressive commentators, but it heads off the risk of a Russian first strike. Doubtless military options are being considered by Nato planners, and confidence in Western military doctrine and weapons have been given a huge boost by Russia’s struggles. But such options will only be considered if Ukraine is facing military collapse, and would aim to limit the damage.
Where is this war headed? The Ukrainian commentators who suggest the war might end in some form of de-facto partition and cease-fire, like Korea (still technically at war), are on to something. The Russian will eventually be driven out of or withdraw from the north. They will probably extend their territory in Donbas and secure a land bridge to Crimea. Unless something drastic breaks.
UPDATE: 31 March
It is confirmed that Russia has been withdrawing troops in north Ukraine, and not just rotating them. They are not abandoning territory, though, and continue with shelling. My suggestion that consumption of munitions is a limiting factor for Russia is not so far being borne out by the facts – not of low-tech artillery shells anyway. There are claims that Western sanctions applying to advanced electronics is preventing Russia from the production of advanced weapons and munitions, however. If so it is a critical strategic weakness for Russia with important implications.
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Henry, age 3, is playing with Sophie, 15 months, by grabbing a toy away from her. Sophie loves his attention and giggles at this interesting game, especially because he restores the toy to her every time. But Henry is getting rougher each time, and Sophie is clinging harder to the toy. He wrenches it away from her. Sophie bursts into tears. Henry, feeling guilty, shouts “You act like a baby!” and shoves her down, hard. Now Sophie is wailing.
If dad had noticed the game getting rougher, he could have intervened to prevent this upset by getting between the kids and engaging in the game: “Hey, what about me? Take the toy from someone your own size, why don’t you? Waaaaaa…..You took my toy!”
There would have been giggling all around, giving Henry the opportunity to discharge some tension around having to “share” everything in his life with his sister, and his guilt about wanting to take things back from her. Dad could even have built some sibling solidarity by having the kids team up against him.
Prevention is always the best policy, when we notice hard feelings brewing. But Dad, being human and a parent, was trying to do three other things and simply glad for a moment of quiet. With little kids, the mood can change so quickly. So what should Dad do now?
Should he send Henry to a timeout? That's what many experts still recommend, and it's certainly a better choice than smacking, but that will just make the child feel more disconnected from his parents, which is already part of the problem causing this aggressive behavior. There are better ways to help Henry treat his sister well.
Most children have a hard time with their complex emotions about the new baby -- usually a combination of protectiveness and a desire to flush the baby down the toilet -- and feel guilty. Over time, they develop a relationship with their sibling, but resentment often lurks below the surface, looking for expression. When the pressure of their tangled-up feelings pushes them to lash out, and parents react with timeouts, the child is confirmed in his conclusion that he’s a bad kid for being jealous of his sibling -- and in his fear that his parents prefer the sibling!
So does he spend the timeout resolving to be nicer? No, like any normal human, he reviews why he’s right, his parents are unfair, and everything was so much better before his rotten sibling was born. The chip on his shoulder solidifies. That’s why timeouts don’t usually stop kids from hitting. Here's a whole article on why Timeouts and other punishments actually cause more misbehavior.
So what can the parent do to prevent aggression? Smacking and spanking teach children to hit, so that's the worst parental intervention (as substantiated by thirty years of research). And a "consequence" like taking away a privilege will just increase his resentment of his sister, which isn't a good foundation for a loving relationship. I know, it's frustrating, but punishment of any kind will just make the child feel worse and act worse. If we're serious about stopping the hitting, we need to model non-aggressive problem-solving, and help the child with the feelings that are driving the aggression.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t set a firm limit against violence.
First, Dad scoops up Sophie, who is howling. He resists the urge to yell at Henry. In fact, he resists interacting with Henry at all until he can get himself a bit calmer. So he summons up all his nurturing and focuses on Sophie, which helps shift him from his murderous-don’t-you-mess-with-my-baby-self to his nurturing-parent-self.
Dad: “Ouch! Looks like that hurt." Sophie nods, crying hard."Getting pushed can hurt your body... and your feelings, too! .... Tell me about it, Sophie.” Sophie cries even louder for a moment, as we all do when we’re hurt and receive loving attention. Soon, though, she recovers and reaches for the toy, which is abandoned on the floor. Dad puts her down with the toy, takes a deep breath to calm himself, and turns to Henry. He knows Henry is feeling frightened, and no learning will happen in that state, so he tries to create safety by being warm and matter-of-fact, not accusatory.
Dad: “Ouch! That hurt your sister, didn’t it?”
Henry: “I guess. She's a cry-baby.”
Dad doesn't take the bait. He gets down on the floor next to Henry, making eye contact. He’s breathing deeply, working to stay calm and kind. Naturally, his face is serious. He starts by acknowledging Henry's experience.
Dad: “She certainly cries when she gets hurt, like the rest of us. I guess you must have been upset too, to push her. Sounds like that was hard for both of you. Tell me about it, Henry.”
Henry: “She wouldn’t give me my toy.” (Henry looks blank. Is he remorseless? No. He feels ashamed, and afraid of what Dad is about to say. He's in "fight, flight or freeze" - in this case, freeze. That looks on the surface like he doesn't feel anything.)
Dad: “That was your toy and you wanted it?” (Dad is empathizing. Henry nods but doesn’t say anything.)
Dad:“You must have been really upset to hurt her... I'm sorry I wasn't here to help."
Is Dad blaming himself? No. He's modeling taking responsibility. That opens the door a bit for Henry to feel less defensive. He shoots a quick look at Dad—Is it possible that he might understand?—and then looks away again.
Dad: "I hear you were frustrated with her. But hitting hurts. It's never okay to hit another person.”
Henry glazes over and looks away. Dad knows Henry's trying to push down some big feelings that he needs help with. Dad moves in close, pulling Henry gently against him.
Dad: “Sometimes you get REALLY mad at your sister, don’t you?”
Henry looks at him, testing.“I hate her.”
Dad: (Ignoring the "hate" bomb.) “Sometimes you get so mad it feels like hate. (Trying to go under the anger to connect with the more vulnerable feelings that drive it.) I know you tell me it isn’t fair that she always gets to sleep with us. Maybe you think she gets everything, and you get left out?”
Henry (shouting) “I am left out! Why did you have to get a baby, anyway?! You never have time for me anymore! Why can’t you send her back?! She ruins everything!”
Dad: “You miss the way it used to be.”
Henry: "I hate everything!" He bursts into tears and buries his head in Dad’s shoulder. As he sobs, Dad says“You can cry as much as you need to. I am right here. I am ALWAYS here for you, no matter what, baby or no baby." He isn't trying to stop Henry from crying. He's helping Henry feel safe enough to show him all that pain.
Sophie is initially distressed by Henry's crying, so Dad does the hardest part of this process—reassuring her and keeping her out of reach of Henry's flailing feet at the same time as he tends to Henry. He has one arm around each child.
Dad: "It's ok, Sophie. Henry's just sad right now. I'm helping Henry with his feelings."
Finally, Henry is done crying, and snuggles on Dad’s lap. Sophie has wandered to the train track across the room and is happily chugging the trains around, no longer listening.
Dad: "You know that I couldn’t love anyone more than you, right? You are the only Henry I have and you have the only Henry place in my heart. You are my boy and I am your dad and I will always love you, no matter what.”
Henry nods.
Dad: "No matter how much Sophie gets, there is always more than enough for you. Maybe you worry sometimes that we love the baby more. But that is never true. You can always tell me if you’re feeling left out, or angry; you know that. I will always understand and try to help."
Henry nods.
Dad: "What about hitting?"
Henry:"It’s bad."
Dad: "Well, it certainly hurts. But what happens when you hit Sophie?”
Henry: “I get in trouble.”
Dad: “Yes, that's what happens to you. And what happens to Sophie?”
Henry: “Sophie cries.”
Dad: “Why does she cry?”
Henry: “She doesn't like it.”
Dad: “That's right. And how do you feel inside when you hurt her?”
Henry: (Looking away)“ Bad.”
Dad: “Yes, Henry. You feel bad, because when we hit it hurts the other person, and it also hurts our own heart. People are NOT for hitting. People are for loving. Just like your mom and I love and hug you. So what can you do instead of hitting your sister when you feel like hitting?"
Henry: "Get you?"
Dad: "Yes, use your words and tell me. "If you need help with your feelings, or to protect your toys, call me and I will always help you. What else?"
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Key Drivers of the National Debt
America’s unsustainable fiscal outlook is the result of a structural mismatch between the amount of revenues that the federal government collects and the amount of spending promised under current law. Federal spending — driven by rising healthcare costs, demographics, and interest payments on the national debt — is paired with revenues that are insufficient to meet the commitments that have been made.
The economic effects of the pandemic and the legislative response to mitigate those effects have exacerbated the pre-existing imbalance between spending and revenues. That imbalance will remain even after the effects of the pandemic have faded, pushing the national debt to historic levels. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that federal spending will climb from 21.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 to 31.8 percent by 2051; that growth is largely due to spending on healthcare and retirement programs for elderly Americans along with rapidly growing interest costs. Revenues, on the other hand, are only projected to climb from 17.3 percent of GDP in 2022 to 18.5 percent in 2051.
One of the primary drivers of America’s long-term fiscal challenges is our inefficient healthcare system. Combined with the demographic realities of an aging population, America’s healthcare system leaves us with an unsustainable fiscal future. Not only will more Americans qualify for federal healthcare programs like Medicare in the coming years, but older people, on average, need more healthcare. Consequently, without reform, the federal budget will bear the cost of rapidly growing healthcare bills.
United States per capita healthcare spending is nearly three times the average of other developed countries
In 2020, the United States spent $4.1 trillion — or 20 percent of the national economy — on healthcare. On a per capita basis, our healthcare system is the most expensive among advanced nations. Yet, America’s health outcomes are generally no better than those of our peers, and in some cases are worse, including in areas like life expectancy, infant mortality, asthma, and diabetes.
Put simply, we are paying more than other countries, but we aren’t seeing better results. Healthcare experts have estimated that 25 percent of our total healthcare spending goes to unnecessary and wasteful services. Furthermore, healthcare spending is projected to keep rising — faster than inflation, wages, and the overall economy. Not only does the system result in health outcomes that are generally no better for patients, but its inefficiency also creates enormous challenges for the U.S. economy and federal government.
The primary reasons why our healthcare system underperforms is because the typical factors that fuel improvement and innovation in other industries are lacking in healthcare:
• Historically, consumers have not been cost sensitive because their employers and health plans often cover a large share of their costs and because they lack the information required to assess quality and cost.
• Employers and insurers often assume a passive role, accepting annual cost increases, and eventually pass those costs on to customers and employees.
• Providers generally operate under a fee-for-service model in which they are compensated based on the volume of their services, rather than the value of the care they provide.
• Improvements in technology often make healthcare more expensive.
Under this system, the demands and rewards for quality, efficiency, and price sensitivity are sharply reduced.
The growth in healthcare costs per person has slowed in the last few years, but it is uncertain how long this welcomed trend will continue. Despite the slowdown, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that total spending for healthcare will climb to 19 percent of GDP in 2027. According to CBO, spending on the major federal healthcare programs will rise from 5.7 percent of GDP in 2022 to 9.4 percent in 2051 — an increase of 64 percent.
Over the next 25 years, another major driver of rising long-term federal spending is the aging of America’s population, as the number of people age 65 or older will increase much faster than the working-age population. The aging of the baby-boom generation (those born in the post-World War II period of 1946 to 1964) as well as increases in life expectancy drive the increase in the number of older Americans.
Baby Boomers
The first wave of baby boomers turned 65 in 2011, and the number of people over that age will climb by nearly 27 million over the next 30 years. Meanwhile, the working-age population will increase by only 22 million people over the same period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Total U.S. health spending (public and private) is projected to rise to nearly one-fifth of the economy by 2025
Increasing Longevity
Not only will the number of older Americans increase, but they are also expected to live longer in retirement. Overall life expectancy among Americans who live to age 65 has risen significantly over the past several decades. As those aging and longevity trends continue, the number of people age 85 and older is expected to almost triple over the next 30 years.
life expectancy continues to imporve for the elderly
It is great news that Americans are living longer, and the retirement of the baby-boom generation comes as no surprise. However, those trends mean that the government will spend more on programs that serve this growing population of older Americans. In fact, spending on Social Security and the major health programs (which includes Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and subsidies to purchase health insurance) accounts for all of the increase in federal non-interest spending relative to the size of the economy over the long term.
Such demographic trends are already putting pressure on the federal budget — threatening the sustainability of vital programs benefitting older and vulnerable Americans.
As the national debt grows, so too can the cost of servicing that debt. Not only can net interest costs crowd out opportunities to invest in other areas of the economy, but they also play a sizable role in the growth of federal spending.
Interest costs will soon be the fastest-growing “program” in the federal budget — exceeding the growth of Social Security or Medicare — and will total $5.4 trillion over the next decade according to CBO. Furthermore, such costs crowd out the nation’s ability to invest in other programs that are vital for our future such as education, transportation, and research and development.
Net interest cost are projected to rise sharply
It would be one thing if our tax code were designed to fund all the promises we’re making, but it’s not. The U.S. tax system does not generate enough revenues to cover the spending levels promised.
Our tax code is also overly complex, confusing, inefficient, and unfair. For example, it remains riddled with tax expenditures, or “tax breaks,” that provide financial benefits to specific activities, entities, and groups of people. Those tax breaks, which totaled $1.9 trillion in 2021, increase annual deficits and can create market distortions that are damaging to economic growth and productivity.
Total tax expenditures are large in comparison to annual income taxes collected and to the government's major programs
Improving our fiscal outlook means addressing the structural imbalance between revenues and spending. Understanding the key drivers of the national debt — including our changing demographics, rising healthcare costs, interest payments on the debt, and an insufficient revenue base — is crucial to resolving our fiscal imbalance and improving our fiscal trajectory.
The Fiscal Challenge
Economic Impact
What Does the Debt Mean for Our Future?
National Debt Clock
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La più grande sala di backgammon del mondo
Backgammon on the Internet
Online Backgammon is a game of great attraction on the internet, where it can be played online in real time, against computer programs or human players, who may be your friends or unknown people from the other side of the world. There are several ways to play online backgammon: single (money) games, series of games (matches), backgammon tournaments in various types, backgammon for money or for fictitious money. Still, backgammon is not a gambling game, as many people believe, but a game involving war strategy; in many cases it may be as difficult as chess.
Before Internet Backgammon
Before internet backgammon, the popularity of the game was in decrease. That comparing to the lush tournaments of the 1970s, the era remembered as the prime of backgammon popularity, at least since the 1920s, when the doubling cube was introduced, turning backgammon into a popular gambling game, mostly in America.
Backgammon was always popular in the Middle East, where it is believed it first started (in the Persian Empire or nowadays Iran, Iraq and Syria). The game was usually played on wooden tables, using pebbles, instead of round pieces, and dies made of stone or wood, and it was quite similar to other Egyptian, Sumerian, Roman and Persian games. Back then, backgammon was usually played on wooden tables, using pebbles, instead of round pieces, with dice made of stone or wood.
Internet Backgammon Rules
Internet backgammon is exactly the same as the live game, still here are some backgammon rules on the internet:
To start playing a game of backgammon on the internet you should either:
1. Open a new table, for which you establish the rules and the stake, and then you wait for partners (it is a recommended procedure)
2. Enter a table already opened by someone else, assuming you agree with his suggested rules and stake.
In both cases, the winner takes the money minus the commission to the hosting backgammon room.
One of the rules you should either establish or agree to is whether to play “single” “series” types of backgammon games.
Single Game (Money Backgammon)
Each match is played independently and the player who loses, pays to the winner the stake established first, multiplied by the value of the doubling cube. In the case of a double, the stake must be multiplied again.
Game Series (Backgammon Match)
It is a series of games played between the contestants, which finishes when a player reaches a number of points, established before the start of the game. For example, the classic 3-points match, which means the first who achieves three points wins the game, with the doubling cube and gammons and backgammon games taken in consideration.
Check carefully the type of the game before clicking OK on the acceptance window! After you clicked OK, nothing can be changed and you must play the game according to the rules established initially!
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Altri articoli di backgammon:
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Why Is Everyone Talking About Information?
There are a number of kinds of news material, from star tales to home entertainment. Star stories are mostly worried about celebs. Amusement tales, on the other hand, focus on people or things that are fun and enjoyable, such as sex or showbiz. Information additionally covers events that have an aspect of surprise, like a star’s fatality or a hysterical reaction to an occasion. Excellent and also bad news are likewise separated right into groups such as magnitude and importance. Excellent information is more likely to draw in visitors and also be a lot more extensively flowed.
A reporter’s purpose is to report the news. They are bound by certain guidelines of judgment and also the context in which they report a story. This indicates that the news is not always unbiased, and also the audience may not be as thinking about what’s occurring as they are. Information is usually short as well as has a couple of key points that viewers may want to know. Some information is old as well as some is new. There are several various kinds of information, but some are best for damaging information, while others are best fit for aggregated or historic information.
One more type of news is dramatization. As tv became extensive, the need for much more remarkable news became a better problem. With the surge of lobbyists and special interest groups, information started to handle a significant type. While personal newsletters stayed a preferred means to stay notified, newspapers arised in Germany in the very early 1600s. Consequently, the nature of news transformed from a valid to a psychological form. There are numerous sorts of information and their resources.
Information has numerous usages. Initially, it helps people stay educated. It provides a possibility to be notified concerning things that are taking place in their environment. Whether it’s the weather report or train timings, story are of public interest. Second of all, people tend to recognize even more regarding government plans via news. Newspapers frequently have columns about educational opportunities. This informs people about different instructional choices, in addition to work openings. Inevitably, story can help them become informed.
When reporting on recent events, it is necessary to remember that the news will not be fresh if it is not new. The term “breaking news” has actually ended up being a cliche, as it has actually come to be a part of day-to-day live. Hence, it is essential to recognize the distinction between information and buzz in the context of present occasions. While some tales may seem commonplace or old fashioned, they are certainly crucial. This is specifically true for a tale that has actually occurred lately.
The objective of journalists as well as media is to be objective, as they commonly claim to stand for all sides of an issue right. On the other hand, analysts give individual views, and also the media often tends to present the realities in a sterile manner. Appropriately, there are several federal government companies that enforce restrictions on journalists and news media regarding prejudice. The UK federal government, for example, applies a strict impartiality need for broadcasters. As a result, newspapers and news programs are expected to stay unbiased, unless they clearly indicate content posts.
The news additionally has the prospective to affect public policy. Throughout federal government crackdowns, the Web is among the main breeding channels for information. Media electrical outlets can conveniently be shut down, but smart phones are much more difficult to map as well as seize. This has developed a fad of citizen reporters who create for information media. They have an effective benefit over their foes. So, when it concerns breaking information, it is necessary to prepare your organization to respond quickly to shield the public.
A number of researches have actually tried to specify exactly how the news media affects public policy. As an example, the research study performed by Harcup and Ruge (2002) recommends that target markets influence the means journalists select stories and also exactly how they are distributed to the public. The research’s outcomes can work as a structure for additional discussion and also exploration. The next action is to determine exactly how news worth is affected by the tool in which it is relayed. The writers likewise recommend that information material varies based upon its dissemination.
The value of information is objected to, and also the selection of news is commonly the topic of subjective considerations. As an example, journalists’ beliefs and attitudes are influenced by the nature of the medium and by the sources available to them. While a wire service is unable to alter the media landscape, it can still influence the selection of tales. When the media’s agenda is slanted towards a specific topic, the information will be biased. Its purpose is to notify the general public, as well as its audience.
The News Coverage Index utilizes a purposive tasting strategy to determine the overall news program. The outcomes are based upon data from the information media, which is released on a weekly basis. The index measures the number of tales associated with a specific topic, along with the length of each tale. In the process, it determines the percentage of news protection in each outlet. This implies that if a story is long sufficient, it should have been well-written and also compelling.
The number of stories attributed to the top story format is the greatest proportion of time committed to it. In information broadcasting, the top stories are gauged in words and also secs. They are split into broad and also slim categories. Broad story subjects are one of the most usual ones, and also are identified by the incident of reoccuring occasions. The long-running large stories have a sub-storyline, or multiple stories. The geographical emphasis is the location in which the story has particular relevance.
The value of magnitude in information has been kept in mind in multiple research studies. While the term “magnitude” typically refers to multitudes, it can also refer to extreme behaviours or occurrences. For example, the extreme temperature levels in an oven or a high price of crime are both examples of high information worth. Other requirements for news value are exclusivity, as well as papers will typically accentuate exclusivity. The most vital information value, nonetheless, is a surprise. Naija News today
In a short article on information, Brighton as well as Foy offer a critique of Galtung and Ruge’s job. They argue that the matrix of variables continues to be pertinent, though the media environment has transformed substantially given that the 1960s. They think about the effect of broadcast journalism, rolling news, and the net on the function of journalism. They after that suggest their own collection of criteria for picking newspaper article. In addition, they include that information values differ by tool. A news story can be either an excellent or a trouble tale, yet it can not be as well good or also small to be a newsworthy item.
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Where’s the Connection? The Role of Synapses in Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease
Synapses are points in the brain where two brain cells connect and communicate. Dr. Barbara Bendlin discusses her new research into synaptic change, its relationship to memory loss, and how her first-in-the-field research might one day lead to a new tool for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Guest: Barbara Bendlin, PhD, Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
barbara bendlin phd
Barbara Bendlin, PhD
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Intro: I'm Dr. Nathaniel Chin, and you're listening to Dementia Matters, a podcast about Alzheimer's disease. Dementia Matters is a production of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Our goal is to educate listeners on the latest news in Alzheimer's disease research and care givers strategies. Thanks for joining us.
Nathaniel Chin: Today's guest on Dementia Matters is Dr. Barbara Bendlin, an investigator with the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Dr Bendlin studies how various aspects of health contribute to increasing or decreasing risk for Alzheimer's disease. Her research has examined gut microbiome, exercise, diet, diabetes, and many other aspects of health and how they intersect with Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Bendlin, welcome to Dementia Matters.
Barbara Bendlin: Thanks. Happy to be here, Nate.
Nathaniel Chin: So to begin, you have a new five-year grant from the National Institute on Aging to study Alzheimer's disease from a very unique perspective -- by using advanced brain imaging to track how synapses in the brain change over the course of Alzheimer's disease. Can you start by explaining what are synapses, and what will they tell us about the course of Alzheimer's disease?
Barbara Bendlin: So if you've ever heard of the concept of two brain cells connecting to one another, then you're familiar with the concept of a synapse. So synapses are the point where two brain cells meet with one another, and that's the point where brain cells can communicate with one another and send messages with one another. The reason why we're really interested in synapses is because we know in Alzheimer's disease and other neurological illnesses, people lose synapses -- they lose these connections between brain cells. And it's actually the case that when we look at memory function and other thinking skills, that synapses reflect loss of function. So when someone loses memory that's reflected by loss of synapses.
Nathaniel Chin: And so a synapse isn't just a place in space, it's an actual material from our brain cell.
Barbara Bendlin: Yeah. Brain cells, also called neurons, connect to one another. And actually synapses are a tiny, tiny little space between the two brain cells where they send messages, kind of across a little space.
Nathaniel Chin: So brain cells are not actually touching each other.
Barbara Bendlin: The brain cells are not touching one another at the synapse.
Nathaniel Chin: So on average there are about 100 billion neurons in the adult brain. So what does that mean for synapses? How many synapses does an adult have?
Barbara Bendlin: So 100 billion is about an estimate. There was actually a recent study that suggested it's more like 86 billion neurons, which is still a lot. And the amount of synaptic connections is trillions. So we think there's probably about 100 trillion synapses in the brain, so brain connections.
Nathaniel Chin: Wow, so there's already a lot of brain cells, neurons, but now you're telling me there's a significant amount of these connections.
Barbara Bendlin: Correct. And the interesting thing about synapses and why they're important is because if you think about memory function, essentially everything that you learn or your experience or your sense of yourself is all coded in the brain and these connections between the brain cells. So everything that we remember from either today or you know, anything you learn on this show, that's going to be coded in your brain in the form of these synopses.
Nathaniel Chin: Wow. I mean this is a real change in how a person thinks of a brain as just tissue and there's a cell here. But now we're saying that real important information can be stored in the synapses, which is really the connection between our brain cells.
Barbara Bendlin: Exactly. So brain cells fire. They fire together. They send electrical and chemical messages. And when we think about a memory or we have a memory, it's essentially stored in the brain in the form of these patterns of brain firing and the connections between the cells. So some people want to know, can you grow synapses, for example. We do form new brain connections when we learn material, and when we learn things and that material is repeated, then those connections can be strengthened.
Nathaniel Chin: I think that's a really important idea though. So not only can we grow new brain cells, we can grow new synapses, but the more we do something, the stronger the synapse is going to be.
Barbara Bendlin: Correct. So if you think about a hiking path, a trail in the forest, if that trail is used very often, then it becomes more prominent. You can see it better. It's a stronger trail in the forest. If we stopped taking that path, and it becomes overgrown, it becomes more faint, eventually it disappears. So it's kind of a similar concept with memories and things that we learn. If there's a lot of repetition, it becomes a stronger pathway.
Nathaniel Chin: So is it fair to liken it to athletes who have really impressive muscle memory? They can shoot a three pointer without really looking because they've done it so many times before.
Barbara Bendlin: Absolutely. And that's, that's a form of motor memory.
Nathaniel Chin: Okay. And then the same idea of, you know, I talk to my patients a lot about cognitive enrichment and learning new skills, picking up a new hobby, with this idea that you're challenging your brain, you're building stronger connections in different synapses.
Barbara Bendlin: That's exactly right. You had also mentioned that we grow new brain cells. It's important to clarify that we don't grow a lot of new brain cells. There's a little bit of new brain cells produced. It's something called neurogenesis. But that's a very small number of cells. Really in terms of of brain change, we should think more about strengthening these connections, or forming new connections.
Nathaniel Chin: Which really shows the importance of looking at synapses, since this is something that we can do and we have some control over by how we're activating our brains.
Barbara Bendlin: Absolutely.
Nathaniel Chin: We so knowing that, what exactly are you studying in your project?
Barbara Bendlin: We have a brand new brain imaging technique. The technology that we use is PET [positron emission tomography] imaging. And what it can show us is synapses in a living human brain. And this is super remarkable. It's not something that we were able to do previously. It's a newly developed technique, and we have the capability here in Wisconsin to do this kind of imaging. It's really a first for the field, and we're very lucky that we can do this in Wisconsin.
Nathaniel Chin: Knowing that there are 120 trillion synapses, and that it would be very difficult on a image to see individual ones, what exactly will you be looking for and where will you look for it?
Barbara Bendlin: What we're looking at is synaptic density. So if you have more synapses in a brain region, on our test it will show up as a brighter area. And what's been shown now in a few cases of people who have dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, it's been shown that certain areas of the brain lose synopsis and that can be seen on these kinds of images. So what we want to do here is scan people who both have dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, but also people who are without Alzheimer's disease and kind of see what do these images look like as people get older and as they start to develop disease.
Nathaniel Chin: So how large is the study?
Barbara Bendlin: We are going to enroll approximately 120 people. The study is funded for five years. We're asking people to come in twice, separated about two years so we can see if there's any change over time. And we are asking people to come in who have normal memory, people who have mild cognitive impairment, so some memory impairment, as well as people who have already been diagnosed with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.
Nathaniel Chin: Will this study only occur in Madison, or are there other places that this will also take place?
Barbara Bendlin: So this is a very new technique. There's not a lot of centers that are yet using this imaging technique. In Alzheimer's disease, the two centers that are using it are Yale University as well as Wisconsin. So we'll also be working very closely with their group to compare notes.
Nathaniel Chin: So what kind of information, if any, will you share with the research participants in this study?
Barbara Bendlin: That's a really good question. So at this point, we don't know if this scan can be used clinically. You know, does it tell us information that's clinically important? So at this point in the study, we won't be sharing back the results of this particular scan. That said, this research is really, really important for determining if it can be used clinically. And there's a lot of people in the field who feel that this particular scan has a lot of promise and that it could eventually inform clinical decisions, and that it could potentially be used to help identify people who might be eligible for certain clinical trials or even to use it as an outcome measure to see if a new drug is working for Alzheimer's disease.
Nathaniel Chin: Well, so how will this particular type of scan compliment the other ones that we currently do in research and some of which we do in clinic?
Barbara Bendlin: So we currently actually have a lot of tools to understand how Alzheimer's disease is developing in the brain, mostly from a research stand point. We use techniques to look at brain volume, you know, how much is the brain shrinking over time, for example, or are there other pathologies present? Is amyloid pathology developing, which is a key feature of Alzheimer's disease. The really interesting thing about this synaptic tracer is that it should be able to show us changes before we see changes on MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] for example. So on MRI you would need to lose a lot of brain cells before we can see that a region is shrinking. This tracer is very sensitive so it should be able to tell us if people are showing very early either loss of synapses or loss of brain cells perhaps before an MRI would be able to show us that information.
Nathaniel Chin: And when we talk about intervention and wanting to get people earlier and earlier in their course of disease, hoping that that will make a big difference in the long run, this could be a study and a scan that we could use.
Barbara Bendlin: Well that's what we think. And again, you know, it's a research study and we at the very, very beginning. But if it really is sensitive to synaptic loss, which it should be, then we may have a very game changing technique on our hands.
Nathaniel Chin: Well, because right now, are there any other ways of detecting synaptic loss, whether it's through the blood or the CSF, the spinal fluid?
Barbara Bendlin: Yeah. So there are some techniques that have been developed. Honestly the main way that you see synapse loss is when you look at the brain after death. That's been the main research technique. There's now new assays that have been developed for cerebral spinal fluid and those also look very promising, but they're not yet clinically available, or fully understood. And there's no blood based biomarkers. That would be ideal if we could do a blood test, but those aren't available yet.
Nathaniel Chin: It starts with showing it through imaging right now.
Barbara Bendlin: Correct. Yes.
Nathaniel Chin: Are scientists studying synaptic change in relation to other brain diseases, such as Parkinson's disease?
Barbara Bendlin: There is definitely interest in using this technique for other neurological diseases. There's some emerging work in Parkinson's disease. There are some small studies testing it in Parkinson's. It has also been tested in epilepsy. And also, interestingly, in disorders of dependence or drug dependence because we know there are certain brain circuits that lead to addiction. So there has been a lot of application in addiction. And most of this work has actually been done so far at Yale University.
Nathaniel Chin: Well, so in closing, how do you expect the results, or how do you hope the results, of your work will contribute to treatments for halting or preventing Alzheimer's disease?
Barbara Bendlin: What's really exciting about this technique is that we're imaging the part of the brain that is responsible for memory. So you know, we have this opportunity for the first time to look at the part of the brain that's important for our sense of self, for our life history, for our memories. And it's really the part of the brain that we want to protect and preserve. So the idea is that we can use this technique to see how those changes are happening in Alzheimer's, but then also test drugs that could protect this part of the brain. And a lot of the studies to date have focused on removing amyloid from the brain or targeting amyloid, which those studies are also very important, but there is some suggestion that synapse loss could be a very, very early feature of the disease. So can we develop techniques to protect this really important part of the brain and save memories?
Nathaniel Chin: Well, this is incredibly important and very exciting, and I'm glad it's happening here. So with that, I'd like to thank you for being on Dementia Matters, and we hope to have you back after you get more results.
Barbara Bendlin: Thanks for having me, Nate.
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Understanding Mental States
In draft Research Domain Criteria, a subconstruct of Perception and Understanding of Others: "The ability to make judgments and/or attributions about the mental state of other animate entities that allows one to predict or interpret their behaviors. Mental state refers to intentions, beliefs, desires, and emotions."
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Confusion On Ownership Of Land
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Tarser | 14:52 Wed 30th Mar 2022 | Law
3 Answers
There is a drive that runs alongside my house that goes up to a small area with four garages - Mine and those that belong to the next three houses up. In my deeds, it says that we (the owners of these four garages) need to 'contribute a fair and proper proportion of the cost of maintenance and upkeep of the driveway leading up to plots' W X Y Z(our house numbers).
There is enough room for the four of us to get in and out of our garages with our cars. That is surely the purpose of the area. I have converted my garage to a studio so I park my car in a space outside my garage. It has always been assumed that this driveway and the space outside the garages belongs to the four houses. If it did not, we would surely not be liable to paying for its upkeep as stated in the deeds.
Matters have been complicated by the owners of the houses on a completely different road having their gardens go right up to this drive. They have built garages at the ends of their gardens and use the drive to get their cars into their garages or leave them just outside. This doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is that a new neighbour has moved in to one of these houses where a garage has been built and he has completely filled his garage with junk and an old car. He has now decided to put a huge camper van right next to my car and another car on the other side, making it difficult for me to move in and out of my space. He blocked off my immediate neighbour's garage and moved his car a little to allow them to get their car out. There's not much space there but he has started to colonise it with his vehicles.
We have told him that the area belongs to the owners of the four garages. It doesn't belong to the owners of houses from a different road - who will not be charged to upkeep the drive- and that he is using our area for his own purposes which we find inconvenient to say the least. He has said that he's done his research and the area is a 'no-man's land' so he can use it.
How can I find out for sure who the area belongs to? If it's 'no-man's land' why is it that only four home owners have to pay for maintaining the drive? We believe that the new garages, belonging to houses from this different road were built illegally, hence the fact that they don't have any responsibility for its maintenance.
So, we four garage owners are paying for a drive that several others not only use but also want to take away the part that we use for our cars. I find this encroachment very disturbing and would like to know what I can do about it to clarify ownership and who has legitimate use of the area.
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You have to do a Land Registry search to see who really owns it, though if its mentioned in your deeds, you probably do. If you have no joy on line, you can send them a query.
17:34 Wed 30th Mar 2022
Question Author
sddsddean, sorry, I neglected to thank you for your answer! Apologies and thanks!
Better late than never
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Confusion On Ownership Of Land
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"The Difference Between Wahhabis and Muslim Brothers," by David Commins - Syria Comment
“The Difference Between Wahhabis and Muslim Brothers,” by David Commins
This is the first part in a series of articles I will post on the relationship between Salafism and Sufism in Syria. The idea to commission different experts to write on this subject is a result of the questions raised by commentators on this earlier post on Islam in Syria, here (read the last 15 comments of the post).
Background: Today, the US administration is debating whether it can or should use the new Syrian opposition party – the National Salvation Front (NSF) – as leverage against the Assad regime in Syria. Is it a genuine democratic option? The NSF was created last year to combine the forces of ex-Vice President Abdal Halim Khaddam, who was a Baathist, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, whish is led by Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni. The new front and its leaders claim to embrace democracy, pluralism, and the rule of law.
One of the main arguments made by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood for why they should be trusted as pluralists is that they distinguish themselves from the intolerant Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia. They claim that they do not endorse and never did endorse the break-away branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which led the violence of the late 1970s leading up to the Hama uprising of 1982. Another claim they make for why Islamic parties in Syria should threaten neither Syrian minorities nor western governments is that most Syrian Muslims are Sufis. Salafis in Syria, they argue, also embrace Sufism, something Salafis in the Gulf do not do. Because Sufism is a tolerant and peaceful brand of Islam, they insist, Syrian Islamists will be tolerant and peaceful.
But how true are these claims? Is the Syrian Salafist movement substantially different from the Wahhabi Salafists of Saudi Arabia? Do they embrace Sufism, and does that mean they are more tolerant and pluralist than other Muslims? These are some of the questions I have asked a number of scholars to address. The first of these scholars is David Commins.
David Commins, a professor at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, has written two excellent books on Salafism in Syria and Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. He explains the different attitudes on Sufism between the Salafis of Syria, who were influenced by their Egyptian counterparts and the Wahhabi Salafis of Saudi Arabia.
David Commins writes:
It seems to me that different tendencies have claimed the salafi mantle in modern times, so divergences between Syrian Muslim Brothers and Saudi Wahhabis are not surprising. Nor would it be surprising if there were different tendencies within the Muslim Brothers on matters such as Sufism and the standing of Shia as believers.
Regarding the specific issue of Sufism in the longer view: The Wahhabi salafis regard Sufi practices as illegitimate innovations and those who cling to them they consider infidels. Their position on Sufi practices is not identical to that of Ibn Taymiyya, whose own Sufi affiliation with the Qadiri tariqa George Makdisi discussed. The salafis in late Ottoman Damascus led by Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi disapproved of certain Sufi practices but did not condemn Sufism entirely. The Syrian salafis certainly held a more favorable view of the Wahhabis than did most Muslims of that era, primarily due to their common interest in purifying ritual practices of what they considered ritual innovations. The religious scholars of Damascus who opposed the salafis considered themselves defenders of proper Muslim ways and claimed the salafis were the same as Wahhabis (in their view, doctrinal extremists akin to Kharijites), but we need to view that charge in the context of a religious controversy and acknowledge points where Syrian salafis and Wahhabis differed. They disagreed on adherence to legal schools: Wahhabis follow the Hanbali school while Qasimi did not believe in strictly following a single legal school. They disagreed on politics: Qasimi strongly endorsed constitutional parliamentary government, while Wahhabis have no qualms with hereditary monarchy. As for how the Wahhabis viewed the Syrian salafis, I have not come across specific evidence. There is indirect evidence of cooperation in the published correspondence between Qasimi and the Baghdad scholar Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi, where the two men mention cooperating with Najdi contacts striving to bring to light works of Ibn Taymiyya.
As for the Muslim Brothers, it is important to recall that Hasan al-Banna referred to the Brothers as a salafi message and a Sufi truth. In this light, that Syrian Muslim Brothers have maintained Sufi allegiances is not surprising. I think the key point to keep in mind is that ‘salafi’ assumes different forms in different places and times. There is certainly consistency in the emphasis on the authority of Islam’s founding generations, but the texts from Islam’s early centuries are rich enough to justify different views on the standing of individuals as believers or infidels (takfir), legal school affiliation, Sufism, and political systems. If there is debate in contemporary Syria on what qualifies as salafi and the correct salafi position on Sufism, that should not be surprising as debate, not uniformity, is the norm in the history of Islamic thought.
It may be helpful to readers to have what I consider a very broad sketch of some basic differences between the Brothers and the Wahhabis that are rooted in the origins, one in interwar Egypt, the other in eighteenth century Najd. To that end, I am attaching a couple of pages (slightly modified) from my book that compares Hasan al-Banna and Wahhabi thought in a few key areas. References are in the book.
David Commins, The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. I. B. Tauris (February 2, 2006). From pp. 141-143.
Hasan al-Banna shared with the Wahhabis a strong revulsion against Western influences and unwavering confidence that Islam is both the true religion and a sufficient foundation for conducting worldly affairs. Nevertheless, significant differences separate the Najdi movement from the modern revivalist agenda because the former stemmed from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s distinctive views on doctrine whereas the Muslim Brothers were a reaction against European domination and cultural invasion. On the central Wahhabi doctrine of monotheism, Banna held that only the open proclamation of apostasy, denying well-known beliefs and religious obligations, and deliberately twisting the meaning of the Quran rendered the believer an infidel. While he agreed with the Wahhabis on the need to purify religious practices of illegitimate innovations, he saw nothing wrong with visits to the tombs of holy men as long as one did not seek their intercession. As a youth, he had been active in a sufi order and although he would later criticize sufism’s ‘corrupt’ aspects, he maintained that its emphasis on asceticism and mindfulness of God made it an essential part of Islam. In fact, he exhorted Muslim Brothers to practice individual and group dhikr, a ritual ‘mentioning’ of God, to strengthen the believers’ mindfulness of God and the Prophet’s example. Dhikr is a hallmark of sufi practice and considered by the Wahhabis an illegitimate innovation. More generally, Banna’s keen desire for Muslim unity to ward off Western imperialism led him to espouse an inclusive definition of the community of believers. Thus, he would urge his followers, ‘Let us cooperate in those things on which we can agree and be lenient in those on which we cannot.’ Banna did not share the Wahhabi view that most Muslims were idolaters.
Banna also differed from the Wahhabis in his political ideas. He lived during Egypt’s phase of constitutional parliamentary government and his writings reflect that context’s influence. He maintained that constitutional government meshed with Islamic principles because it ensured a ruler’s accountability to the people. He lamented the failure of the Egyptian constitution of his day to establish Islam as the fundamental basis for public life, but did not regard constitutionalism as contrary to Islam. Wahhabi doctrine does not support constitutional rule. Whereas Banna denied the legitimacy of hereditary monarchy in Islam, Wahhabi ulama have supported the Saudi monarchy.
A salient element in Banna’s notion of Islam as a total way of life came from the idea (current since the mid-nineteenth century) that the Muslim world was backward, and the corollary (current since the early twentieth century) that the state was responsible for guaranteeing decent living conditions for its citizens. He argued that the government had the duty to minimize unemployment, guarantee a minimum wage and health care for workers, and ensure the fair distribution of wealth. Such notions are alien to Wahhabism. Other assumptions of the modern state permeated Banna’s outlook. He considered public education a critical vehicle for bolstering Muslim society against Western influences (which did not exist in eighteenth-century Najd). Muslim schools would teach pupils about Islam and encourage them to eschew foreign ways.The central area of accord between the Brothers and the Wahhabis is their moral zeal and rejection of Western ways that threaten to erode piety and undermine Muslim custom. Western influences arrived in Saudi Arabia much later than Egypt, but when they did, the Wahhabis exhibited a similar revulsion toward them and agreed with the Muslim Brother view of European culture as one of godlessness, immorality, and excessive individualism. It is true that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Hasan al-Banna would have seen eye to eye on the ruler’s responsibility to eliminate immoral habits. They would also have concurred on the duty of the ruler (or the state) to appoint (or employ) pious believers to responsible positions to ensure proper observance and enforcement of religious duties and principles.
In the face of foreign forces that seemed to have the power to totally overwhelm every bastion of Muslims’ lives—economic, political, cultural, and moral—the Muslim Brothers’ assertion that Islam was not just a religion but an entire way of life represented a logical stance of resistance. The irony is that the position entailed reshaping Islam into religious nationalism and incorporating a notion of backwardness that made sense only in the context of the modern confrontation with the West. Briefly, to save Islam, Muslims had to change it. This reflects the different historical circumstances surrounding the appearance of the Muslim Brothers and Wahhabism. It is common for writers on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to assert that he sought a social renewal of Arabia, but that characterization is never given specific substance, unless one considers ritual correctness and moral purity to constitute such renewal. The problem with such generalizations is they encourage facile comparisons with Islamist movements, when in fact Najd’s eighteenth-century reformer would have found key elements in Hasan al-Banna’s writings utterly alien. In sum, the twentieth century alliance between Wahhabis and Muslim Brothers had a narrow base in religious doctrine, but a shared commitment to combat powerful secular forces seeping into Muslim societies.
For readers interested in the early twentieth century debate on Wahhabism in Damascus, here are some useful sources:
Mustafa al-Shatti, al-Nuqul al-shar`iyya fi al-radd ala al-wahhabiyya (Damascus, 1900).
Ata al-Kasm, al-Aqwal al-murdiya fi al-radd ala al-wahhabiyya. (Cairo, 1901)
Ahmad al-Mu’ayyad al-Azmi, Jala’ al-awham `an madhahib al-a’imma al-`azam wa al-tawassul bi-jah khayr al-anam alayhi al-salah wa al-salam (Damascus, 1911).
Abd al-Qadir ibn al-Sayyid Muhammad Salih al-Kaylani al-Iskandarani, Al-Nafha al-zakiya fi al-radd ala shubuh al-firqa al-wahhabiyya (Damascus, 1922)
Muhammad Tawfiq al-Suqiya, Tabyin al-haqq wa al-sawab fi al-radd ala atba` Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (Damascus, 1922)
Abu al-Yasar al-Dimashqi al-Maydani (Muhammad Bahjat al-Bitar), Nazara fi risalat al-nafha al-zakiya fi al-radd ala shubah al-firqa al-wahhabiyya (Damascus, 1922),
Ahmad Fawzi al-Sa’ati, al-Insaf fi da`wat al-wahhabiyya wa khusumihim li-raf` al-khilaf (Damascus, 1922)
The Qasimi-Alusi correspondence is in Muhammad ibn Nasir al-`Ajmi, al-Rasa’il al-mutabadala bayna Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi wa Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi (Beirut, 2001).
Comments (38)
ugarit said:
Thank you Dr. Landis for this post.
As I suspected, the Wahhabis are the anti-intellectual wing of the Salafis. I can’t recall where I read this, but a few hundred years ago to get degree in theology, in the Arabian peninsula, one had to study for about seven years, while now it merely takes 2-3 years.
I don’t think Syrian Salafist+Sufi’s (SSS) would stand a chance if Islamic parties took over in Syria. The Wahhabis have a lot more capital and propaganda tools to destroy the SSS. Therefore, effectively it is almost irrelevant that the SSS appear more “moderate”. They would be quickly dealt with.
May 9th, 2007, 1:27 am
Akbar Palace said:
Dear Dr. Landis,
Just checking in while on vacation (and a line of internet users waitning behind me).
Are you planning to open a thread/discussion on the impact of the French presidential election? You’d think conservatism was loooong gone. But, alas, it isn’t.
What do you and your fellow bloggers think is going on here???
Check you later…
May 9th, 2007, 1:48 am
Bakri said:
Many Thanks to Dr Landis and Dr Commins for this valuable explanation which give important historical details about the revivification of Salafism in late Ottoman Syria, which was rich in intellectual work and debates in a constructive and civilized atmosphere.
Dr Landis said:Today, the US administration is debating whether it can or should use the new Syrian opposition party ….
Dr Landis,the syrian muslim brotherhood and the syrian opposition in general are against most of the american policy in the region and against the occupation of arab countries so what they hope from the USA is that the USA stop its support for dictatorial regimes,and to opt for constructive dialogue with representative and elected governments,if not this region will generate more and more extremism and hostility towards the west.
May 9th, 2007, 2:14 am
norman said:
And i thought we have only Shaia and Sunni besides christians , apparently we have Sufi , Salafi and Wahabies ,
Syria needs to be strictly secular country , that is the only way to be for all Syrians .
I looked at what happened in Turkey ,I was very pleased with the stand that Erdogan and Gull took, they elected what is best for the country not what is good for their party which is alot more than what the Syrian opposition does.
May 9th, 2007, 2:30 am
George Ajjan said:
Josh, this is great information and I am learning from it. Many thanks to Dr. Commins and others for sharing.
However, I would caution that we not assume that scholarly debates 100 years old have more impact on Syrian Muslims of today than the propaganda they see on the plethora of Arabic satellite channels, not to mention their own government.
May 9th, 2007, 8:32 am
Ford Prefect said:
Dr. Landis,
Great post, cheers. I will be contributing later as I am on travelin Europe at the moment. But I caught something that needs correction.
You mentioned that “..ex-Vice President Abdal Halim Khaddam, who was a Baathist..” He was a Ba’athist and he still is. He never changed his political affiliation nor renounced his Ba’athism. In fact, he just issued a statement to his fellow comrades congratulating them for the anniversary of the 8 March Revolution that brought them to power (and corruption) in Syria. Yes, that precise dark (if not the darkest) moment of Syrian history, he thought, is worth commemorating.
May 9th, 2007, 11:37 am
why-discuss said:
Norman, Turkey may get into more trouble if the president is elected by the people instead of the parlement. Turkey may end up by having an even more islamic president than Gul.. Most of turks are in the small cities and villages and they support a more islamic government than the ankara or istambul europeanized turks…
I guess Erdogan and Gul have accepted this constitution change because they know that it is to their advantage! Turks are on for a big surprise!
May 9th, 2007, 12:17 pm
Bakri said:
WHY DISCUSS ,Ankara and Istanbul inhabitants have both elected AKP party members as Mayors for their city.And this is not new,PM Erdogan for example was mayor of Istanbul since the first half of the 90’s when he was member of Refah party of Necmettin Erbakan.
May 9th, 2007, 1:04 pm
norman said:
Is the change in the way they elect the president going to go to the high court for aproval.doesn’t that change th constitution.
May 9th, 2007, 3:02 pm
John Kilian said:
I agree the US should “opt for constructive dialogue with representative and elected governments,if not this region will generate more and more extremism and hostility towards the west.
I am not sure if Syria is the best example of a representative and elected government, but perhaps it will head this way. Sufi ideology is still a mystery to me, but it seems that sufiism is more open minded to a universe of possibilities versus a very doctrinaire approach of arriving at a conclusive judgement that rapidly becomes intransigent. This open mindedness is critical to the coexistence of multiple political parties and peaceful transfers of power from one to another.
The civility in the political process in Turkey is encouraging. Hopefully Syria’s Ottoman roots will lead to a similar form of government that is similar to what is in Turkey and very different from the current Kleptocracy in Damascus.
May 9th, 2007, 3:27 pm
MSK said:
John K,
your idea that “it seems that sufiism is more open minded to a universe of possibilities versus a very doctrinaire approach of arriving at a conclusive judgement that rapidly becomes intransigent” is pretty much right on target.
There is quite a variety among the various Sufi groups – for ex. for some music is an integral part of worship whereas others think that music in itself is haraam – but the overall attitude is that trying to force one’s own ideas onto others is a big nono.
The rigidity of Islamism is quite a modern phenomenon.
David Commins is quite brilliant. I’m glad that Josh had the idea to have him contribue this piece.
May 9th, 2007, 3:41 pm
Bakri said:
Dear John Kilian,i’m sorry if i was not clear enough and yes,the syrian regime is the worse amongst all of these regimes and what i meant is a democratically elected government not this sectarian familly regime.
And i agree that Turkey and Syria have a lot of things in common and what happens in Turkey should have positive repercussion on Syria.
May 9th, 2007, 4:11 pm
Syrian said:
John Killian
Syria’s Ottoman roots!!
Syria’s root go much deeper than the Ottoman period. Your assumption is that the Ottoman’s had a liberalizing influence on Syria’s Muslims is groundless.
May 9th, 2007, 4:14 pm
Enlightened said:
Interesting post, coming from a very secular islamic family, I have absolutely no credibility to comment on this thread. It was interesting however to learn the difference.
My ex neighbour a Saudi national who is doing his PHD at Sydney university gave me a rundown on Saudi religious teaching and what he went through at school after a dinner once, suffice to say it made my hair turn grey, things like “If you had enough Iman (faith) you could stop a bullet penetrating your body” Such propoganda to young men borders on indoctrination I told him, the Australian way of life has changed him however he has stopped praying and he his wife doesnt wear the headscarfe, they are both dreading the lifestyle change when he finishes his study and has to go back.
Can anyone who is living inside Syria on this website can give us some facts on the ground regarding the islamic community, Bakri if you live in Syria you probably are the best person to do this.
Most Syrians I know are very relaxed in their religious outlook, one of our employees, from an Alawite family has given me a brief rundown, but he has been away from Syria for over twenty years.
May 10th, 2007, 12:40 am
EHSANI2 said:
Dr. Landis,
I stumbled on this post of yours from three years ago. I thought it provided a lot of food for thought.
May 10th, 2007, 12:43 am
youngSyria said:
I dont think there is a connection between syria and turky.. what happens in arab countries around syria has THE major influence on syria .. and no there isnt any Ottoman roots too…
the only way you could stop a bullet penetrating your body is to stop messing around with people..
May 10th, 2007, 6:59 am
youngSyria said:
and whats with mohammed micheel ‘aflak!! do you think he will get 40 virgins or less!!??
May 10th, 2007, 7:10 am
tony said:
G ‘day mates
I just have to congratulate “Enlightened” for his contribution I just has to agree with his assessment about majority of Syrian Muslim as relax or even being “secular-Muslim” if there such a thing
Josh your comments about the USA thinking about talking to us in NSF
Is pre mature
And give us a little more credit than that . I can not see us been used and been abused by USA
It just does not happen this way these days any more
Trust on me this
May 10th, 2007, 8:02 am
Alex said:
More simultaneous war and peace signals from Israel. But foreign ministry is recommending peace talks with Syria.
Border Control / The Syrian snowball effect
By Akiva Eldar
It started two months ago with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey’s visit to Syria, continued with the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s quick trip and ended last week with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s meeting with her Syrian counterpart, Walid Moallem, in Sharm el-Sheikh. At this pace, the situation might deteriorate to the point that Syrian President Bashar Assad is invited to visit Washington.
It started with a discussion on the fate of the one million Iraqi refugees who found refuge in Syria and continued with a discussion on Syria’s contribution to extricating the United States from the Iraqi quagmire. If we don’t pay attention, soon the U.S. will lift the boycott of Syria. Even so, the departure of Jacques Chirac, who swore he would avenge himself on the Syrians for the murder of his friend, former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, is expected to lift the last impediment in Syria’s way to an association agreement with the European Union.
Upon leaving her meeting with Moallem, Rice made certain to reassure everyone that there is nothing more logical than talking with the Syrian foreign minister about the problems related to Iraq, and said she called on Damascus to take steps to prevent the infiltration of armed combatants via its borders with Iraq. At the same time, she did not mention that official U.S. Army data indicate that there was a continuous decline in the number of armed combatants who infiltrated into Iraq via the Syrian border in April. Moallem hinted that this meeting was not the last in the renewed dialogue between the two countries and that he was assured that if Syria continues to assist the U.S. in the areas of interest to it, the American administration would be generous not only with regard to the quantity of meetings but also as far as the quality of the topics of discussion is concerned.
From the perspective of the Mossad and other intelligence personnel, Syria was and remains a threat to Israel. Mossad chief Meir Dagan, for example, fears the Americans will stop prohibiting Israel from doing what it is taking the liberty of doing. In effect, the Bush administration is no longer really “prohibiting” Ehud Olmert from talking with the Syrians. When David Welch, Rice’s aide, was recently asked about his opinion on negotiations with Syria, his answer was to make do with, “why would you?”
The Foreign Ministry did not wait for Welch’s approval to prepare a position paper. Its bottom line is that whoever does not seriously relate to Assad’s “peace signals,” should take seriously his threats of war. The Foreign Ministry believes there are two main options: one is peace negotiations with Syria, without preconditions. The other option is preparations for a preventive attack. A third possibility, continuing the status quo on the Golan Heights, appears with a very low likelihood, if at all.
The Defense Ministry does not like the involvement of the bureaucrats – as they call the Foreign Ministry officials – in the Syrian arena. When intelligence officials want to move politicians in their direction, they pull out “the material.” Dagan recently said that based on “the material” in his hands, the leaders of moderate Arab states will perceive negotiations with Syria as “a stab in the back.”
As in many cases, there is a bit of truth to that. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdallah, Jordan’s King Abdullah and, of course, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) fear that overly vigorous involvement in the Syrian channel will perpetuate the blockage in the Palestinian channel. However, they estimate that a peace process could push Hamas in the desired direction and contribute to distance Syria from Iran’s embrace.
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Bureau realize that dealing with his political survival does not absolve Olmert of the need to decide how to proceed in the Syrian arena. On the contrary, if he wants the Winograd Committee’s final report to look better than the interim one, Olmert will have to address the harsh criticism about the failure to hold a discussion to consider the alternatives to the way the war was waged. As it happens, the prime minister knows committee member Prof. Yehezkel Dror’s opinion on his demand that Syria stop supporting terror as a prerequisite for renewing negotiations. Only the word “folly” is missing there.
May 10th, 2007, 8:24 am
t_desco said:
Brammertz’ Report ‘Concluded’ After Koleilat Grilling
Naharnet, Asharq Al-Awsat
Qoleilat ‘sheds light on who killed Hariri’
The Daily Star
– anonymous “well-informed Lebanese sources” are notoriously unreliable
– similar reports in the past, also based on anonymous sources, turned out to be false
– in his latest press conference, Brammertz did not rule out the possibility of a conncetion between the Al-Madina and the Hariri case, but he stressed that the evidence gathered so far did not suggest a strong link concerning the motive of the crime, according to this report by Al-Akhbar, March 22th, 2007
May 10th, 2007, 11:29 am
EHSANI2 said:
Following Mr. Assad’s comments at the People’s Assembly today with regards to the tribunal, I think that the time has come to tightly fasten those seat belts.
May 10th, 2007, 11:38 am
Philip I said:
“More simultaneous war and peace signals from Israel. But foreign ministry is recommending peace talks with Syria.”
Speaking of which, and partly in response to your invitation to write something on the Golan, I have now posted a comment on my Blog:
“More sour grapes over the Golan”.
I do not expect many people to agree with it but please feel free to repost, unedited, on your blog as part of the range of comments you are planning to publish on the 40th anniversary of the loss of the Golan.
May 10th, 2007, 11:56 am
EHSANI2 said:
Anwar Al-Bunni’s 5-year sentence looks tame after Mr. Lubwani’s 12-year verdict (immediately reduced to that level from life). Getting into politics is not good for your health and well being. Sticking to blogging would do just fine, thank you.
May 10th, 2007, 1:31 pm
trustquest said:
According to the post and comments is as follows: history is moving in one direction and change from within is impossible.
By means of Dr. Landis on the referenced link pointed by Ehsani above, Baathism is as centrist and prejudice as MB (Sufi with some Salafi tendencies). If Baathis ideology is centrist and the regime is a selective sect of a centrist party, then the inept system in Syrian for the last 44 years had no chance to evolve. The regime has to fight those hostile ideas as a mean of survivor. If we turn the time and imagine that MBs were leading in the last 44 years we would imagine a more puritan society instead of the oligarchy system. A society could be similar to Suadi kindom, but way more tolerance in republic setting not monarch. And this could explain the counterpunch to the oligarchy system in building 80,000 mosques in the last three decades.
May 10th, 2007, 1:44 pm
someone said:
The are no differences between the Baath and the Muslim Brotherhood. The problem is in the people not the ideology. Allegiance in all of the Arab communities is to the family, tribe and sect, this allegiance is above the welfare of the homeland. If the MB were in power the would behave in the same way as the Baathists did. They would have used religion to cement their hold on power exactly like the Iranian clerks.
The Mb is a power hungery group; their talk of tolerance and accepting the other is no more than a smoke screen to attract support form the west. In the past the Mb had a good support base among the religious community in Syria but the moment they allied themselves with Khaddam their support base declined considerably. How could they put their hands with one of the pillars of corruption? A person who defected because his financial interests were taken away ,thus he has no moral or ethical standard.
Islamic groups can’t offered to look intolerant because the ruling regimes are keeping a close eye on them and the whole international community is doing the same. If they start to behave in a fundamental or a fanatic way, they would be hounded by the ruling regimes and ostracized by the international community. The best example of this is Hamas. The moment they were in power, they discovered that being in power was good, in matter of fact, it was wonderful, so suddenly the struggle with Israel took second position, and the aim of having a large piece of the government pie became much more important than fighting Israel. By doing this they dragged the Palestinian society into a short lived civil war, which could re-erupt, again, at any time.
In the end, the truth must be said, there are moderate tolerant Muslims out there, they maybe a silent minority but we can only hope that this minority would grow and become a majority.
May 10th, 2007, 2:39 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Someone –
Which is why democracy is so important to the ME and the rest of the world.
Just like France, a people need to know they can make changes when a government continues to fail them year after year.
… so suddenly the struggle with Israel took second position …
Let us know when it becomes “first” position;)
May 10th, 2007, 2:49 pm
Souri said:
Ehsani, I am scared even from blogging .
So every one say after me
May 10th, 2007, 3:43 pm
someone said:
Democracy is an end product. When you have a country with literacy rate of 50%, a failing economy, rampant corruption, do you think by applying democracy all the problems will be solved with a click of a mouse?
Have you every sat down with an illiterate nomad or a peasant and talked with him about democracy?
Western democracies took hundreds of years to reach to what they are now, between the Magan carat and the US constitution it took us no less then six hundred years to reach where we are now.
There are only four nations that reached an acceptable degree of Democracy within one to two generations and they are Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia if you look closely at their history you will discover that all of these nations had a well educated, disciplined work force that lifted the country from poverty and after that they started to have democracy. Give me good education, good judiciary and I will give the genesis for democracy.
Now, some people will say through democracy all of this could be achieved. My answer is simple, how can you tell an individual to practice democracy if he or she doesn’t believe in it in the first place? How can you make a person democratic while he thinks that he owns his wife or sister and if (god forbid) his sister commits adultery, or marry someone outside the sect, he has all the right in the world to butcher her like an ewe and say” I have washed my honor from disgrace” or “my finger shamed me and I cut it off” and after killing his sister he will be treated as a hero by his community.
May 10th, 2007, 5:43 pm
trustquest said:
Who are you someone,
are you Bashar with some billions dollars. You still can start a venture in Syria and create that smart educated citizen, I think.
May 10th, 2007, 6:42 pm
Akbar Palace said:
Someone said:
My undrstanding of the French Revolution and Bastille Day was exactly that, the illiterate and poor over-ran the monarchy and created a democracy.
Ya’ani, the poor and the illiterate know MORE than you and I that they need education, food and shelter and a government that listens.
May 11th, 2007, 12:11 am
SyriaComment » Archives » “Sufism and Salafism in Syria” by Itzchak Weismann said:
[…] This is the second article in a series on Salafi and Sufi influences on Islam in Syria. Article one is here. […]
May 11th, 2007, 5:53 am
a-baluzi said:
Not to underrate the French revolution, but it was exactly this: a revolution. It got rid of all the power structures and privileges of the catholic church and the aristocracy, and although it laid a foundation for later democracy, it did not create a democracy. Instead followed nearly a hundred years of chaos and changing regimes and the famous rule of Napoleon.
A huge challenge in any country with no prior culture for a civil society and widespread poverty is to make people vote according to what they believe is best either for themselves (every man for himself) or for the country. What you unfortunately see in many countries with sectarian conflict or economic differences following these, are parties and subsequent voting along sectarian lines. Is that democracy? In my opinion, true democracy is when people vote according to the ideology or politics they believe are best for the type of development they want, not what they are told to vote by their religious or clan leaders who they believe know their interests and they trust more than the politicians.
Education is an extremely important prerequisite for a functioning democracy (at least if we’re talking about the Western, liberal kind).
May 11th, 2007, 9:55 am
someone said:
This would have been my statement about the French revolution.
May 11th, 2007, 2:53 pm
Ford Prefect said:
Well said, but voting is just one small part of liberal democracy. The presence of functioning institutions, respected and independent judiciary, and a liberal society (where freedom of religion, association, speech, and protection from overreaching government) are all prerequisites to a sustained democracy. If people don’t respect a traffic cop or civil judge, there is no liberal democracy no matter how many times they go to the voting booth.
May 11th, 2007, 3:37 pm
a-baluzi said:
Without doubt, FP. Which is why people can’t agree on what should come first or what can be introduced without the other.
And…which countries are actually democracies… 🙂
May 11th, 2007, 5:05 pm
Ford Prefect said:
Agree. Spain or Chile can offer good historical lessons.
May 11th, 2007, 8:12 pm
Le Qatar finance l’Islam Wahhabite en France, Italie, Espagne et Irlan – La progressiste said:
[…] de cette mosquée en Italie sont sous le contrôle exclusif des Frères Musulmans, qui sont lourdement influencés par l’idéologie wahhabite subventionnée par le Qatar, autant que par l’Arabie […]
March 23rd, 2013, 9:00 am
Qatar Financing Wahhabi Islam in France, Italy, Ireland and Spain – The progressist said:
[…] of the mosques in Italy are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is heavily influenced by the Wahhabi ideology subsidized by Qatar as well as Saudi […]
March 24th, 2013, 10:06 am
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Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - student project
CHANGE LOG - most recent stuff is added to the bottom...
11/21 Chose book, began project, did preliminary research on previous covers
11/25 Finished reading book and started brainstorming concepts
11/27 First round of sketches!
12/2 First round in Photoshop...still definitely have a long way to go.
12/5 Round 2 in Photoshop and Typography exploration
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino is a collection of 200 folktales from all over Italy. Italo Calvino is an incredible author who I love, he wrote Invisible Cities and Cosmicomics. His work is really imaginative and fantastical, but always in a very original, non-cliche way. His retelling of these stories brings out the best in them, I think.
My favorite thing about this book is how surprising the folktales are. Weird stuff keeps happening with no explanation (an apple turns into a girl every morning and takes a bath! turning the pages of a magic book makes a prince turn into a canary! a magic talking buffalo head raises a little girl!) and it opens up your imagination. They're logic-defying, out-of-the-box. Which makes them really fun.
Another thing that could be cool is to look at what's historically been done for anthologies of folktales (ornate, lushly illustrated), versus what's historically been done for Calvino's work (more minimalist and cerebral.) I think what happens when those things come together can be explored to interesting effect.
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 1 - student project
(This one seems to be the most often seen one out there. Below are a few others I found.)
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 2 - student project Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 3 - student project Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 4 - student project
(the cover of this one shows a peacock)
And what seems to be two common cover treatments for Calvino's other work:
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 5 - student project Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 6 - student project
Finally finished a thorough readthrough of all 200 tales! Feeling a little sad that there aren't any more to look forward to, but excited to have 100% of the stories at my disposal for inspiration.
Started thinking about some concepts while the book is fresh...
1. A hole that leads to an underground world
One common motif in the stories was that of a peasant pulling a large vegetable out of the ground and revealing a big hole that leads into some kind of weird underground kingdom. The plant is usually very ordinary, like califlower, cabbage, or fennel. By contrast, the kingdoms are extraordinary and have magical properties. I think the idea of an ordinary surface world, with a surprising passage to a much richer and fabulous underground world, matches the spirit of the stories pretty well. Wondering if this could be an opportunity to do some of the cool book jacket tricks like Chip Kidd shows us in the video.
2. Transformation
Another common motif is that of transformation--men transforming into animals or princesses transforming into objects, etc. The idea of transformation is magical and embodies the spirit of a fairy tale well (where else are you going to read about things like that happening?) Done right, it could also be a really striking image for the cover. I like the idea of an unintuitive transformation, like a man turning into a ring. It'd be tricky and fun to figure out how to do. And again it gives the opportunity to show the ordinary becoming the extraordinary.
3. Nuts -- something big emerging from something small
Something else that happens often is that heroes receive a series of magical nuts. (Walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, acorns, etc. etc.) Usually in a series of 3. In times of need, they crack the nuts open and out pour all kinds of treasures. The treasures are usually something that can definitely not actually fit inside a nut. (Yards of silk fabric, entire armies, golden looms, etc.) I like the idea of a very small, ordinary object housing an amazing abundance of magical stuff. It fits with the idea of the book, too, which is essentially a brick of paper until you open it and read it, at which point it expands into a whole world.
4. Just a lot of mini-images from the stories sort of collaged together
There's 200 stories, and they're all diverse and full of different things. It might be an injustice to choose one image over another. Maybe the right thing is to overwhelm the senses with a bunch of images, all different characters, objects, or motifs from the stories to give a broad sense of what the world is like. I think this solution is a little lazy, concept-wise, but sometimes the most straightforward solution turns out the best.
Those are my thoughts for now! Next step for me is to investigate those approaches by doing some sketching, I think. And continuing to keep an eye out for more inspirational cover images.
Thought about my concepts and came up with a few rough sketches. Not all of them turned out well (couldn't make a convincing figure transforming...that would probably take some time.) But I thought I'd post some of the ones I sort of like.
First two follow on the hole-in-the-ground-leading-to-magical-kingdom approach...
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 7 - student project
And the next one follows the nut concept. (Magical stuff comes out of a tiny nut.)
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 8 - student project
Personally, I like the nut one the best so far. When I was doing research on what to put on the cloth coming from the nut, I learned about Florentine's beautifully patterned paper made in Italy. I think it makes sense as a visual element, and it's also really beautiful. A few examples below.
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 9 - student project
Next is to process any feedback I might get and keep refining these sketches...
Moved forward with the nut idea. Kind of slapped together some patterns as a gut check to see if this will that regard I think the idea is worth continuing to explore. Still have so much work to do to make this into what it should be though....still need to really work out what the best collection of patterns and curves are, not to mention the type!
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 10 - student project
Draft 2. Refined the curves/patterns a bit and started paying attention to the typography of the title and author name. Also worked on the nut.
For typography, I looked at Louise Fili's work--she's known for doing Italian-inspired typography, logos and book covers and I thought she would be inspirational. But upon a little digging, I found out that she was actually the one who designed the original cover of Italian Folktales! Looking back, I actually like the typography on it--it's bold but has a few more fanciful curves in it to give it personality and evoke fantasy. Why fix what's not broken? I decided to use the original type on this book cover as well, with some modifications to make it work for my layout and concept.
Still not totally happy with the patterns and curves. I think I need to push a difference in scale between the different kinds of patterns...also wondering if I need to rough them up a little by adding a texture. But that's something I can keep playing with.
I think next I'm going to do the whole wrap-around jacket, including the spine...
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - image 11 - student project
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HomeAPPSWhat Is Pinterest, And How To Create And Optimize A Profile
What Is Pinterest, And How To Create And Optimize A Profile
Pinterest: What It Is And How It Works
Pinterest is a social media that can be used in its desktop version or by downloading the free application for mobile devices running Android or iOS. It is based on sharing images, videos, infographics, GIFs, memes, and photographs. Born in 2010 from the idea of Evan Sharp, Ben Silbermann, and Paul Sciarra, today, it is among the most viewed sites in the world. According to what was reported by the Digital 2022 Global Overview Report, published by We Are Social in collaboration with Hootsuite, the audience reachable on the platform through advertising is 225.7 million users.
Pinterest comes from the union of two words: ‘ pin,’ pin, and ‘ interest,’ interests, and perfectly describes the platform. It is a highly different social media from the others since the goal is not to share updates with other users but to create virtual message boards within which to ‘pin’ to save all the contents considered most interesting and useful. It aggregates images, videos, photographs, infographics, and diagrams of different types and on various topics and functions as a visual search engine. It has a simple and intuitive interface, and it takes very little time to learn how to use it.
Pinterest shows the user anything they might like based on their interests in the feed. The algorithm considers the content with which it has interacted, the most viewed categories, the keywords typed in the past, the Pins saved and published, the boards created and followed, and the topics indicated by the same profile as enjoyable. In the ‘Today’ tab, a careful selection of content is presented based on the day’s trends. The Pins that have received the most appreciation are shown based on the themes most searched for by users with similar characteristics.
There is a search engine within the platform that allows accounts to find relevant content. Keywords can be entered in the search bar. Based on user activity, Pinterest will show suggested topics to explore new themes or refine the entered keyword and make it more specific. With Pinterest Lens, you can search using photos taken directly from mobile devices. The platform will return all content similar to what was framed with the smartphone or tablet’s camera. Pinterest’s search engine was designed to allow users to find what they need quickly and easily.
The platform immediately enables you to select between the ‘Explore,’ ‘Buy,’ and ‘Profiles’ tabs when entering keywords. The ‘Explore’ tabs show all the content deemed most relevant. A selection of purchasable Product Pins is presented in ‘Buy.’ In ‘Profiles,’ you can discover exciting brands and creators. You can discover new ideas through the platform, save the contents that inspire the most, make purchases, find interesting creators, and share your thoughts and works.
You can visit users’ message boards or create your own based on the most valuable categories. Pinterest users have grown steadily over time, and companies soon realized its importance and potential. Those looking for inspiration on the platform are often interested in purchasing products or services. Creating bulletin boards and pins to show to users, and linking content with e-commerce or the website, allows you to increase sales significantly.
Pinterest: How To Create And Optimize A Profile
To start using Pinterest, you need to create a profile for free. To do this, you need to enter your e-mail address, create a password, select the gender you identify yourself, the language and country you live in, and indicate the five topics that you find most interesting. Once the wizard is finished, you can explore the platform and create the first boards and pins. In addition to the private profile, Pinterest also offers the possibility of using professional profiles that allow you to achieve business goals, increase sales or increase brand awareness.
It is advisable to create a company-type account. The differences with the personal one are mainly two. With a company account, it is possible to view all the statistical data helpful in evaluating the success of your strategies. These results are being achieved through advertising campaigns. You can create a professional account that is not linked to other personal accounts. It is advisable to use an e-mail address, preferably that of the company, which has not already been used to access the platform in the past.
After selecting ‘Sign up’ in the Pinterest home, select “Create an account for companies.” Just follow the wizard and enter a description of the task. You can switch from a personal to a professional account. Pins and boards created will not be affected, and you can cancel the action at any time. You need to access the settings, select the item ‘Manage account,’ and under ‘Edit the account,’ carry out the conversion. Alternatively, you can link your account to your professional history to easily switch between them. Up to four company profiles can be linked to each performance.
On Pinterest, companies can find a space to communicate with their customers. The most well-known celebrities, celebrities, and famous people can get a verified account, indicated by a blue check or a red check. After creating your company profile, you need to set it up in the best possible way and optimize it to make a good first impression on users and potential customers. It is advisable to correctly insert the company name, the logo in the profile picture, a representative cover, an accurate description, and the URL to the official website. Within the company profile, you can put up to six items in evidence, shown at the top of the screen. A maximum of 20 Pins can be inserted inside every single element.
Also Read: Internet Of Things: What Companies Need To Exploit IoT In Business
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Our Guide to Skin Grafting for Treating Severe Burn Injuries
Tue Sep 1, 2020 | By: Law Firm of Walter Gabriel | General |
Treating severe burn injuries can be catastrophic not just for the body but for the mind, too. Treating severe burn injuries can be incredibly painful and often leave scarring, even disfigurement, that affect survivors’ quality of life and self-esteem. Injuries are often so critical that some survivors may not fully recover.
Luckily, scientists have developed treatments that heal deep burns and restore normalcy in burn victims’ lives. One of the most common treatments is skin grafting, a procedure that removes skin from one part of the body and transplants it into the affected area. This is a popular way to treat severe burns and other conditions or injuries that have caused the patient to lose an area of protective skin.
Here is our quick guide to skin grafting and how it helps treat severe burn injuries:
Two Kinds of Skin Grafts
Skin grafts come in two different procedures to treat a variety of deep burns. The first one is the split-thickness skin graft. This is a graft that removes the skin’s top layer, along with a portion of the dermis. Surgeons usually take these skin layers from fleshy areas, like the thigh, buttocks, back, or abdomen.
This skin graft type is used for treating more expansive areas. However, these are often delicate and have a shiny appearance, and are typically lighter colored than the rest of the skin. Given the fragile nature of this skin graft, they have more difficulty growing on ungrafted skin. If the patient receiving this treatment is a child, they will need more grafts over months or years.
Meanwhile, the second type of skin graft is a full-thickness skin graft. As the name implies, this procedure removes both the full dermis and epidermis from the groin, collarbone, forearm, or abdomen. Given the smaller nature of the donor sites, the removed pieces are much smaller and are usually transplanted to areas that are most visible on the body, like the face. Full-thickness skin grafts grow and blend easier with the surrounding skin, restoring the burned area to a more natural appearance.
Recovering From a Skin Graft
Skin graft treatments consist of multiple different steps. While the patient remains under general anesthesia throughout the entire process, recovering from surgery and caring for the donor and transplanted sites can be painful.
Once doctors complete the procedure, a patient should stay at the hospital for a few more days to ensure a smooth healing process for affected sites. During this period, the hospital staff will continuously monitor the patient’s vitals and administer medication to alleviate the pain. Doctors will also be on standby for any potential complications that occur during the recovery period.
Sometimes, the burned areas reject skin grafts. The absence of blood vessels in the transplant areas thirty-six hours after surgery reveals this. Rejection can happen for multiple reasons; for example, there may be too much blood or fluid beneath the graft, making it difficult for the transplant area to take to the graft. If this occurs, then another surgery is necessary to apply the new graft.
Treating Severe Burn Injuries – Conclusion
Sustaining a burn injury from an incident is incredibly painful. Treating it may include several surgeries and managing the pain with medication. Fortunately, recovery is possible with skin grafting. With proper surgery and successful aftercare, healing from a severe burn will help patients return to their lives with as minimal pain as possible.
If you have sustained a severe burn injury and are looking for a personal injury attorney in Atlanta, GA, Walter Gabriel is here to help. We have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for our clients. And we assist clients throughout every stage of a personal injury dispute. Our firm will make sure that you get the compensation you deserve from the responsible party. Get a free consultation with us today.
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red giantmain sequencewhite dwarfnight skyorionsunlondonmarsstarconstellationnilecairobinarykeaparsec
What's the name of the Arch nemesis of Sirius black?
Casual White
In the Harry Potter books, Sirius Black is in his early 30's,
... but in the movies, he look like an Oldman.
Why was Sirius Black safe from COVID?
Because he was quarantined in Maskaban
But the fifth one—-dead Sirius.
A guy I met told me he identifies as the brightest star in the night sky…
I said- “Are you Sirius?”
James Potter and Sirius Black passed by each other in heaven.
James exclaimed, "Sirius, why are you here? Are you visiting?"
Sirius hung his head. "No, I actually died. Bellatrix killed me in the Department of Mysteries."
Potter just laughed. "What do you mean? You were a much better wizard than her. You can't fool me."
"I'm not kidding!" ...
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
Sirius B is moving towards us at 10 km per second at may get the latin name "tribulatio" ( trouble ) and may hit an outer the outer planet Uranus one day.
We have Sirius trouble in Uranus
You know that scene in Harry Potter where his godfather dies?
That was a dead Sirius moment
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
Harry potter and Hermione are talking
Harry: Hermione, im gay.
Hermione: Are you fucking kidding?
Harry: No im fucking sirius.
Me - So, what do you do?
Otto - I'm a supervillain.
Me - What's your name?
Otto - Corrector.
Me - HAHAHA! Are you Sirius?
What's your super powder?
Wait a minion……
what the help is happy ninja to me? PLEATS
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
Woman: "I am going to be your step godmother."
Harry Potter: "Are you fucking Sirius?"
Why didn't the star laugh at the joke?
It was pretty Sirius
My friend thinks he was a god in his previous life
I don't think he was being Sirius !
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
One British nurse said to the other...
"You'll never guess who picked up the urine samples today. Gary Oldman, the actor!"
"Really?? Was he dressed like his character from Harry Potter?"
"No, he wasn't Sirius. He was just taking the piss."
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
Heard this one on Comedy (Sirius Radio) awhile back. It's by the late Jay Hickman.
This boy was sitting on the sidewalk eating candy and then he would pick up a cat and bite it on the ass, then get up and move down the sidewalk and do the same - eat the candy, bite the cat on the ass, get up and move down the side walk. This guy driving by see this and says, "Hey, what are doing?...
What did Harry Potter say when he found out the werewolf that had been terrorising his school was his Godfather?
You cannot be Sirius
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
I looked up at Canus Major and a star told me "I'm the brightest star in the sky!"
And I said "You can't be Sirius!"
Terrorist holding dad at gunpoint-
Terrorist: "Say your last words!"
Dad: "Your last words!"
Terrorist: "Stop. Why isn't this scaring your?"
Dad: "Nothing really scares me anymore; not since I sa...
2 Canadians are sitting outside watching the night sky.
When the first guy asks the other “If you had to be one star in the night sky, which one would you be, eh?”
The second guy thinks for a moment and says “I’d probably be the brightest star in the sky.”
To which the first guy quickly responds “You can’t be Sirius A!”
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
Tonks: Remus, I swear, I have no idea how those dog hairs got there...
Remus: Are you fucking Sirius?!
Son: (Sobbing) "Dad, my teacher said I would never be the brightest star in the sky"
Dad: "You're not Sirius?!"
Stephen King's Sons
When Stephen King’s twin sons were born, he had a hard time coming up with names for them. Finally, after several hours of thinking, he managed to pull a couple out of the air.
“I’ll name the first son Joseph, after my great-grandfather.”“Fine, and what about the other one?” His wife asked....
Batman and the Joker are in the retirement home together, working on crafts projects. Batman looks at Joker's cross-stitch of the night sky and asks, "Why'd you leave out the Dog Star?" Joker answers...
"Why sew Sirius?"
Which Harry Potter book is the darkest?
Order of the Phoenix, because that’s when it starts getting Dead Sirius.
XM Radio is looking for feedback on Reddit about how to improve customer service
They're taking Sirius replies only.
This joke may contain profanity. 🤔
Dumbledore turns to Mcgonagall
"Minerva, you're such a dear friend. There's something I've been meaning to share with you. You see, Minerva I'm gay."
Professor Mcgonagall looking quite shocked meets his eye,
"Why albus, you must be joking!"
"NO, minerva. I'm fucking Sirius"
An extremely bright star walks into a bar.
He shines so bright he nearly blinds everyone inside.
"Are you kidding?" The bartender asks in annoyance.
"No," The star replies. "I'm Sirius."
Harry Potter sees a black dog...
Harry: Sirius, is that you in disguise?
Sirius: I am, surely, and don't call me Sirius
Legitimate question, what's that canine constellation called?
I can’t get my satellite radio to work
I’m having sirius issues
I think you are only supposed to wish upon one star, but I wished upon two
Because I couldn't take it completely Sirius.
What is Harry Potter's favorite radio station?
Sirius XM
Alien arrives on Earth
and goes to communicate with humans.
He enters a bar, men there are drinking vodka.
"I am from Sirius" alien starts.
"Hey, barkeep! Pour Sirius a shot"
Everyone drinks a shot, after a while alien starts again:
"You didn't understand me. I am from Sirius"
"Hey, bartende...
What did they tell the most famous child actress from the 30's when she tried to audition for a role in Harry Potter?
Shirley you can't be Sirius.
Baby sister told me this one attn Harry Potter fans
Sister: "Harry's godfathers middle name should be 'Lee'"
Me:"wait, whose the godfather?"
Sister: "Sirius Black"
Took me a minute.
A man dressed as a harry potter character came up to me and told me he was a zombie.
I thought he was kidding, but he was Dead Sirius.
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Want to have hi-fi quality noise during your mobile computer? Why if you be tied up to wires while using a computer that is portable? Take advantage of cordless speakers to offer the freedom to work or play on your computer where you intend to, whilst getting the fidelity that is high you deserve. Listed below are a few examples of how you may use wireless speakers to enhance your method of living.
Different speakers that are wireless created for different needs. Stereo speakers can have both Left and Right stereo channels delivered in one speaker. Speakers meant for outside use have a casing that is tough protect them from weather harm. Home theaters have specialized speakers that have cordless rear speakers and wired front speakers.
Portable speakers that are wireless various functionalities. You need to define exactly what you wish to attain when buying speakers that are wireless. What are the features that are essential to you? How do you prepare on utilising the speaker? Where are you using the presenter? Could it be at home, living room, at your backyard, or out camping in the woods? Determining how you want to use you your portable cordless speaker can help you decide on the one that is best for you.
You will find however a few things you require to be cautious about when searching for wireless speakers. Some are listed here:
Top features of cordless speakers
Different portable speakers use different forms of technology to function. Bluetooth technology Portable Bluetooth speakers have had significant improvements since their inception. Transmission distances are up to 50 foot, which will be quite limited. These type of speakers are set up in many computers and mobile devices, and they don't require a connection that is internet transmit. They are simple to use and provide fast connection. Bluetooth speakers are battery effective. They will have good quality that is sound.
Many speakers that are wireless work fine within an assortment of 150 to 300 legs from the transmitter. (Which will be positioned at the supply of noise i.e. your hi-fi or computer) The RF frequency is sufficient for it to function with walls and furniture. You certainly do not need type of sight, but keep in mind that obstacles weakens the sign, therefore the greater obstacles between the transmitter and receiver, the faster the range will become.
Battery life
Battery life is not always too great on cordless speakers, as it uses power to push the speakers, internal amplifier and RF receiver. So, should you want to utilize your cordless speakers for extended periods of the time, it may possibly be smart to utilize the AC power adaptor. Now this might perhaps not constantly what you need - the idea that is whole of speakers is to find rid regarding the cables. Rechargeable batteries might function as the response and some regarding the models also include rechargeable batteries -something to take into account when you require total freedom, also from power outlets.
Not absolutely all cordless speaker systems consist of two speakers to provide you with a stereo experience. Particularly the outdoor speakers that are wireless sold as single units. This could easily easily be overcome by buying two speakers, demonstrably doubling the cost.
Outside wireless speakers are advertised become weatherproof, but them inside if you do not need to use your speakers outside all the time, rather store. This can definitely extend the life span of one's valuable outdoor speakers that are wireless. If you should leave it outside all the time, try to look for a spot where it may be concealed through the most harsh climate.
Near Field Communication wireless protocol has minimal connection range. Devices need to be extremely close for transference to happen. Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi enabled wireless speakers enable very high-resolution transmission that is audio. They could offer more extended connection range, but they cannot be placed very far from the router since they are internet dependent. Some speakers that are wireless with the capacity of linking with Amazon’s Alexa or Bing assistant.
Portable wireless speakers are obtainable in an assortment of sizes. Very small speakers might compromise on sound quality. Your portability requires be determined by where you wish to use the speakers. If you’re going to carry them at long distances, you are going to require more portable speakers.
Some speakers that are wireless tough covers for weather resistance, although some are waterproof. Your preferences will depend on where you make use of your speakers. If you want to carry your speakers to your fishing ventures, you might need water-resistant speakers. Some speakers are fully submersible. Fortunately, most manufacturers have actually made durability a standard function in portable speakers.
Various brands of wireless speakers have different quantities of aesthetic appeal. It’s always good to make yes that the speakers are attracting your eyes.
Portable wireless speakers are speakers that receive audio signals using radio regularity waves in place of using sound cables. The most often used technologies that are wireless audio transmission in cordless speakers is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. Wireless Bluetooth speakers are extremely common in computers and mobile devices. This explains why wireless speakers and Bluetooth speakers are two terms frequently utilized interchangeably.
Wireless speakers are composed of two units: the main presenter unit and a radio frequency transmitter unit. The main speaker unit is comprised for the loudspeaker, an amplifier and a broadcast Frequency receiver. The radio regularity transmitter unit is connected to the sound output of products such as mp3 players, televisions, and computer systems, usually by the use of an RCA plug. The amplifier boosts the signal that is audio the loudspeaker for better noise. The main speaker unit is generally powered by rechargeable batteries that may last for 4 to just over 20 hours when fully charged. Most rechargeable batteries are not replaceable, and their lifespan is the identical as the lifespan of the speakers.
The listener can put the receiver where they are interested to be. This provides the listener the freedom to alter the positioning from in which the sound is coming from without the need certainly to use cables. Various cordless speakers have actually different signal frequency ranges. Many of them have the same frequency that is signal as that used by cordless telephones, which is 900 MHz. The air signal can pass through walls, floors, and ceilings. The presenter, therefore, is placed in different rooms into the home and transmit sound still. Signals could be sent over a variety of as much as 300 feet with some speakers, nevertheless the range varies depending on the brand.
Speakers may have transmission that is variable (which are set using a turning knob) meant for overcoming potential RF interference off their wireless products. Bluetooth speakers use a radio communication frequency so the devices can be used without them being in equivalent visual line of sight. Portable speakers that are wireless become very popular with customers.
Portable wireless speakers have become quite popular in recent years for the reason that of the freedom they offer. Their quality that is sound has due to improvements in technology. There is a wide selection of portable wireless speakers into the market, all with features. You are constantly advised to check that the speaker’s features will attain that which you expect from them.
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If You Love Bananas, Read These 10 Shocking Things. The Number 5 Is The Best
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There is a well-known phrase in the world of natural medicine, which says: eating an apple a day takes the doctor away from your life, but few people know that a banana (banana, banana, banana or whatever it is called in your city) day can also keep the doctor away.
The health benefits of banana come from the many vitamins and nutrients it contains.
Some of the nutrients and compounds in bananas are carbohydrates, vitamins A, C and B6, iron, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium, potassium and natural sugars such as sucrose, fructose and glucose. All of these make the banana a super fruit that is an integral part of a healthy daily regimen.
10 benefits of bananas for health
1. Regulate bowel movements
Irregular bowel movements are an irritating health problem that can be easily resolved with regular consumption of bananas.
Bananas contain a good amount of insoluble fiber that travels through the digestive tract, sweeping waste and producing intestinal movements that are smooth and easy to pass.
However, consuming too much banana, but too little water can contribute to constipation. In addition, eating bananas that are not fully ripe can also lead to constipation and gas. So remember to consume ripe bananas and drink enough water a day.
At the same time, bananas help treat diarrhea because they contain pectin, a water-soluble fiber that acts as a gelling agent and helps to absorb fluids in the intestines.
2. Provides Natural Energy
Bananas have a unique blend of vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates that provide a rapid supply of natural energy. In addition, bananas have a healthy blend of three natural sugars: glucose, sucrose and fructose. The combination of these sugars has a great energetic potential.
Bananas are one of the few fruits that contain complex and simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates give you endurance energy and simple carbohydrates give you quick energy. Eating only two bananas will give you enough energy to do exercises for 90 minutes.
3. Soothe stomach ulcers
Bananas are beneficial to the health of the stomach in two ways. First, several substances in bananas help produce a thicker coating of protective mucus in the stomach that serves as a barrier against stomach acids.
They also help to neutralize the acidity of food, which can contribute to the formation of ulcers.
Second, bananas contain protease inhibitors that help to eliminate bacteria in the stomach, which is one of the main causes of stomach ulcers.
4. Support a healthy heart
Bananas are rich in potassium, a mineral electrolyte that is essential for your heart. Potassium travels to cells through your body and helps the circulatory system deliver oxygen to the brain. This also helps maintain a regular heart rate and an adequate balance of water in the body.
People who eat diets rich in potassium-rich foods like bananas can also substantially reduce their risk of stroke, regulate blood pressure and prevent various heart diseases.
5. Help in weight loss
If you are looking for a food that can help you lose weight, bananas are a perfect choice. They are low in fat and high in fiber and vitamins.
The dietary fiber in bananas absorbs water and takes up a lot of space in the stomach, which keeps you feeling full for longer.
In addition, they increase metabolism, thanks to its various B vitamins. The naturally sweet taste will also slow down your sweet tooth cravings when you feel the need to eat something sweet.
6. Treats anemia
Bananas are a good source of iron for people suffering from anemia. Iron deficiency is a key factor in this health condition and eating foods rich in iron will help replenish this essential mineral.
Regular consumption of bananas along with other iron-rich foods can gradually reduce the symptoms associated with anemia including fatigue, dizziness, headaches, shortness of breath and rapid heartbeat.
7. Treat morning sickness
If you are pregnant and looking for ways to combat morning sickness, take a banana. Calming properties help replenish the body and restore a healthy level of blood glucose. This in turn helps to combat nausea.
Pregnant women are advised to eat a banana after waking up in the morning and after each meal. In addition, bananas have several nutrients that can help lift your mood and support the physical development of your unborn baby.
8. Promotes eye health
Bananas contain vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin that is vital for eye health. Adequate daily vitamin A intake also decreases the risk of night blindness.
According to a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, eating three or more servings of bananas per day can also reduce your risk of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in older adults by 36% compared to which consume less than 1.5 servings daily.
9. Healing mosquito bites
Mosquito bites cause a lot of itching and sometimes they are painful. You can treat these symptoms with banana peels.
Rub the inside of the banana peels into the bite for about five to ten minutes. This will help reduce itching and swelling. In fact, this simple remedy often works better than creams or medications that are in the pharmacy.
10. Helps control depression
According to a recent survey of people suffering from depression, many participants felt much better after eating a banana.
Bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, which is known to help you relax, improve your mood and, in general, make you feel happier.
Also, when you suffer from insomnia due to depression, you can eat a banana before bedtime; Your tryptophan will help you sleep better.
Banana also contain tyrosine, an amino acid that increases levels of norepinephrine and dopamine. Low levels of these neurotransmitters that stimulate brain activity, alertness and concentration are often associated with depression.
With all the health benefits of this low-cost fruit, add bananas to your grocery list every time you buy. They are a great choice for a healthy sweet snack between meals as well.
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What is Tapps?
MCLA Senior Project 2020
We are living in a new world. A world where public thought must focus on healthcare and we all must follow the protocols set by health professionals. Unfortunately, not all members of society have been stringent in following these protocols. How are we doing as a campus community? Can we do better? How can we monitor social distancing in today's society? Can cellphones be used to locate you and your proximity to others?
Tapps is an interconnected and deployable setup consisting of:
• 3 Raspberry Pi 3B+
• 2 Alfa AWUS036NH 2000mW 2W 802.11g/n High Gain USB Wireless G / N Long-Range WiFi Network Adapters
• 7 Different Types of Programming
• 1 Heck of a Journey
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research product . Other ORP type . 2020
Re-centering the History of the Americas: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and A Mercy
Šesnić, Jelena;
Open Access English
• Published: 01 Jan 2020
• Country: Croatia
This article discusses the status of Toni Morrison as an American writer who consistently foregrounded African American history and experience and acted during her long career as a public intellectual. Morrison’s writerly agenda has been to delve into the epistemological origin of constructions such as race and blackness, placed in the context of their historical manifestation, such as transatlantic slavery as manifested in Morrison’s two most striking historical novels, Beloved (1987) and A Mercy (2008). Writing slavery, as a way to re-write the United States’ history and probe its dark spaces, places Morrison’s texts in a long line of nineteenth-century slave narratives, and in particular their twentieth-century avatar, the neo-slave novel, which strives to historicize slavery from the sufferer’s perspective. In the process, Morrison creates a “resistant text” (Sommer) requiring the reader’s imaginative and ethical engagement and refusing to fill in all the gaps. That the haunting of slavery still requires imaginative, historical, and ethical engagement, like the one accorded it by Morrison, is a fact of U.S. American social life to the present day.
free text keywords: HUMANISTIČKE ZNANOSTI. Interdisciplinarne humanističke znanosti., HUMANISTIC SCIENCES. Interdisciplinary Humanistic Studies., the historical novel, the neo-slave novel, transatlantic slavery, Toni Morrison, memory, history
Related Organizations
• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• Social Science and Humanities
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#1 humor site on the 'net
Gothic Corn
aka 'Corn On The Macabre'
Gothic Corn thanks to Keith Blake
I like laughter around me. - Mireille Enos
Laughter is the best medicine. - Joe-kster
Laughter is an instant vacation. - Milton Berle
Laughter is by definition healthy. - Doris Lessing
When humor goes, there goes civilization. - Erma Bombeck
Laughter is the smile of God on a troubled world. - Phil Callaway
Laughter is the closest distance between two people. - Victor Borge
Humour is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility. - James Thurber
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. - e e cummings
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. - Victor Borge
There is little success where there is little laughter. - Andrew Carnegie
This is a feminist bookstore. There is no humour section. - John Callahan
A little perspective, like a little humor, goes a long way. - Allen Klein
Corn can't expect justice from a court composed of chickens. - African Proverb
Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain. - Edward de Bono
Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away. - Benjamin Franklin
Laughter crosses boundaries of class and age. Humour is universal. - Jeremy Lloyd
Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility. - Thomas Jefferson
Whatever their faults, the Communists did not invent canned laughter. - Unknown
A decrepit society shuns humour as a decrepit individual shuns drafts. - Daffynitions joe-ks.com
What a strange world this would be if we all had the same sense of humor. - Bernard Williams
No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humour. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Laughter is really a gift. It's the most vulnerable state you can be in. - David Dobkin
Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep. - Benjamin Franklin
Humour is based on a modicum of truth. Ever heard a joe-k about a father-in-law? - Dick Clark
Humour is practically the only thing about which the English are utterly serious. - Malcolm Muggeridge
Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals. - Agnes Repplier
One can never speak enough of the virtues, the dangers, the power of shared laughter. - Francoise Sagan
Everybody laughs the same in every language because laughter is a universal connection. - Yakov Smirnoff
My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony. - Maurice Sendak
If you get a diagnosis, get on a therapy, keep a good attitude and keep your sense of humor. - Teri Garr
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. - E.B. White
The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. - Virginia Woolf
Humor is what happens when we're told the truth quicker and more directly than we're used to. - George Saunders
Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins. - Edmond de Goncourt
Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever. - Mark Twain
Humor has been the balm of my life, but it's been reserved for those close to me, not part of the public Lana. - Lana Turner
Laughter is a great way to diffuse an uncomfortable situation, so I began to use that as a tool, throughout my life. - Romancy Malco
Audience laughter, when it's deserved, acts as a sort of fairy dust that makes funny moments not just funny, but joyous. - Graham Linehan
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. - Kahlil Gibran
Suspense is very important. Even though this is humor and they're short stories, that theory of building suspense is still there. - Sergio Aragones
Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectation. - Norman Cousins
I was named the Class Clown in the high school yearbook, so I was always turning to comedy and laughter to heal and to get me through things. - Guillermo Diaz
A woman with confidence is hypnotic. A smile is mesmerizing. Presence, openness, a sense of humor - these are all things that make a woman attractive. - Jessica Ortner
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Do you have a product for menopause-related hot flash and lack of energy?
What are safer and better methods than HRT or BHRT? The answer is nutritional supplement.
For example, estrogen promotes uptake of calcium and vitamin D. After menopause, estrogen reduces and osteoporosis occurs.
A method to overcome osteoporosis is to take calcium and vitamin D3 supplements. Now, vitamin K2 is added for additional benefits.
A lot of discomforts associated with menopause, including hot flashes and the lack of energy, is due to reduced calcium and vitamin D3-K2, and fatty acids (like omega-3, 6, 7, and 9).
Therefore, taking calcium, vitamin D3-K2 plus Sea Buckthorn Oil may help you ease the discomforts caused by menopause.
One of the symptoms associated with the lack of energy is called "adrenal fatigue." Omega-7 in Sea buckthorn oil helps overcome that.,reduce%20anxiety%20and%20provides%20normal%20levels%20of%20energy
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Feb 23, 2022
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Voices in AI – Episode 76: A Conversation with Rudy Rucker
About this Episode
Episode 76 of Voices in AI features host Byron Reese and Rudy Rucker discuss the future of AGI, the metaphysics involved in AGI, and delve into whether the future will be for humanity’s good or ill. Rudy Rucker is a mathematician, a computer scientist, as well as being a writer of fiction and nonfiction, with awards for the first two of the books in his Ware Tetralogy series.
Visit www.VoicesinAI.com to listen to this one-hour podcast or read the full transcript.
Transcript Excerpt
Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, I’m Byron Reese. Today my guest is Rudy Rucker. He is a mathematician, a computer scientist and a science fiction author. He has written books of fiction and nonfiction, and he’s probably best known for his novels in the Ware Tetralogy, which consists of software, wetware, freeware and realware. The first two of those won Philip K. Dick awards. Welcome to the show, Rudy.
Rudy Rucker: It’s nice to be here Byron. This seems like a very interesting series you have and I’m glad to hold forth on my thoughts about AI.
Wonderful. I always like to start with my Rorschach question which is: What is artificial intelligence? And why is it artificial?
Well a good working definition has always been the Turing test. If you have a device or program that can convince you that it’s a person, then that’s pretty close to being intelligent.
So it has to master conversation? It can do everything else, it can paint the Mona Lisa, it could do a million other things, but if it can’t converse, it’s not AI?
No those other things are also a big part of if. You’d want it to be able to write a novel, ideally, or to develop scientific theories—to do the kinds of things that we do, in an interesting way.
Well, let me try a different tack, what do you think intelligence is?
I think intelligence is to have a sort of complex interplay with what’s happening around you. You don’t want the old cliche that the robotic voice or the screen with capital letters on it, just not even able to use contractions, “do not help me.” You want something that’s flexible and playful in intelligence. I mean even in movies when you look at the actors, you often will get a sense that this person is deeply unintelligent or this person has an interesting mind. It’s a richness of behavior, a sort of complexity that engages your imagination.
And do you think it’s artificial? Is artificial intelligence actual intelligence or is it something that can mimic intelligence and look like intelligence, but it doesn’t actually have any, there’s no one actually home?
Right, well I think the word artificial is misleading. I think as you asked me before the interview about my being friends with Stephen Wolfram, and one of Wolfram’s points has been that any natural process can embody universal computation. Once you have universal computation, it seems like in principle, you might be able to get intelligent behavior emerging even if it’s not programmed. So then, it’s not clear that there’s some bright line that separates human intelligence from the rest of the intelligence. I think when we say “artificial intelligence,” what we’re getting at is the idea that it would be something that we could bring into being, either by designing or probably more likely by evolving it in a laboratory setting.
So, on the Stephen Wolfram thread, his view is everything’s computation and that you can’t really say there’s much difference between a human brain and a hurricane, because what’s going on in there is essentially a giant clockwork running its program, and it’s all really computational equivalence, it’s all kind of the same in the end, do you ascribe to that?
Yeah I’m a convert. I wouldn’t use the word ‘clockwork’ that you use because that already slips in an assumption that a computation is in some way clunky and with gears and teeth, because we can have things—
But it’s deterministic, isn’t it?
It’s deterministic, yes, so I guess in that sense it’s like clockwork.
So Stephen believes, and you hate to paraphrase something as big as like his view on science, but he believes that everything is—not a clockwork, I won’t use that word—but everything is deterministic. But, even the most deterministic things, when you iterate them, become unpredictable, and they’re not unpredictable inherently, like from a universal standpoint. But they’re unpredictable from how finite our minds are.
They’re in practice unpredictable?
So, a lot of natural processes, like well there’s like when you take Physics I, you say oh, I can predict where, if I fire an artillery shot where it’s going to land, because it’s going to travel along a perfect parabola and then I can just work it out on the back of an envelope in a few seconds. And then when you get into reality, well they don’t actually travel on perfect parabolas, they have this odd shaped curve due to air friction, that’s not linear, it depends how fast they’re going. And then, you skip into saying “Well, I really would have to simulate this click.”
And then when you get into saying you have to predict something by simulating the process, then the event itself is simulating itself already, and in practice, the simulation is not going to run appreciably faster than just waiting for the event to unfold, and that’s the catch. We can take a natural process and it’s computational in the sense that it’s deterministic, so you think well, cool, I’ll just find out the rule it’s using and then I’ll use some math tricks and I’ll predict what it’s going to do.
For most processes, it turns out there aren’t any quick shortcuts, that’s actually all. It was worked on by Alan Turing way back when he proved that you can’t effectively get extreme speed ups of universal processes. So then we’re stuck with saying, maybe it’s deterministic, but we can’t predict it, and going slightly off on a side thread here, this question of free will always comes up, because we say well, “we’re not like deterministic processes, because nobody can predict what we do.” And the thing is if you get a really good AI program that’s running at its top level, then you’re not going to be able to predict that either. So, we kind of confuse free will with unpredictability, but actually unpredictability’s enough.
Listen to this one-hour episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com
AWS Re:Invent 2018 Reflects an Industry Coming of Age
As a first take, the 2018 AWS Re:Invent conference event held in Las Vegas seemed to be slicker, even though bigger, than previous years. While conference sessions were far too distributed across multiple hotels to feed a coherent view, the big-barn expo exuded a feeling of knowing what it was about. Even the smallest vendors had stands which went beyond the lowest-common-denominator quick-assembly cube, suggesting either (a) the organisers had put more thought into it or (b) the vendors were better-established and (therefore) had more money. All in all, it felt less of a bun fight — more space between stands, less urgency to get from one place to another.
It would be too much of an extrapolation to suggest this reflects the state of the cloud marketplace in general, and AWS in particular; however, it does serve as a useful backdrop upon which to paint a picture of an industry maturing beyond its “look at us, over here, we are different!” roots. From the sessions held for analysts, a couple of notably aligned moments stand out: the first involving use of the H-word, met with a smattering of laughter as an AWS representative spoke of embracing (my word) hybrid architectures and deploying (in the form of AWS Snowball Edge) capabilities inside the enterprise boundary.
The second, also met with more of an accepting shrug than anything, was a presentation by Keith Jarrett, AWS’ worldwide lead on cloud economics, which accepted, nay endorsed the fact that AWS’ cloud models wouldn’t always be the cheapest option for everything. Any thoughts of “ah-HA! Got you!” were almost immediately overtaken by, “Well, of course, how could it be?” — unless someone has also invented the perpetual motion machine or some other magical device. At a risk of repeating the obvious, there is no silver bullet/single solution/one-model-to-rule-them all in technology, never has been and never will be. Keith went on to present a series of KPIs around value creation, rather than pure cost.
So, with maturity comes the circumspection of understanding one’s place in the world, what one brings to the party, and therefore a level of differentiation based on competence, not capability: in a nutshell, it’s not about “use cloud” but, “if you want to use cloud-based services, work with us as we do it better than anyone else.” We saw this across the AWS portfolio, for example through the repeated theme of ‘frameworks’ — AWS has one AI (as presented by Swami Sivasubramanian, VP, Amazon Machine Learning), one for IoT (thank you Dirk Didascalou, VP, AWS IoT), one for more general cloud adoption (hat-tip Dave McCann, VP, AWS Marketplace and Todd Weatherby, VP, AWS Professional Services).
It all makes sense — if the platform is (increasingly) a commodity, the differentiator becomes how it is used. We see this over and again: now that Kubernetes is (becoming) the de facto target for containerised applications for example, to say “we do Kubernetes” is no longer interesting. Nor for that matter are the frameworks, from a business perspective — illustrated by the current trend away from DevOps being an end in itself and towards governance models and tooling such as Value Stream Management. Most important are whether organisations can innovate and deliver faster, harness opportunities, deliver new customer experiences and generate business value, more effectively with one provider or another.
This is all good news for the enterprise, as the terminology and philosophical underpinnings of cloud computing increasingly align with the more traditional thinking pervading our largest organisations. Across the past ten years, it has been enough to ‘do’ cloud, or ‘do’ open source in order to create competitive advantage: indeed, upstart organisations (the usual suspects of AirBnB, Uber, indeed Amazon et al) have built their businesses on the basis of rapid time-to-value. Simply put, older companies, with all their meetings, legacy systems and indeed thinking, have not been able to deliver as quickly as businesses without all that baggage.
Indeed, they still can’t. But them old companies are still there, for a number of reasons. First that the new breed have largely tackled the customer-facing elements of business, but there’s only so much of that to go around. It is completely unsurprising that Amazon is opening (albeit automated) shops, and that Uber (together with Toyota) is investing in (driverless) car fleets: someone has to do the infrastructure stuff. Meanwhile, not all customer-oriented business can be done on an ad-hoc basis. Take Healthcare for example, which (thank goodness) has not thrown itself gaily into adopting the heck-why-not-throw-away-the-old-rules-and-see-what-happens business models of the platform economy.
And indeed, while big old businesses are still big and old, and therefore unable to act quite so responsively as the youngsters, three things are happening: not only are they getting better at that whole innovation thing — or indeed, learning how to align new models of innovation with their own approaches, but also, the younger companies are having to learn that they can’t get away with avoiding complexity for ever. And in parallel, as we have already seen, technology providers such as AWS are maturing to fit the evolving needs and capabilities of both sides. It’s not just the big players: at Re:Invent I was also able to talk to both organisations in Amazon’s partner ecosystem and their customers, notably a conversation with that quite popular gaming company Fortnite about both AWS and MongoDB.
Where does this leave us? First that AWS is establishing itself not as a cloud player but as a technology provider, and rightly so, moving away from a false debate based on cost and towards one based on value. Second, AWS recognises that it cannot go it alone, nor does it need to (historically echoing of Microsoft’s attempts to play the better together card, which worked to an extent but could never be the whole answer). Third, and taking into account the fact that AWS is not the only game in town, that this reflects a more general maturing of the industry’s relationship with business, as attention moves beyond the platform and towards how to get the most out of it in what, frankly, a highly complex and constantly evolving world.
Whatever happens, complexity of all types will continue to constrain our ability to maximise the value we can get from technology. While technological complexity may appear to be a Gordian knot, it is more a Hydra — cut off one head and many more grow back. Understanding this and trying to tame and align as a platform, rather than looking to restrict and present one model above all, holds the key to unlocking future innovation for businesses of all sizes.
HT to my colleague Enrico Signoretti for his report Alternatives to Amazon AWS S3.
Voices in AI – Episode 75: A Conversation with Kevin Kelly
About this Episode
Episode 75 of Voices in AI features host Byron Reese and Kevin Kelly discuss the brain, the mind, what it takes to make AI and Kevin’s thoughts on its inevitability. Kevin has written books such as ‘The New Rules for a New Economy’, ‘What Technology Wants’, and ‘The Inevitable’. Kevin also started Wired Magazine, an internet and print magazine of tech and culture.
Transcript Excerpt
Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI, brought to you by GigaOm, and I’m Byron Reese. Today I am so excited we have as our guest, Kevin Kelly. You know when I was writing the biography for Kevin, I didn’t even know where to start or where to end. He’s perhaps best known for a quarter of a century ago, starting Wired magazine, but that is just one of many many things on an amazing career [path]. He has written a number of books, The New Rules for a New Economy, What Technology Wants, and most recently, The Inevitable, where he talks about the immediate future. I’m super excited to have him on the show, welcome Kevin.
Kevin Kelly: It’s a real delight to be here, thanks for inviting me.
So what is inevitable?
There’s a hard version and a soft version, and I kind of adhere to the soft version. The hard version is kind of a total deterministic world in which if we rewound the tape of life, it all unfolds exactly as it has, and we still have Facebook and Twitter, and we have the same president and so forth. The soft version is to say that there are biases in the world, in biology as well as its extension into technology, and that these biases tend to shape some of the large forms that we see in the world, still leaving the particulars, the specifics, the species to be completely, inherently, unpredictable and stochastic and random.
So that would say that things like you’re going to find on any planet that has water, you’ll find fish, it has life and in water you’ll find fish, or will things, if you rewound the tape of life you’d probably get flying animals again and again, but you’ll never, but I mean, a specific bird, a robin is not inevitable. And the same thing with technology. Any planet that discovers electricity and mixed wires will have telephones. So telephones are inevitable, but the iPhone is not. And the internet’s inevitable, but Google’s not. AI’s inevitable, but the particular variety or character, the specific species of AI is not. That’s what I mean by inevitable—that there are these biases that are built by the very nature of chemistry and physics, that will bend things in certain directions.
And what are some examples of those that you discuss in your book?
So, technology’s basically an extension of the same forces that drive life, and a kind of accelerated evolution is what technology is. So if you ask the question about what are the larger forces in evolution, we have this movement towards complexity. We have a movement towards diversity; we have a movement towards specialization; we have a movement towards mutualism. Those also are happening in technology, which means that all things being equal, technology will tend to become more and more complex.
The idea that there’s any kind of simplification going on in technology is completely erroneous, there isn’t. It’s not that the iPhone is any simpler. There’s a simple interface. It’s like you have an egg, it’s a very simple interface but inside it’s very complex. The inside of an iPhone continues to get more and more complicated, so there is a drive that, all things being equal, technology will be more complex and then next year it will be more and more specialized.
So, the history of technology in photography was there was one camera, one kind of camera. Then there was a special kind of camera you could do for high speed; maybe there’s another kind of camera that could do underwater; maybe there was a kind that could do infrared; and then eventually we would do a high speed, underwater, infrared camera. So, all these things become more and more specialized and that’s also going to be true about AI, we will have more and more specialized varieties of AI.
So let’s talk a little bit about [AI]. Normally the question I launch this with—and I heard your discourse on it—is: What is intelligence? And in what sense is AI artificial?
Yes. So the big hairy challenge for that question is, we humans collectively as a species at this point in time, have no idea what intelligence really is. We think we know when we see it, but we don’t really, and as we try to make artificial synthetic versions of it, we are, again and again, coming up to the realization that we don’t really know how it works and what it is. Their best guess right now is that there are many different subtypes of cognition that collectively interact with each other and are codependent on each other, form the total output of our minds and of course other animal minds, and so, I think the best way to think of this is we have a ‘zoo’ of different types of cognition, different types of solving things, of learning, of being smart, and that collection varies a little bit by person to person and a lot between different animals in the natural world and so…
That collection is still being mapped, and we know that there’s something like symbolic reasoning. We know that there’s kind of deductive logic, that there’s something about spatial navigation as a kind of intelligence. We know that there’s mathematical type thinking; we know that there’s emotional intelligence; we know that there’s perception; and so far, all the AI that we have been ‘wowed’ by in the last 5 years is really all a synthesis of only one of those types of cognition, which is perception.
So all the deep learning neural net stuff that we’re doing is really just varieties of perception of perceiving patterns, and whether there’s audio patterns or image patterns, that’s really as far as we’ve gotten. But there’s all these other types, and in fact we don’t even know what all the varieties of types [are]. We don’t know how we think, and I think one of the consequences of AI, trying to make AI, is that AI is going to be the microscope that we need to look into our minds to figure out how they work. So it’s not just that we’re creating artificial minds, it’s the fact that that creation—that process—is the scope that we’re going to use to discover what our minds are made of.
Five Questions For… Seong Park at MongoDB
MongoDB came onto the scene alongside a number of data management technologies, all of which emerged on the basis of: “You don’t need to use a relational database for that.” Back in the day, SQL-based approaches became the only game in town first due to the way they handled storage challenges, and then a bunch of open source developers came along and wrecked everything. So we are told.
Having firmly established itself in the market and proved that it can deliver scale (Fortnite is a flagship customer), the company is nonetheless needing to move with the times. Having spoken to Seong Park, VP of Product Marketing & Developer Advocacy, several times over the past 6 weeks, I thought it was worth capturing the essence of our conversations.
Q1: How do you engage with developers that is the same, or different to data-oriented engineers? Traditionally these have been two separate groups to be treated separately, is this how you see things?
MongoDB began as the solution to a problem that was increasingly slowing down both developers and engineers: the old relational database simply wasn’t cutting the mustard anymore. And that’s hardly surprising, since the design is more than 40 years old.
MongoDB’s entire approach is about driving developer productivity, and we take an object-focused approach to databases. You don’t think of data stored across tables, you think of storing info that’s associated, and you keep it together. That’s how our database works.
We want to make sure that developers can build applications. That’s why we focus on offering uncompromising user experiences. Our solution should be as easy, seamless, simple, effective and productive as possible. We are all about enabling developers to spend time on the things they care about: developing, coding and working with data in a fast, natural way.
When it comes to DevOps, a core tenet of the model is to create multi-disciplinary teams that can collectively work in small squads, to develop and iterate quickly on apps and microservices. Increasingly, data engineers are a part of that team, along with developers, operations staff, security, product managers, and business owners.
We have built capabilities and tools to address all of those groups. For data engineers, we have in-database features such as the aggregation pipeline that can transform data before processing. We also have connectors that integrate MongoDB with other parts of the data estate – for example, from BI to advanced analytics and machine learning.
Q2: Database structures such as MongoDB are an enabler of DevOps practices; at the same time, data governance can be a hindrance to speed and agility. How do you ensure you help speed things up, and not slow them down?
Unlike other non-relational databases, MongoDB gives you a completely tunable schema – the skeleton representing the structure of the entire database. The benefit here is that the development phase is supported by a flexible and dynamic data model, and when the app goes into production, you can enforce schema governance to lock things down.
The governance itself is also completely tunable, so you can set up your database to support your needs, rather than being constrained by structure. This is an important differentiator for MongoDB.
Another major factor which reduces speed and agility is scale. Over the last two to three years, we have been building mature tooling that enterprises and operators alike will care about, because they make it easy to manage and operate MongoDB, and because they make it easy to apply upgrades, patches and security fixes, even when you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of clusters.
One of the key reasons why we have seen such acceleration in the adoption of MongoDB, not only in the enterprise but also by startups and smaller businesses, is that we make it so easy to get started with MongoDB. We want to make it easy to get to market very quickly, while we’re also focusing on driving down cost and boosting productivity. Our approach is to remove as much friction in the system as possible, and that’s why we align so well with DevOps practices.
In terms of legacy modernization, we are running a major initiative enabling customers to apply the latest innovations in development methodologies, architectural patterns, and technologies to refresh their portfolio of legacy applications. This is much more than just “lift and shift”. Moving existing apps and databases to faster hardware, or on to the cloud might get you slightly higher performance and marginally reduced cost, but you will fail to realize the transformational business agility, scale, or deployment freedom that true legacy modernization brings.
In our experience, by modernizing with MongoDB organizations can build new business functionality 3-5x faster, scale to millions of users wherever they are on the planet, and cut costs by 70 percent and more, all by unshackling from legacy systems.
Q3: Traditionally you’re either a developer or a database person … does this do away with database engineers? Do we need database engineers or can developers do everything?
Developers are now the kingmakers; they are the hardest group of talent to retain. The biggest challenge most enterprises see is about finding and keeping developer talent.
If you are looking for the best experience in working with data, MongoDB is the answer in our opinion! It is not just about the persistence and the database …MongoDB Stitch is a serverless platform, drives integration with third-party cloud services, and enables event-based programming through Stitch triggers.
Ultimately, it comes down to a data platform that any number of roles can use, in their “swim lanes”. With the advent of cloud, it’s so easy for customers not to have to worry about things they did before, since they consume a pay-as-you-go service. Maybe you don’t need a DBA for a project any more: it’s important to allow our users to consume MongoDB in the easiest way possible.
But the bottom line is that we’re not doing away with database engineers, but shifting their role to focus on making a higher-value impact. For engineers we have capabilities and features like the aggregation pipeline, allowing us to transform data before processing.
Q4: IoT-related question … in retail, you want to put AI into the supermarket environment, it could be video surveillance or inventory management. It’s not about distributing across crowd but into the Edge and “fog” computing…
At our recent MongoDB Europe event in London, we announced the general availability of MongoDB Mobile as well as the beta for Stitch Mobile Sync. Since we already have a lot of customers on the network edge (you’ll find MongoDB on oil rigs, across the IoT, used by airlines, and for the management of fleets of cars and trucks), a lot of these elements are already there.
The advantage is how easy we make it to work with that edge data. We’re thinking about the experience we provide in terms of working with data – and giving people access to what they care about – tooling, integration, and to look at what MongoDB can provide natively on a data platform.
Q5: I’m interested to know what proportion of your customer base, and/or data/transaction base, are ‘cloud native’ versus more traditional enterprises. Indeed, is this how you segment your customers, and how do you engage with different groups that you do target?
We’d argue that every business should become cloud native – and many traditional enterprises are on that journey.
Around 70 percent of all MongoDB deployments are on a private or public cloud platform, and from a product portfolio perspective, we work to cover the complete market – from startup programs to self-service cloud services, to corporate and enterprise sales teams. As a result, we can meet customers wherever they are, and whatever their size.
My take: better ways exist, but how to preach to the non-converted?
Much that we see around us in technology is shaped as a result of the constraints of its time. Relational databases enabled a step up from the monolithic data structures of the 1970s (though of course, some of the latter are still running, quite successfully), in no small part by enabling more flexible data structures to exist. MongoDB took the same idea one step further, doing away with the schema completely.
Is the MongoDB model the right answer for everything? No, and that would never be the point – nor are relational models, nor any other data management structures (including the newer capabilities in MongoDB’s stable). Given that data management vendors will continue to innovate, more important is choosing the right tool for the job, or indeed, being able to move from one model to another if need be.
This is more about mindset, therefore. Traditional views of IT have been to use the same technologies and techniques, because they always worked before. Not only does this risk trying to put square pegs in round holes, but also it can mean missed opportunities if the definition of what is possible is constrained by what is understood.
I would love to think none of this needs to be said, but in my experience large organisations still look backward more than they look forward, to their loss. We often talk about skills in data science, the shortage of developers and so on, but perhaps the greater gap is in senior executives that get the need for an engineering-first mindset. If we are all software companies now, we need to start acting accordingly.
Five Questions for Melissa Kramer of Live UTI Free
While the notion of healthcare technology may be in the spotlight with AI, blockchain and all that, the coalface of care requires building an understanding of patient needs and responding in an appropriate way. Today, in many cases, even some of the most common conditions are subject to a dearth of information, or worse, misinformation that results in poor diagnosis and treatment. I learned this when working with a London hospital on care pathways for DVT; I was naturally interested in the work of Live UTI Free, which offers a clear information resource for patients, practitioners and indeed, researchers.
Read on to learn from Melissa Kramer, founder, how not all technological innovations need to maximize the use of buzzwords or bandwagons, and what lessons can be learned across healthcare diagnostics and beyond.
1. Let’s set some context — what’s the purpose behind Live UTI Free?
We founded Live UTI Free to address a gap in the sharing of evidence-based information to sufferers of recurrent and chronic urinary tract infection (UTI).
To provide some context for why closing that gap is important, 1 in 2 females will experience a UTI in their lifetime, and of those, up to 44% will suffer a recurrence. With each recurrence, the chance of another increases. For many, recurrent UTI is debilitating, and the impact extends to the economy, with billions spent each year on UTI alone.
Despite how common UTI is, there has never been an accurate, standard method of UTI testing.
Although the impact of this issue is significant on many levels, UTI remains an area of women’s health that suffers from steadfastly held misinformation on both sides of the patient/practitioner relationship.
We aim to act as a conduit of information between researchers and patients, bridging gaps in knowledge where possible and shedding light on potential avenues for better diagnosis and treatment. Ultimately, our goal is to use our insights to advance research and development in this space.
2. How do you go about collating and delivering information, or is it ‘simply’ that even the most straightforward info is difficult to find today?
We created our platform because we identified how difficult it was for patients to find straightforward information online, and we wanted to fix this. In order to do so, we first had to collect information from patients themselves, to discover what it was they were looking for and how.
We spent more than 6 months interviewing patients and learning about their online behavior, before we put a single piece of information online. This activity alone meant we had collected more patient-perspective data on the subject than most recent studies.
Once we understood the typical patient journey, and where the glitches were, we started to collate scientific evidence and to interpret it into everyday language. We do this with the help of researchers, but the process is hardly straightforward.
If we relied on peer-reviewed studies alone, there would be little we could offer our audience in terms of new diagnosis and treatment options. Instead, we’ve developed our offering via a combination of studies, and direct input from practitioners, researchers and pharmacists.
This requires a continuous loop of interviews, academic research, and amendments to the information we provide. And on top of that is another layer of patient feedback that directly shapes what we offer on our site.
Long story short: straightforward info, particularly on health topics, is difficult to find. But once you do find it, you also have to make sure it’s useful to whoever it’s intended for.
3. What mechanisms do you have to do this, beyond the online site and do you think your user-centric approach has been worthwhile?
Aside from the patient interviews mentioned in the last question, we also launched a patient quiz at the same time as launching our site. The quiz has served two purposes:
1. First, it has allowed us to help direct users to the most pertinent information, based on their current knowledge and experience.
2. At the same time, we have collected thousands of data points that, when aggregated, provide incredible insight into patient experience, why people use our site, and what we can do better. Our approach has culminated in extremely fast growth in traffic to the site, and daily positive feedback.
Beyond the online site, we have developed a network of scientists, practitioners and other medical professionals.
We’re also in regular contact with commercial companies that are working on products or services that address specific aspects of recurrent UTI.
By maintaining a user-centric approach and fostering relationships with other key stakeholders, we hope to provide value that extends beyond problem-solving for individual patients. We have already begun to steer change for those in our network.
4. What challenges have you faced starting up Live UTI Free, and how have you overcome them?
We are, and always have been, acutely aware of the position we hold in between patients and practitioners, and information that connects the two. Our primary concern revolves around how to achieve our goals, while adhering to the ethical standards we’ve placed upon ourselves. This in itself is a challenge.
We look at everything we do through this ethics lens. We question how any potential partnership or revenue opportunity fits within our own ethical guidelines, and we carefully consider data privacy when it comes to our patient quiz, interviews and correspondence we receive.
To help overcome this challenge we’ve put in place a funding policy and community guidelines, as well as implementing an ethics advisory board to help with these decisions.
A further challenge has been navigating the line between neutral accuracy, and providing information that is actionable for our audience. We don’t provide recommendations of any kind, but we know through our research that patients want a work flow, rather than a ‘choose your own adventure’.
We’ve partially overcome this by constructing our content in such a way that the user is guided through a logical sequence. The rest is a work in progress, as the required scientific study to truly point someone towards action steps for recurrent UTI, is still in the future. When it exists, we’ll be ready to relay the information to our audience.
5. How do you see things moving into the future?
The data we have collected via our patient quiz is one of a kind, and we’re now starting to use these insights to help guide product R&D for this patient population.
We are currently assessing grant opportunities, in collaboration with researchers, with a focus on patient perspective data. Our reach means we will make a valuable partner in larger research studies and clinical trials, and we’re open to discussion in this regard. We plan to launch an evidence based e-commerce site next year, to bring our many user requests for this to fruition.
Live UTI Free will continue as a user-centric patient advocacy organisation, existing to support our fast-growing community, which includes sufferers of chronic and recurrent UTI, practitioners, and researchers. Readers can get in touch if interested in:
• Patient perspective data and patient experience
• Patient recruitment for clinical trials
• Product development for recurrent UTI sufferers
• Our practitioner and researcher network
Voices in AI – Episode 74: A Conversation with Dr. Kai-Fu Lee
About this Episode
Episode 74 of Voices in AI features host Byron Reese and Dr. Kai-Fu Lee discussing the potential of AI to disrupt job markets, the comparison of AI research and implementation in the U.S. and China, as well as other facets of Dr. Lee’s book “AI Superpowers”. Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, previously president of Google China, is now the CEO of Sinovation Ventures.
Transcript Excerpt
Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI, brought to you by GigaOmI’m Byron Reese. Today I am so excited my guest is Dr. Kai-Fu Lee. He is, of course, an AI expert. He is the CEO of Sinovation Ventures. He is the former President of Google China. And he is the author of a fantastic new book called “AI Superpowers.” Welcome to the show, Dr. Lee.
Kai-Fu Lee: Thank you Byron.
I love to begin by saying, AI is one of those things that can mean so many things. And so, for the purpose of this conversation, what are we talking about when we talk about AI?
We’re talking about the advances in machine learning… in particular Deep Learning and related technologies as it applies to artificial narrow intelligence, with a lot of opportunities for implementation, application and value extraction. We’re not talking about artificial general intelligence, which I think is still a long way out.
So, confining ourselves to narrow intelligence, if someone were to ask you worldwide, not even getting into all the political issues, what is the state of the art right now? How would you describe where we are as a planet with narrow artificial intelligence?
I think we’re at the point of readiness for application. I think the greatest opportunity is application of what’s already known. If we look around us, we see very few of the companies, enterprises and industries using AI when they all really should be. Internet companies use AI a lot, but it’s really just beginning to enter financial, manufacturing, retail, hospitals, healthcare, schools, education and so on. It should impact everything, and it has not.
So, I think what’s been invented and how it gets applied/implemented/monetized… value creation, that is a very clear 100% certain opportunity we should embrace. Now, there can be more innovations, inventions, breakthroughs… but even without those I think we’ve got so much on our hands that’s not yet been fully valued and implemented into industry.
On Value Stream Management in DevOps, and Seeing Problems as Solutions
You know that thing when a term emerges and you kind of get what it means, but you think you’d better read up on it to be sure? Well, so it was for me with Value Stream Management, as applied to agile development in general and DevOps in particular. So, I have done some reading up.
Typically, there seems to be some disagreement around what the phrase means. A cursory Google of “value stream DevOps” suggests that “value stream mapping” is the term du jour, however a debate continues on the difference between “value stream mapping” (ostensibly around removing waste in lean best practices) and “value streams” – for once, and for illustration purposes only, I refer to Wikipedia: “While named similarly, Lean value stream mapping is a process-based practice that seeks to identify waste, whereas value streams provide a higher-level overview of how a stakeholder receives value.”
Value streams are also seen (for example in this 2014 paper) as different to (business) processes, in that they are about making sure value is added, versus being about how things are done. This differentiation may help business architects, who (by nature) like precision in their terminology. However the paper also references Hammer & Champy’s 1993 definition of a process, which specifically mentions value: “Process is a technical term with a precise definition: an organized group of related activities that together create a result of value to the customer.” Surely a process without value is no process at all?
Meanwhile analysts such as Forrester have settled on Value Stream Management, which they reference as “an emerging market” even though at least some of the above has been around for a hundred years or so. Perhaps none of the terminological debate matters, at least to the people trying to do things with whatever the term means. Which is what, precisely? The answer lies in the restating of a problem as a solution: if value stream management is the answer, the challenge comes from a recognition that things are not working as well as they could be, and therefore are not delivering value as a result.
In the specific instance of DevOps, VSM can be seen as a direct response to the challenge of DevOps Friction, which I write about in this report. So, how does the pain manifest itself? The answer is twofold. For people and organisations who are already competent at DevOps, particularly those cloud-native organisations who are DevOps-by-default (and might wonder what other approach might exist), the challenge is knowing whether specific iterations, sprints and releases are of maximum benefit, delivering something of use as efficiently as possible.
In this instance, the discipline of value stream management acts as Zen master, asking why things are as they are and whether they can be improved. Meanwhile the ‘emerging market’ of VSM refers to tooling which smooths and simplifies development and operational workflows, enabling the discipline to be implemented and hopefully maximising value as a result. Which gives us another “problem-as-solution” flip — while many of the tools available today are API-based, enabling their integration into workflows, they have not always been built with end-to-end value delivery in mind.
A second group feeling the pain concerns organisations that see DevOps as an answer, but are yet to harness it in a meaningful way beyond individual initiatives — many traditional enterprises tend to fall into this category, and we’ve held various webinars about helping organisations scale their DevOps efforts. For these groups, value stream management offers an entry point: it suggests where effort should be focused, not as DevOps as an end in itself but as a means for delivering increased, measurable value out of software.
In addition, it creates a way of thinking about DevOps as practical workflows, enabled by automation tools, as opposed to ‘just’ a set of philosophical constructs. The latter are fine, but without some kind of guidance, organisations can be left with a range of tooling options but no clear idea about how to make sure they are delivering. It’s for this reason that I was quite keen on GitHub’s announcement around actions, a couple of weeks ago: standardisation, around not just principles, but also processes and tools, is key to efficiency.
The bottom line is that, whatever the terminology, we are moving away from thinking that ‘DevOps is the answer’ and towards ‘implementing the right kind of DevOps processes, with the right tools, to deliver higher levels of value’. Whether about principles or tooling, value stream management can therefore be filed in the category of concepts that, when they are working right, they cease to exist. Perhaps this will become true in the future but right now, we are a long way from that point.
Afternoon: If you want to read up on the notions of value management as applied to business outcomes, I can recommend this book by my old consulting colleague Roger Davies.
Voices in AI – Episode 73: A Conversation with Konstantinos Karachalios
About this Episode
Episode 73 of Voices in AI features host Byron Reese and Konstantinos Karachalios discuss what it means to be human, how technology has changed us in the far and recent past and how AI could shape our future. Konstantinos holds a PhD in Engineering and Physics from the University of Stuttgart, as well as being the managing director at the IEEE standards association.
Transcript Excerpt
Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI, brought to you by GigaOm, and I’m Byron Reese. Today our guest is Konstantinos Karachalios. He is the Managing Director at the IEEE Standards Association, and he holds a PhD in Engineering and Physics from the University of Stuttgart. Welcome to the show.
Konstantinos Krachalios: Thank you for inviting me.
So we were just chatting before the show about ‘what does artificial intelligence mean to you?’ You asked me that and it’s interesting, because that’s usually my first question: What is artificial intelligence, why is it artificial and feel free to talk about what intelligence is.
Yes, and first of all we see really a kind of mega-wave around the ‘so-called’ artificial intelligence—it started two years ago. There seems to be a hype around it, and it would be good to distinguish what is marketing, what is real, and what is propaganda—what are dreams what are nightmares, and so on. I’m a systems engineer, so I prefer to take a systems approach, and I prefer to talk about, let’s say, ‘intelligent systems,’ which can be autonomous or not, and so on. The big question is a compromise because the big question is: ‘what is intelligence?’ because nobody knows what is intelligence, and the definitions vary very widely.
I myself try to understand what is human intelligence at least, or what are some expressions of human intelligence, and I gave a certain answer to this question when I was invited in front of the House of the Lords testimony. Just to make it brief, I’m not a supporter of the hype around artificial intelligence, also I’m not even supporting the term itself. I find it obfuscates more than it reveals, and so I think we need to re-frame this dialogue, and it takes also away from human agency. So, I can make a critique to this and also I have a certain proposal.
Well start with your critique If you think the term is either meaningless or bad, why? What are you proposing as an alternative way of thinking?
Very briefly because we can talk really for one or two hours about this: My critique is that the whole of this terminology is associated also with a perception of humans and of our intelligence, which is quite mechanical. That means there is a whole school of thinking, there are many supporters there, who believe that humans are just better data processing machines.
Well let’s explore that because I think that is the crux of the issue, so you believe that humans are not machines?
Apparently not. It’s not only we’re not machines, I think, because evidently we’re not machines, but we’re biological, and machines are perhaps mechanical although now the boundary has blurred because of biological machines and so on.
You certainly know the thought experiment that says, if you take what a neuron does and build an artificial one and then you put enough of them together, you could eventually build something that functions like the brain. Then wouldn’t it have a mind and wouldn’t it be intelligent, and isn’t that what the human brain initiative in Europe is trying to do?
This is weird, all this you have said starts with a reductionist assumption about the human—that our brain is just a very good computer. It ignores really the sources of our intelligence, which are really not all in our brain. Our intelligence has really several other sources. We cannot reduce it to just the synapses in the neurons and so on, and of course, nobody can prove this or another thing. I just want to make clear here that the reductionist assumption about humanity is also a religious approach to humanity, but a reductionist religion.
And the problem is that people who support this, they believe it is scientific, and this, I do not accept. This is really a religion, and a reductionist one, and this has consequences about how we treat humans, and this is serious. So if we continue propagating a language which reduces humanity, it will have political and social consequences, and I think we should resist this and I think the best way to express this is an essay by Joichi Ito with the title which says “Resist Reduction.” And I would really suggest that people read this essay because it explains a lot that I’m not able to explain here because of time.
So you’re maintaining that if you adopt this, what you’re calling a “religious view,” a “reductionist view” of humanity, that in a way that can go to undermine human rights and the fact that there is something different about humans that is beyond purely humanistic.
For instance I was in an AI conference of a UN organization which brought all other UN organizations with technology together. It was two years ago, and there they were celebrating a humanoid, which was pretending to be a human. The people were celebrating this and somebody there asked this question to the inventor of this thing: “What do you intend to do with this?” And this person spoke publicly for five minutes and could not answer the question and then he said, “You know, I think we’re doing it because if we don’t do it, others were going to do it, it is better we are the first.”
I find this a very cynical approach, a very dangerous one and nihilistic. These people with this mentality, we celebrate them as heroes. I think this is too much. We should stop doing this anymore, we should resist this mentality, and this ideology. I believe we make machine a citizen, you treat your citizens like machines, then we’re not going very far as humanity. I think this is a very dangerous path.
From Storage to Data Virtualization
Do you remember Primary Data? Well, I loved the idea and the team but it didn’t go very well for them. It’s likely there are several reasons why it didn’t. In my opinion, it boiled down to the fact that very few people like storage virtualization. In fact, I expressed my fondness for Primary Data’s technology several times in the past, but when it comes to changing the way to operate complex, siloed, storage environments you come across huge resistance, at every level!
The good news is that Primary Data’s core team is back, with what looks like a smarter version of the original idea that can easily overcome the skepticism surrounding storage virtualization. In fact, they’ve moved beyond it and presented what looks like a multi-cloud controller with data virtualization features. Ok, they call it “Data as a Service,” but I prefer Data Virtualization…and being back with the product is a bold move.
Data Virtualization (What and Why)
I’ve begun this story by mentioning Primary Data first, because David Flynn (CEO of HammerSpace and former CTO of Primary Data) did not start this new Hammerspace venture from scratch. He bought the code which belonged to Primary Data and used it to build the foundation of his new product. That allowed him and his team to get on the market quickly with the first version of HammerSpace in a matter of months instead of years.
HammerSpace is brilliant just for one reason. It somehow solves or, better, hides the problem of data gravity and allows their Data-as-a-Service platform to virtualize data sets by presenting virtualized views of them available in a multi-cloud environment through standard protocols like NFS or S3.
Yes, at first glance it sounds like hot air and a bunch of buzzwords mixed together, but this is far from being the case here… watch the demo in the following video if you don’t trust me.
The solution is highly scalable and aimed at Big Data analytics and other performance workloads for which you need data close to the compute resource quickly, without thinking too much about how to move, sync, and keep it updated with changing business needs.
HammerSpace solutions have several benefits but the top two on my list are:
• The minimization of egress costs: This is a common problem for those working in multi-cloud environments today. With HammerSpace, only necessary data is moved where it is really needed.
• Reduced latency: It’s crazy to have an application running on a cloud that is far from where you have your data. Just to make an example, the other day I was writing about Oracle cloud, and how good they are at creating high-speed bare-metal instances at a reasonable cost. This benefit can be easily lost if your data is created and stored in another cloud.
The Magic of Data Virtualization
I won’t go through architectural and technical details, since there are videos and documentation on HammerSpace’s website that address them (here and here). Instead, I want to mention one of the features that I like the most: the ability to query the metadata of your data volumes. These volumes can be anywhere, including your premises, and you can get a result in the form of a new volume that is then kept in sync with the original data. Everything you do on data and metadata is quickly reflected on child volumes. Isn’t it magic?
What I liked the least, even though I understand the technical difficulties in implementing it, is that this process is one-way when a local NAS is involved… meaning that it is only a source of data and can’t be synced back from the cloud. There is a workaround, however, and it might be solved in future releases of the product.
Closing the Circle
HammerSpace exited stealth mode only a few days ago. I’m sure that by digging deeper into the product, flaws and limitations will be found.t is also true that the more advanced features are still only sketched on paper. But I can easily get excited by innovative technologies like this one and I’m confident that these issues will be fixed over time. I’ve been keeping an eye on multi-cloud storage solutions for a while, and now I’ve added Hammerspace to my list.
Multi-cloud data controllers and data virtualization are the focus of an upcoming report I’m writing for GigaOm Research. If you are interested in finding out more about how data storage is evolving in the cloud era, subscribe to GigaOm Research for Future-Forward Advice on Data-Driven Technologies, Operations, and Business Strategies.
Voices in AI – Episode 72: A Conversation with Irving Wladawsky-Berger
About this Episode
Episode 72 of Voices in AI features host Byron Reese and Irving Wladawsky-Berger discuss the complexity of the human brain, the possibility of AGI and its origins, the implications of AI in weapons, and where else AI has and could take us. Irving has a PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago, is a research affiliate with the MIT Sloan School of Management, he is a guest columnist for the Wall Street Journal and CIO Journal, he is an agent professor of the Imperial College of London, and he is a fellow for the Center for Global Enterprise.
Transcript Excerpt
Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI, brought to you by GigaOm, and I’m Byron Reese. Today our guest is Irving Wladawsky-Berger. He is a bunch of things. He is a research affiliate with the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a guest columnist for the Wall Street Journal and CIO Journal. He is an adjunct professor of the Imperial College of London. He is a fellow for the Center for Global Enterprise, and I think a whole lot more things. Welcome to the show, Irving.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Byron it’s a pleasure to be here with you.
So, that’s a lot of things you do. What do you spend most of your time doing?
Well, I spend most of my time these days either in MIT-oriented activities or writing my weekly columns, [which] take quite a bit of time. So, those two are a combination, and then, of course, doing activities like this – talking to you about AI and related topics.
So, you have an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago. Tell me… how does artificial intelligence play into the stuff you do on a regular basis?
Well, first of all, I got my Ph.D. in Physics in Chicago in 1970. I then joined IBM research in Computer Science. I switched fields from Physics to Computer Science because as I was getting my degree in the ‘60s, I spent most of my time computing.
And then you spent 37 years at IBM, right?
Yeah, then I spent 37 years at IBM working full time, and another three and a half years as a consultant. So, I joined IBM research in 1970, and then about four years later my first management job was to organize an AI group. Now, Byron, AI in 1974 was very very very different from AI in 2018. I’m sure you’re familiar with the whole history of AI. If not, I can just briefly tell you about the evolution. I’ve seen it, having been involved with it in one way or another for all these years.
So, back then did you ever have occasion to meet [John] McCarthy or any of the people at the Dartmouth [Summer Research Project]?
Yeah, yeah.
So, tell me about that. Tell me about the early early days in AI, before we jump into today.
I knew people at the MIT AI lab… Marvin Minsky, McCarthy, and there were a number of other people. You know, what’s interesting is at the time the approach to AI was to try to program intelligence, writing it in Lisp, which John McCarthy invented as a special programming language; writing in rules-based languages; writing in Prolog. At the time – remember this was years ago – they all thought that you could get AI done that way and it was just a matter of time before computers got fast enough for this to work. Clearly that approach toward artificial intelligence didn’t work at all. You couldn’t program something like intelligence when we didn’t understand at all how it worked…
Well, to pause right there for just a second… The reason they believed that – and it was a reasonable assumption – the reason they believed it is because they looked at things like Isaac Newton coming up with three laws that covered planetary motion, and Maxwell and different physical systems that only were governed by two or three simple laws and they hoped intelligence was. Do you think there’s any aspect of intelligence that’s really simple and we just haven’t stumbled across it, that you just iterate something over and over again? Any aspect of intelligence that’s like that?
I don’t think so, and in fact my analogy… and I’m glad you brought up Isaac Newton. This goes back to physics, which is what I got my degrees in. This is like comparing classical mechanics, which is deterministic. You know, you can tell precisely, based on classical mechanics, the motion of planets. If you throw a baseball, where is it going to go, etc. And as we know, classical mechanics does not work at the atomic and subatomic level.
We have something called quantum mechanics, and in quantum mechanics, nothing is deterministic. You can only tell what things are going to do based on something called a wave function, which gives you probability. I really believe that AI is like that, that it is so complicated, so emergent, so chaotic; etc., that the way to deal with AI is in a more probabilistic way. That has worked extremely well, and the previous approach where we try to write things down in a sort of deterministic way like classical mechanics, that just didn’t work.
Byron, imagine if I asked you to write down specifically how you learned to ride a bicycle. I bet you won’t be able to do it. I mean, you can write a poem about it. But if I say, “No, no, I want a computer program that tells me precisely…” If I say, “Byron I know you know how to recognize a cat. Tell me how you do it.” I don’t think you’ll be able to tell me, and that’s why that approach didn’t work.
And then, lo and behold, in the ‘90s we discovered that there was a whole different approach to AI based on getting lots and lots of data in very fast computers, analyzing the data, and then something like intelligence starts coming out of all that. I don’t know if it’s intelligence, but it doesn’t matter.
I really think that to a lot of people the real point where that hit home is when in the late ‘90s, IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer, beat Garry Kasparov in a very famous [chess]match. I don’t know, Byron, if you remember that.
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TY - JOUR A1 - Bonilla, Andrés F. A1 - Bonilla, Diego A. T1 - Production and characterization of a novel lignin-based biopolymer from Ulex europaeus JF - Beilstein Archives Y1 - 2020/// SN - M3 - doi:10.3762/bxiv.2020.127.v1 N2 - Invasive plant species are a global environmental threat since they affect native species and may modify ecosystems, which negatively impact human health and world economics. The aim of this study was to synthesize and characterize a new lignin-based biopolymer from gorse (Ulex europaeus), a globally widespread invasive plant. The lignin extraction was carried out through acid-base and solvent-based methodologies to compare the reaction yield. Subsequent polymerization of the extracted lignin was performed by glycine condensation in a 70% 1,4-dioxane solution with H2O2 and CaCl2 as catalysts. The extraction and polymerization products were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Thermal and stability properties of the new biopolymer were determined by thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and analysis of biodegradation rate. The alkaline extraction process of lignin resulted in higher yield than the one by organic solvent. In comparison to the extracted lignin, the novel biopolymer showed differently absorption bands that are characteristic of tensions and flexions of alkenes, amine, and amide groups. Additionally, thermal properties revealed peaks corresponding to decomposition and dehydration reactions, endothermic processes and a melting point of 258.71°C. Total biodegradation was reached after ten hours. A new polymeric, possibly cross-linked, thermally stable material with a potentially high degree of crystallinity was synthesized from a renewable raw material, which might contribute to the gorse management according to the concept of novel ecosystem, besides the reduction in contamination by other polymeric materials. ER -
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The Blog
Justice and the Enemy: The Case for Guantanamo
Critics of military courts sometimes complain that the accused have far less rights than in the federal system. This is not so. Any Nazi defendant transported by time machine from Nuremberg to Guantanamo would be stunned by the rights, privileges, and safeguards to which he was now entitled.
Pre-trial proceedings against Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 suspects held in Guantanamo are likely to begin as early as March. As arguments continue to rage today over Obama's reversal of his commitment in 2009 to put these suspects on trial in U.S. federal courts, distinguished author and historian William Shawcross offers a defense of Obama's decision. In an excerpt from his just-released book, JUSTICE AND THE ENEMY: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Shawcross draws lessons from the famous trials of Nazi war criminals, over which his father, Hartley, presided as lead prosecutor.
THE JUDGMENT OF evil is never simple. When considering the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the so-called "mastermind" of the 9/11 attacks on America and of many other murders around the world, I recalled the work of the philosopher George Steiner, who has written at length on the consequences of Nazi crimes.
In 1981, Steiner caused a sensation by creating a novella--The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.--in which a group of Jewish Nazi hunters discover Hitler, deep in the Amazon jungle, three decades after the end of the Second World War. Many prominent Nazis had indeed fled to South America after their defeat in May 1945; the most important to be discovered was Adolf Eichmann, whom the Israelis kidnapped and spirited to Israel in 1960.
In Jerusalem, Eichmann was put on trial, found guilty, and hanged. Hannah Arendt, writing of that trial, famously spoke of "the banality of evil." By this controversial phrase she did not mean that the evil acts of mass murder of Jews for which Eichmann was responsible were commonplace. Rather she felt that it was not the presence of hatred in Eichmann that drove him to send so many people to their deaths, but the absence of imagination. It was the juxtaposition of evil deeds and the failure to make judgments that Arendt called "banal."
Eichmann himself maintained after his arrest that he was merely following orders and that he had abdicated his conscience in order to follow the Fuhrerprinzip. But that was not true. In 2011, the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, published an investigation of Eichmann based on what it said were "formerly confidential, secret and top-secret documents." These included taped conversations Eichmann had with friends in Buenos Aires before the Israelis caught him. On one occasion he boasted of his crimes, "I was no ordinary recipient of orders. If I had been one, I would have been a fool. Instead, I was part of the thought process. I was an idealist." His only regret was in not having murdered all the Jews. "We didn't do our work correctly," he said. "There was more that could have been done."
In the case of the Fuhrer himself, Steiner began to wonder: What if Hitler, as well as Eichmann, had actually escaped his Berlin bunker, had gotten himself to Latin America, and had lived there, hidden, ever since? If, like Eichmann, he was finally discovered, how should he be dealt with--how should he be tried for his crimes?
Steiner, himself a refugee from Nazi Europe, had always been preoccupied by the power of language. He was haunted by an early 1920s photograph of Hitler "standing like a beggar, with a torn raincoat in front of him, and no one is listening to him. But then 10 people listened, and then a million. . . . " Hitler's eloquence had been overwhelming and within 10 years it had propelled him to be master of Germany and then of Europe, "and, had he, for example, decided to woo his Jewish atomic scientists, he might well have been master of everything."
Steiner began to write The Portage in 1975, at a time when stories of the horrors perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge were being reported by refugees from Cambodia. He asserted that the book sprang "out of my thinking about the horror and terror of the Holocaust. I insist on this, because this novel is also about Cambodia and Vietnam, El Salvador and Burundi, and so on. My feeling is that one has to grapple with the abyss if one can."
In the novella, the Jewish team discovers Hitler and starts to carry him out of the jungle to civilization. But rumors that the Fuhrer has been found flash around the world, as fast as was already possible in
those innocent pre-Internet days. The powers who won the war -- the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France -- all begin to ponder the implications of Hitler's return. Fierce arguments begin over where and how he should be put on trial -- and under what jurisdiction. Deep in the jungle, Hitler's Israeli captors have similar debates. What should be done with him? Burn him at the stake? Set him free as a beggar in Israel itself ?
In violent rainstorms, the search party's radio breaks down. They have to decide whether to sit out the weather and then deliver Hitler as planned to San Cristobal, or whether the risk of their captive
being stolen from them, either by some nation or some media emperor, is too great. They understand that once the world knows that Hitler is being brought out of the jungle, airfields will be dug, roads
bulldozed through the trees. "And a million television cameras. And a Hilton. . . . they'd come like locusts. And take him from us. That's the whole point. They'd take him to New York or Moscow or
Nuremberg. And we'd be lucky if they allowed us to stand in the anteroom peering over a million heads."
Instead, they decide to conduct their own trial, complete with judge, prosecution, and defense attorneys selected from their own party. Remarkably, Steiner gives Hitler almost the last word: The climax of the
book is Hitler's self-defense. It was from the Jews, he declares, that he learned everything. "To set a race apart. To keep it from defilement. To hold before it a promised land. . . . My racism is a parody of yours, a hungry imitation. What is a thousand-year Reich compared with the eternity of Zion?"
Steiner's Hitler insists that he was not the originator of evil in our time--Stalin, he points out, "had perfected genocide when I was still a nameless scribbler in Munich." Stalin killed 30 million people--far
more than he, Hitler. "Our terrors were a village carnival compared with his. Our camps covered absurd acres; he had strung wire and death pits around a continent. . . . How many Jews did Stalin kill, your saviour, your ally Stalin? Answer me that . . . Stalin died in bed and the world stood hushed before the tiger's rest. Whereas you hunt me down like a rabid dog, put me on trial (by what right, by what mandate?)."
Finally, "Hitler" claims that he, the persecutor of the Jews, was also their benefactor; the Holocaust was the principal reason they were able to create Israel. "Perhaps I am the Messiah . . . whose infamous deeds were allowed by God in order to bring His people home."
As his speech ends, Teku, the party's Indian tracker, leaps to his feet and shouts, with startling vagueness, "Proved." As he does so, raucous drumbeats break the air above the clearing where the trial is taking place. The first helicopter from the ravenous world has arrived.
The book caused angry debate when it was published--comments ranged from "masterpiece" to "obscene"--and Steiner was criticized for, inter alia, giving the last word to Hitler. In his own defense, Steiner pointed out that Milton does not provide a real answer to the eloquence of Satan in Paradise Lost; nor does Dostoyevsky rebut the overwhelming speech by the Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov. Steiner also pointed out that he gave the name Teku to the Indian tracker because "it is the Hebrew word used in the Talmud to say that there are issues here beyond our wisdom to answer or decide."
Thirty years later, Steiner's discomfiting meditation on the ambiguity of dispensing justice in an imperfect world seems to have anticipated many of the questions raised in the national and international debates over the best way to bring justice to the leadership of the Al Qaeda terrorist
Brought to trial, Steiner's Hitler was supremely unrepentant. He used the dock as a pulpit from which he not only defended himself but also preached, brilliantly. With his inversion of good and evil, he outwitted his accusers and compounded the victimization of those he had killed. That fictional spectacle anticipated the perversity that many Americans feared would result if, as the Obama administration originally wished, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed went on trial in a civil court in lower Manhattan. The mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America was also a master demagogue. He would seize the opportunity to inspire his followers around the world to continue Al Qaeda's campaign of mass murder against the American people.
On May 2, 2011, the debate over how to bring America's enemies to account was thrown into even sharper relief when a team of U.S. Navy SEALs carried out a lightning raid in Abbottabad, and killed bin Laden. "Justice has been done," said President Obama. Not everyone agreed.
Since 9/11, America's attempts to balance justice and national security have drawn criticism at home and abroad. Some has been fair but much of it ignores the difficulties and dilemmas that the U.S. government faces in dealing appropriately with 21st-century terrorists while fulfilling its principal obligation to protect the lives of its own citizens.
The arguments continue to rage today over Obama's decision to reverse his commitment in 2009 to put Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 suspects held in Guantanamo on trial in the federal courts on the US mainland. Instead, the administration decided last year that they would be tried in Guantanamo in the military commissions system, as reformed by Congress in 2009
Pretrial proceedings are likely to begin as early as March. The Chief Prosecutor in the Military Commissions is General Mark Martins, a distinguished military lawyer who has most recently been the commander of the Rule of Law Field Force-Afghanistan. This is an excellent choice -- Martins has thought long and hard about military commissions, their history, and their utility in today's difficult circumstances.
He has a hugely important and difficult task. In many ways he is the direct successor of Justice Robert Jackson, the Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, where the leading Nazis were tried at the end of the Second World War. But in some ways his task is more difficult than that of Jackson, because then there was broad consensus on the ways in which the war criminals were judged. Not so today.
In a recent speech to the New York City Bar Association, General Martins talked of the need for pragmatism in deciding how best to enhance the security of the U.S. and the safety of the American people. The most effective and sustainable instruments "are ones that are constrained and guided by our core values, including the rule of law." Martins is determined that those tried in Guantanamo shall have, and shall be seen to have, totally fair trials.
He argues that both the federal courts and the military commissions have a role to play in terrorism cases. In many, if not most, cases the federal courts would be the most appropriate forum, but in cases of violations of the rules of war, the reformed military commissions would have the edge. Critics of military courts sometimes complain that the accused have far less rights than in the federal system.
This is not so -- in fact the two systems are remarkably similar. In the military commissions as in the federal courts, "The accused is presumed innocent. The prosecution must prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The accused has: the right to notice of the charges; the right to counsel and choice of counsel; the right to be present during the proceedings; the right against self-incrimination; protections against use of statements obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right to present evidence, cross examine witnesses, and compel attendance of witnesses in his defense, and so on. Most important of all he has the right to appeal against any guilty verdict through the federal civilian court of appeals and ultimately all the way to the Supreme Court.
Any Nazi defendant transported by time machine from the dock in Nuremberg to that in Guantanamo would be stunned by the rights, privileges, and safeguards to which he was now entitled. Most basic of all, there was no right of appeal at Nuremberg. As General Martins said, "Like our forebears [at Nuremberg], we are not seeking "victors' justice," but justice consistent with the rule of law and our longstanding values and ideals."
I am confident that the trial of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed et al, conducted by General Martins, will be seen to be fair and appropriate. It will protect both the rights of the defendants and the security of the United States and its people.
Like Nuremberg it will address not just a group of thugs but the enduring human phenomenon of evil. No two eras are the same, nor are the threats they face identical. Evil reinvents itself. Like the fascistic ideology that the democratic world fought in the 1940s, the dogmas of Al Qaida and of the Shiite extremist dictators of Iran is despotic, ruthless, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and nihilist. They are responsible for the murders of thousands and thousands of people and almost every day we are reminded by the latest car bomb or suicide bomber of their war against the world.
It is important to recall that the vast majority of their victims are other Muslims and to remember that their demands are non-negotiable. They cannot be appeased, any more than the Nazis could be appeased. They must be fought and defeated. This will not be easy. It is worth recalling Reinhold Niebuhr's warning that "we take and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilisation."
Mistakes have been made by the U.S. since 9/11. That is no surprise -- as Churchill famously said, "War is a catalogue of errors." But America's errors in the war that was forced upon it have been broadcast in endless, unforgiving loops around and around the world. It is a tribute to the United States that fair criticisms are absorbed not rejected.
There is every reason to believe that the nation and its courts, military as well as civilian, will continue to interpret the law in exemplary fashion, with the defendants enjoying far more rights than their predecessors did at Nuremberg. Enormous care has been taken to ensure that that is so -- and America has the right to be proud of that, as well as of so much else.
Adapted from JUSTICE AND THE ENEMY: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed by William Shawcross. Published in January 2012 by PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Popular in the Community
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Petland Montgomery
Curly-Coated Retriever
Now, this is a dog that does it all. Initially bred to retrieve game from diverse terrains the Curly-Coated Retriever was really popular with diverse groups of people, people of different professions. This includes poachers, hunters, gamekeepers and so much more. Discover more about our Curly Coated Retriever puppies for sale below!
This dog shines in speed, agility, perseverance, and intelligence which are all the reasons it competes in dog sports like flyball. This breed has also been used in the force for drug detection, rescue missions, and it also has credit for being a therapy dog. With the Curly-Coated Retriever, there are great expectations.
Brief history
The exact heritage of the Curly-Coated Retriever is unknown. However, it has been linked to some extinct water spaniels of English descent and even Poodles, however, the exotic breed made its debut appearance in 1860 in a show ring.
This breed was highly sought by gamekeepers who needed them for their hunting ability and perseverance. This breed took major bullets during World War II and they were depreciated in their numbers. It took a while to get the breed back in their numbers and after which in 1907 they were imported to the US.
This dog breed is filled with determination and the energy to execute. They work tirelessly and do not stop until they’re done. This breed is pretty reserved and can be hostile with strangers however they are always alert which makes them great guard dogs.
They need an early socialization of who the master is in their life so as to always please him as they can have a mind of their own. They can be sweet and cuddly around members of the family but do not show the same affection to strangers.
These dogs were bred to be on their toes, to chase, hunt, search, and find. Hence obedience is a major quality of the breed.
This breed can adapt fairly to both weather extremities. However, the Curly-Coated Retriever isn’t suited for apartment life. They do not like to be in enclosed spaces with no outlet for the outside world.
They love to be running fields, exploring smells and being free of a leash, hence a home with a backyard may suffice. However, frequent walks at the park are recommended for this breed. This dog is fair with new dog owners as they require confidence during training which novice owners may lack.
This dog breed has a fairly high need for exercise. Their energy levels are through the roof and they can be very playful enough of the time. The intensity of these exercises could be moderate while it could last for an hour or two.
There are a lot of exercises you can explore with your Curly-Coated Retriever. From field trials to agility tests and endurance training, this retriever is up for all of it. In terms of training, the Curly-Coated retriever is fairly easy to train, it just requires a confident trainer.
They have an insane prey drive and can wander about if not put on a leash. This breed barks often and can be very mouthy or destructive if not given enough exercise.
This dog breed is relatively easy to groom. Its coat can easily be washed when necessary and they only shed two times a year during the spring and the fall.
The amount of their shedding differs per individual dog however, Curly-Coated Retrievers need to be groomed early precisely when they’re still in the puppy stage. This is to make him accustomed to the grooming rituals of fur brushing and combing.
This breed can frizz easily and swimming can help with taming it. Baths are ceremonial for this breed and it’s important to note that the texture and appearance of your curly-coated retriever’s coat equally depend on where they sleep and what they eat.
The unregulated breeders who are selling outside of the USDA regulations and without a license are what we consider to be “Puppy Mills.” We are committed to offering Curly-Coated Retrievers puppies who will grow up to become important members of your family. We only purchase puppies from the very best sources, and we stand behind every puppy we sell.
Contact us today to learn more about the availability of our Curly-Coated Retrievers puppies for sale. We look forward to helping you find your next family member. Our pet counselors can answer any questions you have about our Curly-Coated Retrievers puppies.
10 Frequently Asked Questions About Curly-Coated Retrievers
How long do Curly-Coated Retrievers live?
The life expectancy of the curly-coated retriever is between the range of 9 and 12.
What is Curly-Coated Retrievers dog breed group?
This breed is classified under Sporting Dogs.
How much do Curly-Coated Retrievers weigh?
A mature Curly-Coated Retriever is between 60-100 pounds.
How many colors do Curly-Coated Retrievers come in?
Two. They could be black or liver.
How often should Curly-Coated Retrievers feed?
Their vet recommended meals should be split into two meals per day. This is excluding treats.
Are Curly-Coated Retrievers easy to train?
If you’ve got the confidence, then yes.
Do Curly-Coated Retrievers shed a lot?
They shed heavily twice a year, but apart from that, not so much.
Are Curly-Coated Retrievers great for families?
The Curly-Coated Retriever is great for families irrespective of the type. They’re also friendly with kids.
Do Curly-Coated Retrievers bark a lot?
Not to the point of creating a nuisance.
Do Curly-Coated Retrievers drool a lot?
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June 15, 2022
PNNL’s Climate Research Inspires Artist
Seattle exhibit interprets study linking Arctic ice melt with Western wildfires
ice drawing
Seattle-area artist Eileen Wold was inspired to create the collection, “Arctic Amplification,” after learning of a climate change study by PNNL earth scientist Hailong Wang.
(Photo courtesy of Eileen Wold)
Earth Scientist Hailong Wang has published more than a hundred research papers over the past two decades that have landed in prestigious academic journals. But only one of his articles has inspired an art exhibit.
“An art exhibit? I was very surprised,” said Wang, who began working at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2009.
A Nature Communications journal article Wang co-authored last year captured the attention of Seattle-area artist Eileen Wold, who is a 2021 Bainbridge Arts and Humanities Grant recipient. That study draws a link between melting Arctic ice in the summer and seasonal fires in the western United States.
That study and Wang’s overall climate research inspired Wold’s latest environment-themed body of work, which she called “Arctic Amplification.” CORE Gallery began presenting Wold’s collection June 2 at their downtown Seattle location.
Wold and Wang will discuss the connection between science and art from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, June 17.
Artist Eileen Wold's exhibition, “Arctic Amplification,” is named after a term used to describe the increased rate at which the Arctic is warming compared to the rest of the planet. (Photo courtesy of Eileen Wold)
Findings presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting
The study’s findings, presented at the 2021 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, showed melting Arctic sea ice can influence fire-favorable weather conditions that increase the likelihood of large, seasonal wildfires in the western United States.
Researchers analyzed 40 years of observations on wildfire incidence, sea ice concentrations, and weather conditions to identify a teleconnection. They then performed climate model simulations to demonstrate that declining Arctic sea ice in summer produces an increased probability of large wildfires in the western United States the following autumn. The model simulations show links between sea ice declines and air circulation changes that cause hotter and dryer weather conditions, leading to increased fire risk.
News story captures attention
Wold read a story about the research published in The Seattle Times. She then tracked down the study and read that, too. And she searched for and read other climate change studies authored by Wang and other Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists.
“I’ve had a long-time interest in climate change, energy production, and the environment. It’s the focus of my work,” said Wold, who exhibits work regularly at the CORE Gallery. She has over 20 years of experience exhibiting her work in galleries around the country, including New York, California, and Washington, D.C.
She traces her interest in the sources of electricity and their impacts to the time she lived in New York City, looking across the river to New Jersey within sight of a cogeneration electricity plant. That plant, the Linden Gas Thermal Power Station, became the subject of paintings and a teaching site when she was an art instructor.
Wold’s interest in the environment has since expanded. Her portfolio includes drawings and photography of a West Virginia coal mine—the fuel source for a coal plant near her former home in Baltimore—a collection exploring the impacts of oil spills, and another looking at wind turbines.
Focus on the Arctic
Image: CORE Gallery
Her current exhibition, “Arctic Amplification,” is named after a term used to describe the increased rate at which the Arctic is warming compared to the rest of the planet. It occurs when sea ice melts and the white disappears, leaving more dark water to absorb heat from the sun and increase temperatures.
“As complex global climate systems shift, we are left to contemplate the impact on our local landscapes and ecosystems. How does Arctic ice melt affect Washington state?” said Wold. “That question brought me to the scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and their research on extended dry wildfire season as it relates to jet stream changes caused by Arctic ice melt.”
Wang said he’s looking forward to seeing the exhibition in person on June 17.
“It is a great, exciting opportunity to work with an artist to communicate climate science through art and reach out to the community through a different channel,” Wang said. “I’m super impressed by the artist’s passion and dedication.”
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When Love Happens (2014) Movie Script
Oh, my gosh, Mo, you won't
believe this, you won't believe it!
Who's this?
- Jennifer?
- I could not believe it.
We were in the middle of Oxford Street,
and, oh, my God, he proposed!
What a big rock this is.
It's just so...
- He proposed?
- Yes, yes, yes.
I am sending you
the picture of the ring right now.
It's so beautiful. Gosh! I am so excited.
He proposed right in the middle of...
Okay. Don't get it twisted.
This isn't me being upset
or angry or jealous.
I mean, why should I be?
Jennifer is one of my oldest friends,
and I'm happy she's getting married.
But, still, why isn't it me
making this call?
We have a wedding to plan,
and I need you to do it.
Mo? Hello, Mo? You there?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm here. I'm here.
Okay. I'll be coming home by Wednesday
to set things in motion.
And I have a list of things...
Typical Jenny.
Always sending you on errands.
But, hey...
It's her wedding and she's my friend.
Okay. Right, right, right.
So what do you want to start with?
- Your fruits, honey.
- Oh, thank you, love.
Just the way you like it.
One fork?
- Aren't you eating any?
- No.
Breakfast was quite filling.
I don't want any.
No, you're not going to bribe me.
I'm not going to eat any of this
if you don't have some.
- Okay, fine, I'll join you.
- Okay, here we go.
Ooh, you wanted... You prefer watermelons,
- don't you?
- Mmm-hmm.
- I'm going to stuff you.
- Yeah, you're trying to cheat me
- off of my watermelon.
- How about another?
- Love you.
- Love you too, girl.
Good morning, Dad, Mum.
Good morning, dear. How are you?
- Good.
- All right.
What time did you come in last night,
young woman?
- Mum, you know I had an event.
- So?
That doesn't give a woman the right
to come in at ungodly hours.
I don't like this job.
Can we not do this this morning?
You made that very clear from
the beginning, but this my job, I love it.
But I don't like the fact
that you come in so late at night.
It worries me, Mo.
Say something, Tunde
Don't worry, love. I hate us to worry.
You won't have to worry about her
by the time she moves
to her husband's house.
- Which I hope will be soon.
- Me too.
You plan other people's events.
I think it's time we planned yours,
don't you think?
Have you ever thought that maybe
some of us aren't as lucky
as the two of you
when it comes to finding love?
Oh, nonsense.
There's a man out there for you.
All you have to do is open your eyes.
I remember when I met your father. Oh!
He was standing right there by...
I've heard this story a thousand times.
I'd appreciate it if you didn't
recount it again, especially not today.
- Are you all right, Mo?
- I just want to be left alone.
I don't want to talk about falling in love
or getting married.
Are you okay?
- Do you want to talk about it?
- No!
Pick up your phone.
Your call has been forwarded
to an automatic voice message system.
- At the tone, please record...
- Seriously?
Can't call them for when you want them.
Don't know how
this thing works. But, uh...
Let's give this a go. Go with the flow.
Hi. My name is Moduroti Bankole-Smith,
but you can call me Mo.
So. I was just wondering,
how does a single girl get hooked up
in Lagos these days?
And I'm not talking random dates
or a series of relationships
that are leading nowhere, no.
I'm talking about finding love.
Real love. Love that leads to marriage.
The kind of love that has you at 60
still eating off the same plate,
and laughing at each other's jokes,
and has you gazing into each other's eyes
as if you just met for the first time.
The kind of love
I don't think exists anymore.
I mean, you think you're fine,
got a brain between your ears,
homely, good conversation, hardworking,
and generally a good catch.
Until your friend calls you and tells you
she's getting married.
As in no offense,
but I better pass that girl by far.
And don't get it twisted.
I am not beefing or anything. No, I'm not.
I'm just wondering, like,
where are all the good guys?
Where are they?
I can't believe this girl
is actually getting married.
You're kidding.
Jennifer, of all people,
is getting married.
I need to swallow that with a cold drink.
That's Tseju.
Downright blunt and sarcastic.
Sometimes to a fault,
but she's fun to be with.
She's lively and knows
how to have a good time.
Basically, she's your typical
life-of-the-party kind of girl.
If you're bored, call Tseju.
I hope she doesn't think it's going to be
a walk in the park or something.
I mean, she's getting married.
This girl can't even tie
her own shoelaces,
talk less of handling a man.
- Tseju.
- What?
Come on, that's not fair.
That's Tobe.
The perfect gentleman.
He's caring, generous, sensitive,
and as good as they come.
He's the one person
I can tell anything to
without fear of being judged or criticized
or having all my dirty laundry
hung out in the open.
Anyway, if you ask me,
Jennifer is not that bad.
Really? You have met her, right?
- Well...
- Mo, back me up here.
- Huh? What?
- Seriously?
What are you up to?
I actually can't believe this.
People are watching this thing
I've had five hits.
- What are you talking about?
- That.
- You started a vlog?
- You're kidding.
Yeah. I started a vlog...
And it's actually thanks
to the both of you.
You, I called you and you didn't pick up.
And you, your phone was unavailable
and I needed someone to talk to.
And so you started a vlog?
You are so spoilt.
You needed to talk to someone,
so you talked to the whole world?
- And I did call you back.
- Yeah, two days later.
And what's wrong with a vlog anyways?
I mean, a girl needed to vent,
and I found an outlet.
Oh, please, don't give us that,
"Jennifer is getting married.
"I'm so upset I'm still single."
I can't believe I ordered a drink
five minutes ago and it's still not here.
Come on. You know Tseju. Ignore her.
- So did it really help?
- Yes!
Like I said, I actually can't believe it.
Five hits.
People are watching this thing.
I can't... I don't get it.
Okay, I just got us a large glass,
a pitcher, of margaritas.
So, get ready.
- What are you trying to do? Get us drunk?
- Turn up!
- There is work tomorrow now, though, guys.
- Uh!
Oh, babe, relax.
Turn down!
You girls can't do that.
I expect everyone I work with
to behave in a professional manner,
including my ushers.
This company has a reputation to keep,
so you cannot, under
any circumstance whatsoever,
insult a guest at an event.
But, Mo, he was the one that started it.
Are you telling me you've never heard
the expression,
"The client is always right"?
He's not our client.
The bride and groom were our clients.
You're... You're kidding me, right?
Any guest at any event
is a potential client.
So can't just talk to them
or behave anyhow!
Ah, hey.
- Uh, is everything okay?
- Yes, I'm just addressing an issue.
All right, okay, guys.
Carry on what you're doing, okay?
Great job.
Sorry, Mo.
Do you know what? All of you get out!
Get out of my office.
Sorry, Mo.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Hi, Mum.
Yeah, I'm just about to leave the office.
Okay, okay, I'll stop at the supermarket
on my way home.
Oluwanimoduroti Bankole-Smith?
- Mary Chougule.
- Oh, come here!
Don't be fooled by the smiles.
We were more rivals than friends
back in secondary school.
Whatever I wanted, Mary wanted.
From boys to grades,
anything you can think of.
It was a relief to lose her shadow
after school.
I can't imagine her setting her fangs
into my man now.
If I had one.
You know, the moment I saw your back,
I just knew it was you.
You haven't changed much.
You apparently have.
You put on some weight.
- I have?
- Yeah!
Well, that's what happens
when you have a baby.
And my husband loves my shape
and he is absolutely...
You're married?
And you have a baby?
The universe is definitely
playing tricks on me.
So Mary finally has something
I don't have.
Yes, darling.
Oh, he's into imports and exports,
and, you know, he's loving,
caring and generous.
- We've got the cutest baby in the world.
- Aw, that's nice.
He's going to be three months
in four days.
I should have
a picture of my son here.
You know I can't believe how we used to
fight over dating the same guy in school.
- Of course.
- Silly things we did as teenagers.
- Uh, huh, yeah.
- Where's this picture?
So what about you?
What does your husband do?
It was so good seeing you.
Congratulations on your baby.
I'll see you around.
- Bye!
- Hold on. Wait, my picture...
Oh, hey, Mo
Where are the groceries I asked you to buy
on the way home?
- Did you leave them in the car?
- Good evening, Mum. No, I didn't.
So, where are they?
They didn't have
anything in the shop.
- Everything?
- Yes.
- Why didn't you check somewhere else?
- It didn't occur to me, Mum.
This is not me being desperate.
But you never know how love will find you.
The truth is, I don't believe
in Internet dating,
but who knows?
I might just meet Mr. Perfect.
I mean, what harm could come from this?
None. I hope.
Okay, Mo, if you're going to do this,
just do it.
Don't chicken, just do it.
Everyone does it.
People find love online these days.
People know more people.
They find love, they get married...
Who am I kidding?
No man worth his salt wants to date
a 28-year-old he met on the Internet.
But you're widening your options,
that's all you're doing.
Just widening your options.
Nobody has to know.
Apart from the guy you're going to date.
Am I actually doing this?
Like, really?
This is what it has come to.
Just do it. It's cool.
Just do it.
Just do it.
Thank you, Mary. Thank you very much.
I can't believe I just did that.
This is ridiculous.
For real?
This thing is fast.
Mmm, okay.
Hi, yes. This is Mo.
Who's speaking?
Oh, Leo? Hi.
Yes. Oh, thank you.
Hey, love.
- How are ya?
- Hey, I'm good. How are you?
I'm good, chilling.
Hey, we haven't spoken in a while, huh?
I know it's not like me to not call,
but you know how hectic it can get
at the banks.
But for you, man, come on! You can't even
pick up your phone to call someone.
Yes, and, uh, can't even talk right now
'cause I'm actually on my way out.
Oh, yeah? Where you going?
- Our spot?
- No. On a date.
A date?
Oh, for real? With who?
Nobody you know.
Look, I'll give you the gist later.
I have to go.
So I can't even see you today?
It's our special day.
And look at me keeping my hopes up.
Please, Mo. Please.
Tell me I'm not stuck with
that crazy Tseju girl.
You guys will have fun
without me, jo. Bye!
I know, but she... Mo?
Um, sorry. Have we met before?
I'm sorry. I thought you were Leo.
I'm actually waiting for someone.
Yeah. Come back after. Thanks.
Okay, okay.
I'll forgive you again.
Ah! You being serious?
Mo, right? I'm Leo.
You have got to be kidding me.
Of all the guys out there,
I get Steve Urkel? Really?
Imagine the look on Tseju's face
if I showed up with a guy like this.
She'll probably die of a heart attack.
Oh, no way this is going to work.
I'm sorry
I think you have the wrong girl.
It's a joke, isn't it?
I saw your picture on the Internet.
I said you have the wrong girl.
Uh, but... But, it's...
What's funny now?
What's funny about it?
A lot.
It's not funny, it's hilarious, man.
Oh, my God. You know what?
For once, I have to agree with Tseju.
It's some crazy story.
At least I found a way to escape
- instead of being stuck in a boring...
- Oh, no, no, no, no. Come on, Mo!
The fact that the guy is a nerd
doesn't mean he's going to be boring.
You didn't give him a chance
to get to know you.
Don't make her hear words.
You seriously need help.
Of all the ways to meet a guy...
Online dating?
Babe, that's a cry for help.
I thought it was worth a try.
You're an events planner,
for goodness sakes.
You meet guys day in, day out.
You could just hook up with any of them
- when it comes to...
- No, no, no, no. Time out, time out.
Come on now.
Tseju, that's totally unprofessional.
The girl is an event planner.
You don't expect her to hook up
with guys at events she plans.
- Exactly.
- Oh, please.
And you.
You don't think
you're taking this too far?
You need to chill out, man.
It will come to you naturally, yeah?
It isn't easy for everyone
like it is for you.
Like, you can go outside
and pick any girl.
Come on, Mo.
I don't want any girl.
I want one girl.
Look, we're not talking about you.
We are talking about my dating life, okay?
And you seriously need help.
So you said a thousand times.
Please help me, Tseju.
First of all, you need to,
I don't know, go out more.
- Like, this, I don't know, you...
- Know what, ladies?
I'll call it a night here.
See you guys later.
You were saying?
First lesson.
You need to see the guy's picture
before you agree to a blind date.
Yeah, but then it wouldn't be
a blind date, then, would it?
Who goes on a blind date
in this age of modern technology?
And this is Lagos.
Trust me, the men are out there.
From the billionaires, who are loaded,
and usually good-looking.
But even if they aren't, who cares?
And then, of course,
there are the corporate guys.
Those you catch in the clubs,
restaurants, lounges on a Friday night.
Some are married, some are not.
Some are millionaires
or millionaires in the making.
And then, of course, we have the scrubs.
And, my dear, this is a niche where
you find a lot of eligible bachelors,
and plenty single girls.
This, my friend,
is where the game is played.
And to win?
You have to set yourself apart.
Please stop doing that.
But you know this dress
is too short for me,
and I don't like short things,
so it makes me feel like I am desperate.
Think of the dress
as an attractive package
for a brand new toy or a fancy gadget
that has plenty of benefits to offer.
Excuse me, but I am not a toy!
Figure of speech.
Basically what I am saying is
nobody is going to look in your direction
if you don't have the right package
on the outside. Okay?
Regardless of whatever you have
on the inside.
Men are drawn by...
What they see.
You told me a thousand times.
Good. So you're paying attention.
Now put a smile on your face.
Turn around. Let's work this.
Sorry, I'm so sorry...
- Hi.
- Uh... Can I buy you a drink?
Okay. Yeah, sure.
The thing is, we pour the liquid cement
into any kind of shape we want it to take.
If you need to alter the shape,
you have to make sure that
- it is still in liquid form.
- Mmm-hmm.
I love being a civil engineer.
So much so that my friend thinks that,
because I love it so much,
I don't have time for fun.
That's why he dragged me here.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
That explains a lot.
He's been talking about his work
for the past 30 minutes.
I'm here to have some fun
and meet an interesting guy,
not to be talked to death.
One more thing about his precious work
and I am out of here.
Believe me.
Oh, wow...
Uh, I think we have
to take off very soon 'cause
I have a floor plan to check tomorrow
and I'm starting...
- I'm going to need another drink.
- Okay, I'll get you one...
- No, no, no, no. I'm fine.
- You sure?
- I'll get one myself.
- Okay.
Oh, please, please sit. Thank you.
I know some
really good real estate, though.
- Oh, this is my friend Mo.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
I'm leaving. Are you coming?
Would you like me to drop you home
or are you staying?
- What's going on? What's happened?
- I'm leaving.
Do you want to stay or would you like me
to drop you at home?
I'll see you later. Bye.
Nice to meet you.
Yes, Tseju.
I'm tired.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll talk to you tomorrow.
I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?
- All right, bye.
- Bye. I love you. Bye.
Mo? Are you there?
I think I heard her come in just now.
Her car is parked outside.
Look, maybe she's tired.
Perhaps the date went well.
Perhaps it did.
We'll get the details tomorrow.
Come on, love.
Let's go to bed.
Let's do this. Okay.
Hi, it's your girl Mo again.
I know I've been MIA for a little while,
but it's just 'cause
I have been really busy.
So, yes, last time I was wondering how
a single girl in Lagos could get hooked
and find true love.
So, I went and experimented.
See what I could find.
First thing I learned,
the hard way, of course,
is never ever agree to go
on a date with a guy
before you know what he looks like.
Because, trust me, you might
just be shocked out of your skin.
Secondly, dress comfortably.
Don't wear six-inch heels.
Like, look good. Make sure you look good.
But, my sister, your feet follow.
Right now, my feet are killing me.
And the worst part about it is,
the man won't even notice the heels.
Trust me.
All he is interested is in, up here.
So, yes. The first day of my experiment,
I met this guy, the most boring,
uninteresting man I have ever met.
He went on and on and on about his job,
and just when I thought things
couldn't get any worse...
- Another drink, please.
- You're so funny!
- I'm glad I could make you laugh.
- Aw!
So, um...
- More drinks?
- Yes, yes.
Barman, please, another drink for
the beautiful lady.
You're so kind.
And what is it?
That's your ex-boyfriend.
No, no, no, no!
You're jealous?
Hell, no! That's my boss.
And he's having fun, so you should, too.
- Okay?
- Okay.
That's better.
- So, tell me, you're an event planner.
- Yeah.
Sounds so interesting, now.
How well does it pay?
It's not too bad.
Come on, this man. How much, um...
How much is my bill, please?
I think I misplaced my wallet.
Oh, God, this is...
This is so embarrassing.
You know...
- Shake it well.
- Yeah, I am. This is...
Can you...
Can you please help me pick
the bill this time?
You must be joking.
For this Lagos?
This guy thinks I'm a JJC.
I should pick up the tab.
Ha! I bet you he's washing
all the dishes in the restaurants.
I so walked out on him.
And then, the adventure got even weirder.
Of course,
I had to get out from under him.
I said he takes the deal,
or he gets nothing.
- Yes, but don't you think...
- In my line of business,
you can't afford to be sentimental.
- Do you like the food?
- Yes, I think it's...
It's very nice. It's the best meal here.
And, of course, I have ordered the meals.
That was the very best.
- What about the wine?
- It was...
Very nice. Classic.
I don't think I've ever met a guy
who likes the sound of his own
voice this much.
Between us, we said 1,500 words.
Out of those 1,500 words,
he said 1,450.
And by then, you'd have thought,
I would stop, right?
No, Mo keeps going on and on.
You're a very beautiful woman.
Oh, thank you.
I'm really, really thirsty,
I'm just gonna...
Are you okay?
You want me to order for some more drinks?
This is fine.
I, um...
You're so pretty.
Thank you.
Get your hands off me!
You know what? I can't and I won't.
You're a disgusting little man.
Don't smile, don't smile, it's not funny!
Ew! Need I say more?
The guy just couldn't keep
his grimy hands off me.
How disgusting.
Okay, pass this ball, now!
- Hey.
- Fun and jokes!
What are these boys playing today?
You know, it does bring out your temper,
because of the flogging that my boys
are going to give you today.
- Oh, TJ, stop, TJ.
- Oh, TJ, stop, stop, stop.
- What is he watching?
- Fake guy.
- Guys, this is none of your business...
Why don't you just tell her you like her?
Hey, now, gimme, gimme, gimme.
You see?
- Goal, goal.
- Tough guy, lover boy!
I need to talk to somebody now.
This guy. Give me, now.
Goddamn, relax now, come on.
Are you...
Are you actually sending
us out of your house?
Because we're telling you the truth?
And I heard you, now...
So, now, I'm beginning to think
that maybe I'm the problem.
I'm the constant in all these...
...maybe being myself just isn't enough.
I don't know why you're bothering
yourself, Tseju, because I'm not going.
But it's going to be so much fun.
Uh, I've had enough fun
to last me a lifetime.
I'm not interested.
Okay, so you've
had a couple of sour dates.
Are you gonna give up?
Look, for every twelve,
there's always a Judas.
And I've had five Judases.
No Peter, no James, no John.
All thanks to you.
What's that supposed to mean?
Uh, after the first day at the club,
I should've stopped.
But no, you convinced me
to go on another date.
And another date, and another date!
Oh, so, it's my fault that the guys
that you met were wrong for you?
I'm just saying, maybe I shouldn't be
taking relationship advice from you.
Because there's something about my
advice that jinxes your relationships?
No, because you can't give
what you don't have.
You don't have a relationship, Tseju.
You go from guy to guy to guy to guy.
I want something stable, you know, love,
marriage, I want a stable relationship,
not flings.
You're right, Mo.
You know...
You're not the only one that has fantasies
about fairytale relationships.
But this is the real world.
And in the real world,
some of us take what we can get.
Oh, wow!
You sent me a picture, remember?
It's beautiful.
I know!
I haven't seen you in ages,
are you gonna give me a hug?
Oh, it's good to see you.
- Good to see you, you look amazing.
- Oh, you sure?
Because I've been
going through my beauty treatments
and I have been
harassing my makeup artist, so...
I must look really great.
Yeah, but I didn't know you'd hired
a makeup artist already.
I thought I would do that.
Thought I was helping you
plan the wedding.
Oh, of course you are, darling,
but she's brilliant,
so I insisted that she must do my makeup.
Well, she didn't have much of a choice,
considering how much I'm paying her.
The only issue I'm having
right now is this heat.
- It's not that bad.
- Sorry?
It's crazy hot in here, even with the ACs.
How do you guys cope?
Uh, babe, you grew up here.
Which day did you go?
Uh-uh. I've been out of this country
for eight whole years.
Are you gonna say
you've forgotten all the prep nights
and dining hall dramas that we had,
and all those seniors who hated you,
and used to call you...
Royal Junior.
I went to school abroad as well,
and when I came back four years ago,
I adjusted pretty easily.
Well, I'm not you.
You know I don't like anything stressful.
Oh, right and I like stress?
Well, why else would you take on a job
as an event planner?
Yeah, um, great.
Here. We are here to plan your wedding.
So, how many guests are we expecting?
Um, about a thousand.
A thousand?
Is that a problem?
Oh, you can't handle it?
No, it's not that.
I'm just surprised that you'd wanna spend
your special day with so many people.
You should know, I don't have a choice.
I'm royalty and so is he!
You can't expect us to have anything less.
It's going to be a carnival.
Oh, my goodness,
you can't handle this, can you?
Look, if you can't handle this,
my mother knows the best
event planner in this country.
I just wanted you to have the privilege
of organizing my wedding,
because, you know,
we're friends and all.
But like I said,
if you can't handle this...
- I can handle it.
- Okay.
Because you know how
I like things to be perfect.
Now, I'm taking a huge risk
with your mediocre company.
But, hey,
that's what friends are for, right?
Seriously, this is the person
getting married, and not me?
I must be part of some cosmic joke.
Okay, uh, excellent!
So, I'm going to have to work
over the budget again,
obviously because of the increase
in number of guests.
But, um, what I'm gonna do is,
I'm gonna run it by my boss,
you know, sort out the numbers
and then I will get back to you
and then we can set things in motion.
Okay, well, like I said,
money is not an issue, yeah?
As you know, Iyke and I are royalty and
we just want to make sure that everything
goes, you know, really excellent.
You just make sure
that you don't disappoint us, okay?
Yes, Your Highness.
Um, so, when is Iyke coming in?
Oh, he should be in town with
his best man in about one month? Yeah.
Well, we have about three months to go,
right? So, it's not much of an issue.
You'll be surprised at how quickly time
flies by when you're planning a wedding.
Aw, well, that's why I have you.
- To make sure everything goes perfectly.
- Yeah, I guess.
Okay, um, so I'm going to
head back to my office now,
and when I sort some stuff out,
I'll call you with an update.
- No problems.
- Excellent. Okay.
Let me get my stuff together.
Oh, you need to, you know,
take me to all those places
that you single ladies hang out, you know?
Before I tie the knot.
For what?
Please, leave us single girls alone.
Face your marriage.
Oh, Mo.
- Oh, you're back.
- Yes.
- Welcome back.
- Thank you.
- Is he in his office?
- Yes, he is in the office.
-But he's with...
Oh, sorry.
Get out.
Get out. Now!
Will you move?
What the hell is wrong with you?
Can't you keep your trousers zipped?
Must you sleep with everything
with a skirt?
You're a married man,
for God's sake!
You have a beautiful wife who sings
your praises all day
and you want to throw that all away
for a stupid tumble in the sack?
A lot of people would do anything.
They would give anything
to have what you have.
A forever with someone who loves them
and who they can love back!
And you wanna throw it away for just...
For... For just her?
Mo, I...
Are you all right?
Are you okay?
- I'll come back.
- Mo...
It's amazing what people would
do to get on television.
It's absolutely hilarious,
love this thing!
- Oh, here you go honey.
- Thank you.
Good evening, Mum, Dad.
- Mmm.
- Oh...
You're home early.
It's a weekday, Mum.
I'm always home early on weekdays.
Oh, you haven't been home
this early on a Friday night.
Right, Tunde?
Oh, yes. She probably doesn't
have a date this evening.
- Right, dear?
- Yes, Dad.
I don't have a date.
And I won't be having any dates
for a little while.
I've had a long day.
I'm tired, and I just wanna go to bed.
Oh, come on, you can't
conclusively say that.
You never know when love happens.
Look, we're having the Lagudas over.
- For lunch on Sunday. After church?
- Yeah.
Please cancel any appointments
that you might have.
Why should I do that?
Saturdays and Sundays are my busiest
days and you know that.
Well, I know that, honey,
but they're our guests
and I'm trying to accommodate them.
Do I really have to be there?
I'm sure you old folks can
have fun without me.
Of course you have to be there, silly.
Tunde, say something.
All right, calm down, love.
Mo, do you have any events on that day?
- No, but...
- Good!
I should have been told way before now.
What if I did have an event?
But you don't.
So, that settles that, yeah?
Your mom is happy and you're happy.
No, Dad, I'm roped in. Thanks a lot.
- Oh, honey.
- My pleasure.
- You look beautiful.
- Really?
She's so like you.
Why on Earth aren't you dressed?
I thought I told you the Lagudas
are coming over for dinner today.
Okay, Mum, I'll throw something on
and I'll be down in a few minutes.
Well, don't just throw anything on.
I want you to look spectacular.
- For lunch with the Lagudas?
- Well, just look nice.
And come down in five minutes,
- Mary's already setting the table.
- Okay.
- Look nice.
- Okay, Mum.
Spectacular lunch with the Lagudas!
Oh, I need to get out of here.
Ah, good evening, my dear, how are you?
Very well, thank you.
Good evening, ma'am.
Good evening, darling.
How are you?
I'm well, thank you very much.
there's chemistry between them.
So, Dare, I heard you graduated
with honors in the master's program!
- That's quite impressive.
- Mum!
Son, tell me which mother would not be
so proud to brag about our only son?
Well, yes, it is true.
You see?
Excellence runs in my lineage. Mmm?
Why should it be yours, and not mine?
Don't forget, he's as much as my son,
as much as he's yours.
Oh, well, he doesn't bear your name.
He bears mine.
But that is so true! So true!
So, Dare, more the reason why you should
stay back and run my company.
Uh, Dad, I already told you,
I've made arrangements
with investors in the UK for my project.
I know, I know. That's right,
which I don't think is a good idea.
Why can't you stay and run my company?
Because you're already running it, Dad.
You see, that's the problem
with children of nowadays, huh?
No, leave him alone, yeah.
He should have a mind of his own.
And, Mister, that's true.
Mo is gonna drop your name
and then take on her husband's name.
That is so true,
and she would make a very lovely wife.
I'm sure she will.
Last time I saw you, you were
a skinny, tall teenager, back then.
Very funny. I don't remember you being
tall, dark and handsome, yourself.
It's okay.
I'm sure she feels differently now.
Oh, yes!
- She would make a very lovely wife.
- Yes, she will.
And, oh, uh, my mom was right.
You did fill out quite nicely.
That's my boy!
Well, hey, I thought you guys were gonna
go talk some business over drinks?
Yes, that's true.
You said you wanted to discuss
a business proposal.
- Really?
- Oh, yes.
- What business proposal?
- Mmm-hmm. Yes. Yes, sir.
- And girl, let me show you the fabrics.
- Oh, okay, sweetie...
You guys enjoy yourselves.
What are these two women up to?
Seems like they're trying to match make
us when we have already...
They never knew
we were an item back then.
They're probably somewhere
spying on us, as well.
So, when did you get back?
Uh, few days ago.
I came in for an important event.
Right, and you didn't think to tell me
you were going to be here today?
I thought it might be nice
to surprise you.
- Really?
- Really.
Why, aren't you surprised?
So, what have you been up to lately?
Last I heard,
you were out of the country for school.
When did you get back?
That was four years ago, actually.
- Hmm. And then?
- I went into events planning.
So, basically,
you are the errand girl at a party?
You really haven't changed, have you?
You're still as arrogant as ever.
Look, it might not be as glamorous
as oil and gas, but I love it.
Relax. I was just joking.
Besides, you love the job.
That's what matters, right?
So, how about you and I
go for a drink sometime?
Yeah, so what I'm gonna need from you
is I need everything prepared properly,
and I mean to the very last detail,
because I told you the bride is my friend.
And she's very, very, very picky.
Yes, okay.
All right, uh, yes.
I will transfer you the money
by the end of today.
And, yeah...
All right, no problem, bye.
Who was that?
The caterers.
I was just discussing Jennifer's menu.
Okay, um, when is it, again?
Three months. Well, two months
and two weeks to be exact.
- So, everything is okay?
- Yes.
All right, okay.
- I wanted to say...
- I want to tell you...
I wanted to apologize for the way
I spoke to you the other day.
I was upset, yes, but I had no right,
and it's none of my business.
It was none of your business.
And yes, you absolutely had no right.
But even though I am your boss,
I consider you a friend.
That's why I'm gonna tell you why I...
Chase every available thing
in skirt that I see.
Simply because you're married
to this beautiful woman,
you love her, she loves you,
doesn't mean everything will be perfect.
Because, Mo, it never is.
There are no fairy tale marriages.
Just weddings.
I know there are no fairy tale marriages,
but there are good...
There are great marriages.
My parents, they have a great marriage.
Like, they love each other so much
that it makes me jealous.
And I can only hope and wish that
I have that someday.
You see, life...
Life is a vicious circle.
Those that a married, want out.
Those that are not, want in.
Are you saying
you want to leave your wife?
Can't say it doesn't
cross my mind sometimes.
- Why?
- Because she...
She's boring.
Oh, no, no, no, don't get me wrong, now.
Okay? I mean...
She's beautiful, she's homely, she's...
And some guys probably like that,
but me...
I want more.
Okay? I want more excitement.
I want more adventure.
I want someone who's spontaneous,
someone who...
Who would get me wondering what
next step she's going to do.
And have you discussed this with her?
Not really.
Tell her.
Tell her what you want.
And if she doesn't get it, show her.
Just don't stop,
just make sure she gets it.
You just need to stop...
You need to stop this...
Philandering or whatever. There's...
There's no justification for adultery.
And aren't you even scared?
There are, like, STDs out there.
You could get an STD and worse still,
go home and give her one.
Since you've so earnestly convinced me,
I'll think about it. I'll work on it.
So, can I fire Bimpe?
She... She's incompetent!
- Hello.
- Hi.
My name is Dare. What is your name?
I'm Chika.
Hi, Chika. I really like your wristwatch.
Very nice, great taste.
Thank you.
How many I help you, please?
I'm here to see Mo,
Moduroti Bankole-Smith.
Can you point me in the direction
of her office?
Any appointment, please?
No, I don't have an appointment.
You're a woman, you like surprises, right?
Yeah, this is a real surprise visit.
- Will you?
- Okay...
Um, I'm just worried about my job.
I'm not sure...
Chika, you have nothing to worry about.
I'm an old friend.
And I guarantee you, you will not
be in any sort of trouble.
Oh, yes, she will.
But you don't know what I want her to do.
I don't need to know.
Coming from you, it's trouble.
I like your shoes.
You should get some Loubs.
Why are you here?
Won't you ask me to sit down?
I didn't invite you.
Yet, here I am.
How exactly did you find out
where my office is?
Well, let's just say that
your mom was a willing informant.
So, what do you want?
I was curious to see what your
office looked like. Not bad.
I know you're not that jobless
that you came here
just to see what my office looks like.
Yeah, it means I have a lot
of free time on my hands,
but that doesn't mean that I'm jobless.
I'm a man on a mission.
Which is?
To get you to have that drink with me.
I already told you,
the answer is no.
You're scared you will not be able
to resist my charm,
and then fall hopelessly in love with me?
It won't be your first time.
We were teenagers.
- I would hardly call that love.
- Uh-huh.
It was just hormones.
Infatuation, just a crush.
- Anything but love.
- Yes.
Call it what you like.
Think about that drink.
See you soon.
You're here early.
Well, I was supposed to be meeting
Jennifer for work,
but she got bored and said
she wanted to go out,
and since we were supposed
to be meeting here,
I just figured, we all just come
and you know...
Wait, hang on, hang on, hang on...
You mean, um... You mean Jennifer's here?
Yeah, she's in the ladies.
Mo, man, we were supposed
to meet here alone.
I know, I'm sorry.
You know how Jennifer is.
I thought we were supposed
to be meeting alone.
Yeah, Tseju, I said
we should meet, but not alone.
Just sit.
Well, you still could have said
there'd be three of us, not two.
Well, actually, four.
Jennifer's here, too.
You know I can't stand that girl.
I didn't know you were gonna be here.
Well, you've officially been punked.
It's not funny.
It is funny.
You know, I'll tell you what's not funny.
It's you girls not talking.
So, you know what,
we're all gonna sit here
and have you both settle
it out over drinks.
And besides, we're sharing the bill.
Well, consider it penance
for keeping matters, yes?
I'm sorry about the things I said.
I just...
I'm surprised you think so low of me.
Tseju, I don't.
I just want you to want more.
You deserve more.
You're beautiful
and you deserve the world.
- Come here, I missed you.
- I missed you.
Aw, look at them! Winning.
- Bring out your wallet.
- Please go and get the drinks.
I did it!
Oh, my goodness.
Is this not Tobe?
You look good.
Well, thanks.
Hi, Jennifer.
I remember the last time I saw you.
You were just...
You know.
Well, thanks, um...
You don't look bad, yourself.
And, uh, congrats on the wedding.
Aw, thank you.
Bet you she does that to everybody.
That's what she did
the first time I saw her.
Oh, wow, this is beautiful, yeah.
I know! It's just gorgeous.
Honestly, if I wasn't already engaged,
I'd probably consider taking you, too.
What is he, a toy?
Trust me, he's not interested.
Tseju, darling,
I didn't even know you were there.
Well, if you're losing your sight,
you really should book an appointment
with an optometrist.
- Tseju!
- Blind bat.
Right. Blind, indeed.
Ah, hey, Jennifer, so I... I hear
your groom is coming to town.
If he exists.
Actually, he'll be here tomorrow.
Yeah, and I can't wait to see him.
- Why did you invite this over?
- I've missed him so much!
- It's beautiful!
- I know!
You're going to look so beautiful
in your wedding dress.
I cannot wait.
We're walking down the aisle.
Everybody's eyes on me.
I can imagine.
Every girl's fantasy.
Yeah, well...
I can't believe you're getting married!
I'm gonna look amazing.
I'm sorry. Traffic was crazy.
Oh, that's okay.
Oh, Mo, I want you to meet Iyke.
The love of my life, and my husband-to-be.
Nice to finally put a face to the name.
Same here.
Now, the way Jennifer
has been talking about you
I feel like I've known you for ages.
Really? Jennifer?
Talk about someone else but herself?
That's a new one.
And where's your best man?
I assumed the both of you would
come together
just to get your measurements taken.
Oh, yeah, he'll be here soon.
I'm sure he's caught up in traffic.
- Ah.
- Yeah. Oh. There he is.
Hi, Dare.
- Jennifer.
- My man.
Glad you could make it.
Thank you.
You know Mo, don't you?
She's actually
the event planner for the wedding,
and she's been hounding me for days
to set up this meeting.
I remember Mo very well, actually.
Small world.
- Too small, if you ask me.
- Very, very small.
Jennifer, uh, can I have a word with you?
Just quickly.
- I'll just be with her, two minutes.
- Come on.
Just... You'll get her back
in two minutes, I promise.
Come on.
Have you lost your mind?
At what point were you planning
on telling me
that Dare Laguda
is your husband's best man?
Are you're gonna say
you'd forgotten that we had history?
I didn't think it was necessary.
Besides, you and Dare broke up
a hundred years ago.
- So?
- So, this is my wedding.
Stop making it about you.
Seriously? This is me
making this about me?
- Are you actually being serious right now?
- Oh, my goodness.
This is exactly why I didn't tell you.
I need Mo, the calculated,
organized event planner.
Not some love-struck, whiny teenager.
Listen. Mo, listen.
Get a grip, yes?
Otherwise, you are about to lose your job.
Be wise.
What was that about?
I was just as shocked
as you were, you know.
Seeing you here.
But you don't see me grabbing people
and pushing them into corners.
Do you mind? I'm not in the mood.
I... I don't understand
why you're so upset.
She could've told me.
And then what?
You'd have packed your bags
and moved out of town?
She didn't. Deal with it.
Thanks a lot.
So, did you get my message?
And I'm going to have Chika's head
for giving you my key.
Chika did not give me the key.
She just made sure it was delivered
to the right office.
Would you go out on a date with me?
I'll think about it.
You know, I'm not very good at begging.
Don't make me.
So I'll pick you up
at 8:00 p.m. Friday, fine?
Okay, fine, bye.
Get back to work.
Get back to work.
Hello, babe, what's up?
Hi, I'm good. How are you?
Yeah, I'm good. I'm just, uh...
I'm just heading home now.
It's been a long day. You know,
listen, I just wanna take a shower
- and then I'll join you guys later.
- Oh!
Is today the last Friday of the month?
Oh, come on, look at you, man.
I'm sure you didn't...
You haven't spoken with Tseju all day,
or else she would have reminded you.
I actually haven't spoken to her today,
and can't even make it.
Why? What's going on?
- Um, I have a date.
- You have...
...a date?
Mo, I thought you said you were done
with that whole dating crap out there.
Uh, dude...
Wait, have you been watching my vlogs?
Yes, I have.
What date are you going out on again?
Oh, are you serious? Wow.
That's... I didn't expect that,
that's a bit of a shock.
Wait, Tobe, I'll have to call you later,
my date's calling me.
All right, I'll speak to you later. Bye!
Yeah. All right, yeah, sure.
I'll be waiting, yeah.
Okay, then, see you soon.
Hello? Tseju.
Hang on, hang on. Please, tell me
you didn't know Mo had a date tonight.
You... You did?
Tseju, you...
Goodnight, Tseju.
What the hell is wrong with you, Tobe?
Oh, well, good evening to you, too.
Oh, please, I don't have time
for any of your sarcastic crap right now.
Why won't you just tell Mo
exactly how you feel about her
instead of taking out your frustration
on us innocent bystanders?
Tseju, what in heaven's name
are you talking about?
Don't do that.
You know what I'm talking about.
The whole universe knows
exactly what I'm talking about.
Except for Mo, who you won't tell
how you feel about her.
I don't understand.
What? It's not that simple.
But it is that simple.
You just sit your friend down,
you tell her how you feel,
and you save her from this dating madness
she's subjecting herself to.
Well, thanks to you.
I had nothing to do with it.
She started it!
Well, you helped.
Look, just tell her.
Look, Tseju, I've been telling Mo
the same thing for the past months, now.
But she never ever takes me seriously.
Why should she take you seriously
when you don't sound convincing enough?
I mean, how convincing
am I supposed to be?
Give my life in exchange for hers
as a ransom?
Uh, yeah, if that's what it takes.
What exactly are you afraid of?
Tseju, Mo and I have come a long way.
I'm afraid things will change if...
If we got together.
For goodness' sakes, Tobe,
that's the whole point.
Things aren't supposed to remain the same.
You're supposed to go from being friends
to being lovers,
and eventually the Earth will go back
to revolving around the sun again.
Look, I don't care how you do it.
You can put it in a song.
Do something, just man up
and tell her how you feel!
So, are you telling me
that you actually hired out
this whole restaurant
just to take me to dinner?
Yes. Why does that surprise you?
It's quite a lot,
just to try and impress me.
So, are you impressed?
I'm just wondering
how many other ladies
you've done the same thing for.
For all I know, you could have
taken two ladies out this week.
Given them the same treatment.
Made them feel special.
This is about Sandra.
Yeah, this is about Sandra.
haven't you forgiven me?
Oh, I have forgiven.
I just haven't forgotten.
Mo, really, we were teenagers.
These things happen.
I mean, not like
I'm making an excuse for it,
but it wasn't like you were giving it up
and hormones were raging.
Do you know what? Let's just stop there.
'Cause this apology
is even worse than the original one.
So we'll just stop there
before you dig any deeper.
All right, fine.
Let's just start fresh.
I'm sorry.
But I will be ordering
the most expensive thing on the menu.
I'll be having lobster tonight.
Please order for two.
Well... mmm.
- I don't even...
- Really?
I can't justify that, 'cause, yeah.
I was highly offended,
because that was so rude.
And you could have bought
better champagne.
I don't drink just, you know, Brut.
You know that I drink ros, right?
Just to let you know for next time.
Well, our second date will be better,
- guaranteed.
- If I agree to go on one with you.
But yes, um...
I had a great night.
That means my charm still works.
Don't start.
So, I will call you.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night.
So, I take it the date went well.
Honey, she's here!
Seriously, you two
need to stop babysitting me.
No, actually, it's... It's your mother.
She insisted we wait up for you.
She was curious.
We were both curious.
- So?
- So what?
How did it go?
It was fine.
You were humming.
Then it has to be better than fine.
Good night, Dad.
Good night, Mum.
Oh, I think it went well!
I think so, too.
Hi, guys!
I know it's been a while
and a lot has happened.
I would like to introduce you
to the new Mo.
The happy Mo.
The love-struck Mo, yes.
I met a guy.
Well, he's an old friend,
but he's a whole new man.
And he's thoughtful and charming
and handsome.
And he has a very big ego
so I hope he doesn't see this.
But yes. I think I'm in love.
You finally picked up.
I was beginning to think you dropped
off the face of the planet, man.
You know I've been busy
planning Jenny's wedding.
But I... I actually pinged you.
Yeah, you said you were gonna call back,
but you never did.
I'm sorry.
Look, everything has been so crazy.
Like, she calls me every five minutes
to get updates
now that the wedding is just
three weeks away.
Like, I can't wait for it to be over
- so I can get back to...
- Hang on a second, Mo.
We need to talk.
What's going on? Are you okay?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Everything's fine,
it's just, uh... Hold on, hold on.
Yeah, everything's fine, it's just, uh...
Uh, I have a few important things
I need to discuss with you, uh...
I was wondering, are you free?
Can you... Can you come over?
Well, I was going to take a nap,
before Jennifer bombards my phone
with calls again, but okay.
Yeah, sure, why not?
Oh, yeah?
Oh, cool, I'll be expecting you, then.
Okay, but wait, wait.
Are you sure you're okay?
Yeah, Mo, I'm fine.
But just get here.
All right, then. Okay.
All right, bye.
Man, Tobenna, man,
how do you tell her this, man?
Listen here, Mo.
It's me, it's me, Tobenna.
I'm your guy, I've been trying
to reach out to you for months now,
but you hardly ever take notice.
Man, that doesn't even sound
convincing enough, man.
I mean, how do you tell a woman
you love her?
this is ridiculous.
- Hi.
- Hey, beautiful.
Hello, handsome.
Finally, you admit.
Please, don't let your head swell.
It's a statement of fact, honey.
Just happy that you finally see the light.
I want you to come over to my place.
When? 'Cause I'm actually
on my way out now.
- Oh, oh, yeah?
- Going to see a friend. Why, what's up?
Uh, I thought you were
supposed to be resting.
Weren't you saying you're stressed?
What can I do? When a friend needs you,
you have to answer, right?
So since you're
running errands for friends,
do you think you could possibly
stop by my place first?
- It's a surprise.
- Hmm?
A surprise?
Yes, and you need to get here fast.
What, the surprise has
and expiration time on it?
Something like that.
What kind of a surprise is that?
Well, if I told you,
it won't be a surprise now, would it?
Just ask no more questions
and get here quickly.
Okay, but I have to leave early
to go see my friend.
Okay, cool.
What's going on?
Won't you at least kiss me first?
Will you tell me what's going on?
Why are you outside?
Well, I told you you had to hurry.
- And I got here as soon as I could.
- Okay.
Get in the car.
For what?
The surprise.
What's... What's the surprise?
Are we really
going to do this now?
Well, I'm not getting into a car
if I don't know where I'm going.
Fine. Women.
You've been complaining
that you were stressed,
so I decided to take you
to SA for a few days.
I can't. I can't just up and leave.
Yes, you can. Get in the car.
I can't! Jennifer's wedding is in,
like, two weeks.
And you have everything figured out.
But what if something goes wrong,
- and she can't reach me...
- Mo.
You're only going for the weekend,
and if she needs to get you,
she can talk to your boss directly.
They both agreed.
wait, wait, wait.
How did you do that?
Let's just say that, um...
I have my way with people.
They can't resist my charms.
Oh, wait, my friend's calling me.
- Oh, no.
- No, no, no, no, no, wait, wait.
I have to...
Get in the car.
But I... I don't have any luggage.
Don't worry about that.
I have a MasterCard.
It's all the luggage that you need.
How did you even get my passport?
My mum.
And she was more than willing.
- Mmm.
- Can we go now?
You know, you're bossy.
- Yes.
- And arrogant.
That, too, but you still love me that way.
- Can we go now?
- Whatever.
How could you say unavailable?
It just rang off right now.
Your call has been forwarded
to an automatic voice message system.
At the tone, please record your message.
When you have finished recording,
you may hang up,
or press one for more options.
Will you at least calm down and sit down?
You're making me nervous.
Well, I'm just wondering
what's taking so long.
Look, I told you already,
there's nothing wrong with Mo.
How do you know that?
She was supposed to show up at my place.
She never did.
I've been trying to reach her
on the phone,
- she's not...
- Yes, yes, yes. You told me.
Tseju, I don't even understand
how you can be so calm
- through all of this, eh?
- Maybe it's because...
I'm not the one who's in love with Mo.
Besides, if there was anything wrong
with her,
you'd have heard them
mourning from the gates.
Then where the hell is she?
Good afternoon, ma'am.
- Good afternoon, ma'am.
- Oh!
Tobe. Tseju.
It's been a long time I've seen you both.
- How are you?
- We're fine, ma'am.
Well, that's good.
Uh, ma'am, is... Is...
Is Mo okay?
Well, he...
We wanted to...
We tried to call her
and we couldn't get through,
so we wanted to make sure she's okay.
Oh, well, of course she's okay.
She's in South Africa
having fun with Dare.
- Oh! Oh.
- Yes.
She's didn't tell you two?
Oh, well, he decided to surprise her
with a trip.
It was the most romantic thing.
Uh, ma'am...
Sorry, you don't mind I
get something from the car?
Oh. Sure.
What time is she getting back, ma'am?
This evening, or tomorrow morning.
Okay, ma'am. Could you please tell her
that we stopped by?
She'll give us a call
when she gets in?
- Sure. I will.
- Okay. Thank you.
Is Tobe okay?
Thank you, ma'am.
You're welcome, honey.
No, I can't.
Look, I'm swamped with work
because of you.
So I won't be seeing you anytime soon.
Listen, don't worry.
You will survive, okay?
Look, I have to go.
You're so naughty.
All right, okay, I have to go, seriously.
All right, then. Bye.
That's Dare, I take it.
Yes, and I can't believe it.
Do you know what? It feels like a dream.
- Apparently.
- Where's Tobe?
I thought he was meeting us here.
- What?
- Seriously?
Did you think he'd show
after the stunt you pulled?
- What stunt?
- Really?
What are you talking about?
There's only so much a man can take, Mo.
What are you talking about, Tseju?
Are you seriously asking me that?
Yes, what are you talking about?
What's all this drama?
Have you called Tobe since you got back?
No, I've been busy.
- With Dare.
- No, actually, with work.
Now are you going to tell me
what's going on?
You were supposed to meet Tobe.
At his house, remember that?
And then you just disappeared.
No phone call, no text, nothing.
The guy was worried out of his mind.
Yeah, but I didn't plan it.
Dare just came to my house.
It was so unexpected.
Was I gonna say no?
I'm just surprised about you and Dare.
You were dead-set against
dating him in the first place.
And then you changed your mind
and I thought,
"Okay, no harm can come of this,"
because you've dated before.
But now things are moving so fast.
Don't you think
they're moving really fast?
Slow down?
Slow down for what?
Listen, I've finally found
a guy who's charming,
handsome, and sweeps me off my feet.
And the best part about it is
I've known him for years.
What am I slowing down for?
Well, there is a reason
you broke up in the first place.
- Yes!
- Remember that?
And back then, he was a young man
with raging hormones.
Now, he's a mature man.
Okay. I'm really not trying
to pick a fight with you
or criticize your decision.
I'm just making an observation.
Because I want you to be sure.
I took your advice.
And I don't want you
to settle for less, either.
I won't, trust me.
Believe me, it's fine.
- Yeah?
- Yes!
Okay, but you still have to call Tobe
and apologize.
- Yeah, yeah, I'll call him.
- Fix it.
I will, I will, I will.
Right, tell me about your trip.
- Oh, my God!
- How'd it go?
It was amazing.
What's up?
What's up with you?
I'm fine.
Yeah, I can see that.
I was worried.
You weren't picking up my calls.
You weren't returning my calls.
I'm sorry, I've just been, uh, busy.
You've been busy?
What, too busy to call me back?
Come on, Mo.
There have been times when you
couldn't take or return my calls,
but I never made a fuss of it.
The world doesn't have to
revolve around you.
You know that, yeah?
What did I do?
Clearly, you're angry with me
and I don't know why.
I'm not angry with you.
Yes, you are.
Look, we've been friends
for a long time, Tobe.
I know you.
No, you don't.
Yes, I do.
You don't, Mo.
What's going on?
You're my best friend.
Therein lies the problem, Mo.
What's that supposed to mean?
Tell me, Mo, why are you here?
I came here 'cause I missed you
and I wanted to see you, but apparently...
You know what? Forget it.
I'm sorry I disturbed you.
- I'm sorry.
- Why?
Why am I sorry?
Why are you angry?
I'm not angry with you, Mo, it's just...
It's just that you keep
taking me for granted
and I'm sick and tired of it already.
I don't.
See, you don't even know it,
but you do.
Well, I'm sorry.
- There.
- I...
- I didn't mean to...
- That's exactly what I don't
want you to do.
Be sorry.
I want you to change, Mo.
I want you to...
I want you to stop seeing me as... As...
I think the point I'm trying
to make here, Mo, is
I want you to start seeing me.
I see you, Tobe.
No, you don't.
I'm such a part of your life,
I've melted into the background already.
Listen, I don't know about any of this
"melting into the background."
But, it's because you are
a part of my life.
That's what makes you special.
I can tell you absolutely
any... Anything.
It's not everyone that I can do that with
so I don't understand what you're talk...
Don't pick it up.
Mo, you just got here, don't pick it up.
It's work.
What, right now?
Okay, okay, I'm coming.
I have to go.
Can we talk about this later?
I'll call you.
But that wasn't what we agreed.
No, no, no, no, no.
You said the structure would be up by now.
Listen, do you know what?
I'm not even having this conversation
over the phone anymore.
Is your manager around?
Is your manager around, yes or no?
Okay, I'm going to come there now.
I'm on my way over.
I don't... No, no, no, no, no.
I will see you in twenty minutes.
Hello, Lanre.
Yeah, so I was just speaking
to the people, the...
They're just telling me stories.
Honestly, I don't know
what their problem is.
They said the overflow structure
isn't up yet and they can't do anything.
All right.
No, no, no, no, I'm going there...
I'm going there now.
I'm going to see their manager,
so it's fine, I'll sort it out.
Yes, yes, yes, all right.
Okay, I'll see you soon, bye.
Hi, Jennifer.
Hi, how are you?
Oh, I... I have it with me now.
I have his tux.
But it's in my car.
Nothing will happen to it.
Okay, okay, if it makes
you feel comfortable.
I'll go and give it to him myself.
Okay, I'll do that for you.
I'll let you know when I've done it, okay?
All right, bye, bye.
Oh, Jesus.
The door was open.
Hey, Mo, Mo.
Mo, it's not at all like that.
Don't touch me.
I'm sorry
for my unprofessional behavior.
I knocked, but nobody opened the door.
Mo, look, I can explain.
See, what you saw...
Was none of my business.
I came...
I came to drop this off.
I need you to get it to Mr. Iyke.
The bride says...
She needs it to get to him.
Mo, look.
That girl means nothing to me.
It was purely physical, nothing more.
It was just physical,
it was nothing else. Mo...
It was nothing, seriously.
It was what?
It was just physical, it wasn't...
It was purely physical. Look...
Nothing more. Just...
You know it's you that I love.
You can't say I haven't shown that love,
you know this.
Come on.
Goodbye, Mr. Dare.
What's going on?
It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
Come on, talk to me, what's going on?
- What happened, Mo?
- He...
It's okay, it's okay. Come on.
I was so shocked.
And the worst...
The worst part about it,
was that he didn't think
it was bad, because...
Because he didn't have
any feelings for her.
Well maybe, that's because
people like Dare just believe
it's okay to treat a woman any how.
And at the end of the day,
just shower her with gifts
and think that's enough
to make the pain go away.
I'm not that kind of woman.
I don't want a man
to shower me with gifts.
I want a man who will respect me.
Respect us.
I want love.
I want faithful love.
I want true love.
I want some...
I want someone...
Who truly gets you.
Someone who genuinely cares about you.
Who sees past your little faults.
Someone who wants the best for you.
Treats you as though
you're the only woman
in the whole world.
Someone who would give his heart,
his body and his soul.
And love you with everything
that he has ever, ever, ever had.
I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. I can't do this.
Honey, can I come in?
Can I come in?
Oh, honey, are you okay?
I'm fine.
You sure?
I'm fine, Mum.
Dare cheating on me
wasn't the worst thing in the world.
Oh, honey. I'm so sorry.
What for?
You didn't do anything.
Well, I encouraged it.
I mean, I just thought you guys
would be good together.
So did I.
Look, you have to face
the rest of the world.
You can't keep hiding.
I'm not hiding, Mum.
You haven't been to work in three days.
Now, I don't know you to miss work.
I just need some time
to sort some things out.
Tobe's downstairs waiting for you.
I don't want to see him.
This is the seventh time
he is going to be here.
Why are you avoiding him?
I'm not.
I'm not ready to see him yet.
You're gonna have to be ready
sometime, honey.
You can't keep hiding.
Mum, I don't want to see Tobe.
Oluwanimoduroti Bankole-Smith.
It's complicated.
How complicated can it be?
We kissed.
Oh honey, that's not complicated.
That's interesting.
What's so complicated about kissing him?
He's my best friend.
And it just felt...
And confusing, and...
Surprisingly good.
And again I ask.
Why is that so complicated?
Tobe likes you.
Of course he's liked me, Mum.
He's my best friend.
I don't mean it like that.
I mean, he's always been in love with you.
You didn't know?
Oh, gosh, you had no idea.
Mum, are you saying you've known
all this time and you didn't tell me?
Because I thought you knew,
and you just didn't feel the same way.
Look, sweetheart,
with all that's happened,
the question you need to ask yourself is,
how do you really feel about him?
That's what I've been
trying to figure out.
You and Tobe have been friends
for so many years.
I've watched the two of you
over the years,
and I see the way he looks at you,
how he cares for you.
He adores you.
And from everything that you've told me,
there's obviously chemistry
between the two of you.
And if that isn't love, honey,
I don't know what is.
Are you saying that this is it?
...is what I've been looking for,
and it's just been right there?
I think so.
Now, will you get dressed?
And come downstairs and see him.
I'll be down in five minutes.
By the way,
what's Tobe's last name?
So you're going to go from
Bankole-Smith to Okoronkwo.
Get ready, honey. Love waits.
Oh, will you
get on with it, already?
Mum, do you mind?
Just trying to help.
- I think we should...
- About the other day...
I was just going to say
I think we should sit.
what about the other day?
I'm sorry I kissed you.
You're sorry?
Well yeah, because, uh...
I reckon I kind of made you
feel uncomfortable.
I mean, you're my homie.
Things don't have to be
awkward between us.
Things don't have to be awkward
between us.
So, why don't we just pretend
that kiss never happened,
and just roll over and get back
to the way things were?
I kind of liked it.
And I thought you did, too.
Oh yeah, I did, I did, I...
I did, I...
I do.
I liked the kiss.
Oluwa, I want to do it again.
And again.
And all over again.
A thousand dollars says your mom
is watching us right now.
Mum, you can go now.
I love you, Mo.
Isn't it funny how you can spend
all your time chasing your own tail
and looking for love
in all the wrong places?
When all that you've ever wanted,
ever longed for, ever hoped for,
is right here beside you?
It's one week after Jennifer's wedding
and thank God that it's over.
The nightmare of having to look Dare
in his arrogant, cheating
face one more time is gone.
And at least, one good thing
came out of it.
Tseju met someone.
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« Though small, CaBi is something to be excited about | Main | Thursday Morning Commute - You'll never get into NAMBLA like that »
You know that's not just any Ranger, but our beloved Bill Line, NPS spokesman who said Capital Bikeshare would, "destroy the nature of what makes the national Mall an American institution".
That makes it so much more interesting.
Where can I get a helmet like that? Hey, at least he's not texting on that phone from the last decade. Nice bag holder too! :)
Hey, at least he has a light and bell, even if the light is tilted up at an angle to more appropriately warn aircraft.
The bag is the scariest part to me. I've had some sketchy moments with bags hanging on handlebars - they've started to oscillate badly.
I've noticed it is very common for people to use headsets now on their bikes. That seems dangerous -- just having the ability to listen makes you a safer rider.
However, I am very guilty of riding with the bag on the handlebars. As long as you go slow, I find it ok.
I took the pic. I was surprised what a crappy bike he has - I thought rangers would have something customized, like what the police have.
I refuse to mock anyone riding a bike. Pretty funny picture though.
I love his choice of bag, though - those Lands End briefcases last for YEARS!
Seriously, there are a bunch of issues here, all of which are excused by law because he's a Ranger on duty, but for the record:
• Using a non-hands-free phone while operating a vehicle. That's illegal in MD, but I don't know about DC or Federal property.
• Carrying cargo on the bars. Illegal in VA, but again, not sure about DC or Fed.
• No helmet. Unfortunately, not illegal anywhere around the region.
• He's gonna get that right wrist broken when he flips over those bars.
That can't be a NPS bike - do they even have issue bikes? It's his own - a testament to disliking bikes. A friend was riding with her purse like that, it swung into the spokes and she lost two FRONT teeth.
@Joe Flood: Was he riding like that, or just pulled over to the sidewalk to make a phone call?
This picture is everything that's wrong in America. Get that man a better phone!
(also, new bar tape)
I have to admit...I carried a bag like that. Once. It was a Whole Foods grocery bag...given out at Bike to Work Day to carry schwag. I had no other way to carry it down the hill the two blocks from the Discovery pit stop to my office (I now carry a second - empty - pannier on BTWD in case there's anything available worth carting from the pit-stop, usually to re-hand out at my office BTWD events). I started out...got about 50 feet from the pit stop. Bag swung into my front wheel, and I went flying over the handlebars and landed flat on my back. It put me on my chiropractor's table for a good week and a half. Never again.
He was riding, coming down the sidewalk on 15th St, right by the Monument visitor center. I didn't know who he was, just thought it was kind of funny. Dude needs a helmet though - a friend of mine fell off his bike without one and had amnesia for a day.
Why does everyone assume he's on duty and not commuting?
What's wrong with the bike? It's an old-skool (I think) "triple-triangle" GT mountain bike; not exactly elegant, but a real workhorse and leagues ahead of, say, a NEXT or Motiv.
And why does he need a helmet? Foolish riding behavior notwithstanding, he doesn't appear in the pic to be landing on his head.
An unaccustomed as I am to tossing compliments at constables (and again, foolish riding behavior notwithstanding), I will give him the credit of choosing a metabolically-powered vehicle over the standard-issue SUV.
Whether on duty or commuting, if that's the infamous Bill Line, and he was riding on a sidewalk, no wonder he and the NPS think bicycles are a menace.
I bet Bill Line has 6 close calls a day riding like that. He probably thinks all bike riders have similar experiences to him when in fact (again if the photo is a true indication) he's bottom of the food chain in terms of competent and safe cyclists.
This photos is very telling.
I'd add
1. hat, with a wide brim and worn low, will obstruct his view
2. Using rear brake, which is weaker.
3. Light placed between bell makes it harder to use when normally riding
4. Dark clothing, including the bag
Is he on the sidewalk or in the road? If sidewalk, it's either illegal (downtown) or not recommended. If road, I think he's on the wrong side of the road
Unless he's a law enforcement ranger, I doubt he would be riding an NPS-owned bike. And given that he is the official regional "spokes-person", he's probably not law-enforcement, at least not in his current job.
I've got this. He's calling in NPS Police backup on a menacing pedicab he's staring at. That jitney is going DOWN.
Didn't I read here before that any NPS sidewalk is a multi-use path? So if he is riding around the Washington Memorial on the "sidewalk" he is fine.
He's using a bike as a tool to do his job more effectively. Isn't that the whole point of cycling?
"Funny" is someone trying to patrol the Mall area in a car, creeping along in gridlocked traffic, helpless; unable to react effectively,
Face it -- this is real bike advocacy, and your snarky comments are quite the opposite.
You can go to Amsterdamize or Copenhagenize and see millions of photos of highly evolved northern Europeans riding just like the ranger in the picture.
The difference is that those blogs it is celebrated how cycling is normal. Here it is seen as an example of bad behavior.
This is why we have a long way to go before cycling becomes mainstream. Even the true believers (washcycle commenters) take issue and find danger in this picture with very little context. We don't know anything about the environment he is riding in or how fast he is going.
I've done all the things that the ranger is doing and, at the time, given the context, being aware that I am on the phone and have a bag hanging from the bar I adjust my riding style (go slow for instance).
He looks like a reasonable man. I suspect he is riding safely. If we can't grant him that, then why should we be lenient about stop signs and lights by allowing an "Idaho stop" for instance.
1. Just because he's bike commuting (or using his bike as a tool) that doesn't mean that he can do no wrong, and operating a vehicle while talking on the phone means you do both badly - according to the research.
2. Just because you can see photos of people doing this, and riding with a bag on the handlebar, on the internet, that doesn't make it safe. Cycling is normal. Biking dangerously might even be normal. But talking on the phone while biking is almost surely unsafe - again according to the research.
3. Let us not back ourselves into the corner we can't criticize cyclists for their bad behavior lest we think we're undermining bike advocacy. This is especially odd coming from you tom, since my experience is that you are very quick to criticize other cyclists for illegal behavior that is debatable as to whether or not it is dangerous.
4. Evidence shows that operating a vehicle while talking on the phone is not safe, and evidence shows that the Idaho stop is safe. That's the difference between the two.
Your the expert
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Why everyone should own dry shampoo
posted 08.20.2018
Today, there are so many great options for properly caring for your hair. One of the best kept secrets in haircare is dry shampoo. There are a lot of benefits to using dry shampoo. Dry shampoo can help you save time and money, and it can keep your hair looking and feeling great. With so many benefits, everyone should own a dry shampoo.
A dry shampoo is a powder or spray that you use to cleanse your hair in between washings, or whenever you want to refresh your hair. Dry shampoo contains fine starches that help to absorb oil, reduce shine, and leave your hair feeling fresh. They are quick and easy to use, and they can be used by anyone.
To use a dry shampoo, you don’t need any water or any special tools. You simply apply the dry shampoo a few inches from your scalp. Use your fingertips to gently distribute the fine powder through your hair. You can also use a round brush to gently brush the powder through your hair. You will see instant results. Your hair will be less oily, and your hair style will be renewed.
One of the biggest benefits of using dry shampoo is convenience. Normally, when you wash your hair, you must wet your hair thoroughly, apply shampoo, rinse, and then condition your hair. Then, you must dry your hair and style it. It takes a lot of time and energy to wash your hair with water and traditional shampoo.
Dry shampoo cuts down on those steps. You refresh your hair anytime, or anywhere with no water needed. You can toss your dry shampoo in your bag to use at work, at the gym, or during a weekend trip. Although dry shampoo removes excess oil, it can provide a healthy shine and a fresh fragrance.
Some dry shampoos have additional benefits like volumizing effects. If a few days have passed since your hair was washed, it may look flat from the excess oil. Once you use your dry shampoo, it will not only lift the dirt and oil from your hair, it will also provide more volume and body to your hair.
Whether you are a busy person on the go who doesn’t often have time to do a full hair care cleansing routine, or if you are a frequent gym goer or traveler, anyone can benefit from owning a dry shampoo. Dry shampoos work for all hair types, from fine and straight hair to thick and curly hair.
If you get your hair styled professionally at a salon, dry shampoo can help you preserve your style and save time and money. It can also help you extend your hair color by reducing the number of times you have to wash your hair, which can potentially fade your hair color. Dry shampoos can also be safely used on hair care extensions.
No matter what your hair type, texture, length, or style, everyone should own a dry shampoo. Try one today to achieve the convenience of fresh hair anytime.
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Offender Assessment Policies Report
10 October 2005
Offender Assessment Policies Report
The Waitangi Tribunal has today released its report on certain policies and procedures used by the Department of Corrections in relation to the assessment of offenders.
Offender Assessment Policies Report considers two specific assessment tools (tests) that have been designed and used by the Department. The tools help to identify and assess offenders who are at high risk of reoffending, and are intended to assist the development of programmes that can work on reducing Mâori reoffending.
Claimant Mr Tom Hemopo, on behalf of Ngâti Kahungunu, claimed that the assessment tools disadvantaged Mâori offenders in terms of the type and length of sentences they receive. He also alleged deficiencies in the Department’s consultation with Mâori, and in the design, implementation and use of the tools.
The Tribunal concludes there is insufficient evidence to establish that any prejudice has been or is being caused to Mâori offenders. The Tribunal recognises that the Department has acted in good faith in order to reduce reoffending and believes that some aspects of the assessment tools are groundbreaking.
Nevertheless, it believes that the ‘MaCRNs’ tool, which focuses on Mâori offenders’ cultural responsiveness, requires more testing and independent evaluation. The Tribunal also identifies Treaty breaches in the way that the Department developed that tool without consulting Mâori communities, and in its monitoring of the tool’s use and effects. It considers that Mâori communities, including Ngâti Kahungunu, have significant interests in the goal of reducing Mâori offending and the use of Mâori culture to help achieve that goal. The Department’s responses to Mâori reoffending should therefore be developed and monitored in a manner that is consistent with those interests.
In its summing up, the Tribunal says it believes that the parties may not be far apart regarding a way forward that builds on the important work that has been done.
The first and last chapters of the Offender Assessment Policies Report are available on the Tribunal’s website, www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz.
Due to the complex nature of the evidence it is advisable to consult the website.
See also summary material.
Summary Material
Waitangi Tribunal
Offender Assessment Policies Report (Wai 1024)
Due to the complex nature of the evidence it is advisable to consult the Tribunal’s website, www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz for the first and final chapters of the report.
When was the claim brought and what is it about?
The urgent claim was brought to the Waitangi Tribunal by Tom Hemopo, of Ngâti Kahungunu. The claim was heard in December 2004.
The claim focused on the Risk of (Re)conviction and Risk of Imprisonment (RoC*RoI) tool and the Mâori Culture-Related Needs (MaCRNs) tool. Both are just two aspects of the Department of Corrections’ Integrated Offender Management system. This system identifies and assesses offenders who are at high risk of reoffending for the purpose of allocating resources in order to address the factors that are linked to their offending.
Mr Hemopo claimed that the RoC*RoI and MaCRNs tools disadvantaged Mâori offenders in terms of the type and length of sentences they receive. In brief, there were alleged deficiencies in:
- the consultation engaged in by the Department of Corrections during the tools’ development;
- the conceptual bases of the tools;
- the training provided in respect of MaCRNs;
- the use of the tools; and
- the monitoring of the effects of the tools’ use.
Mâori Culture-Related Needs (MaCRNs) tool
The Mâori Culture-Related Needs (MaCRNs) tool is part of a psychologically based assessment process known as the Criminogenic Needs Inventory (CNI). The CNI is applied to offenders who are considered to have a medium or higher risk of reoffending and is designed to identify factors that should be targeted to reduce that risk.
The MaCRNs part of the CNI assessment is applied only to offenders who identify as Mâori. Its purpose is to improve the department’s understanding of the context in which Mâori offending occurs and to identify interventions most likely to be effective in promoting behavioural change among Mâori offenders.
What aspects of the MaCRNs tool were claimed to be prejudicial to Mâori
Mr Hemopo claimed that disadvantage flowed to Mâori offenders because:
- the MaCRNs tool classified positive aspects of Mâori culture and family as causing crime or as aggravating factors for sentencing;
- it failed to acknowledge that the cultural criteria it used were equally applicable to other cultures and ethnic groups in New Zealand; and
- the outcome of a MaCRNs assessment influenced the sentencing, sentence management, and sentence termination processes.
What did the Tribunal say about MaCRNs tool and the claim of prejudice to Mâori?
The Tribunal notes the significant efforts that have gone into making the Department more efficient and responsive. The MaCRNs tool is groundbreaking: no other country has moved to tailor its assessment policies and practice in such a way. (This is an international issue: indigenous peoples are over-represented in prisons in Australia, the USA and Canada, for example.)
Regarding the MaCRNs tool, the Tribunal simply could not determine conclusively whether or not prejudice has been or is being caused because there is, as yet, no reliable way of gauging the tool’s effects. However, it ruled out the likelihood of any prejudicial effect resulting in longer sentences for Mâori offenders. It found that the tool’s use may be prejudicing Mâori communities’ interests in reducing Mâori reoffending and in the use of Mâori culture to achieve that goal, but that more evidence and evaluation is required before any such prejudice could be identified.
The Tribunal focused on the role Mâori communities can bring to addressing reoffending. It notes that
‘The sheer scale of Mâori offending can be seen as eroding Mâori potential and capacity and impeding iwi development. The rebuilding of Mâori communities, both urban and rural, particularly those affected by economic restructuring, educational under achievement and low socio-economic status is inevitably compromised by the high rate of Mâori offending. Not only is an essential part of the Mâori male population unable to contribute to hapû and iwi rebuilding - let alone New Zealand society in general - but limited tribal resources are diverted into support and rehabilitation efforts for both the offender, his whânau and those affected by his actions.
The inevitable outcome is often the erosion of the basic structures of hapû and iwi, the decline in drawing on the values and strengths of Mâori culture and a rejection of any pride in Mâori identity. Yet, despite the obvious difficulties mentioned, there is still considerable scope for iwi and hapû involvement in the identifying and intervention processes in terms of Mâori offending and the desire to participate in the rehabilitation of those affected.’
The Tribunal finds that the Department of Correction’s threshold for consultation with Mâori communities was misplaced in relation to the development of the MaCRNs tool: fuller consultation may have highlighted or addressed the issues that led to the claim being lodged.
And, while the Department has recognised the shortcomings in earlier communications about this very complex tool, the Tribunal raises further concerns regarding its use, implementation and monitoring. In the absence of proven prejudice, the Tribunal does not recommend any remedial action to the Crown but it considers, and believes the parties agree, that independent expert evaluation of the MaCRNs tool is needed urgently.
The Risk of (Re)conviction and Risk of Imprisonment (RoC*RoI) tool has been developed from statistical information about many thousands of New Zealand offenders. It is an actuarial tool that does not assess for factors that cause crime.
It uses mathematical formulae to calculate from a number of static, or unchangeable, facts about an offender (e.g., age at first conviction) and each offence they have committed (e.g., type of sentence imposed), the likelihood that he or she will, in the next five years, be reconvicted of a crime and imprisoned. The resulting risk prediction score is used to help the Department of Corrections identify higher-risk offenders to be prioritised for rehabilitative programmes, in contrast to previous measures that did not necessarily target those offenders.
What aspects of the RoC*RoI predictive tool were claimed to be prejudicial to Mâori
It was alleged that the RoC*RoI tool disadvantaged Mâori because:
- the tool used offender ethnicity as a relevant variable;
- it accorded a greater weighting to Mâori ethnicity than to any other ethnicity; and
- the outcome of a RoC*RoI assessment, particularly when it leads to a CNI assessment, influenced the sentencing, sentence management, and sentence termination processes.
In the time between the filing and the hearing of Mr Hemopo’s claim, the RoC*RoI tool was reviewed and the ethnicity variable altered so that it no longer contributed to the predictive power of the tool. As a result, at the hearing, the claimant gave less emphasis to the RoC*RoI aspect of his claim.
What did the Tribunal say about RoC*RoI tool and the claim of prejudice to Mâori?
The report details the tool and the claim in detail. In brief, the Tribunal concludes there is no evidence that the operation of the RoC*RoI tool causes prejudice to any Mâori individual or group. The only areas in which RoC*RoI’s effects are not yet fully certain are not areas that can be said, in the words of section 6 of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, to be ‘likely’ to cause any disadvantage to Mâori offenders.
Overall, the Tribunal recognises there is much of value in the tailored approach to reducing reoffending by Mâori: one size does not fit all and there are no simple answers. As the report concludes:
‘Mâori offending rates are unacceptably high. The erosion of latent Mâori potential and capacity, and the deleterious effects on the wider community remain a cause for deep concern. No society concerned with the future well being of all its citizens can be content with the status quo. There can be no doubt that serious measures must be taken to arrest this mounting crisis… the causes of that situation are complex.
In short, there are no simple answers and potential remedies must continually be explored. But the essential point is that where there are genuine, sincere and legitimate attempts to find solutions to this seemingly insoluble dilemma, caution is necessary to avoid dispensing with potentially sound approaches that have suffered from poor presentation and consultation.
We do not say that the Department’s efforts are without criticism – that is clearly not so – but we do think that many of the ideas deriving from the general IOM framework and MaCRNs and their application may yet assist the common goal of reducing offending by all sections of New Zealand society.’
These tools, their context and development, are described in detail in the report. The first and last chapters are on the Tribunal’s website: www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz.
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Welcome to the Teachers’ Professional Agency (TPA) -project’s website!
From Student Teacher to Experienced Teacher: Learning an Active Professional Agency is an academic research project (1259489) funded by the Academy of Finland. The overall aim of the study is to examine how teacher learning in terms of professional agency is facilitated and regulated throughout the teachers’ professional careers, from student teacher to experienced teacher.
The study extends previous research on teacher learning: 1) by providing understanding on teacher learning and effects of professional transitions for teacher learning based on a large scale longitudinal empirical design, 2) by introducing an instrument for exploring different ingredients of teacher learning in a variety of contexts, including teacher training and school, 3) by comparing learning patterns of beginning and experienced teachers and different teacher groups and 4) by introducing an integrative concept professional agency for analyzing complexity of teacher learning.
The project is scientifically led by the PI group with members from the cooperating universities of Helsinki, Tampere and Eastern-Finland. The teacher education units of these universities act research sites.
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Types of Probiotics
Types of Probiotics
I'd like to talk about the different types of probiotics out there on the market, what they do, and how help improve your gut microbiome.
Hi, this is Dr. Emily Parke with your next Functional Health Minute. Today, I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about the different types of probiotics that are out there.
Traditional Probiotics
So the first type is considered more of a traditional probiotic, and those are probiotics that usually have things like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria strains in it. Most traditional probiotics on the market are multi-strain, meaning they have multiple strains of lactobacillus or bifidobacteria in them. However, there are some single strain probiotics out there. For example, you can find a probiotic that just has lactobacillus acidophilus in it, for example. So those are more traditional probiotics that are going to do well, honestly, for most people. The way probiotics, traditional probiotics work is they actually help the immune system inside the gut work better. They don’t seed the gut like you think, because most people have that impression like, oh, it’s going to seed my gut with all these healthy bacteria. And that’s kind of actually not how it works.
The studies are pretty clear after about three days or so, the probiotics that you took are pretty much out of your system, but what they do along the way is they create a better and more healthy immune system environment in the gut. So that’s traditional probiotics. Then there’s something called Saccharomyces boulardii, which is more of a healthy yeast type of a probiotic, and it’s used for many things. When we’re doing a yeast overgrowth protocol, it can be really helpful because it can help balance the yeast. And it’s also healing to the gut too. There’s some data that says that it does help with the intestinal lining–repair the intestinal lining, which is great. And there are some other times we would use Saccharomyces boulardii also, for example, if someone has C. diff an overgrowth of Clostridium difficile. Saccharomyces boulardii has been studied and is very well known to help with C. Diff. There’s even lots of traditional medicine studies on that. So that’s Saccharomyces boulardii, so that’s more of a healthy yeast.
Spore-Based and Soil-Based Probiotics
And then there’s the category of the spore-based or soil-based probiotics that are totally different than traditional probiotics and the Saccharomyces boulardii. And how they work is they work more by something called quorum sensing which is kind of like a signal. So when the spore-based probiotics get into the intestine, it’s kind of like a signal, especially in the small intestine kind of saying to the other bacteria that might be there that are overgrown, to almost push them back into the large intestine to where they belong. And so it does again, create a healthier immune system environment in the gut, but it’s in a slightly different way than your traditional probiotic. So those are like the three main categories of probiotics and there’s different reasons to prescribe each of them.
Like I mentioned, the Saccharomyces boulardii yeast, and Clostridia are probably the top two reasons. The traditional probiotics go well for most people and are part of most gut healing protocols that we do. And then the soil-based, or spore-based probiotics are usually a part of a SIBO treatment protocol because they do go well for most patients that have SIBO. And because of that quorum sensing thing I was just mentioning with it kind of almost signaling to push the overgrown bacteria back in more closer to the large intestine where it should be instead of being overgrown in the small intestine.
So I hope this helps kind of clear up a little bit about the different types of probiotics and when you might use each one. Of course if you want to really get specific, you would see a functional medicine provider and get a stool study, a SIBO test, an organic acids tests. One of the three, or two of the three, or all three of the three, depending on your situation. But if you can’t come and see a functional medicine doc but you want to experiment with probiotics, that’s exactly what you do. You do the one bottle experiment and see. Try starting with the traditional probiotic and see how your gut feels. Did it improve your diarrhea, your constipation, your bloating, or did it make it worse or did it make a difference at all? If it’s helpful, stay on it. If it’s not helpful, I would move on to another category. Then you might try something that has Saccharomyces boulardii in it, or you might try more of a spore-based or soil-based probiotic. So this is Dr. Emily Parke with your Next Functional Health Minute.
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Why Natural Skin Care?
I became interested in natural skin as I started my holistic journey when Covid-19 began. Since I was wearing a mask everyday, my face began to breakout uncontrollably. As I was trying to get my acne under control, I began using natural skin products to get my skin back to the way it use to be. You must also be mindful of what you consume. I changed what I was eating and increased my water intake which, helped tremendously. At Royal Shea Beauty, we believe beauty begins within.
Our mission is to allow you to be confident in the skin your in, the natural way.
Skin is your body's largest organ and your protective barrier. Natural products contain nurturing ingredients that enhance the texture, performance, and overall health of the skin. So, you won't have to use a lot to get great results, unlike chemical-based products. Switching to a natural skincare regimen gives you peace of mind. With natural skincare, you don't have to worry about the added chemicals you aren't sure are safe.
The skin serves as a protective barrier, but chemicals can still leak into the bloodstream even with the barrier. If you apply chemicals directly to the skin, then they can be directly absorbed. Chemicals can affect the immune system, nervous system, and reproductive system.
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Is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story?
For drama lovers shows related to nuclear power plants are not one of a kind. There are a hell lot of shows, cartoons, and so on that are being aired on these topics. These types of dramas are always in demand froṁ drama lovers because these projects give us a feeling of thrill that we what to experience, this is also the reason that these shows are more impactful compared to any other work.
Another reason for this is the interest of the massive audience who wants to know the incidence in a well-detailed manner without losing their actuality. Most of this interest emerges because we have already read these facts in our childhood and watching it is like getting a live experience of those dead texts that we read back in old days. This interest made us stick to this kind of show. There was a similar kind of work released by HBO Network named “Chornobyl”. Its was a huge success mainly when it reached people through online sources.
There was a huge hand of online platforms like amazon in taking Chornobyl to a different level of height. Netflix has already announced that Netflix is going to release a documentary named Meltdown: Three Mile Island. Even though was declared recently, a single trailer of this series has caused a great deal of commotion. Moxie picture and Netflix studios have worked together in developing this mini-screen documentary. Since this documentary was shot in the United State its original version is going to be in English. This is going to revolve around the life experience of chief engineer Richard Park.
Is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story?
Is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story?
Is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story?
Since its release date, a hell lot of searches were done on google simply asking the same question is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story? It is well known to people that the answer to this question is yes, yet almost everyone wondered whether there is any contradiction between both them. Meltdown: Three Mile Island is a documentary based on a historic event. It is a story about a mishap that happened in a nuclear reactor. This event took place in a location called the Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
It was a setup and thanks to some technical issues, the harmful gas from the reactor began to spread throughout the Londonderry Township and beyond. additionally, the govt. authorities hid this information as a concept to not create a panic situation. While more people began to feel some side effects of inhaling the gas and so a chunk of stories got leaked reporting that there was a leak at the atomic energy station. Many agencies reported multiple reasons behind the reason behind the failure and their decision to not inform the general public but none of them are confirmed by the govt.. finally, the 000 causes and also the incidents that happened there are kept a secret so far.
The series named Meltdown: Three Mile Island focuses on decoding the truth and investigating the incident with the assistance of some residents and also the chief engineer Richard Parks. Therefore, people can expect a more realistic explanation from the show that supported the Three Mile Island accident that happened in the year 1979. Furthermore, various movies were released that supported the incident, they weren’t ready to convince the audience in the light of some clues.
Also Read: Best K Drama On Netflix You Should Watch Today!
Meltdown: Three Mile Island Cast
Richard Park was working because the chief engineer moreover as a whistleblower. Furthermore, he had strong connections with the Three Mile nuclear energy plant and had also experienced the event himself. Richard now explains all the events that happened in and around the plant after forty-nine years.
Meltdown: Three Mile Island Release Date
Is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story?
Is Meltdown: Three Mile Island A True Story?
It was on April 19, 2022, that a politician announcement was made by the official streaming partners of Meltdown: Three Mile Island. it’s now confirmed that the series is going to be released on May 4, 2022. Previously, while there was a confirmation that the series will stream in May, the date of release wasn’t confirmed by the team. Furthermore, a politician trailer was released with a duration of two minutes and three seconds which gave a clear-cut idea of what’s on the brink of come.
Where To Watch Meltdown: Three Mile Island?
You can watch this latest documentary here on Netflix.
Meltdown: Three Mile Island trailer
Its trailer was released on 22nd April 2022.
Also Read Blippi Visits Season 2 Release Date Updates!
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Internet Privacy and User Awareness of Vulnerabilities
Info: 9876 words (40 pages) Dissertation
Published: 23rd Jun 2021
Reference this
Tagged: Cyber Security
An Investigation into Behavioural Clustering Models to develop an enhancement into online privacy concerns
The following report explores the world of internet privacy and aims to raise awareness to the vulnerability that users face when browsing online. As well as highlighting the risks associated with the exchange and sharing of personal information, measures to reduce these risks will also be explored. The purpose of this project is to outline and raise awareness to the importance of having a clear and educated choice into publishing personal information online.
Many advertising companies incorporate cookies as a form of tracking the online activities of their customers, as a means of enticing customers to return by publishing personalised adverts catered to their purchasing behaviours. Although cookies are placed on most online websites, a vast majority of web users are unaware of their purpose and intention. A primary research survey collected the results of 82 respondents which showed 39% of web users to have no clear idea into what the reasoning behind a cookie was.
An online cookie essentially follows the web user through each website visit they make, which can be interpreted as collected the users web history over time. The web history of an individual has the potential to reveal a range of personal information about the user, whether it be their most frequently visited sites or the hours in which these visits are being made. With this in mind, the Safari web history of two users was mined and analysed and finally classified into clusters of text, which had been extracted from the titles of the visited web pages. Each cluster reveals private information about the user, for example, user 2 was found to be a resident of San Francisco, with a keen interest in children’s toys.
Table of Contents
Table of Figures
Table of Tables
Table of Equations
Context behind the problem
Approach & Objectives
Literature Review
Behavioural Tracking
Exploratory Analysis
Text Mining
Machine Learning
Primary Research Survey
Market Research
Proposed System & Requirements
Technical Specification
Data Pre-processing
Exploratory Analysis
Text Mining in R
Term Frequent – Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF)
Elbow Method
K-Means Clustering
User Acceptance Testing
Critical Evaluation
Interpreting results
Appendix (unlimited words plz)
Primary Research Survey
Context behind the problem
Buchanan et al. (2007) describe today’s technology to be similar to that of a double-edged sword, where although it enriches our lives it also raises new concerns in regards to the privacy of our personal information. The past 10 years have shown the internet to be an important and essentially vital part of day to day life in the millennial wold (Ibid). Although the new generations seem to have no issues with accepting the digital era, older generations are struggling to adjust. What most have disregarded is the reason as to why the struggle to adjust even originated to begin with; lack of information and knowledge about the internet makes such a user vulnerable when browsing online, which would seem like the perfect target audience.
Popular social media sites like that of Facebook and Twitter create a platform whereby users can express their opinions and build their own online profile. The act of openly publishing personal information online could be thought of as subsequently allowing online web crawlers and targeted marketing applications the right to access the privacy of our daily web searches.
What many online users are not aware of is the exact vulnerability that they place themselves in each time they accept cookies on a website. Admittedly, on most occasions these cookies are just designed for personalised advertising and marketing, however, the question must be raised that if it is that easy for a company to access our information, it must be just as trivial for someone with an ulterior motive. The main question of concern is that, if each web user were fully aware and knowledgeable in how private information is sold and shared online, would their choices have been different when either accepting a cookie or publishing their information? Some websites even go as far as to essentially force the user to accept a cookie, by blocking the view of the page unless it has been accepted. This kind of manipulation seems to speak for itself. It seems as though while the public remain unaware, the advertising companies are reaping all of the benefits.
Approach & Objectives
The overall objective is to create a browser extension whereby the user would have the ability of viewing their browsing activities in a way that a marketing company would with the use of cookies. This report focuses on the mechanics behind the extension, and demonstrating the implementation and technical approach taken to achieve the relevant results.
The underlying motivation for the creation of the system is to demonstrate the capabilities that these marketing companies have when it comes to deducting information from the collected browser history of each of their consumers. As well as this, the main intention is to raise awareness and increase the level of common knowledge that the average web user has when it concerns sharing their personal information online.
The Safari web history of two individual users will be compared and explored for contrasting characteristics. The study will aim to explore the possible traits that each user presents through their daily browsing activities. In doing so, the study will aim to highlight the vast amount of private information that can be deduced from the analysis of a user’s browsing history.
The main, distinguishable feature between the two history databases is the relative size. Specifically, the web history file corresponding to user 1 contains a total of 10,900 rows, whereas that of user 2 amounts to 25,130 rows. The difference in size allows for a deduction to be made as to how much data is required for a reliable analysis to be made about the corresponding individual.
Once the necessary datasets have been collected from the databases the next stage pre-processes the data into a comprehendible and manageable format. The initial approach is to undertake an exploratory analysis which will build the foundation upon which any queries and insights could be taken from. From this, the dataset containing the titles of each visited web page can then be text mined, from which TF-IDF scores can be calculated and finally clustered to reveal information about the user by applying the K-Means algorithm.
Literature Review
Over a decade ago, direct vendors were amid the limited selection of businesses to track and examine the characteristics and purchases made by consumers by utilising computer databases (Phelps, Nowak and Ferrell, 2000). Fast forward to today, it has become somewhat of a business norm to routinely analyse the online purchasing behaviour of each individual consumer (Ibid). Phelps, Nowak and Ferrell (2000) further explain how recent surveys have shown consumers to be concerned around the magnitude of information that companies may know about them, how accurate the information might be and a raised concern as to how that information may have been obtained to start with.
Clifford and Van Der Sype (2016) similarly argue that there has been an increasing amount of online users, due to the abundance of internet access as well as the growth of computing capabilities. Social networking sites, like that of Facebook, Twitter, and many others, propose their online services as ‘free’ but behind the scenes there is a trade agreement whereby access to personal data and information is exchanged for the usage of the site (Ibid). It could be argued that there is no harm in sharing one’s personal information so freely, however, Clifford and Van Der Sype (2016) further explain how there have been an increasing amount of reported exploits of private information made by these services. This raises great concern relative to the efficiency of the currently applied mechanisms that are there to ensure a safeguard for personal data (Ibid). Phelps, Nowak and Ferrell (2000) explain how an increasing amount of consumers are supporting privacy protection measures, which includes restrictions on the exchange of information.
Although many consumers have shown to be increasingly concerned towards the protection of their online information, their online purchasing behaviour has not altered (Ibid). Online web users have also been found to willingly partake in a consumer society, at the expense of their personal information (Ibid). However, Buchanan et al. (2007) highlight that many online consumers provide false information, whether it be as simple as providing their name. The emphasis here is not on the information being provided, but what is done with that information, and the awareness the consumer has in the latter. There appears to be a common threshold that most web users do not cross when it comes to the sharing of their personal details. A few studies have implied that online users are less concerned with providing demographic and lifestyle related information and considerably more protective when asked to provide financial information and personal identifiers (Phelps, Nowak and Ferrell, 2000).
As well as the supposed harmless tactics to obtain a user’s personal information, intentionally detrimental ways occur on the other end of the spectrum. Pittaro (2007) describes a cyber stalker to be an online user who facilitates the internet as a means of instigating distress and unease towards their target victim, accompanied with the use of “sophisticated tactics” which in many situations are legally acceptable. Brokerage websites allow internet users to search for lost loved ones or friends, most of the time this service is free of charge but a small fee may sometimes apply (Ibid). These online services provide the user with confidential details such as a person’s name, date of birth, social security number and other private details which further provides cyber stalkers with another trivial method of obtaining information about their victim (Ibid).
Gorman and McDonald (2012) explain ransomware to be a type of malevolent software which essentially disables the overall usage of a computer. Most commonly, the ransomware program will present a message that demands a ransom payment in order for the computer to be restored to full functionality (Ibid). This is an example of extreme, illegal violation of online privacy.
Behavioural Tracking
Behavioural tracking is also known as targeting and profiling and it entails the collection and analysis of data retrieved online which is in turn transformed into knowledge (Castelluccia, 2012). Searching for identifying patterns in the collected data is what is most often referred to behavioural tracking (Ibid). Behavioural tracking is used to track the behaviour of online web users over time and to build profiles based on the collected information to reveal the characteristics, interests and even online purchasing activities on the targeted individual (Ibid). This allows advertising companies the ability to personalise online adverts that effectively appear in the user’s daily web searches (Ibid).
Following users through their visited sites is mainly executed through the use of cookies, javascripts and supercookies (Ibid). Castelluccia (2012) explains that there are two types of web cookies, them being session and persistent cookies and further describes a web cookie to be a segment of text that is stored by a user’s web browser and that is linked to a HTTP request. To elaborate, session cookies are regularly used to collect user preferences, but the type of cookie in itself is known to be impermanent (Ibid). On the other hand, persistent cookies are quite the opposite in the sense that the files linger in the user’s browser until they expire or are specifically removed, and essentially act as authentication tokens to maintain an online session with the server in question (Ibid). Bielova (2013) explains that the HTTP(S) protocol associated with cookies is stateless, which effectively means that the origin of two HTTP requests cannot be identified as to having been originated from the same matching client or not. The only suitable action to take in this scenario would be to put separate mechanisms in place to track the individual clients (Ibid).
Websites have to be able to differentiate one user from another in order to have the ability to track them individually (Ibid). A unique identifier is stored in a user’s browser cookies and whenever that same user returns to the website in question, the cookies are sent and thus the individual user can easily be established (Ibid).
According to Castelluccia (2012), Javascripts have the ability to access information such as cached objects and the history of links that have been visited, all of which are stored in the browser. By combing both the cookies and results obtained from the JavaScript execution, information can be easily obtained which would include a client’s IP address, email address and even language preference (Ibid). Bielova (2013) explains that the list of URLs that have been visited by a user are not permitted to be accessed by the JavaScript code, due to privacy concerns. However, a recognised technique does exist whereby visited links are presented differently in comparison to those unvisited; Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (Ibid).
A “Flash Cookie” is a type of web cookie supported by the popular Adobe Flash plug-in, which is also one of the most major Supercookies that are known of (Castelluccia, 2012). One of the most disconcerting features of Supercookies is that they are implicitly stored outside of the web browser’s control, meaning that users have no means by which they could remove or even be aware of the cookie in question (Ibid). As mentioned earlier, standard cookies can eventually expire but this is not the case for Supercookies.
Exploratory Analysis
Exploratory analysis is a vital element of statistical analysis, whereby initial observations and deductions can be made from a dataset. It allows the user to get an overall sense of the data as well as raise new questions in relation to the attributes of the dataset and emerging patterns. As is often the case with Big Data, it is the anomalies in a dataset which often reveal vital information about the data. The exploration is mainly done with the use of graphical visualisations which further cater towards pattern discovery.
In relation to this particular study, the extracted datasets are explored to unveil the users most frequently visited websites, the times in which their searches are more frequent and also their daily number of website visits. These simple calculations allow for initial assumptions to be made about each user which are noted and kept in mind when running future, more complex, algorithms. Once the initial exploration of the data was complete, the next stage was to explore and decide upon the way in which the collected date would be grouped into a comprehendible format, by which would also be user interactive in future.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning algorithms are typically split into two learning groups; supervised and unsupervised. Among the two, supervised learning is the more frequently used type between the two. Some well-known algorithms falling under this group type are Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Naïve Bayes, K-nearest neighbour, Neural Networks and Decision Trees.
Supervised learning algorithms can be applied to a dataset when there is a known target variable of interest. The original dataset is split into train and test sets and the chosen model is trained so that it can learn how the values of the target attribute alternate given the values of the training set. The trained models are then applied to predict the outcome of the target attribute in future events.
The datasets based on the history of the web users have no specific target variable, thus the appropriate approach to take was to apply an unsupervised learning algorithm. Unsupervised learning is the second group in which most Machine Learning algorithms are grouped in to. Some of the corresponding algorithms belonging to this group are K-means, Hierarchical Clustering and Mixture Models. Applying unsupervised learning algorithms to datasets of a large dimension can be known to reveal new insights that may otherwise remain unknown. These algorithms are typically applied where humans have inadequate knowledge in regards to the underlying mechanisms of a problem. Clustering is a class of methods that are usually used for the organisation of data into a set of clusters (groups) such that the objects or items in each cluster share similarities with each other and distinguishable differences with items belonging to other clusters.
Trevino (2016) explains how K-Means clustering is applied to unlabelled sets of data with the end goal of discovering groups in the data. The variable K represents the number of clusters, from which the model applies iterations to allocate each data point to one of the clusters (Ibid). These allocations are made based on the similarities that a data point shares with the other points of that cluster (Ibid).
K-means clustering algorithm methodology:
• Input: K, set of points
x1,x2,…,xnwhere n is the total number of data points, which in this case is the total number of terms computed over all titles and the corresponding TF-IDF scores, and K is the number of clusters.
• Place centroids
c1,c2,…,ckat random locations
• Repeat this until convergence is reached
• For each data point
• Compute the Euclidean distance between the instance
xiand the cluster centre
cj. Assign the data point to cluster j.
Euclidean Distance=argminjD(xi,cj)
• For each cluster j where j = 1…K :
• Calculate the new mean of all points
xithat have been assigned to cluster j
cja=1nj∑xi→cjxi(a) for a=1…d
• STOP when the assignments of each cluster no longer change
The computation time for K-means clustering is O(
Text Mining
The implementation chapter of this report will outline the exact procedure taken to manipulate raw text data into a format in which an algorithm can more easily comprehend. Text mining is the process of obtaining knowledge and complex patterns from documents of text, oftentimes also referred to as knowledge discovery (Tan, 1999). Naturally, the storage of information is most commonly done in text format, yet it is a more challenging discipline than that of Data Mining (Ibid). Tan (1999) further explains that there are mainly two components that make up the structure of text mining, these being Text Refining and Knowledge Distillation. Text Refining is described to be the process of converting text documents of a raw format into immediate form, which is then used to uncover patterns and insight into the text document, respectively known as Knowledge Distillation (Ibid). The process essentially transforms text from being in an unorganised state into an organised state, from which important features can be extracted and analysed accordingly.
Feinerer, Hornik and Meyer (2008) further explain typically used applications in text mining, which include the classification and clustering of documents. For instance, document clustering includes the grouping together of items that share similarities, such as grouping news articles or movies of similar genres (Ibid). On the other hand, the classification of documents is used to categorise text, commonly applied in the filtering of e-mails when identifying whether an email is spam or not (Ibid). Feinerer, Hornik and Meyer (2008) also describe more inventive techniques of text mining that have been applied, including analysing the writing style of an author to discover the probability that a certain text was written by them.
The titles of each users visited web pages were extracted and saved into csv files, from which they could be uploaded into RStudio and text mining techniques were applied. This was a necessary step as the text file must be in a clear and concise format, one which would condone the implementation of calculating the TF-IDF scores of each term.
Term Frequency (TF) provides the user with the frequency of each word in a given text or document which is in turn divided by the total number of words or terms in the document (FreeCodeCamp, 2018). The official mathematical formula is given below:
Term Frequency= tfa,b=na,b∑kna,b
Inverse Document Frequency (IDF) is effectively used to compute the weight or amount of infrequent words in the given document. Respectively, the terms that appear most rarely have a higher IDF score than those who appear more frequently. The official mathematical formula is as follows:
Inverse Document Frequency=idfw=logNdft
Combining the above frequencies gives the overall TF-IDF score in a given document:
where tfa,b=number of occurences of a in b
dfa=number of documents that contain a
N=total number of documents
Primary Research Survey
When conducting the initial primary research, the target audience for the survey had to be entirely mixed in terms of their overall computing capabilities and understanding. The main purpose of the survey was to understand what the target market were most concerned about, in regards to the protection of their personal data, and how aware they actually were of the risks of actively publishing their information online. The survey was created and built using Google Forms, which allowed for reaching a wide audience. A total of 82 responses were submitted for the survey.
The first question in the survey provided interesting results into the age-range of the respondents. With the highest percentage, 32.9% of respondents were between the ages of 37-48, and 28-36 year olds formed the next 28% of total respondents. As can be seen via the screenshot below, the number of respondents aged between 21-27 and 48-60 were about the same. Both ends of the age spectrum were amid the few of that age bracket to submit the survey. The next question confirmed that 81.7% are female and the remaining 18.3% male.
The next question posed was based on the average number of daily visits to websites. Most of the respondents claim to only visit 6-10 websites a day, forming 35.4% of the group, with the next highest at 28% claiming to visit a mere 1-5 websites a day. Those who claimed to visit at least 21+ websites a day only formed 13.4% of the total number of respondents.
When asked about personalised advertising and pop-up advertising relating to their previous online purchasing history, 93.9% of respondents confirmed that they had recognised this form of advertising in the past. The results to the next question showed that almost half of the online users confirmed that they did indeed accept pop-up cookies on most occasions. As mentioned earlier, many sites often place large pop-up notices upon entering their site to encourage the user to accept their cookie, to which 72% confirmed that they felt as though they were largely manipulated into accepting.
Although many users may accept these cookies, whether willing or not, an impressive 61% from the survey were aware of the purpose of cookies and what they do. When asked about their level of concern towards their personal security on the internet, 41.5% claim to be ‘somewhat concerned’ and only 9.8% are ‘not at all concerned’.
Providing information online versus a stranger on the street can feel as though they are two completely separate scenarios, however, the potential consequences remain the same. This question was put forward in the survey, where 100% denied that they would provide their home address to a stranger on the street. However, when informed that in exchange for this private information they will hypothetically receive a discount from their favourite store, 41.5% of the respondents confirmed that they would comply. It is this exact method and technique that online marketing agencies are exhausting when targeting their audience. On many occasions, a frequent online user will be offered a 10% discount, for example, if they were to provide their email address before purchasing their goods.
Market Research
• Compare plug ins
• How will mine be different
There are many downloadable plug-ins and extensions available on the market that aim to essentially provide the user with more control into their online browsing experience. From the primary research survey conducted, most respondents confirmed that their most popular browser to use is Google Chrome, thus the following research was based on extensions currently available in the respective market.
EditThisCookie is a Chrome extension created by Francesco Capano in 2014 which offers the user a variety of features such as deleting, searching, editing and even creating cookies. The successful extension is currently being used by over 2.5 million users as of August 2018, according to the Chrome Web Store. The extension itself mainly focuses on giving the user more control over the cookies that are obtained over time. Capano (2014)
Who Targets Me? is a free downloadable software, founded by Same Jeffers and Louis Knight-Webb in 2017. The browser extension was initially created with the purpose of creating awareness into personalised advertising, specifically to Facebook users. The user is advised to create an anonymous Facebook profile and to act accordingly as a standard user of the social network. The software actively collects the adverts that have been posted on Facebook and authorises the user to view a personalised breakdown of the political posts and provides information as to why the user may have been specifically targeted with that advert.
Proposed System & Requirements
The downloadable extension will be created for the purpose of Google Chrome, as it was confirmed to be the most popular browser used by internet users. With many users having highlighted their concerns towards their online privacy, the extension will allow them to interact and view their searching habits, collected over periods of time. As well as this, the titles of each visited web page will be collected and algorithms will be implemented which will essentially provide each user with an overview of what their searching habits unveil about them as individuals.
The logo for the extension will be used as an icon which will be found in the upper right hand corner of the Chrome toolbar, as shown below.
Figure 1: Logo, created by author
Figure 2: Logo as it would appear in the Google Chrome toolbar [screenshot by author]
Upon clicking on the icon itself, a new tab will open in the browser which will take the user to the dashboard page of the extension. On reaching this page, the users top 20 most frequently visited websites will be illustrated in the form of a bar graph. The user will also have the option of selecting the number of top viewed websites that they wish to view, for instance, by selecting ‘Top 30’ from the available drop-down menu. This interactive interface allows the user to have more control in the system and in how they view their browsing habits.
The user will also be able to inspect their average time spent on the net, with the additional choice in whether the line graph represents daily, weekly, or monthly averages.
The primary section of the dashboard will be a section whereby the user clicks on a button, prompting the system to output a selection of groups that share similarities. Specifically, these similarities are calculated with the use of TF-IDF scores and by implementing the K-Means algorithm, which is demonstrated in the implementation chapter of this report. The user will actively be able to select the number of groups or clusters that they wish to view. Each group will contain terms that are most similar to each other, which will effectively contain terms that indicate the geographical location, gender, employment status and interests of the individual.
The combination of the above will provide the user with an overall deeper understanding into what their browsing activities would appear to be from the view of an outsider.
Functional Requirements
What the system will do and the inputs and outputs that are relevant in each case The action taken by the model
Collect the titles of each visited web page Allows for TF-IDF analysis and the clustering of like terms
Collects the time at which each corresponding web page is visited Collects information for the analysis of typical browsing times and overall amount of time that the user spends on the web
Collects the URL of each page visit Enables the illustration of the most frequently visited websites made by the user
Non-Functional Requirements
To enable the data to be analysed and outputted to the user in a response time of less than 5 seconds Considering the response time
Usability Requirements
Technical Specification
Python is a popular programming language, and was also the language used in the calculations to follow. The following Python libraries were imported into Spyder to support the corresponding calculations:
NumPy: A package designed for scientific computing in Python, containing many features but namely sophisticated functions.
Pandas: A library that is BDS-licensed which efficiently provides necessary tools for data analysis as well as high-performance data structures.
Urllib.parse: This package breaks up the strings of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into sections.
Data Pre-processing
The corresponding dataset containing information on the web history was located in the Safari directory. The directory is easily accessible, with its exact location being ‘/library/safari/history.db’. The database file itself can also be easily sent over networks, in this case as an attachment through email.
The preparation of the databases takes place in RStudio, with the library RSQLite which allows for the inspection and manipulation of raw databases.
The History.db files, appropriately renamed as ‘user1.db’ and ‘user2.db’, were loaded into RStudio with the following input:
The following output gives insight into the tables located in each database, which are naturally identical due to Safari storing information the same for each user:
Of all 6 tables in the Safari database, the only necessary data for the purpose of this study belong to the tables titled history_visits and history_items. The variable fields corresponding to the tables are as follows:
An initial observation at the raw data gives insight into what information can be obtained from mining the given data; most frequently visited websites, the average daily time spent browsing the net, etc.
In history_visits, the variable “title” contains the given titles of each visited web page, thus extracting these tiles and saving them into a text file was necessary to aid future analysis:
The visit_time variable in the history_visits table displays the date and time in NSDate format. To elaborate, NSDate objects represent a time range comparative to a reference date, specifically: 00:00:00 UTC on 01.01.2001. As an example, time and date is represented as 529456512.4, which is not in a human-readable format. Necessary data manipulations were
then made to convert each epoch time into a datetime format. The following input in Python converted each time accordingly.
The file titled ‘user1_time.csv’ contains date presented in the following, readable format.
22/05/2018 22:48:34 Amazon Sign In
Exploratory Analysis
The data is required to be relatively ‘raw’ for this step in order to achieve the correct results.
First, the number of daily web visits was computed and plotted into line graphs as follows for each user.
As can be seen from the above plots, both datasets appear stationary over time. The number of daily web visits vary day-to-day for both users, however, the data collected for user 2 spans over a larger range of dates which is emphasised through the line graph.
To gain a deeper understanding into the amount of web pages visited, the following plots were generated in Excel to illustrate the total number of websites that had been visited per weekday.
The above plots illustrate an interesting difference in the browsing habits of both users. For instance, user 1 demonstrates an increase in website visits on Thursdays, with a total of 3,226 searches made. However, searches made over the remaining days of the week seem to drop, with 2,003 searches on Tuesdays being the next most popular day. Aside from Mondays, user 2 demonstrates a consistency in their searching habits, with a total range of 3,025-4,559 web visits being made. In this particular situation, the results of user 2 are more reliable for analysis due to the greater size of data collected in comparison to user 1. Due to the stationarity and balance between most days, it could be deciphered that user 2 is a frequent web user, yet at this stage it would be inappropriate to predict whether the individual may be a student or someone who works from home. Analysis into the users most frequent web searches should provide the researcher with a greater understanding of who this individual may be.
Analysing the days and times in which most searches occur on the web can also convey a large insight into the user themselves. Further analysing the type of searches being made would give insight into whether the user is a parent, or whether they are seeking a job, as well as many other factors.
The following plots illustrate the number of visits made at every hour, between Monday to Friday, spanning over the entire date range for each user. The epoch time was again converted into a readable format, but without including the minutes and seconds for each time; only the hour at which the visits were made were relevant to this exploration.
Exploring the busiest browsing times for each user can provide insight into what the users daily activities or routine may consist of. For instance, user 1 demonstrates more web searches in the time ranges of 12pm-4pm and an increase again at 8pm-10pm.
There appears to be a noticeable difference in the most popular browsing times of user and user 2. User 2 displays a clear decrease in number of visited websites between the times of 7am-10pm. From this information, there is an increased likelihood that user 2 works between those hours, if this judgment is based upon the typical working day being 9am-5pm.
The most popular times that a user browses online can be greatly beneficial to marketing and advertising companies. It must also be considered that different types of web searches may correlate with the times that the searches are being made, which would in turn allow these companies to publish personalised adverts where the user may be considered more vulnerable.
Before a hypothesis can be made, the most popular searches made by each user must also be explored. In order for this to be made possible, the URL of each visited website needed to be split so that only the host name of each URL remained. As an example, the following URL ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIGHAdIYjNI’ was broken down and converted into the following host name: www.youtube.com. By doing so, the count occurrence of each visited web page was easier to compute. The following code syntax illustrates how this was done in Python.
As can be expected, the top 2 most frequently visited sites for both users are Amazon and Google. However, a slight yet important difference to note is that user 1 uses Google.co.uk whereas that of user 2 is Google.com, which also applies to that of Amazon. This gives an initial inclination as to where the user was located at the time of the searches made. Although it is not currently a strong enough argument to assume where the users reside, it is certainly worth keeping this information in mind when performing more concise analysis in future.
The popular website visits of user 1 provide insight into what their employment status may be. For instance, the website www.indeed.co.uk is a well-known job searching website, and www.student-finance.service.gov.uk is where a student in higher education would apply for tuition loans and maintenance loans to help with their finances during the time of their studies. If it can be assumed that there lies a correlation between the two, the assumption can be deduced that the user is a student in higher education who is in search of a part-time or full-time job.
Text Mining in R
The file containing the titles of each visited web page contains many duplicates of title names. This can be due to users commonly refreshing each web URL in aid of faster page loading. Calculating the TF-IDF scores at this stage would not provide reliable results, thus it is necessary to remove these duplicates from the created dataset. As mentioned earlier, the total number of titles extracted from the history database stands at 10,900 for user 1 and 25,130 for user 2. Once the necessary manipulations were made to the data, the total number of titles corresponding to user 2 decreased dramatically to 4,902 titles. The code used to apply the manipulations are as follows.
Text mining in R is a popular way of cleaning datasets without losing vital information. The intention is to remove unnecessary terms and characters from strings of text to ensure any future analysis can be made without difficulty. The two datasets were cleaned by removing punctuation, special characters, numbers, whitespace and stopwords from each string of text.
Term Frequent – Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF)
To calculate the TF_IDF score of each term in the documents, the following code was implemented into Python.
Elbow Method
In this scenario, it is common to apply the Elbow Method which will aid in validating the number of clusters required. The method essentially analyses the percentage of variance which is explained as a function of the number of clusters K (Anand, 2017). Choosing the number of clusters should be done in a way that adding an extra cluster would not provide better modelling results of the data (Ibid). On the graph, the first cluster is expected to explain much of the variance, but as the value of K increases the marginal gain is expected to drop which is illustrated by a distinguishable angle in the graph, better known as the elbow point (Ibid). It is at this stage that the number of clusters K can be selected, however, it can often be an ambiguous choice.
Specifying a cluster range of 1-10, the following plots represent the score values on the y-axis and the number of clusters on the x-axis.
For both datasets, K = 2 appears to be the most appropriate number of clusters to apply, as the elbow point is most apparent here.
However, as the study is based on categorising the browsing characteristics of each user, using 2 categories would not suffice in this particular study. Reverting back to the table made earlier, using 10 clusters seems an appropriate choice as it conveys a vast amount of information about each user.
K-Means Clustering
The TF-IDF scores were then used to run a k-means clustering algorithm through Python. The user-specified number of clusters is K=10, with a total of 10 values in each cluster.
The initial algorithm produced the following clusters for each user.
User 1 User 2
Cluster 1 Python, stack, overflow, sqlite, scrape, library, urls, data, Wikipedia, enfield Stanford, edclub, san, university, jose, careers, Francisco, medicine, research, review
Cluster 2 History, youtube, trailer, safari, urls, python, export, scrape, api, analyse Grand, showalter, dave, nature, photography, piano, baby, antique, shop, page
Cluster 3 Watch, free, house, season, putlocker, episode, women, se, automatic, lone Amazon, toys, prime, squishy, games, squishies, video, rising, slow, toy
Cluster 4 Uk, amazon, prime, video, mask, bowl, face, yahoo, mixing, beauty Maps, ca, inn, sea, san, hotel, rd, creek, airport, campus
Cluster 5 Crawler, github, riematrix, master, js, page, css, popup, lib, docxgen Pool, coral, spa, ca, jose, installation, san, pools, swimming, adams
Cluster 6 Mendeley, use, using, download, plugin, related, info, feed, clay, welcome Parker, warby, eyeglasses, women, daisy, quiz, freddy, frames, kiss, glasses
Cluster 7 Gumtree, ad, account, messages, post, edit, London, ads, classified, stuff Website, templates, wix, page, html, free, creative, arts, store, events
Cluster 8 Payment, ticketmaster, details, charge, dart, confirm, delivery, confirmation, uk, log Kids, shoes, clothing, camper, us, women, jewelry, girls, amazon, store
Cluster 9 Watches, tissot, ladies, automatic, women, Powermatic, Seiko, lady, goldsmiths, watchshop Uk, love, factor, ll, Wayfair, air, youtube, delta, lines, terry
Cluster 10 London, san, heathrow, flight, jose, oyster, Francisco, transport, north, graduate Youtube, gmail, west, project, girls, home, furniture, lauratomdunn, dance, sale
The clusters generated with the current code implementation are chosen at random; 100 data points are taken from the list of terms and clustered accordingly. However, it is not reliable to cluster in this manner, thus the code was adjusted so all data points were clustered.
As shown above, the code for running the TF-IDF scores was adjusted. Specifically, the max_df = 0.9 term instructs the algorithm to discard any terms that occur in more than 90% of the documents, where the documents are represented by each page title. The term max_features = 500 states to only select the 500 best terms from the total selection over the corpus, where the terms are ordered by the frequency. Cosine similarity is used to produce a degree of similarity between each of the documents in the corpus.
The term n_init = 100 instructs the K-means algorithm to run 100 times with differing centroid seeds each time. By doing this, the final output of results will represent the best possible output in terms of inertia. Also, the previously run algorithm consisted of clustering into a total of 10 clusters, which was changed to a total of 8 clusters. The reason for this being that 10 clusters demonstrated some clusters sharing similarities into the content they represented, thus experimenting with 8 clusters proved more appropriate. The final results for user 1 are as follows.
Top terms per cluster
Cluster 0 London, heathrow, san, flight, jose, oyster, Francisco, transport, north, graduate
Cluster 1 watch, free, house, season, putlocker, episode, se, survivor, lone, movies
Cluster 2 watches, women, automatic, ladies, watch, tissot, bulova, certina, Seiko, goldsmiths
Cluster 3 python, scrape, sqlite, urls, history, website, extension, csv, windows, description
Cluster 4 youtube, history, library, enfield, trailer, data, sicily, privacy, account, results
Cluster 5 uk, amazon, prime, video, mask, bowl, face, yahoo, mixing, beauty
Cluster 6 crawler, github, riematrix, master, js, page, css, popup, lib, docxgen
Cluster 7 overflow, stack, python, urls, using, extension, file, save, history, posts
Running the algorithm on user 2, keeping to 10 clusters was more appropriate in this case due to the size of the dataset being relatively larger than that of user 1.
Top terms per cluster
Cluster 0 Stanford, edclub, west, center, university, lane, American, bill, careers, research
Cluster 1 san, jose, Francisco, ca, ballet, escape, auction, maps, room, pool
Cluster 2 shoes, clothing, tory, burch, women, flip, jewelry, amazon, kids, us
Cluster 3 website, templates, wix, page, html, free, creative, arts, store, events
Cluster 4 gmail, lauratomdunn, inbox, korinnadunn, aug, dunn, receipt, flight, welcome, summer
Cluster 5 photography, showalter, dave, nature, national, Wyoming, Colorado, loranc, roman, park
Cluster 6 maps, girls, project, us, kids, home, school, united, flights, big
Cluster 7 youtube, lyrics, video, factor, song, guess, Katie, Byron, try, official
Cluster 8 grand, furniture, piano, baby, sale, antique, owner, shop, page, elm
Cluster 9 amazon, toys, prime, squishy, games, squishies, video, rising, slow, toy
User Acceptance Testing
Critical Evaluation
• Degree of success
• Limitations (be specific)
• Were objectives met
• Conclusions
Interpreting results
It is evident from the produced results that an analysis run over web searches ranging from a shorter time span do not differ from the results produced from that of a larger time range.
From inspecting the clusters associated with user 1, the following information can be deduced about the user:
Geographical Location: Enfield, London UK
• Clusters 0, 5 and 6 contain the following terms, indicating the likely location of residence: London, heathrow, enfield, uk
Gender: Female
• Clusters 2 and 6 contain terms implying the gender of the web user; women, ladies, beauty
Similarly, the following information can be deduced from the results obtained for user 2.
Geographical Location: San Jose, USA
Tan, A.-H. (1999) ‘Text Mining: The state of the art and the challenges’, in Proceedings of the PAKDD 1999 Workshop on Knowledge Disocovery from Advanced Databases. doi:
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12. Lani, J. (2010). Time Series Analysis. [online] Available at: http://www.statisticssolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/kalins-pdf/singles/time-series-analysis.pdf [Accessed 7 Aug. 2018].
13. Phelps, J., Nowak, G. and Ferrell, E. (2000) ‘Privacy Concerns and Consumer Willingness to Provide Personal Information’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. doi: 10.1509/jppm.
14. Pittaro, M. L. (2007) ‘Cyber stalking : An Analysis of Online Harassment and Intimidation’, International Journal. doi: 10.5281/ZENODO.18794.
15. Sqlite.org. (2018). About SQLite. [online] Available at: https://sqlite.org/about.html [Accessed 22 Jul. 2018].
17. Trevino, A. (2016). Introduction to K-means Clustering. [online] Datascience.com. Available at: https://www.datascience.com/blog/k-means-clustering [Accessed 2 Aug. 2018].
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Is social justice fundraising an oxymoron?
Raising money is part of the struggle for social change, not something that rich people do on behalf of the poor.
Kim Klein
3 August 2016
Credit: Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund. All rights reserved.
“People pay for things they want. I don’t want some assholes flapping their mouth when they got no skin in the game.”
This quote—from a member of a community organization I worked with in 1985—forced me to re-examine my views on fundraising in groups that work for social change. She was a woman on welfare, and I had resisted the notion that people on low incomes should have to ‘pay to play.’ But contributing financially gave her a voice in deciding which issues the organization worked on. In fact the strictest and most vociferous advocates of regular giving were often those who were most financially stressed themselves.
Money is often seen as a divisive force in society, but as this example shows it can also bring people together to strengthen collective action in ways that are democratic and inclusive. It’s not fundraising per se that constitutes a barrier to democracy and justice, but the ways in which money is raised and spent. By moving away from dependence on large donors and re-focusing on smaller contributions from those who are themselves struggling for change, fund-raising can become a pathway to social transformation.
Over the last 20 years however, many organizations have moved away from a focus on building a bigger base of individual donors, members and supporters. This is partly because funding from philanthropic foundations has become a little easier for social justice groups to get hold of (though it still only represents 15 per cent of the total amount of money given away privately in the USA, and most of that goes to causes other than social justice). After all, it’s much easier to focus on a couple of large foundation grants than to keep up with hundreds or thousands of small gifts or dues. And—as I felt myself in the past—there’s a common belief that people on low incomes can’t, won’t or shouldn’t be asked to contribute financially.
But from the perspective of social change this is a serious mistake. It cedes power and influence over the direction of the group to external institutions and their agendas, and positions money as a sign of privilege. As the French philosopher Voltaire is supposed to have said, “If you want to know who owns you, think about who you are afraid to criticize.” Social justice organizations often complain about foundations behind their backs. They resent their emphasis on outcomes and the speed with which many of them expect deep-rooted change to happen, but they still compete for funding, and the voices of their constituents become even fainter in the process. How can this situation be reversed?
In 2015, the Haas Jr Foundation supported CompassPoint and Klein and Roth Consulting (I’m the “Klein”) to produce a report that focused on 16 social justice organizations that have built an expanding base of individual donors. We called these groups “Fundraising Bright Spots.” Each one of them had a different mix of funding strategies but they all shared two major beliefs.
Fundraising is part of the struggle for social justice.
First of all, raising money is part of the work of organizing, educating, advocating and providing human services. The most successful groups we studied didn’t have a fundraising plan per se because fundraising was built into every other plan they had. When everyone shares in the work of fundraising and fundraising is built into everything they do, there’s no need for a discussion of whether certain people like it or not, or can or can't do it.
That’s a key lesson in relation to the achievement of social justice: when the work is shared by as many people as possible, collective action enables people to achieve results though building equal and mutually-supportive relationships that move the organization forward in a radically different spirit. Joy and happiness—not just efficiency and cost-effectiveness—are generated in the process. As Jewish Voice for Peace put it, “We don’t raise money to do our work…how we raise money and from whom is part of our work.”
Systemic change requires cooperation, support and involvement from many more people than can work as staff or board members in nonprofit and community groups, or even those who volunteer their time. So inviting people to join in the work of the group by making a donation allows them to feel a sense of membership which provides a foundation for going further. Many studies have noted that far more people give away money than vote, so mobilizing donors gives organizations access to a huge number of potential advocates
For example FIERCE, which works with queer youth of color in New York City, believes that having a low income constituency has never been a barrier to successful fundraising from individuals. “It’s not about someone being professional or educated in a certain way,” says Angela Moreno, the former Executive Director of FIERCE, “It’s really about shedding light on the fact that we already have these skills in communities of color. It’s about making visible and lifting up the resourcefulness that we’ve always had.”
Both FIERCE and the Transgender Law Center know that low self-esteem is a major issue for many queer young people. In their experience, inviting everyone to make a donation is part of the process of strengthening that self-esteem, and then it becomes a way of building power among the group and its constituents.
At The Crossroads (ATC) works with homeless young people in San Francisco who don’t take advantage of traditional services and who are disconnected from any form of consistent support. They are often those who others have given up on. From its inception, ATC decided never to take government donations or any other funding that insisted on measurable outcomes. They saw that many groups which aim to serve homeless people end up by ‘cherry picking’ clients who are likely to do well in their programs, and would thus provide good outcomes even though those most in need might be ignored. Good outcomes would lead to more funding but not more social justice.
By contrast, ATC’s donor base is educated about the people they serve. Donors are invited on night walks through the neighborhoods in which they work, and they can see for themselves the importance of meeting young people where they are—listening to them directly and understanding what they need.
Kindness and solidarity are critical.
The second lesson from our case studies is that in the most successful examples, staff, board members and donors liked and respected each other, hierarchies were minimized, and kindness permeated the entire organization. Many donors were friends with staff outside of work and staff tenure was long. The high turnover characteristic of so many nonprofits (especially with fundraising staff) was absent. In several groups people started as volunteers and then entered staff and/or board positions, so instead of being distanced from each-other as paid or unpaid, or as ‘donors’ and ‘recipients,’ they became co-creators of resources, strategies and directions.
Kindness doesn’t mean that people never learn from their mistakes or hold each other accountable for their actions—quite the opposite. But failure was simply seen as additional information—‘what did we learn and what should we do differently?’ ‘OK—you didn’t complete the task. Why not? What support did you need that you didn’t get and what would you do differently next time around?’
For example, Student Action for Farmworkers has a ‘Fundraising Experiment Form’ which staff and interns are encouraged to fill in with their ideas about raising money, describe why they think they will work, and evaluate how much they will cost. Staff decide whether to pursue each strategy, and if it works, then great, they use it again. If it doesn’t work, they’ve still learned a valuable lesson. No blame, no judgment.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) encourages all members of staff to set fundraising goals which they report on at staff meetings, but this is done in the relaxed format of a game with silly prizes, so everyone’s efforts are known to and shared with everybody else. This builds solidarity around money instead of competition, reversing the usual dynamics around fundraising.
Our research around “Fundraising Bright Spots” has encouraged me to be more insistent in seeing individual donor fundraising as one potential key to the social justice orientation of nonprofits. All individuals, working together, can make change, and many of them may start out as donors or dues-paying members. Given that upwards of 45 per cent of adults surveyed in most countries give something to charity, educating and mobilizing even a small fraction of that population on the social justice effects of different forms of fundraising could have significant effects.
Far from an oxymoron, social justice fundraising is an imperative in the struggle against inequality. We just have to do it.
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A place to post funny things you come across on the web
1. SEC 330 BIPOLAR
SEC 330 BIPOLAR jive turkey
I ran into this by reading a blog while trying to dig up information on Vince Young.
It's funny where google will take you.
This is a SNL video spoof.
If you can't tell by my avatar, I'm a SNL fan.
Well, a satire fan really.
Does it show? :))
2. Bobo
Bobo Guest
Pass the chronic
les of Narnia :lol:
Good stuff :))
3. SEC 330 BIPOLAR
SEC 330 BIPOLAR jive turkey
4. SEC 330 BIPOLAR
SEC 330 BIPOLAR jive turkey
Most people won't let the dog drink from here.
Toilet Snorkel
US Patent Issued In 1982
What exactly is this man doing? Communicating with his neighbors using his new Toilet Phone? Blowing up his Inflatable Toilet? Or is he simple blowing bubbles? Well the correct answer is None of the Above. This guy is using the new breath easy, Toilet Snorkel, formulated to provide a fresh air source during fires in high rise buildings.
In most fires, it's the smoke that will get you, and a source of fresh air can be a life saver. So our inventor designed a way to snake a snorkel through the zigs and zags of your toilet, so you can breath sewer air instead of smoke. Here's our question... couldn't he have, just as easily, invented the Faucet Snorkel instead?
This is for real.
:ha: :ha: :ha:
5. titanbuoy
titanbuoy medium rare ®
6. FightinTitan
FightinTitan Guest
That website is infamous for its tin foil hat.
• Welcome to goTitans.com
• The Tip Jar
Hit the Tip Jar
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Need for change in eligibility criteria
This is apropos the advertisement for the post of assistant auditor published in various local dailies on 20 August, 2020.
I would like to draw attention to the eligibility criteria and the syllabus that has been drawn for the same.
Having a commerce background for seven long years, not only I but all the commerce graduates feel very distressed. In BCom and MCom, we have various subject combinations consisting of auditing, income tax, financial accounting, cost accounting, economics, statistics and many more related to this particular field.
However, the syllabus drawn by the APPSC for the post of LDC/UDC has general English, general knowledge and elementary mathematics.
So, what is the point of studying BCom and MCom if my state cannot create separate jobs for such related fields? All the hard work revising different sections and laws of auditing, accountancy, income tax, mercantile law etc, has gone in vain.
I would also like to draw attention to the eligibility criteria, ie, BA (economics) BSc (mathematics). How is auditing and accountancy related to mathematics? It is a completely different subject than mathematics. It needs to be studied and understood from the very first point when a student takes commerce in Class 11.
How will a BSc student know anything about the principles and practice related to auditing and accountancy, its classification, its techniques, its procedure, its sections, its types, its formulations, etc? The same goes for the BA candidates.
I believe due to these conditions some people are not efficient and effective in jobs.
Looking at the eligibility criteria and syllabus, it feels like there is no separate job creation for deprived commerce graduates.
I would like to request our honourable commission members to give a thought to the subject and the eligibility criteria for the post of assistant auditor and take valuable decision for thousands of deprived candidates.
Deprived candidate,
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Ocean Plastics
Design and Technology | Ages 11-14
Ocean Plastics Design and Technology is a Key Stage 3 (KS3) resource. Students are taken on the journey of how the 6 Rs can be applied to reduce ocean plastic pollution.
Students will learn the science behind what makes plastics both brilliant for everyday purposes and devastating to our oceans and marine life. Exploring the 6 Rs students innovate product designs which creatively solve the problem of ocean plastics.
Included in this topic are teacher resources that promote students to problem solve through creative design. Students will design a user-centred recycling bin to promote recycling, create a sustainable fashion brand, build a modular phone, and pitch their own unique design solution to the ocean plastic problem.
You may wish to introduce ocean literacy to your students before commencing this unit by teaching our short Oceans for beginners unit of work for ages 11-14.
Lesson 1: What can we do to reduce ocean plastic pollution?
Students develop their knowledge and understanding of sustainability and what we can do to reduce ocean plastic pollution.
Lesson 2: Why should we recycle?
Students learn how their own recycling habits can impact the environment, before applying user centred design principles to create a recycling bin.
Lesson 3: How do we reduce, reuse and refuse plastic products?
Students learn how companies apply strategies to reduce, reuse and refuse, and apply their understanding to design their own fashion brand.
Lesson 4: Should we repair?
Students investigate how many products are designed to become obsolete. Students apply modular design to the mobile phone to make it more repairable.
Lesson 5: Can redesigning products help?
After evaluating how redesigns can reduce ocean plastic waste, students conduct a life cycle assessment of a household object before redesigning it.
Lesson 6: Design task
Students apply the 6 Rs to design their own ocean friendly product which they pitch to their peers.
In partnership with
Quality Assured by
Teach the goals
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Falling in love in a series of moments
Do you fall in love all at once, or in a series of moments?
For me love has always been an unfolding series of emotions but often with a secure path. I recognize NRE easily, and feel it pretty readily as well. It’s the feeling of my breath catching and heart fluttering when I’m getting to know someone and they say something sweet. It’s the tugging sensation when I’m talking to someone and they express their values and goals and I see how they reflect my own, and I want to share more of my life with them. It’s the excitement of learning their favorite food, or what author has shaped their life, and this information being precious because it comes from them. New relationships have a particular electric excitement to them that enhances everything, those floods of brain chemicals making me want to think about someone constantly and spend all day talking to them and exploring their mind. I acknowledge the love and limerence I feel during that time as real and feel honest in the expression of it, while also knowing that it doesn’t always predict the shape of a long term connection or translate into a more deeply seated love.
Following the rushing torrent of NRE feels, my love often takes one of two paths. The first path is into a comfortable realm of cozy warm feelings of contentment and comfort with a person. I would liken my love to a warm hearth, stable and providing security, not full of intensity, but full of a consistent glow of enjoyment. This path often runs towards a slowly deepening loyalty and commitment to a person and exploring vulnerabilities together over time as we grow close.
The second path is almost a continuation of NRE, in that it mirrors those intense rushes of emotion, the overwhelming sensations of being caught off guard and reveling in the energy of it. Little moments become big electrical boosts in the person centered part of my psyche, thrilling me and driving me to focus intimately on those moments of exhilaration. This often included elements of the first path as well, but has a definite aspect to it of love gathering intensity and momentum in a series of defining moments.
This weekend one of those stark moments came into clarity. I was sitting in the backseat of Hoffy’s truck as he was driving and half dozing off, as we were coming back from hanging out with some other folks in the local poly community and stuffing our faces at the buffet. I was a bit at my limit for socialing, had been wanting to just have some space to relax alone. Being in the truck with Hoffy driving, Kelev in the front seat, Raichu in the back with me, and music filtering through the background with no need for conversation, was peaceful. I was thinking of how I was surprised at how comfortable I was, because I don’t normally feel comfortable with someone else driving. Then I looked at Hoffy and was watching him drive and sing softly along to the music, and it was one of those moments where I was just overwhelmed with how much love I felt for him. There was just this intense feeling of ‘yes, this person. This is my person, I am happy here, and this is the person I love.’ There is a feeling of certainty in those moments of intensity. And they are amazing moments in how they have the level of excitement of NRE, but also the sheer comfortable and stable feeling of love after NRE has passed. I was thinking about how falling in love with him is a series of moments, just ordinary moments that happen as we live life together, but that take on this intense special quality out of the blue.
It is interesting, how my brain in those moments goes ‘this is the person I love.’ It’s true, it is absolutely true in that moment, and as a whole. It certainly isn’t exclusive though, and that is the beauty of being a polyamorist relationship anarchist to me. I very rarely feel that sort of intensity of emotion past NRE though, with most people I settle into that comfortable hearth fire love of stability and warmth, and overwhelming moments are not a regular occurrence. Once in a while though, the path of my love with someone takes the more passionate and extreme route, with strong surges and surprising and startling moments of energy. I found it amusing and ironic, that the other person in my life that I’ve felt that with was sitting in the front seat beside the person I was having those thoughts about now. And it mirrored the experience I had when I first recognized I was feeling that intensely about Kelev, also coming when I was sitting in the back seat of his truck eight years ago, watching him drive. I always wondered why my emotional connection with him was so much more potent at times, and here I was feeling that again.
I don’t really feel passion for people easily. I feel NRE, I feel comfortable safe feelings of love, I feel extremely potent and intense loyalty and connection and vulnerability. But passion, that often escapes me except in rare circumstances. My passions are often directed to my efforts to create and intentional community and dreams of such, towards my activism which is one of the most important aspects of my life, towards art and music, towards my never-ending quest for knowledge and learning. Those things are where my passions lay, and my relationships with people are more a beautiful cozy place rather then an enormous ardent one. I’ve found another partnership in my life that has diverged from the usual path they take for me though, that has a more passionate quality to it that is unfolding for me in that series of moments. Those moments where I really see him, and I am quite overwhelmed and absolutely eager for that fiery intensity. I’m amused when those moments mirror previous moments in the series that has played out in my other partnership of a similar quality. But most of all I’m just grateful for them, and for how they show me the many ways we are able to fall in love and appreciate that multitude and the aspect of it that I’m in at the moment.
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The Between Dating an Hard anodized cookware Girl and a European Girlfriend
There are some distinctions between seeing an Hard anodized cookware girl and a European girl. Obviously, Hard anodized cookware ladies favor men from within their own competition. They have ethnic morals regarding kinship and pals. They also are more likely to marry bright white men because they believe that marital life outside of the race would dilute all their culture. So how do you attract a great Asian girl? Read more to find out. Below couple of tips. The first one will help you call and make an Asian person fall in love with you.
Probably the most striking variations between going out with an Asian daughter and a ecu girl is that Asian young women typically marry young and do not have much choice in who they marry. Hard anodized cookware girls usually marry the first guy who can fulfill their demands and carry out their families. Alternatively, European females can day anyone and break up out of a serious romantic relationship before it might be too serious. Therefore , you can find a huge big difference in the expectations these girls.
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Another key difference among European and Asian young women is their very own sex lives. Oriental girls should prefer taller, handsome males. They will also prefer men who simulate them. Europeans will usually go out of their way to have love-making with someone, while Asians will not seek out it. They will look for a guy to mimic and consider their lead. You need to be well prepared for this before you start dating a great Asian female.
A second difference among European and find mexican wife Cookware girls is definitely their attitudes towards marital relationship. In Europe, European young ladies are seen as very personal and beautiful. The Asian females are less interested in long-term associations. As a result, they cannot perform as much as their Western european counterparts at the start. And they are less willing to join up in marriage than their American counterparts. The between seeing an Asian girlfriend and an European woman is quite noticeable.
Last but not least, European women are much more likely to be extroverted than Hard anodized cookware women. American girls start off dating previous, often in their teens and early twenties. They tend to have a significant amount of experience with men when they reach marriage era. While Western girls tend to be more everyday, Japanese gals are more appropriated and prefer to invest their spare time indoors. They even have different interpersonal habits.
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As for the differences between seeing an Asian girl and an Eu girl, Asian women are typically traditional. They will not time many men, and they will not night out many Europeans. They will generally prefer to match you in groups or occasions. But don’t allow this prevent you out of meeting the right Asian young lady! Bear in mind, the difference among dating an Asian female and dating an Western european girl is very important. You need to be prepared for long-term commitment, and don’t try to force the philosophy on her behalf.
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How blockchain will change the financial professional’s role in the decade to come
How blockchain will change the financial professional's role in the decade to come
While the world debates whether bitcoin is the future of money or merely a bubble, there is another revolution underway using the technology associated with cryptocurrencies.
Called blockchain, this tech promises to bring massive change to industries such as law, healthcare, and insurance, with accounting and auditing likely to be among those most affected.
It could one day prove to be as significant to the accounting industry as the software we today depend on to record and reconcile financial transactions. Blockchain’s promise for the accounting industry is to vastly automate and streamline manual processes that still consume a large chunk of auditors’ and accountants’ time – while improving trust in, and veracity of, financial records.
Image result for bitcoin
Essentially, blockchain works as a global and public ledger without a central database that can be tampered with. It is a permanent, cryptographically sealed record that cannot be corrupted, creating a trail of financial DNA. Information relating to trades is stored across a number of computers, which makes hacking theoretically impossible.
The blockchain’s characteristics make it perfect for financial and accounting applications:
• Information is updated in real-time.
• Each ‘block’ or transaction is time-stamped.
Data cannot be deleted; it also cannot be retroactively changed and all corrections are transparent.
It allows participants to verify and audit transactions without the need for a third party.
Next level financials
What this means is that we can begin to really start digitising and automating financial transactions that today require manual control mechanisms, checks and balances. Audits, for example, remain costly and time-consuming since a team of humans will generally sit down with the financial records and go through them line-by-line to make sure everything is in order.
With the blockchain, companies will be able to write transactions into a global distributed ledger, with which it is nearly impossible to tamper, even if you’re the owner of the accounting system. The result is that it is difficult for an employee, for example, to change a transaction to conceal fraudulent activity. The result is that audits could be quicker, easier, more reliable and less prone to error.
Transparency and standardisation will enable auditors to verify many of the records they need to look at automatically. This could, within the next 10 to 15 years, reduce the manual tasks involved in auditing, though it is likely that human auditors will still be needed to sign off audits and provide advice around complex transactions.
Streamlining transactions
Blockchain could also alter how companies record transactions with each other. Instead of a supplier and its customer keeping and reconciling records of the same transaction in their separate ledgers, they could record them in a shared blockchain ledger. This could vastly streamline invoicing, payments, and other business-to-business transactions.
When we bring blockchain and smart contacts together, we can automate many processes where we have used an independent third-party (like lawyer or clearing house) to verify transactions. Other future applications for blockchain in accounting might include authenticating the ownership and history of an asset the company is buying or selling – for example, a truck.
For accountants and auditors, the trend towards more automation is clear. However, there is still strong demand for financial professionals and practices that can give clients strategic advice around areas such as tax and growth.
The challenge for the next few years will be to move away from generating revenue from routine compliance tasks – such as audits and tax returns – towards becoming true partners and counsellors to their businesses and clients.
By Charles Pittaway, Managing Director of Sage Pay
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A Brief Guide To The History Of Rome
A Brief Guide to the History of Rome
Rome is one of the most influential historical cities in the world, and its story can fill volumes. From its mythical beginnings to its modern-day beauty, Rome’s impact figures heavily on the global stage. Of course, the full history of Rome can’t fit into a short blog. But this quick guide will give you an overview of the magnificent city and its impressive past.
If you’re ready to make Rome your permanent home, connect with the experts at Get Italian Citizenship today. We help people around the globe claim their dual Italian citizenship. You will be on your way to enjoying life in Rome, Tuscany, or anywhere else in this stunning country, or even throughout the EU.
The History of Rome Spans Millennia
Legend gives us quite a story about the beginning of Rome in 753 BCE. Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war, Mars, are said to be the founders.
Raised by a she-wolf, the twins grew up to kill the king who had tried to drown them as infants. They then began their city on the banks of the Tiber River. Eventually, Romulus killed Remus, and the city came to bear his name.
Fiction or not, this legend is a fantastic way to begin the story of one of the world’s most influential cities of all time.
The Roman Monarchy
The Roman monarchy came before the Republic.
From its founding until 509 BCE, Rome lived under the rule of a series of seven kings. Although they carried the title of “rex” or king, the Senate actually elected all except Romulus. These monarchs did not assume the throne through heredity.
The final king in this succession was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. Ancient historians do not give us a pleasant picture of this man. They indicate that he was a cruel tyrant compared to the monarchs before him.
After his overthrow by a popular uprising, Rome became a Republic. The word comes from res publica, which means “property of the people.”
The Roman Republic
Each year, eligible citizens elected two magistrates as consuls of Rome. They also served as commanders of the army.
The Roman Republic often saw two groups pitted against each other. The patricians mostly descended from the original senators from the monarchy and held significant political power. The plebeians were the commoners and held little to no power in the early Republic.
The Republic Grows
After being sacked and burned by the Gauls in 390 BCE, Rome came back with force. By 264 BCE, the Romans controlled the entire Italian peninsula.
And they weren’t finished.
By fighting in the so-called Punic Wars with the city of Carthage, Rome expanded its reach into Africa. The third Punic War ended with the destruction of Carthage and the establishment of the Roman Republic there. While Rome was moving into Africa, it also expanded into Macedonia by defeating its king and claiming the territory for the Republic.
After destroying Carthage, the Roman Republic grew.
All of this military expansion brought with it tremendous cultural changes, as well. Romans adopted literature, art, religion, and philosophy from the conquered peoples.
Tension and Trouble
The massive territorial growth brought significant burdens to the Roman Republic. During this time, the history of Rome saw political tension and a widening gap between the rich and poor.
A series of military leaders and warlords took the reins, starting with Gaius Marius in 107 BCE. One consul, Pompey, gained fame by successfully waging battles against Mediterranean pirates and Mithridates in Asia.
When Pompey returned to the city, he allied himself with the wealthy Marcus Licinius Crassus and a relative newcomer on the scene. This upstart in Roman politics was none other than Julius Caesar. Together these three make up the First Triumvirate.
Julius Caesar became governor of Gaul in 58 BCE and set out to conquer even more of the region. As he became richer and more successful militarily, Caesar gained enemies in Rome.
In 49 BCE, Julius Caesar famously crossed the Rubicon River into Rome with one of his legions of soldiers. This step started a civil war that ended with Caesar emerging as dictator-for-life. The Roman Republic was gone, and an empire stood in its place.
The Roman Empire
Julius Caesar established the Roman Empire.
Caesar’s dictatorship was short-lived, as his enemies killed him on the floor of the Senate a year later on March 15, 44 BCE: the Ides of March.
His adopted heir, Octavius, crushed Caesar’s enemies and established himself as the first Roman emperor, Augustus. In an attempt to protect himself from Julius Caesar’s fate, Augustus restored many of the Republic’s institutions. However, in actuality, he held all the power.
After so many years of war and discord, the new empire was ready for peace. The famous pax Romana encompassed about two hundred years of peace and prosperity for the realm.
The Empire Falls
A string of non-hereditary emperors held authority over the Roman Empire until 180 CE, when Commodus assumed the role upon the death of his father. The empire continued to limp along under almost two dozen emperors until it could no longer sustain itself.
And in 325 BCE, Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion in Rome. This act elevated Christianity from a Jewish sect to a worldwide presence.
Gradually, the empire lost its provinces to various outside forces:
• Britain around 410 BCE
• Northern Africa and Spain around 430 BCE
• Italy and Gaul around 450 BCE
By 476 BCE, the empire was finished.
Today’s Rome
While it is no longer an empire, the history of Rome is present throughout the city. From the architecture to the art, each era left its mark on this incredible region. With almost three million people living within the city proper, it is one of the world’s most intriguing metropolises.
As the saying goes, “All roads lead to Rome.” So, how about for you? Are you ready for your road to lead you to Rome?
If so, the experts at Get Italian Citizenship are here to help you achieve that dream. Our team can assist you with everything from genealogical research to applying for citizenship through the Italian courts. Soon, you can be living the Roman life with your Italian dual citizenship.
Connect with us today to see if you qualify for an Italian passport. A whole world is waiting for you.
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TLDR Daily Update 2020-11-02
iPhone's secret button 📱, time cells 🧠, laws on Mars 🚀
Big Tech & Startups
Apple added a secret button to your iPhone, and you may not have even noticed (3 minute read)
Apple implemented a feature called Back Tap in the iOS 14 release that adds a new hardware button to the iPhone. Back Tap turns the entire back of the iPhone into a touch-sensitive button that can trigger specific functions. Its settings can be modified inside the Accessibility menu. Back Tap can be integrated with Shortcuts, so it can do almost anything you can imagine.
People Are Jailbreaking Used Teslas to Get the Features They Expect (5 minute read)
Tesla will sometimes claw back software upgrades from used cars, removing features that owners had paid for at the time of sale. If customers want to get those features back, they have to pay Tesla the full cost of the feature to turn it back on. Tesla employees are told to put the software features back if people complain to avoid bad publicity. The company can turn off any feature for any reason. Some owners have resorted to jailbreaking their Teslas to re-enable features. While this has saved many owners from losing functionality in their vehicles, it also voids their warranty with Tesla.
Science & Futuristic Technology
Weird molecule found in Titan's atmosphere hints at complex chemistry (2 minute read)
NASA scientists discovered cyclopropenylidene in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. The simple, carbon-based molecule has never been seen in an atmosphere before. Titan has long been considered one of the most promising places to search for extraterrestrial life. Cyclopropenylidene is part of a class of molecules known to form an important part of the backbone of DNA and RNA. The presence of the molecule could mean that there could be life-giving chemistry on the moon that is not water-based.
Why Some Memories Seem Like Movies: 'Time Cells' Discovered In Human Brains (3 minute read)
Episodic memories are memories that play like a movie. Scientists have identified the cells that make episodic memory possible. Time cells place a timestamp on memories as they are being formed, allowing events or experiences to be recalled in the right order. While time cells have been identified before in mouse brains, this is the first time they have been identified in human brains. The presence of time cells in humans explains why people with damage to the hippocampus have problems remembering events in the right order.
Programming, Design & Data Science
AI Expert Roadmap (GitHub Repo)
This repository contains a set of flow charts showing different career paths and the technologies required to enter into those fields. The charts were designed for people interested in becoming experts in data science, machine learning, or artificial intelligence. A link to an interactive version with additional resources is available.
What I Wish I Knew as a Junior Dev – Lessons Learned After 11 Years of Coding (7 minute read)
After spending time in any field, everybody wishes there was something that someone more experienced in the field had told them earlier in their journey. Software development can be difficult to learn if you're only learning from one source, so learn from many sources. It is important to consistently practice what you learn because that's the only way to get better. There will always be people you don't like in any field, so it's best to learn to move on. Taking time to master one skill at a time will be more beneficial than trying to learn multiple skills all at once.
Disney Made a Skinless Robot That Can Realistically Stare Directly Into Your Soul (3 minute read)
A team of researchers at Disney has created a robot that uses subtle head motions and eye movements to seem more lifelike, despite it lacking skin. The robot consists of a static torso and a highly animated and articulated head. Humans make a lot of subtle movements when engaging with other people that aren't always immediately obvious. Robots and animatronic characters tend to freeze, causing an uncanny valley effect. Disney's new robot can identify when someone is trying to engage with it and it can also react to other stimuli. A one-minute video of the robot is available in the article.
Elon Musk's SpaceX will 'make its own laws on Mars' (2 minute read)
Elon Musk revealed plans to create a self-sustaining city on Mars last week. It will likely use Starlink satellites for internet connectivity. According to the terms of Starlink's internet project, SpaceX will not recognize international law on Mars. The space company will adhere to a set of self-governing principles defined at the time of Martian settlement. The position is similar to a declaration put forward by the Earthlight Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to preparing for the expansion of humanity beyond Earth.
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How do I obtain a criminal history background check?
There are several ways to obtain a background check; you can come to the Apopka Police Department Office at 112 E. Sixth Street, Apopka, Florida 32703. The Records section hours of operation are Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (except for recognized national holidays). In order to obtain a background check, you must provide the full name and date of birth of the subject.
Please Note: The Apopka Police Department Office will only provide a local criminal history background check for Apopka City limits. If you need a statewide or nationwide search you must contact the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. If you have additional questions, you may call the Records Section at 407-703-1777.
Show All Answers
2. Where is the Apopka Police Department located?
4. Does the Apopka Police Department do fingerprinting?
6. How do I report suspicious activity in my neighborhood?
7. Who is required to wear a bicycle helmet?
10. Will the Apopka Police Department tow an abandoned car?
11. What can I do about speeders in my neighborhood?
13. How can I evict someone from my property?
15. What can I do about stray animals?
18. How do I make a police report?
20. What is a public record?
21. When will my report be ready?
28. How do I check someone's background?
29. When should I use 911?
31. What are the audio recording fees?
32. How do I obtain a criminal history background check?
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Top 5 things to consider while developing a WordPress Website
WordPress benchmarks all these variables with its proactive approach to everything. A WordPress developer can use the platform to either create a run of the mill blog or manage websites like The Walt Disney, Pulse, and Microsoft New Center.
This leads us to believe that there is no platform that matches WordPress’s ability to handle and sustain Web and CMS development. So, what do you think about before building your website on a platform which controls 14.6% of the world’s biggest and best websites?
Read on to get the answer…
Aspects to Consider Before Developing a WordPress Website
1. Domain Name
In WordPress Development, there are four different peripherals of choosing a domain name for your website.
1. Top-Level Domain (TLD)
2. Root Domain
3. Subdomains
4. Subfolders
All of them have different meanings and purposes. TLD is the tail end of your website’s address. .Com, .Net, .Org,, .edu, .gov, .info, and so on. All these are TLDs, and they are imperative if you want a user to land on your website.
However, choosing the TLD is also essential. It will help you enhance your traffic acquisition and assist with website maintenance while deciding the cost.
2. Hosting and Migrating
WordPress development also requires you to choose a hosting method, either it can be shared, VPS, or Managed WordPress Hosting. As the name suggests, Shared Hosting means that they are multiple websites depending on a single server.
This model works on the basis of economies of scale, meaning that, as the number of sites increases, the ultimate cost lowers down. VPS hosting is similar to Shared, but in VPS, you will get a better share of the hardware resources.
Managed WordPress Hosting is like a panacea for the WordPress developers in Germany. This sort of hosting leaves in the good hands of CMS, and your website will get a supply of services from WordPress’s own architecture.
This means that you will get a better speed, tighter security, and state of the art technology to manage the website. But, you will lose your flexibility and the freedom to download a wide gamut of plugins due to restrictions from the host.
3. Choosing a Theme
Even the pioneering web development agency in Germany cannot ignore the practical benefits of premade WordPress themes. Along with offering remarkable and niche-specific designs, they have a rock-solid foundation of codes, efficient readability, higher form of compatibility, and excellent support structure.
Plus, themes are great at cost savings. When a custom-designed website helmed by the leading web design companies in Germany can cost somewhere between $500 to $52,000, the premade and ready to use themes have an average price of just $100. So, choose wisely.
4. Security Measures
There are several mediums by which your website can be compromised. Some of these include:
1. A Vulnerable Host (41%)
2. Unreliable and exposed Plugins (52%)
3. XSS Attacks or Cross-Site Scripting (84%)
First, set up a backup for your website, and secondly, ensure that you invest in formidable and trustworthy security parameters. While working on WordPress Development, ensure that you:
1. Update WordPress regularly
2. Use a different prefix than wp_
3. Hide the WordPress version from the header
4. Change the username (something else than admin)
5. Search Engine Optimization
Developing a website on WordPress or any other CMS without embedding friendly SEO practices is not recommended. If you want to attract organic traffic to enhance your viewership, SEO is a must.
Follow these fundamental SEO practices while developing the website.
1. Generate an XML Site Map.
2. Pan-website metadata and meta title insertion.
3. Use other general SEO practices.
Ready to Build your WordPress Website?
WordPress development is easier said than done. Contrary to popular belief, building a website is not as straightforward as signing up, choosing a theme, migrating, or adding the content and voila! If you want to sustain and generate revenue from your website at some point in the future, start preparing from today.
However, many WordPress developers in Germany can assist you with developing, designing, and maintaining your website if you need help. Ready now?
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Sunshine = Pool Party Weather!
Once a year I try and have a get together and see some friends and make the most of the weather during our few weeks of summer! With everyone booking holidays it's hard to get people together on the same day but what I find harder is picking a day when the sun shines!
I was jammy enough to get a glorious sun filled day!
My dress is from Boohoo. I have only worn it once before so I was dying to wear it again this year! I love it so much I have just bought it in black too. Earrings are from Claire's Accessories. Wedge heels are from Next.
All the inflatables were from Amazon (their Prime service was amazing and everything arrived on time - so quick!) or eBay.
By the way, for the record... Jack Daniels and Amaretto mixed with a splash of coca cola taste amazing as a cocktail drink but make you feel really poorly the next day!
Hope you have been enjoying the summer sunshine!
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They Shall Not Die Old. A Review.
“Woe to the statesman whose reasons for entering a war do not appear so plausible at its end as at its beginning.” Otto von Bismark
They Shall Not Die Old. Directed by Peter Jackson
In directing the documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame has produced a cinematic tour-de-force. Made at the request of the British Imperial War Museum, Jackson used some 100 hours of the Museum’s contemporaneous documentary footage shot on site along with 600 hours of interviews with British soldiers who lived, fought and died in the trenches of World War I.
The story is not told through an analysis of command decisions; nor does it romanticize war through stories of heroic feats and indomitable courage. It tells the story through the eyes of the British soldiers who lived, fought and died in the trenches.
It is a compelling way to tell a powerful story. It puts the viewer right in the trenches with the soldiers. You can see the fear mixed with boredom. You see the soldiers performing mundane tasks amid constant shelling. You watch them create coping mechanisms to deal with the stress, like making tea with the boiling water produced by the cooling systems of their machine guns, all the while knowing they could be killed at any instant.
When the call to war came in 1914, scores of young British men came from farms and factories to enlist to fight in the Great War. They didn’t question the war or its aims; they took up arms because they thought it was their duty. Their nation called; there was a job to be done and they were going to do it.
Many of the enlistees were just boys—16 to 18 years old—who were too young to enlist. But they lied (and were encouraged to lie) about their age so as to be eligible. They were the cannon fodder who, when ordered to do so, went over the top only to be slaughtered by murderous German machine gun fire. Before it was over, about 1 million soldiers from Britain and its empire would be killed.
And that was just Britain and its Empire. Russia suffered about 1.7 million military deaths. Estimates of military deaths of Allied powers range from 5 million to 6.5 million in total. Similarly, The Central Powers led by Germany lost between 3.5 and 4.5 million. Between them the combatants suffered military deaths somewhere between 8.5 and 11 million men. Estimates for the total number of civilian and military casualties that include disease and other factors run as high as 40 million people.
World War I was among the greatest of all catastrophes in human history and 100 years later there is still no definitive answer as to its cause. Moreover the slaughter didn’t end with the Armistice of November 11, 1918; it was merely put on hold until it was relaunched as World War II with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Sixty million perished in World War II, most of them civilians, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed by the Germans and Russians.
World War I did more than usher in World War II. It was also the end of an era. Progressives recognized the power of the war model for reorganizing society around the aims of a central government. And so began the militarization of the West and the organization—or reorganization—of Western society with government at its center. Checks and balances were out; the imperial and ever growing U.S. Presidency was in, and governance by experts in the bureaucracy would become the norm.
The result has been profound—-and mostly unrecognized. In large part because the population of the United States is being transformed from a self-reliant one into a subservient one, dependent on government largesse.
And so now, 100 years after the end of World War I, after the creation of countless agencies, programs and commissions, public administration in the United States would be unrecognizable to the Founders. The government of the United States has become an unaccountable behemoth. It spends trillions of dollars a year, mostly on income transfers, while running trillion dollar deficits without a thought for how to pay it off.
Virtually every facet of American life is regulated, mostly indirectly, through agency generated rules and regulations, to a degree that is an affront to the U.S. Constitution. Traditional sources of authority are under government attack along with basic liberties that we used to take for granted. Civil Society is increasingly co-opted by the central government.
Live and let live has been tossed aside in favor of strict conformity and shaming that would make William White’s Organization Man of the 1950s recoil. The increasingly bitter polarization of American politics is clearly the result of the rejection of subsidiarity in favor of a relentless drive to centralization and social engineering that represent the beating heart of the progressive project.
Yet despite its obvious failure to make good on its promises, the Progressive onslaught continues. We now are faced with demands for a raft of pipe dreams including “free” college, Medicare for all—when we can’t pay for the one we have—and a Green New Deal fantasy that promises to achieve net-zero emissions in 10 years. The utopians as ever, are undeterred by past failure.
The Great War, both directly and indirectly, caused the suffering and death of hundreds of millions of people in the 20th century. It unleashed wave after wave of utopian dreams that ended, as always, in misery. The Western democracies succeeded in spite of, not because of, the utopians.
We are again confronted with militant utopians who know what is best for us and intend to show us whether we like it or not. At the same time the distribution of power around the globe seems to be drifting away from Western liberalism. Fraying western alliances and western cultural irresolution, combined with the challenges posed by the emergence of powerful authoritarian states makes the world a tinderbox not unlike 1914.
It is impossible to see the young innocent faces of the soldiers in “They Shall Not Die Old” without thinking about how we got here, and how we can avoid the traps that produced the catastrophes of the 20th century. They Shall Not Die Old is not a film meant to be about politics. But its relentless focus on the foot soldiers who bore the cost of their leaders’ folly should give us pause. Especially when considering radical proposals being tossed around with such striking insouciance by followers who have convinced themselves they are actually leaders.
“Silence” by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese’s Silence is a complicated film. Based on a novel of the same name by Shusaku Endo, it tells the story of 2 Jesuit priests in the 17th century who set out for Japan to find their mentor, Father Ferreira (played by Liam Nelson). Father Ferreira has gone missing and is rumored to have renounced his Christian faith.
The mission of the two priests, Father Rodgrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver) is especially hazardous because Japan is in the midst of a brutal persecution of Christian missionaries and converts in an attempt to rid the island country of Christianity once and for all. The persecution tries to get Christians to renounce their faith, most especially by forcing them to violate symbols of the faith by, among other things, publicly spitting on a crucifix.
Scorsese pulls no punches in depicting the savagery of the persecution. There are burnings at the stake; beheadings and crucifixions galore that are designed to maximize suffering before death finally come as a relief. But it isn’t sadism for sadism’s sake. It has a point, and that point is to dissuade would be converts, and then to persuade the already converted, and especially the missionaries, to renounce their faith. The obvious analogy is to ISIS.
The priests, who are caught relatively early on, pray for guidance and courage as they face their persecutors. But as time goes by they fear there is no answer for their prayers. They hear silence. And so at a most basic level the film is a story of the struggle for belief and meaning in a cold and pitiless world gone mad. And, as Scorsese makes clear, it isn’t just any belief or Religion that will do. It is Christian religious belief.
Scorsese presents the struggle on several levels. The first is with respect to the priests as they try to cope with the predicament they find themselves in after they are captured. Is it permissible for them to act strategically and to pretend to renounce their faith to save others? Are the priests really acting like Christians if they hold out, but others must suffer in their place as a result?
At another level he presents the problem of defining just authority. The priests who smuggle themselves into Japan make claims to universalism. Their beliefs are religious, not political. But Japanese political authorities see the world very differently. They view Christianity as a mortal threat. In fact, they see the Christian claim to universalism as the heart of the threat.
Claims to universalism, the inherent dignity of the individual and free will are theologically indispensable to Christianity, as is the view that human nature is essentially fixed, not infinitely malleable. These ideas are now, and always have been, threatening to Kings, Queens, dictators, authoritarians and totalitarians as well as utopians of all varieties. For they look at the Church in purely secular terms, as a competitor for power and influence.
To wall off the dangers posed by the West and Christianity, Japanese political authorities decided to keep Japan isolated. For example, only the Dutch were permitted to send their ships to trade with Japan, and the sailors were not permitted to bring religious objects like medals, crucifixes and rosaries on land with them. Here the allegory to the Middle East is unmistakable. In Saudi Arabia for instance, churches are not permitted, nor is it permissible to possess religious items from faiths other than Islam, even for Western guest workers.
The analogy to the Middle East is not the only one on display. There is another, albeit a subtler one. The Grand Inquisitor, who manages the Japanese persecution, is not all that interested in simply killing off peasants who profess Christian belief. To prevent Christianity from taking root, he means to publicly break the priests to the yoke of the State. Once he does that, the priests are no longer a threat. They are worse than neutered; they are transformed into instruments of the regime. It is a profound betrayal on the order of Winston’s in George Orwell’s novel 1984.
In 1984, Winston was finally broken by Big Brother when he screamed for his torturers to “do it to Julia” (his lover) so he could be relieved of the agony of his worst nightmare. His betrayal signaled his brokenness. Once broken, the State could proceed to execute him. When they did so Orwell describes Winston as content and happy as the executioner’s bullet entered his brain.
But there are differences in the two cases. Winston betrayed a person, his lover. Once broken, Winston was no longer useful to the State and could be killed. In Silence, the priests are meant to be useful to the State, and so are turned into instruments of the State. The State means to use them to control what people believe as well as how they behave.
Which of course brings us to the case of Little Sisters of the Poor vs. Burwell (2016). In that case the Obama Administration, through the Affordable Care Act, tried to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide or finance coverage for contraceptives including abortafacients, despite their well-established religious objection to doing so. After the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the Little Sisters, the Obama Administration admitted that it could achieve its goals in ways that did not require the contraceptive mandate. Which means that the point of the exercise was to break the Little Sisters to the yoke of the State.
There are lessons and analogies in Silence everywhere you look. It is in every respect a thinking man’s movie. It presents excruciatingly difficult dilemmas for which there are no easy answers, and it doesn’t pretend there are easy answers. There is sufficient ambiguity right up to and including the end of the film, so that the questions and conflicts raised still linger after the final credits roll.
Silence cost $50 million to make and is projected to make just 2 to 3 million dollars its first weekend. That is unfortunate, but not altogether surprising. At 2 hours and 39 minutes, the movie is relatively long. It is decidedly adult. The actors are not the politically correct comic book super heroes that are all the rage these days, and the dialogue is often subtle and nuanced. It is well worth seeing.
Rogue One
In “Rogue One”, prequel to the original Star Wars film released in 1977, the mighty walking tanks of the Empire seem vaguely like Godzilla trampling through Tokyo. Chalk that up to Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters (2010) and the 2014 release of—Godzilla. But while Godzilla was a truly awful movie—in fact a truly awful series—Rogue One sparkles.
There is the usual jousting among the critics over the perennial question of what does it all mean, with some arguing that this is the first adult Star Wars movie in the series. There is something to that claim. This is more than just a shoot-em-up, although there is plenty of that. In this film some of the good guys get shot, which is relatively rare in the just-for–kids genre.
The movie calls to mind the Peloponnesian Wars with the Empire (Sparta) fighting to put down the Rebellion (Athens). The Empire is a military state. The Empire has a bit of a glass ceiling problem though; women appear to be almost totally absent from their midst. Needless to say the Empire maintains its rule with an iron hand of terror; its soldiers follow orders unblinkingly, and of course there is a brutal hierarchy of power with the Emperor at its pinnacle and Darth Vador as first henchman. Kind of like the IRS.
The Rebellion on the other hand is idealistic. It runs on hope, as we are reminded a couple of times. Its members are there for “The Cause”. The Rebellion, as you might expect, is kind of fractious. The members have their own minds. There is a Senate, so the Rebellion is democratic. And it has a President, not an Emperor. The President, like the eventual leader of the Rebellion (Felicity Jones), is a woman so they seem to have solved that glass ceiling problem that the Empire’s bureaucrats seem so unconcerned about. And the Rebellion has the best music.
One problem the Rebellion hasn’t solved is the project the Empire is so busy working on: the Death Star. If the Empire can demonstrate its power with the Death Star, the Rebellion will fall apart and all the inhabitants of the Galaxy will be forced to live under the thumb of the Empire.
But the Rebellion does have members who have The Force. And The Force is not to be taken lightly. It allows a blind Jedi to shoot down Empire fighter jets with a Bow and Arrow, not to mention fighting off machine gun toting Empire soldiers with little more than a walking stick and some Kung-Foo moves thrown in for good measure. Who says this movie is not aimed at adults?
All in all, Rogue One is very entertaining, and well worth seeing. Especially in 3D in an IMAX Theatre.
Arrival: They’re Here…
Rated PG, 1 hour, 56 minutes.
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Rainbow Six Siege Player AceeZ Explains How Ping Is Affecting The Game
Maurice Erkelenz, known as “AceeZ,” is a 23-year-old German Rainbow Six Siege player who has been representing Rogue for over six months. Previously, he was playing for Giants Gaming.
AceeZ has replied to the video of Fnatic player Etienne “Magnet” Rousseau shared on Twitter and revealed how ping matters in the game.
He stated that if you have a high ping, and you are holding an angle, you will be dead. However, if you peek with your high ping, you will definitely win the gunfights. In this way, AceeZ proved that peeker’s advantage is a thing in the game.
Here is what Magnet captioned:
“Just one of many examples. It’s hard to play the game correctly when if you hold an angle you die.”
AceeZ replied:
“Holding angle with high ping = loss. Peeking = always win.”
You can check out the tweets below.
If you got any tips and feedback, mail me please:
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RE: Negativland on tour...ENO and U2
yes, and they are right where they should be .....atop the shit
heap...hahaha Kidding, actually I like the edge's playing a lot and U2 has
doen some really good things.Brian eno does some cool stuff but alwasy
to sap his stuff in one way or another.
So..., it took a visionary like Eno to bring U2, and the
Edge, to where they are today, commercially and technically.
-Larry T
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Can Modafinil Cause Weight Loss?
Written on March 12, 2022 by | Reviewed by William Gallagher, MNeuroSci
Modafinil is a drug created by Cephalon, Inc. that is primarily used as a cognitive-enhancement drug by healthy people to increase focus, concentration, and alertness.
It was initially approved by the FDA in 1998 for the treatment of narcolepsy and later for shift work sleep disorders.
Modafinil does not produce severe side effects when taken at prescribed levels but some users (such as students who take it as a study aid) report experiencing headaches and insomnia.
Users that ingest larger than recommended doses may experience a range of mild side effects including nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, and nervousness.
When taken in large doses it can also cause stomach discomfort and rashes. Modafinil in high doses has even been reported to cause anxiety which is why it is recommended not to take more than 200mg per day.
Although Modafinil does have some risk of negative side effects it can be avoided by not taking too much. The drug is also generally considered safe for consumption by healthy adults at recommended levels.
So how does modafinil cause weight loss? The way these smart pills work is that it boosts energy levels while improving focus and attention span.
This leads to the user being able to exercise more efficiently because they are more alert and aware. This extra energy then burns more calories throughout the course of the day which can lead to weight loss (modafinil being much much stronger than caffeine does most of the work).
That being said, there is conflicting evidence in the literature and most of the aforementioned is based on anecdotal evidence.
So let's take a closer look at what the actual science says about Modafinil and weight loss.
What The Science Says
Recently, there have been numerous news articles stating that modafinil may cause weight loss.
Although some of these reports date back to 2003, the media has recently picked up on the story again.
A 2006 study by the Journal of Organic Chemistry found that modafinil's effects on disordered eating behavior could help those with bulimia nervosa because they could feel better about their bodies.
Another study published in June 2007 found that women who took modafinil reported a decrease in body mass index (BMI), which led to a possible increase in lean muscle mass.
There is no significant evidence proving that taking modafinil can cause weight loss, although it is known to boost energy and improve alertness and mental performance.
The study on disordered eating behaviors shows that modafinil may help those who have trouble controlling their food cravings, but does not prove that it can lower one's body mass index.
When taken as prescribed, modafinil will cause weight loss only to the extent that it increases energy expenditure, which is usually 1% greater than normal.
Is Modafinil A Weight Loss Drug?
Modafinil is not an over-the-counter weight loss drug.
However, there have been recent claims in the media stating that the drug may cause weight loss in some users.
Modafinil's manufacturer, Cephalon Inc., said there was absolutely no evidence supporting this claim.
There are conflicting reports on whether or not modafinil is helpful for people who want to lose weight or maintain a healthy body weight.
A 2006 study also found that modafinil can increase energy expenditure by up to one percent.
This increase is only slightly higher than the spontaneous increase of energy expenditure resulting from eating.
Therefore, modafinil is not likely to produce a clinically significant weight loss.
If a person has trouble controlling their eating habits and suppresses their appetite or otherwise gains weight and seeks to lose the extra pounds, they may take modafinil for its effects on energy levels.
It should also be noted that side effects associated with taking modafinil are rare but possible.
These include nausea and headache. These side effects usually dissipate after a few days but may temporarily worsen during initiation of therapy or upon increasing dosage.
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September 27, 2022
Taylor Daily Press
Complete News World
Biden responds to Chinese accusations: "There is no new Cold War" | Abroad
Biden responds to Chinese accusations: “There is no new Cold War” | Abroad
China last week accused the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom of “Cold War mentality” in response to the AUKUS security agreement for the three Anglo-Saxon countries. But President Joe Biden does not believe in the concept of a “Cold War,” as he will say in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday.
Biden will emphasize alliances and “intense diplomacy,” according to an official, with global politics, he says, amounting to a contest over principles.
The three Allied leaders said the security pact should maintain the stability and security of the Southeast Asia and Pacific region. They did not explicitly mention China, but it is no secret that the great power played an important role in the decision.
France fails the bargain
France is deeply deceived by the new alliance, which has caused it to lose a contract worth 30 billion euros for the submarines it will supply to Australia. The Australians, having the necessary conflicts with China, eventually chose the US nuclear-powered submarines. France recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.
European Council President Charles Michel has accused the United States of disloyalty. He said Washington had violated “fundamental principles of transparency and trust”. The move increases efforts in Europe to work together on defense, according to the former Belgian prime minister.
try to correct
Biden announced that he would call Macron to discuss “the way forward” in a suspected attempt to make things right. He then wants to discuss deep US involvement with France, including “specific and practical measures,” according to a senior US official.
See also Russians step up attacks on Kharkiv | Ukraine and Russia war
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told CNN on Monday that France had been treated “unacceptably.” “There are still many open questions to be answered.” The EU foreign ministers will discuss the matter later in New York, where they will attend the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
China furious over new US-UK-Australia military agreement: ‘Cold War mentality’
Analytics. How China’s military buildup is actually weakening the West (+)
France: NATO relations under strain after the submarine accident
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disaffected meaning in hindi
Pronunciation of disaffected
disaffected in Images
disaffected Antonyms
disaffected Definitions and meaning in English
1. discontented as toward authority
2. alienated
3. estranged
disaffected Sentences in English
1. असंतुष्ट
Some disaffected members left to form a new party.
Tags: disaffected meaning in hindi, disaffected ka matalab hindi me, hindi meaning of disaffected, disaffected meaning dictionary. disaffected in hindi. Translation and meaning of disaffected in English hindi dictionary. Provided by KitkatWords.com: a free online English hindi picture dictionary.
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Mold spores are impossible to avoid. Due to this fact, every home is potentially susceptible to mold growth, especially in areas that have a significantly high level of moisture. You are more likely to find mold in these moist/damp areas because moisture is needed to fuel mold growth. One area that mold can take a liking to is your kitchen. Leakage or standing water from your kitchen sink or other kitchen devices that could emit moisture are perfect catalysts for mold development.how to kill mold in your kitchen
If those ever-present mold spores have found the right conditions, and developed into a mold problem, you are probably wondering how to kill mold in your kitchen. Fortunately for you, you can do something about it. One option is to call a professional mold remediation service to come in and take care of your issue. However, if your mold growth has not passed beyond your own control, a DIY remediation could be a suitable solution.
How to Kill Mold In Your Kitchen: DIY Remediation
1. Gather together the necessary elements, which are water, dish detergent, and bleach or white vinegar. You will also need a bucket, spray bottle, sponge, and rag.
2. Using the water and detergent, apply a soapy layer over the entire area affected by mold.
3. Scrub this area with a sponge. Be as aggressive as possible without damaging the surface. In this step you are trying to remove as much of the mold as possible.
4. In your bucket, combine ten cups of water with one cup of bleach. Once it is mixed together, pour the solution into the spray bottle (this step can also be done with white vinegar rather than bleach for milder mold growth).
5. Spray your solution onto the area that you had just scrubbed. Allow the solution to sit on the area for fifteen minutes. This step will kill the rest of the mold that you could not scrub away with the detergent
6. After fifteen minutes, wipe the area with a wet rag and then dry thoroughly.
These steps should begin to answer your question of “how to kill mold in your kitchen”. Once you’ve taken care of your mold growth, be sure to take the proper precautions to avoid further mold growth. You have to evacuate the moisture in your kitchen as much as possible, and make sure you dry your countertops and never leave standing water unaddressed.
Whether you can take care of your issue with a DIY solution or you are in need of professional service, Advanced Mold Diagnostics want to see you through it. Our experts will guide you through your home remedy or have our professionals do it themselves for those cases that require professional equipment and techniques. If you’re experiencing mold growth and need help figuring out how to kill mold in your kitchen, contact AMD today!
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Elon Musk Open To Merging Tesla With Other Automakers
In recent years there have been several mergers and acquisitions in the automotive industry. For example, Stellantis is the new company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler America and Peugeot Citroen. Years prior to that, Ford bought and then sold Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin. So, it is not unusual that merger talk is popping up again. This time it is Elon Musk, the head of Tesla.
Elon Musk is larger than Tesla
Elon Musk giving a talk at the new Tesla HQ in China
Elon Musk, Chairman, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors, addresses a press conference | Visual China Group via Getty Images
If Mr. Musk’s name sounds familiar, it is because he is involved or has been involved in many business ventures, not just in the automotive space. For example, Pay Pal, Space-X, Tesla wall chargers, solar home roofing, underground tunnels, flamethrowers, and even tequila have all been Mr. Musk’s interests. Many of those things he’s applied his hands and mind to have become successful. So, the resultant fans he has attained along his journey have come from many industries. Additionally, his continued successes have meant that investors have been buying Tesla stock, a lot of it.
As the chief motivating entrepreneur behind Tesla, Mr. Musk has faced many challenges to bring his young company to the forefront of the electric car industry. Now that he has done so, many other companies are following his lead into the electric automotive space. In fact, many governments around the world are transitioning their constituency to electric vehicles by passing legislation aimed to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles over the next couple of decades, or sooner. So, the growth of the electric segment, along with Tesla, seems set to grow dramatically.
Tesla’s value leads to speculation
Tesla Tequila
All the attention that Mr. Musk has been able to bring to Tesla and its growth potential have made it a valuable company. It is so valuable that the company is now worth more than many legacy automakers. Stock prices are currently over $500. The strong value has led many to speculate if Mr. Musk will go on a buying spree of other automotive companies.
Interestingly, Tesla merger speculation has not been hidden in backroom conversations. In a recent interview broadcast on the YouTube channel Axel Spring XE, Mr. Musk was questioned directly about the idea of possible future mergers. His response,
“If somebody said, ‘hey, we think it would be a good idea to merge with Tesla,’ we’d certainly have that conversation. But we don’t want it to be a hostile takeover situation.” – Elon Musk
Hypothetical mergers are hypothetical
RELATED: 1 in 10 Cars Sold in Europe Is Electric or Plug-in Hybrid and Climbing
It is important to note that the conversation Mr. Musk had was based on a purely hypothetical situation. CNBC was quick to point out that Tesla already has many commitments for the money it is making. Building car production facilities, battery production facilities, and mining equipment are costly. So, a purchase or merger of any additional company has to be weighed against Tesla’s overall financial health as it is now and its future needs.
Here is a parting thought. I am just thinking out loud here… Mr. Musk has been successful in bringing Tesla to the top-of-mind-consciousness of consumers interested in electric cars. But, his reach is beyond the automotive space, and Tesla is already nearly twenty years old. So, is it far fetched to think that a merger with another company would be a successful retirement exit strategy for Musk, at least from the automotive space? Doing so would allow him the opportunity to focus on other projects he is involved with, like colonizing the moon or Mars. Then again, a merger could also put him in a stronger position with industry to propel his otherworldly aspirations even quicker. Hypothetical conversations have a way to make a person go, Hmm.
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• Category: General surgery
Pancreatic Cancer
What is Pancreatic Cancer? How it forms and what are the precaution for it?
Kindly explain in detail.
• Answers
1 Answers found.
This thread will be reviewed shortly.
The cancerous conversion and mutation of normal pancreatic cellular structure which alters the normal functioning of the Pancreas is known as Pancreatic cancer.
It is formed by the following possible causes:
* Age
* Male sex (likelihood up to 30% greater than females)
* Smoking is associated with a risk ratio of 1.2
* Diets low in vegetables and fruits
* Diets high in red meat and in sugar-sweetened drinks
* Obesity
* Diabetes mellitus
* Chronic pancreatitis
* Helicobacter pylori infection
* Family history
* Gingivitis or periodontal disease
Tamhane Ameya Avinash
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The Whiskey Rebellion How Brand New America Tore Up The Bill of Rights
By Joe Jarvis
223 years ago, “The Dreadful Night” occurred in Western Pennsylvania, after an uprising called The Whiskey Rebellion.
It all started after the Revolution, in 1791, when the federal government was in debt, and had no official money. The notes they paid to soldiers were worth fractions of what was promised, but many had no choice but to accept the funds and go home in order to try to survive.
But the soldiers were not the only ones who needed to be paid after the war. There were a number of rich investors and bankers who had provided the capital needed to win the Revolution. They too were awaiting repayment.
Alexander Hamilton had a better relationship with these financiers than with the soldiers. Hamilton was one of the leading banking figures of the time. He proposed a tax which would have two purposes. The tax would raise the revenue necessary to pay back the wealthy financiers of the Revolution. But the tax would also bring under the jurisdiction of the federal government a group of pioneers living in rural western Pennsylvania. The tax was to be levied on the production of whiskey, and not just at a commercial level. Everyone who made whiskey owed the tax. This would be the first federal tax on domestic goods.
This was a problem for the people of western Pennsylvania. Most people in this area used whiskey as a currency. Whatever surplus grain a family had would be converted into whiskey in order to preserve it. Whiskey would still have the calories of grain and was drank by almost everyone. It could be used for preserving and making some medicines.
Whiskey didn’t spoil, was widely used, and easy to transport. This made it an ideal currency. No need for banks, no need for paper money the worth of which can be manipulated. These people had tangible goods with intrinsic value absent of government mandate.
But Alexander Hamilton and the federal government insisted that the tax on whiskey be paid in coin.
For western Pennsylvanians, this amounted to an income tax. But even worse, now they had to find a way to convert their whiskey into coin. They had no use for coin since they used whiskey as a currency. But now the federal government would require them to use more time and effort just to pay the tax.
But it gets worse. Producers of whiskey were given a choice. They could pay a flat tax or pay a per gallon price. For commercial distillers who produced a lot of whiskey, the flat rate was cheaper than the per gallon rate. But for individuals, the per gallon rate was cheaper.
This was a political reward that Hamilton gave to commercial whiskey distillers in the area. They would now have the cheapest whiskey available since the flat tax worked out to a lower per gallon rate than home-distillers were forced to pay.
Hamilton did this to gain a foothold of support in the area (his enforcer was a large scale distiller) and to convert the economy of western Pennsylvania away from a whiskey-based currency. The sooner everyone was brought under the jurisdiction of the federal government, the sooner the government could raise money to pay for spending.
The tax destroyed the way of life for your average rural Pennsylvanian. First, they were singled out for a tax that most city dwellers would not be affected by. Next, they were forced to find a way to earn coin in order to pay the tax. Then, the tax made their whiskey more expensive compared to commercial distillers. This meant it was harder to sell, making it harder to convert the whiskey into coin to pay the tax.
Many people from this area moved out west to avoid the intricacies of society and government. Some were veterans of the Revolution. They would not accept this tax.
They were outraged that this tax was levied against them while the Northwest Indian War was going badly for the U.S. making the area unsafe. Seeing the tax as an advantage to grain growers (who owed no tax) and big distillers in the east (who owed a flat rate) also fueled western Pennsylvanian’s anti-federal sentiment.
They decided that if this was the way the new country was to treat its people, they wanted no part in it. They refused to pay the tax and served vigilante justice to tax collectors and other sympathizers of the federal government. They reacted similarly to how the United States reacted to unfair British taxes which sparked the Revolution.
By 1794 the climax of the situation unfolded. A U.S. Marshall was sent to the area and a showdown ensued. Some rebels were shot in a skirmish and their leader, a veteran of the Revolution, was killed. The tax collector and U.S. Marshall were captured only to later escape, and the fury of western Pennsylvanians peaked.
There was talk among the rebels that they should secede from the United States and form their own country. The plan that emerged was a watered down version of protest in which the rebels would march through Pittsburgh nonviolently. This was meant to send a message that they would not back down against what they saw as Hamilton’s attempts to pay back the wealthy by taxing the ordinary citizen.
President George Washington decided it was time to send in the army. A commission he sent to western Pennsylvania returned and recommended using the military to enforce the tax laws, and restore order.
By October 1794 Washington was seeing troops off, and heading back east, much to the dismay of some moderate locals including Congressman William Findley. He saw Washington as a fair president who just wanted to do what was right. Alexander Hamilton was the real force behind the army heading west, according to Findley, who was included on Hamilton’s list of possible rebels to be arrested.
Hamilton went with the army of nearly 20,000 as a civilian adviser. He was instructed by Washington to maintain the utmost discipline among the troops. As they advanced toward their target in western Pennsylvania, Hamilton was to prevent any breach of law by the troops, such as pillaging the countryside.
Officers harshly punished any soldier caught stealing, but the soldiers were doing so because of the lack of rations and clothing. Hamilton decided to solve this by making the theft of these goods legal. According to William Hogeland in his book The Whiskey Rebellion:
Once the army and Hamilton finally arrived at the target county in western Pennsylvania, they contonued their oppression. They did not care much to follow the due process laid out in the Bill of Rights in new Constitution, despite Hamilton’s assurances to the President.
Many residents had signed oaths of support for the U.S. government. By signing, they risked local vigilante justice. But the U.S. promised that they would be pardoned as punishment was served to the region for failing to pay the new tax, and leading an insurrection against officials of the federal government.
These oaths were ignored and many who had signed them were arrested by Hamilton and the army anyway. A month earlier the first arrests of a few rebels had been made, prompting the most guilty among the rebels to flee. Anyone left in western Pennsylvania had minimal roles in the insurrection, and had certainly not led it. The most violent rebels, who had committed the worst acts against government officials, had already fled.
“The Dreadful Night” began in the middle of the night on November 13, 1794. Hamilton had created three lists of people: those who were not to be arrested, those who would be arrested, and those who were to be brought in as witnesses for questioning. The first list was not provided to the generals. Hamilton gave them the authority to arrest anyone they suspected of having participated in the rebellion, aided the rebels, raised liberty poles, or robbed the mail. He also authorized the troops to arrest local officials who failed to suppress the insurrection. The officers and soldiers who were passed these orders were delighted to finally have some excitement and authority on this trip west.
One particularly unstable officer named White was put in control of the 40 prisoners which Hamilton thought would give the most valuable intelligence on the whole situation. These prisoners “were brought to a dark log structure” where they were tied up and seated on the muddy floor, and guarded by soldiers instructed to keep the prisoners away from the warmth of the fire. The tavern keeper was told he would be killed if any prisoners received food, and thus for more than two days the sadistic officer in charge:
…starved and dehydrated his shivering, exhausted captives, steadily cursing and castigating them, glorying in their helplessness and describing their imminent hanging. Even White’s troops became concerned about the captives who seemed barely alive (222).
The prisoners were then marched 12 miles in bad weather to be held in another jail, still without being charged with any crime. Following interrogation, most of them were eventually released without any criminal proceedings. This was unsurprising since most of those arrested were indeed innocent.
The arrests and brutality went on for several days throughout western Pennsylvania. This served as a reminder to all residents not to speak out against the federal government. Hamilton made it clear to the presiding judge that regardless of innocence, a good number of detainees would need to be marched back to Philadelphia in order to give the impression that the federal government had accomplished its goal, and put down a violent, unjustified rebellion. The judge held a number of rebels for trial even with what he considered lack of evidence, fearing that the army would revolt if too many prisoners were let go.
The prisoners that remained in custody were marched back to Philadelphia with great show in order to create the illusion of glory. It was essentially a photo op for Hamilton and Washington, who could now say, see, look what we did, look at the problems we solved. The prisoners were paraded on Christmas Day 1794 before 20,000 Philadelphians.
It was a disappointing show to the spectators who knowing that thousands of rebels had marched against the government, were surprised to see only twenty prisoners. Twelve cases went to trial, and two rebels were convicted. The rest weren’t released until 1796. They were left to find their way home if they could afford it. The whiskey tax remained hard to collect until it was repealed in 1801 by President Thomas Jefferson.
From the beginning of this country, the federal government has not been very good at abiding by the Constitution. Clearly, the due process rights of most of the “rebels” arrested were violated. Also violated were the rights of the farmers whose food and property was confiscated along the way in order to supply the army.
Cruel and unusual punishment was used on the prisoners, prior to them even being charged. What a precedent to set at the birth of a “free” country. They tore up the Bill of Rights before the ink had time to set.
With Hamilton’s broad presence in the foundation of the country’s banking and finances, is it any wonder that his vision has led us to where we are today? The government still uses taxes to give some businesses an advantage. The government still levies taxes which are meant to change the way citizens live their lives.
But remember that the government still found it hard to enforce and collect the whiskey tax. And today we can arrange our lives in a similar fashion, and make it difficult for the government to collect their unfair taxes. Let the spirit of rebellion inspire you.
Olddogs Comments
Those of you who have the intelligence and means to protect your rights must band together and teach those who do not, or we will certainly all go down together. The above article is nothing compared to what others have suffered over the years, and what we all will suffer in the near future if we do not stand up and fight back. The international Banking Cartel must be taken down one way or another. Greed is no different than pedophilia.
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Just Say No to Life Jackets
Okay, I’m shamelessly Facebooking on my blog with this, but concerning the whole contraceptives, rape and abortion controversy, this says it all!
Let me explain this for Dutch readers who may not have been following the whole debate about all this closely.
To begin with, most public schools in America don’t provide sex education to the students. In Texas, for example, the only thing related to sex that may be taught is abstinence: simply don’t have sex.
And yet teenage girls get pregnant. According to a survey covering 2006 to 2009, “the birth rate [in 2009] for females age 15-19 was 39.1 births per 1,000 females — a historic low for the US but significantly higher than other developed countries such as Canada (14 per 1,000), Germany (10 per 1,000) and Italy (7 per 1,000)”. And that only starts counting at age 15.
Some of these girls, and women too, may want an abortion, for example because they are not in a position to be responsible for a baby. However, several Republicans are trying to reverse Roe vs. Wade, the abortion act that makes abortion a woman’s choice. The idea is that if a girl or a woman gets pregnant, she’ll just have to deal with it.
About a month ago, Missouri Senator Todd Akin claimed that abortion after rape shouldn’t be legal, but that it’s a non-issue anyway, because when a woman is legitimately raped (whatever that means), her reproductive system shuts down and she can’t get pregnant. Incidentally, this guy is on the congressional science committee.
About a week ago, Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock claimed that rape victims should not have abortions because their pregnancies were still what God intended and the babies are still gifts from God. There has been some back-and-forth about whether or not him saying that God intended the pregnancy means he implied that God intended the rape, but frankly, I don’t see the difference. The end result is the same.
So, Can you think of any other metaphors for the issue? Are you for or against sex education in schools? Are you for or against allowing a woman an abortion after being raped? Give me your thoughts, including the reason you feel the way you do, in five paragraphs, double-spaced, and don’t forget your topic sentences.
I’m kidding! Just tell me what you think.
16 responses to “Just Say No to Life Jackets
1. Good old Texas! It is true that the state refused to pass a law that would force schools to provide more than abstinence information. Even if some schools actually offers what they call “abstinence-plus” instruction, it doesn’t really help.
Texas’ teen birthrate is third-highest in nation. And Texas’ teenagers are more sexually active than the nation average.
Sometimes, Americans are just plain stupid.
• Actually, statistics show that sex ed does help. There’s sex ed in most western European countries, and teen pregnancies are less than a thrid of what they are here, and my guess is that most of the teen pregnancies in Europe are among recent immigrants, because it’s not part of the overall culture.
2. I’m with Mark on his point about “sometimes, Americans are just plain stupid”, I think; I also think that no matter what is said about the separation of Church and State, by politicians and so forth, in practice they’re pretty much joined at the hip. And that joining causes far more misery than is warranted.
3. I can do it in less than 5 paragraphs and just 5 words:
I totally agree with you!
4. When it comes down to it, I probably am a one-issue voter, in that I refuse to vote for a party that consistently tries to limit a woman’s access to abortion and overall autonomy over her own body. But I think the Republican approach to abortion is symptomatic of their overall feeling that women are second-class people and can’t be allowed to think for themselves. They’re opposed to abortion, but are also opposed to women having access to affordable birth control. Therefore, if they’re not going to let a woman decide her own health issues, they’re not going to encourage equality anywhere else or for anyone else. I’ve also never understood how a party that is for less government seems to want to stick government’s nose into so many parts of people’s private lives.
Don’t even get me started on these idiots being on science committees and other similar groups …
5. Marie-Jacqueline
I’w aware about the nonsense some Rebulicans pose as scientific evidence founded in their religious believes.
If it wasn’t about a serious matter, it would be funny!
(Good picture by the way!)
I don’t know if you heard about the book: “Not under my roof” by
Amy Schalet, author of Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens and the Culture of Sex.
She is assistant professor of sociology, University Massachusetts, Amherst.
What got her interested in the studying the differences between American and Dutch approaches to teen sexuality?
She was born in the U.S., but grew up in the Netherlands.
When she moved back to the USA at 21,she was stunned to find out that teen pregnancy was a problem in the U.S. Growing up in the netherlands, she had not known of anyone [getting] pregnant.
She comes with interesting conclusions comparing the Netherlands and the US.
The Netherlands:
As you mentioned much lower teen pregnancy, much lower abortion rate,
significant less STD’s, more safe sex, sex-education starting at primary school, ofcourse adepted to that peticular agegroup.
All these figures much higher.
Sexeducation not present or very limited. Abstinence is the keyword
I place the link to the website so you can read the article yourself:
The site of Planned Parenthood (I know some Americans get hysteric hearing that name) is also very intersting. They want to adept the Dutch view on this subject to the American conditions.
I’m very curious what your opinion is!
• My opinion is that no one has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body. Yes, I think Planned Parenthood is kind of the American version of the Rutgers Stiching. They come to my kids’ school when they are getting sex ed, but that’s a progressive private school. Unfortuntely, the vast majority of teens in America don’t get any info at all at school.
6. Todd Akin is an ignorant ass.
Richard Mourdock is an ignorant superstitious ass.
That poster and this post . . . rock! Write on!
7. Barbara, I was perhaps unclear…
Of course sex ed helps. And that some schools in TX offer the “plus” education is excellent. (Better than nothing, absolutely!)
But, does that change the overall picture in this state? No, I don’t think so. Most schools don’t bring up the subject. Or, as Marie-Jacqueline says, it is very limited. Meaning, Texas still got a long way to go. Very long.
8. All this just makes me so angry! OF COURSE women should have a right over their own bodies!! I mean, WTF?????? (pardon me, but I get really angry)
9. You’re so cool! I do not believe I’ve truly read something like this before. So great to discover another person with unique thoughts on this subject matter. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This website is one thing that is required on the internet, someone with some originality!
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Anna Knappe
The More I Search, The Less I See
I have never seen Afghanistan.
The more I search for images, the less I see.
I wrote the word ‘Afghanistan’ into Google image search. The first four search results display soldiers marching, shooting and posing with their guns. The soldiers belong to NATO, Taliban or Daesh, and the few local people present in the photographs are wearing blue burqas. The soldiers all look alike. The thirteenth image is the map of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the fourteenth is its national flag. After these images, another ten images of soldiers follow, one showing fresh blood on the ground, then another map, followed by ten more images of soldiers and helicopters. Around the hundredth image, I see the first non-military image: a schoolroom of girls studying, illustrating the webpage of an American aid organisation.
Searching the image bank Getty Images produces similar results, except that the images of soldiers also include mountainous landscapes in their background. The first image in the list of search results is a photograph of a young brown-eyed woman wearing a scarf covering her face. The image caption reads: “Young Arabian woman in hijab”. Afghanistan is not an Arab country, and Afghan Arabs normally refer to Arab Islamist mujahideen who fought alongside the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War, not young religious women. Afghan women are again wearing burqas, the visual symbols of Taliban oppression against women in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule. The images of burqas remind me of how Afghan women were victimised to gain the American public’s support before the US invasion of Afghanistan. The idea of “saving Afghan women from their oppressors”—meaning Muslim men—helped popularise the view that the war was for Afghanistan’s own good (Hirschkind & Mahmood 2002).
As the German artist and researcher Hito Steyerl (2007) writes, the domination of remote people has been closely linked to reporting the so-called truth about them, and that photography and military technology have always been linked together. In this case, the burqas represent the so-called truth of the people of Afghanistan, mixing Afghans with Arabs, suggesting Islamic fundamentalism as the root of all problems, and creating a visible sign of an invisible enemy that threatens us (Hirschkind & Mahmood 2002).
The algorithm of Getty image’s search engine also suggests other search words related to the word Afghanistan: Iraq, Kabul, and War. Google suggests the words: map, war, killed, nato, peace, soldiers killed, troops, troops killed, army, taliban, kabul, afghan, afghan war, kandahar afghanistan, police, and military. I have never been in Afghanistan and never seen what the war really looks like. However, I know that there has been an on-going conflict in Afghanistan for almost 40 years, and that its latest episodes, Operation Enduring Freedom and its sequel Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, starting in 2001, are now now entering eighteenth season. To a Western spectator like me, the war in Afghanistan is portrayed with the images of the ones in power: the US military.
For Afghans themselves, the war images have also become part of their image of Afghanistan, but their gaze is different than the western gaze. Amir Jan is an Afghan artist and filmmaker who uses images of Afghanistan in his works. His fascination with the war images of Afghanistan comes from his childhood outside and the disconnection he felt when growing up as Afghan in Iran. He describes the first images he saw from Afghanistan: “When I was a kid, I never saw anything else than war images from Afghanistan. To me, they were Afghanistan. During the civil war, my father used to go to meetings in Tehran to listen to different leaders of the mujahideen, who came to Iran to collect money from the Afghans living there. They always brought videotapes with them and sold them to the audience, and my father bought them and then showed them to the family. These videotapes were my first tangible memory of Afghanistan. I saw tanks and soldiers; I saw them fighting and people getting wounded and killed; and I saw war prisoners being captured and then marching in front of the camera. The idea was that we Afghans who lived in Iran could participate in the war by paying instead of fighting, and the videotapes were proof that the money was well spent. But to me, who had never seen Afghanistan, the war became the only image of Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan 100 is a photographic collage I made together with Amir Jan from the first 100 images of the Google image search for Afghanistan. For Google, the name Afghanistan is associated with the word ‘war ‘and the image search results reflect this. The constant flow of military images associated with the country partake in normalising the conflict as something that simply belongs to Afghanistan: Afghanistan is war and war is Afghanistan. There are no other images of Afghanistan easily available to Western audience, only images of Western warfare. For Afghan viewers, the images available are images of suffering: dismembered bodies, blood and mourning. Reluctantly, they get to see the victims of the warfare, but no matter how much they try to share these images via social media, they still become overshadowed by the constant flow of images depicting the war from the point of view of power. Very little has changed in regard to the images of Afghanistan available online since Amir Jan’s childhood. If the war videotapes were the first image of Afghanistan he saw, the web search results were the second: “I remember the first time I was able to connect to the internet, I went to Yahoo search and searched the word ‘Afghanistan’. I really didn’t know anything about it, apart from the videotapes I saw as a kid, because at least back then, they didn’t teach anything about Afghanistan in schools in Iran. Our schoolbooks had four lines of text about the whole county, listing its religion and some other facts and that’s all. So, I searched for Afghanistan and the only thing I got, after waiting for a long time for the images to load, were images of tanks. I didn’t even know which side of the war they belonged to.”
The Land of the Enlightened, a film by the Belgian filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue, attempts to utilise the images of US military in Afghanistan and to break the documentary “truth” produced by them through mixing documentary and fiction into what De Pue calls “a hybrid-documentary”. Filming of The Land of the Enlightened took seven years to make, and De Pue spent time in Afghanistan first by being embedded in the US army filming the soldiers, and secondly working on the mountains with a group of Kuchi children—filming a fictional story of the children’s dreams to accompany the documentary footage of the army. In the film, the US soldiers look like children playing a video game. They laugh and joke and shoot their rockets towards the mountains. The camera follows them failing to interact with the locals, who don’t seem to appreciate their colonisers. The film creates a timeless atmosphere in which the war is only a temporary visitor. The soldiers are out of place and the children are the only ones acting like adults, unearthing old Soviet land mines and other leftovers from the previous wars, while waiting for their turn to take over and start cleaning the land after the current invaders. Yet, perhaps unintentionally, the filmmaker’s decision to mix documentary and fiction footage amplifies the typical practice of seeing the military images as representing reality, and the Afghans being portrayed as fictional characters who are not in control of their own land.
It is noticeable that the so-called documentary war images of Afghanistan in the media and image banks, are actually not documentary images of the war, but images of visual symbols of war. They are metonyms for war, showing weapons, tanks, helicopters, and soldiers, but no killing, death, suffering or other consequences of war. Even the photos captured in combat show only one side of the battle, and that side doesn’t get hurt. The images are often staged and posed, showing the actors of the war but not the act or the victims of the war. They are staged because the real images of the war wouldn’t have good quality; they would look messy and wouldn’t illustrate news articles well. Even a Google image search for ‘War in Afghanistan’ returns search results of the same posing NATO soldiers, and only a few images of the Afghan victims. The images are seductive: young, strong, and mostly white soldiers in beautiful scenery, photographed against the sunset with bright colours, shining metal, and camo patterns. They are an advertisement for a fantasy war where there is no death but only heroes, and when there are no victims of the war, we identify with the heroes, for they are who we see as real and their experience as authentic (Steyerl 2007).
In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag questions if there is an antidote, a counter-image, to the seductiveness of war. Sontag replies to her own question with an example by the Canadian artist Jeff Wall, a photograph entitled Dead Troops Talk (A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol Near Moquor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986), in which a group of injured Red Army soldiers is photographed lying and sitting on a sandy ground after a battle. They are dead but they do not seem to know it themselves. The image is not documentary, it is staged in Wall’s studio, who himself has never been in Afghanistan. According to Sontag, what makes the image so powerful are the soldiers’ disinterest in the viewer. They are not looking at us and they are not interested in our gaze. We have not experienced what they have, and we cannot understand or imagine it (Sontag 2004). Both Jeff Wall’s photograph of soldiers and the illustrative images of warfare in my image search results are constructed. The difference is that the media images offer an easy and polished answer to what war is. They claim that by looking at the representations of war, we could understand the war itself. But the devastating consequences of war is death and destruction, and we never see Western soldiers dead in the images, only Afghans.
In Afghanistan 100, representational images disappear into a blurry mess in which the violence of the original images is present but not comprehensible. The image is almost abstract, yet, it contains a link to its origin but simultaneously hides it. It multiplies the experience of watching masses of individual images that represent the war but tell nothing of the reality of the war. Hito Steyerl (2007) describes a news broadcast from Iraq in 2003, in which a CNN correspondent was using a mobile phone camera to live broadcast the view from an armoured vehicle. Very little was present in the clip due to its low resolution and the general bad quality of the filming, resulting in an abstract footage of blobs of colours moving on the screen, which Steyerl calls a sort of military abstract expressionism. Steyerl asks what this kind of abstract documentarism might tell about documentarism as such, and proposes that perhaps this blurry and unfocused image expresses the truth of the situation much better than any objectivist report could, precisely because it doesn’t represent anything. After going through all the images, I still haven’t seen Afghanistan, but I can finally grasp something, even if it only is my inability to see Afghanistan.
Hirschkind, C & Mahmood, S (2002) Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency, Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 2, p. 339-354,
Available online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318265
Steyerl, S (2007) Documentary Uncertainty, A Prior #15,
Available online at http://re-visiones.net/anteriores/spip.php%3Farticle37.html
The Land of the Enlightened, De Pue, P, Savage Film, 2016
Sontag, S. (2004) Regarding the Pain of Others, Penguin books. (First published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003)
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Reflections on the 1965 Constitutional Convention
By Lawrence J. DeNardis (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Summer 2014
Beginning with the Fundamental Orders of 1639, Connecticut never lost or surrendered her charter of liberties. A state constitutional revision in 1818 made some substantive changes, but the same basic principles of self-government guided Connecticut from 1639 to 1965.
Then, in the turbulent 1960s, the Supreme Court opened the door to change. From the beginning of the new nation the Court was hesitant to take up issues relating to the structure and mission of state governments, respecting the constitutional principle of federalism. But then during a decade which brought great change, numerous allegations from state voters claiming their voting rights were being diluted, particularly following state reapportionment, led the court to change its views and hold that such allegations may be reviewed as federally justiciable matters (Baker v. Carr 1962). What remained was the identification of the constitutional principle at stake. By 1964, the court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment requires every state to structure its legislatures such that all the members of each house represent substantially the same number of people (Reynolds v. Sims 1964).
Since colonial times, creating legislative districts of strict equal population had not been a basic precept. In fact, Connecticut’s House of Representatives had historically been based on another concept—the equal representation of towns—a principle adopted by the framers of the U.S. Constitution in structuring the U.S. Senate. However, for the U.S. House of Representatives and those states that had districts based on population in one or both of their chambers, drawing and re-drawing district lines (after each federal census) proved difficult and contentious, often leading to shameful compromises or, worse, inaction. For example, the Connecticut State Senate, required by law to be based on equal districts, had not substantially changed its districts since 1901, with the result that by 1960 senate districts with 31 percent of the state’s population controlled the majority of that body. In the same year, the state house of representatives, based on “town” representation, could elect a majority with only 12 percent of the people—the most egregious malapportionment in the nation.
After the Baker and Reynolds decisions, a parade of state-by-state cases appeared before federal courts, and each state failed the new federal test of “one man one vote” (as it was referred to then), a test based on a new interpretation of the “equal protection clause” of the 14th Amendment. The Connecticut case, Butterworth v. Dempsey (1964), brought by the League of Women Voters, would bring significant political change to the “Land of Steady Habits.” Under federal court order and state implementation, the 1965 Connecticut Constitutional Convention convened on July 1, 1965 at the historic Old State House in Hartford to begin rewriting Article 3 of the State Constitution regarding the structure and reapportionment of state legislative districts. Moreover, nothing prevented a review and revision of other sections of the constitution.
The opening session of the convention was a scene of dramatic contrast: Television cameras rolled while quill pens from the 1818 era sat on the rostrum. In attendance were
84 delegates from around the state—42 Republicans and 42 Democrats nominated by their respective parties, all uncontested winners in a special election. (At 27, I was the youngest of them.) As we took the oath of office administered by the Secretary of the State Ella T. Grasso, herself a delegate, I felt the historic importance. It was only the third time in the state’s 326-year history that a group of its citizens would be called for such an important task. Following an opening address by Governor John Dempsey, Raymond E. Baldwin was unanimously elected chairman of the convention—the only person in state history to have served as governor, U.S. senator, and chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. I remember thinking at the time that he was the closest we had in our state to a 20th-century George Washington, who had famously presided over the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1787. Throughout four months of convention proceedings, Baldwin conducted himself with great equanimity and charm.
For all the pomp and ceremony that took place on July 1, 1965, and the serious work that followed in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the State Capitol, this conclave was, ironically, one that nobody in a position of power in Connecticut had wanted—not the governor nor leaders of the Republican or Democratic parties, including the legendary John M. Bailey, Democratic state and national chairman. They had become accustomed to the structure of power in the old system, a state house of representatives controlled by Republicans from small towns and a state senate controlled by Democrats from the cities, and almost always in recent years a Democratic governor. The intervention of the federal courts in the 1960s unleashed political uncertainty. However, when it came time to pick delegates, the most impressive group of luminaries sought to become delegates through a process of selection of nominees by state and regional political leaders. And so the conclave included former governors, senators, ambassadors, judges, legislators and mayors—all succeeded in being part of a historic event that for many served as a career capstone. Though I would go on to state and federal office, my public service “portfolio” was rather thin at the time. But thanks to local and state Republican leaders who took an interest in me, I was now on the big stage debating with well-known public figures on issues of importance and feeling more than a little apprehension.
The first debate occurred when we adopted rules of organization and procedure. Our floor leaders, Ella Grasso for the Democrats and H. Meade Alcorn Jr. for the Republicans (a Hartford lawyer and former Republican national chairman), advanced the key rule that no proposal could be approved by the convention and sent to voters unless it received a two-thirds majority vote. They said it was intended to insure bipartisan cooperation. Since Connecticut had a history of strong party control at the time, several delegates (myself among them) were suspicious that we could be in for a “bossed convention.” We resisted, arguing for a more liberal rule, and lost. And we lost again when I sought an expanded number of committees to consider a broader range of constitutional issues.
In the final analysis, the clear need to make important revisions to the Constitution of 1818 beyond our mandate concerning legislative apportionment was accommodated by the rules and willingness of the leaders. The first order of business, though, was to establish new legislative districts for both our state house and senate based on the new federal standard and to provide a strong means of resolving future political stalemates over reapportionment. In addition, we revised Article 8 to formally recognize our entire system of public education, which would become so important in the next decade when advocacy groups and lawsuits moved to establish equal educational funding. Regarding the executive branch (Article 4), we established an elaboration of executive succession and a stronger executive veto authority subject to mandatory legislation review. For voting rights, we eliminated the mandatory party-lever voting and streamlined the process for amending our state constitution. We did some general editing, to make the state constitution read like a modern document while preserving ancient truths.
In retrospect, 50 years later, the rules fight on opening day served to remind our leaders that we had a broader agenda for consideration on that historic occasion. They must have gotten the message, and we did act on urgent matters requiring actions that were overdue. During the summer of 1965, I learned a lot about politics, people, history, and leadership. To be able to help rewrite our state constitution was heady stuff, especially for someone so young. Of the junior members, several would go on to high office, myself included. Thomas J. Meskill and Ella T. Grasso would become back-to-back state governors in the 1970s, James J. Kennelly became speaker of the Connecticut house, Malcolm Baldrige served as U.S. secretary of commerce, and JoAnne Kiely Kulawiz became the first female trial judge in state history. In fact, the 13 women who were delegates were the first women in Connecticut history to participate in the writing of our state constitution.
The amended constitution was approved by the voters of Connecticut in a general referendum on December 14, 1965 by a 2-to-1 margin. Over the years, many delegates have died—approximately 70 members of the original 84-person delegation are gone. I remember them all with great affection and respect.
Lawrence J. DeNardis was a former state and U.S. legislator and president of the University of New Haven. He served on the board of regents for Connecticut Higher Education and the board of Connecticut Humanities.
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adios, zeitgeist—or should I say auf wiedersehen
The funny thing is, you don’t know when you’re at your best. You can wake up with a hangover and then go to work with three hours of sleep, and do great work. Or you could be rested up for a week and come down here and do lousy work.
This is Dale Chihuly, Seattle’s beloved glassblower, in Michael Apted’s 1997 documentary Inspirations. Chihuly goes on:
There’s no correlation much to how you feel and what happens. That’s the advantage of working as much as you can. Because you never know when it’s going to be just right.
This is true of your work day. This is also true of your body of work.
What distinguishes the viral flares who draw envy and resentment from the steady, sober pros who show up at the page or the easel or the camera to make their work, day after day? Now and then, that work might converge with public taste—as David Lynch’s did with Twin Peaks: The Return. A flurry of attention and an award. Then tastes diverge again; our collective attention wanders. What does the artist do? What else—pull out a fresh sheet of paper, sharpen a pencil.
How can you tell the difference between a one-hit wonder and a lasting creative talent? It’s in the moment you stop envying their success. All of a sudden, you can feel the weight of their dedication. They’re in it for the work. And I’m not talking about the retirement gig on the Vegas Strip. I’m talking about regularly facing down the tiger: the blank page. As far as you’re concerned, the artist is welcome to that burden. Deep down, we just want to get famous the one time, make Mom happy, stop worrying about it so much. We don’t think too much about what lies beyond.
—Philip Glass, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Glass worked as a NYC cab driver until he was older than I am now. Then he could finally support himself with his music. Forty years later, he’s still going.
It’s no coincidence that Apted’s documentary also features David Bowie, another artist who never stopped pressing forward even as his audience wandered in and out of the stadium. In an interview in another documentary—I can’t seem to dig it up right now—Bowie muses on the public, saying, essentially, “Either people absolutely love what I’ve done or they have absolutely no interest in it.”
Nevertheless, he persisted. #hetoo
If you’re a regular reader of the Maven Game, you’ll notice I pay particular attention to these workers, the craftspeople who keep working with no apparent regard for the shifting moods of the “audience,” the so-called zeitgeist.
Laurie Anderson has her eyes fixed forward. My family sat mesmerized listening to the audio component of “Chalkroom,” her wild VR installation at Mass MOCA. I didn’t know what to make of it. Isn’t that wonderful? I know what to make of everything! And Anderson’s been doing this for decades. Outside any comfort zone.
Babies have to learn object permanence, the concept that things continue to exist even if they’re hidden for a moment. Mommy hides her face—where’d she go? I’ve learned artist permanence. Anderson keeps working even when our attention wanders…then, peek-a-boo.
This is the only kind of work that matters. You’ll never really know why something “succeeded,” even when it’s your own work. It used to be: you made stuff to please your tribe, then your patron. Then they invented “the public.”
[Jürgen] Habermas observed that, starting around the middle of the seventeenth century, the concept of “the public” (or le public in French, or Publikum in German) took on a new prominence in the languages of Western Europe. Before this point, people alluded to “the world” or “mankind” when talking about a general audience or crowd. But the idea of a public implied that there was a body of opinion and taste that possessed its own force and influence in society, potentially rivaling that of the monarchies and clergy. For the first time, people began talking explicitly about the court of “public opinion”; they began to seek “publicity” for their work or ideas, a word that originates with the French publicité. Habermas argued that the political and intellectual revolutions of the eighteenth century had been facilitated by the creation of this new public sphere, largely housed in semipublic gathering places like taverns and pubs.
This is Steven Johnson in his most recent book, Wonderland. (Johnson is a worker.) It had never really occurred to me before reading this passage that there hasn’t always been a “public.” Part of me wonders whether, one day soon, that public will cease to be—at least as we understand it today. The mainstream. Consensus. Real and fake news. The zeitgeist.
At dinner with someone the other night, I asked what they’d thought of Donald Glover’s astonishing “This Is America” video. Blank expression.
“Do you know Donald Glover?”
“Not the guy from Lethal Weapon.”
Lately, I’ve been thinking of art in terms of what I call works and taps. A work is a unified something you take in your hand and hold up to the light and try to appreciate on its own merits. You think in terms of the creator’s intention. You think about how it makes you feel. You consider it.
A tap has a spigot. You turn the spigot and consume what comes out to achieve a desired effect. Then you turn it off again and move on with your day. Hulu provides lots of useful taps. I use Hulu’s Good Doctor tap to feel sad and uplifted on demand. Then I forget all about that episode of The Good Doctor. I used Apple Music’s “Pure Focus” tap to write this essay. No idea what I’ve been listening to for the last couple of hours.
Donald Glover, though it’s still relatively early in his career, is making works. Over the last week, I’ve stopped envying his success. He can have it.
A book can be a tap. Sometimes, an essay sent to a mailing list can be a work—one can aim for that, anyway.
Make works. In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott offers the reason:
The public isn’t real. Only the work is real. Fresh sheet, sharp pencil.
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Pl. Pres. - Competing In Tomorrow's Marketplace: Trends and Strategic Implications For Agricultural Producers
Over the past two decades the world’s agricultural markets have undergone rapid expansion and structural change as a series of important trends including increasing global consumer wealth, expanding populations but decreasing household sizes, increased market access, and effectively unconstrained availability of technology and capital have dramatically changed the competitive landscape. As a consequence, agricultural producers today find their local marketplace and marketing channel partners (buyers and sellers) often placing increased and often unwanted demands upon them to gain access to specific channels, including food safety, certification, and various production practice constraints. Are these demands really warranted? What is driving these demands? How can and should different agricultural producers respond? This paper synthesizes these trends and provides a strategic framework for assisting agricultural producers evaluate the impact and implications of alternative strategic positioning choices within this new global marketplace.
Author(s): Gow H. (1)
Organization(s): International Agribusiness and Food Marketing Michigan State University (1)
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Dump of existing HTML tutorials into docuwiki format by the HTML::WikiConverter::DokuWiki Perl module. Useful for moving things from HTML tutes to the wiki at the SDF wiki. Convert script and source HTML also provided.
136 lines
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=== -+- H Y S T E R I C A L -+- U N I X E S -+- ===
//this is meant to be a tutorial and/or tips 'n tricks for the hysterical unixes on https://unix50.org.//
Available instances are:
[a] UNICS (Version Zero) PDP-7 Summer 1969
[b] First Edition UNIX PDP-11/20 November 1971
[c] Fifth Edition UNIX PDP-11/40 June 1974
[d] Sixth Edition UNIX PDP-11/45 May 1975
[e] Seventh Edition UNIX PDP-11/70 January 1979
[f] Research UNIX 8 VAX-11/780 1981
[g] AT&T UNIX System III PDP-11/70 Fall 1982
[h] AT&T UNIX System V PDP-11/70 1983
[i] AT&T UNIX System V 3b2/400 1984
[j] 4.3 BSD MicroVAX June 1986
[k] 2.11 BSD PDP-11/70 January 1992
* Some features, such as persistent images, multiple TTYs and networking are only available on the SDF MetaArray ===== 1969 – 50 Years of Unix – 2019\\ 1987 – 32 Years of SDF – 2019 =========== unix50th — In Search of Ancient Unix ======
* [[#section-1|Introduction]]
* [[#subsection-1|Notation]]
* [[#section-2|UNICS (Version Zero)]]
* [[#section-3|First Edition UNIX]]
* [[#section-4|Fifth Edition UNIX]]
* [[#section-5|Sixth Edition UNIX]]
* [[#section-6|Seventh Edition UNIX]]
* [[#section-7|Research UNIX 8]]
* [[#section-8|AT&T UNIX System III]]
* [[#section-9|AT&T UNIX System V (PDP-11/70)]]
* [[#section-10|AT&T UNIX System V (3b2/400)]]
* [[#section-11|4.3 BSD]]
* [[#section-12|2.11 BSD]]
* [[#section-13|Another Section Heading]]
* [[#subsection-1|Subsection Heading]]
* [[#notes|Notes]]
* [[#refs|References]]===== Introduction =====For the double celebration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Unix operating system and the 32nd anniversary of the establishment of the SDF Public Access Unix system, a collection of simulated historical Unix systems has been prepared for your exploration and entertainment.You can connect to the systems from the web page: [[https://unix50.org|"https://unix50.org"]].If you have a MetaArray account, you can also access the historical systems by logging in and entering the following shell command: "unix50th"The rest of this documents consists of notes and command “cheat sheets” to help new users on each of the historical systems. It is assumed the reader is already somewhat familiar with contemporary Unix-like systems.//Note to SDF MetaARPA members: I am not an expert on any of the historical systems and it's unlikely I'll be able to investigate all of them in sufficient depth, so feel free to check out this document and enhance it with your own insights and discoveries, or features or tricks I have missed. — papa//==== Notation ====
| "command" | Command name or other fixed syntax;enter as-is. |
| //place-holder// | Place-holder for user-supplied value. |
| [//item//] | //item// is optional. |
| //item// … | //item// may be repreated one or more times. |===== UNICS (Version Zero) =====Release: Summer 1969\\ Platform: PDP-7The operating system hacked together so Ken Thompson could play //Space Travel// after Bell Labs withdrew from the Multics Project. The new operating system was named as a parody of “Multics”.This version of the operating system has a file system, a shell, a text editor, an assembler, and very little else.
* **commands available**: as, bc, cat, chdir, chmod, chown, chrm, cp, date, ln, ls, mv, stat //ken writes//
here is sme stuff..
adm and apr submit jobs to the central
batch processing machine (ge-635 gcos)
i only remember a command to submit a print
job. the pdp-7 had no printer. actually, there
was a newer print job that got the printing
done by rejecting the batch job for some
trivial syntax error. printing would cost.
job rejection was free.
sys save generated a core file that,
when executed, would continue after the
sys save. it was used for breakpointing
long jobs and for jobs that had a lot of
initialization so they would start up faster.
a note; this unix did not have a hierarchial
file system. there were only a fixed number
of directories. each was linked to by the
directory directory dd. to get to another
directory, you did
chdir dd
chdir dir
but the chdir command would take
multiple arguments so the above is
chdir dd dir
if you ever unlinked your link to dd,
you would be cut off.
later dd became .. meaning up. one could
not reference a file in another directory
directly. thus you had to link to it by a local
name and then reference through the local
name. this
link; sys; x; y
made a local link y to the file x in directory
sys referenced off of dd. does that clear
up some of the naming confusion.
i will work on some of the other stuff you
mention. some of it sends gravity waves
through the cobwebs, but nothing specific.
Logging on to the "ken" or "dmr" account - password is the same as the username=== Notes on the TELETYPE === Yeah, remember you're on an ASR33 Teletype - you can only go forward!\\ //(Special thanks to Dan Cross and Mary Ann Horton for discovering and demonstrating these at UNIX50)//
* @ = kill's the current line
* # = erase character
* } = intr (equiv to ^C)
* ^D = EOT (used to close a file) === Notes on the Commands ===
* //bc// - not the calculator, but the B compiler.
* //ls// - supports the -l option which displays inum, type[dls]/umode/omode, nlink, uid, size and name - //warren toomey//
* [[https://sdf.org/tutorials/man/unixv0|Manual Pages for UNIX Version 0 for the PDP-7]] (//special thanks to wkt and tuhs//) There is no concept of filesystem paths or '..' in Unics 0. It is also important to note that 'dd' is a Multicism and stands for\\ the "Directory Directory". This concept will become '/' or 'root' in Version 1 UNIX. The shell searches two locations: 'system' and '.'\\ However, '.' must be linked with the following command:
* //ln dd userdirectory .// - links 'userdirectory' in the 'directory directory' to '.' aka the current directory.
* //ln dd dd udd// - creates a new link named 'udd' to 'directory directory directory directory' in the current directory. (You'll need to do this for the next example)=== A **Hello, World!** written in B for Unics Version 0 ===
* login as //dmr//, //dmr//
* //ln dd dmr .//Now you can type //ls// and see the contents of the directory
* The file //hello.b// contains:
@ cat hello.b
main $(
write(' W');
* //bc hello.b hello.s// # bc will compile hello.b and produce hello.s
* //as ops.s bl.s hello.s bi.s// # as will assemble hello.s along with the standard libraries and produce an a.out
@ a.out
Hello, World!
=== Notes on using 'as' under Unics Version 0 ===
* //ops.s, bl.s and bi.s// Opcodes and System Calls - must be included in any assembly For the UNIX 50th on 10-Jul-2019 SDF held a **//B Language//** challenge on the DEC PDP-7 running UNIX Version 0 under simh.\\ A herd of hackers gave it a go over the course of 2 hours and in the end there were 4 that put in best efforts:
* Karl Koscher (@supersat) - WINNER
* Dan Cross - Runner UP
* Mary Ann Horton - Valiant Effort
* Seth Morabito (@twylo) - Flailing Attempt (awarded with a '?') Karl's effort implements a somewhat ROT1 and was the only working example of TTY IO. The code follows:**fdip.b**
main $(
auto c;
while (1) $(
c = read();
write(c + 1);
// gplv3 lol
// karl koscher
The winner was awarded a handsome **ASVEL //UNIX WARE//(tm)** Japanese write storage container and a delicious bag of **Tamanishiki** //Premium Short Grain Rice//===== First Edition UNIX =====Release: November 1971\\ Platform: PDP-11/20===== Fifth Edition UNIX =====Release: June 1974\\ Platform: PDP-11/40===== Sixth Edition UNIX =====Release: May 1975\\ Platform: PDP-11/45===== Seventh Edition UNIX =====Release: January 1979\\ Platform: PDP-11/70===== Research UNIX 8 =====Release: 1981\\ Platform: VAX-11/780===== AT&T UNIX System III =====Release: Fall 1982\\ Platform: PDP-11/70===== AT&T UNIX System V (PDP-11/70) =====Release: 1983\\ Platform: PDP-11/70===== AT&T UNIX System V (3b2/400) =====Release: 1984\\ Platform: 3b2/400===== 4.3 BSD =====Release: June 1986\\ Platform: MicroVAX3900===== 2.11 BSD =====Release: January 1992\\ Platform: PDP-11/70By issuing the "sac -nar" command, your spirit animal will be changed to the narwhal. "10 PRINT "DO YOU EAT BOOGERS?"
" $ finger man@arms
Login: man Name: Duncan
Directory: /eternia/heroic_warriors/man Shell: /bin/bashasaurus
No mail.
Plan: Make Orko clean-up the mess he left in my workshop.
==== Subsection Heading ====**Do not forget to flush the buffer**. If you do, the smell will be //intolerable//.===== Another Section Heading =====The Honeywell 6080 can be induced to perform a samba by pressing the button labeled "Samba" on the operator's console[[#fn1|<sup>1</sup>]]. That mainframe's forté, however, is the foxtrot([[#fn2|2]]), but the inducement of that particular step is beyond the scope of this tutorial.===== Notes =====
- Zurgone Vemliat, Mainframe Dancing Habits (Milwaukie: Brewers' Press, 1988), 96.
- Vemliat, Mainframe, 112.===== References =====The Open Group. 2018. “History and Timeline”. http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html.Eric Steven Raymond. 2003. “Origins and History of Unix, 1969-1995”. The Art of Unix Programming. http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch02s01.html.Ken Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie. 1971. UNIX Programmer's Manual. Bell Labs. https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/1stEdman.html.Unix Heritage Wiki. 2015. “PDP-7 Unix”. https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=systems:pdp7_unixWikipedia. 2018. “History of Unix”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Unix. $Id: unix50th.html,v 1.12 2019/07/12 15:52:37 smj Exp $
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News from up't north
Postbox letter from Geoff Richards
The good news is that because the Teacher's Council of Thailand is trying to rigorously enforce the need for all foreign English teachers to sit the tests for a TL, many schools are now finding it difficult to retain staff.
Kudos to the system
Postbox letter from Dave
Do you have difficulty in understanding the requirements to be a teacher? How are they inconsistent with the need to change and the goals of improving the education system?
Postbox letter from Rob
Why do I have to take this stupid TOEIC test?
Thailand's ill-timed implementation of the 'provisional permit'
Postbox letter from Ajarn Jim
When a foreign teacher's current 'waiver' letter expires, then that teacher must meet the requirements for the new 'provisional permit' if the teacher doesn't possess a teaching license.
How's the Thailand TEFL job market?
Are salaries really going down?
Ajarn.com asked about thirty recruiters, language school owners, government school hirers and firers, etc for their opinions on the TEFL job market in Thailand. So then - are teacher salaries really going down?
Seven months to do it yourself!
Postbox letter from Mr Grumpy
One thing I learnt a long time back, providing you are not uneducated and meet the minimum requirements, is that one must do everything oneself! It is your passport, it is your work permit and it is your life!
Seven months and still illegal
Postbox letter from Mel
My school failed to convert the work permit and the non immigrant B visa into a "work visa". Now, I'm back on a tourist visa and they won't even pretend to feel any urgency
Teachers' licenses - laws and links
All the rules and regs regarding teacher licences
Many thanks to Ajarn Forum member, Stamp, for supplying the following links to information on the complex topic of teacher licenses - and how you can teach legally in Thailand.
The system is in one big mess
Things that seemed like a good idea at the time
It's about time there was an update on the much-criticized teacher licencing laws. Please try not to laugh too loud.
A chop suey approach
A little bit of everything from the last couple of weeks
Here’s something that the Filipino teaching community could hope for: a bilateral agreement with Thailand in upholding “better” salary scale and fringe benefits.
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Larry Li (b. 1998 lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) is a painter whose practice operates in a space of cultural contrast. Merging painting, drawing, collage, and other mediums to create works that visualize his inherited experiences and cultural identity. Li received his BFA from the University of Southern California, Roski School of Fine Arts (2020) and a 2022 MFA candidate from Otis College of Art and Design.
Q: Tell us about your practice
A: I describe my practice as a personal engagement with my own cultural amnesia. Hoping these objects get me closer to a sense of racial and cultural identity as a Chinese American that has to carry the complexities of a diasporic experience.
Q: Your practice spans a lot of mediums from painting to collage, ink and video.
Can you talk to us about your process a little — what determines the medium?
A: Much of my work is rooted in collage and they originate in a digital space. Whether that is sourcing materials from the internet or using illustrator to digitally collage images together. From there, it is a process of figuring out how the work can exist in the physical world. For me drawing, painting, and collage are what make the most sense to me, so much of my work will always be a combination of the three.
Q: You’ve spoken about how you source a lot of material from your family, even pulling them directly to help with some of your video works. How has it been bringing them into your process?
A: It's been a vital aspect to not only my work but my very being and coming of age. Re-contextualizing old familial histories as content and material has brought a greater appreciation for my inherited experience and helped me understand a history I felt was denied to me because of my family's immigrant experience.
Q: Your work strikingly combines personal history with larger historical subjects. What specific historical subject matter calls to you these days?
A: I am currently working on a body of work that draws from images of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. I have always been coming back to this event throughout my practice and it has coalesced into a series of works I am making now that confronts my problematic romanticization of a collective trauma endured by my parents and their generation, and how, if at all, it affected the migration of my family.
Q: What has been inspiring you lately?
A: Always listening to lots of music, check out [Mac Miller’s] “Larry Lovestein and the Velvet Revival.”
“I was moved to collect two of Larry’s artworks in part because of the intimate stories that each of them tell about his unique family history, but also because
I think it’s way past time for Asian artists to garner the interest and support they so clearly warrant. Larry Li combines technical skill with the compelling subject matter and multiple materials to superb effect.”
© 2021-2022 The Here and There Collective
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Andrea Nguyen thinks cheesecloth is a good idea badly executed. “Ridiculous,” the Vietnamese culinary authority says. “It would just fall apart or it would get really gross.
For a cheaper, more durable alternative, the author of “The Pho Cookbook” buys lightweight, unbleached muslin at the fabric store. Using a single layer, she can strain soy or nut milks, tofu, homemade yogurt, even broth and stocks.
She attributes the inspiration to her mother, a dressmaker who recycled cotton rice bags, using them to strain pickled vegetables—or rather, had her daughter do it. “I spent a lot of time wringing vegetables out when I was a kid.”
Nguyen buys 48-inch-wide muslin and tears it into 24-inch squares, washing it before first use and twice after use—once with dish soap to remove any food, then again in the laundry. She hang-dries the cloth, but it can also be tossed in the dryer.
“It’s so much better than cheesecloth, a gazillion times,” she says. “It ended up saving a lot of money and also a lot of grief.”
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So, You Think You Injured a Tendon: Tendon Rehab for Climbers
by Christopher Schafenacker
getting the most out of your home climbing wall
Climbing is often viewed by non-climbers as an extreme, even dangerous sport and yet unless you’re climbing high in the alpine or without ropes, the risks of the sport are less of extreme danger than of debilitating minor injuries. Experiencing a catastrophic fall is far less common than rupturing a pulley, which is why climbers need to know as much about addressing that dreaded pop! as they do about safe clipping and avoiding rockfall.
At some point in their career, most climbers face the frustration of needing to hang up their climbing shoes because one pesky finger won’t pull its weight (or has pulled too much). Tendon injuries are among climbing’s most common injuries. Often, they arrive with a pop! and rapid swelling, but their onset can also be gradual and signaled by other symptoms. Sharp pain in response to certain grip types or persistent pain that does not subside when at rest are also signs of a potential tendon injury, as is localized swelling in any part of the finger. Left unaddressed, a tendon injury can end your climbing career just as effectively as a bad outdoor accident, and so it is crucial you know what to do as soon as any one of these symptoms presents.
Four Steps to Tendon Rehab
1. Get A Diagnosis
The first step to treating a suspected tendon injury is getting a diagnosis. This doesn’t mean Googling your symptoms or asking the opinion of friends, but visiting a physician or physical therapist who can tell you exactly what’s wrong.
Tendon injuries can range from a scary-sounding but relatively benign case of synovitis (tendon-sheath swelling) to a more serious pulley strain or even worst-case-scenario complete pulley rupture. Knowing the nature of your injury will determine how best to recover, and so a proper assessment is crucial. At a minimum, this involves gathering such information as the mechanism of injury, past medical history, and future climbing goals. It also means measuring strength in a range of grip positions to pinpoint the pain and assessing overall bodily condition to identify potential contributing factors.
Once you know what is going on, you can figure out how to best respond.
2. Rest Up
Climbing-specific surgeons like Dr. Volver Schöffl only recommend surgery in the case of grade IV multiple pulley ruptures or single ruptures with trauma to the lumbrical muscles or other ligaments. If you are in this unenviable position, the first step to recovery will be a visit to the OR. In all other cases, getting back on the sharp end starts with rest.
While the specific period you will be stuck on the sidelines depends on the nature of your injury, it is safe to say that you’ll likely need more time off than you think. Mild synovitis will require a week of rest, while a grade IV rupture likely means months without climbing. However great the temptation, it is fundamental that you respect the prescribed amount of rest in order to keep recovery time to a minimum.
3. Return Gradually
Once properly rested, gradual active recovery is a crucial part of tendon rehabilitation. This can mean different things depending on the nature of your injury and climbing background, but one thing it certainly does not mean is trying too hard, too soon. As tempting as it may be to hop back on your proj as soon as you’re pain-free, doing so is about as smart as blow-drying your hair in the shower.
Only a physician or physical therapist familiar with your injury can tell you how to safely work active recovery into your rehabilitation plan. This said some general principles apply:
a. Static movements are safer than dynamic movements.
b. Gripping with an open instead of a closed hand is best practice.
c. It is safer to train endurance than it is power.
d. At the first sign of pain, you need to stop.
4. Avoid Re-Injury
Finally, the best way to finish rehabilitating an injured digit is to not get injured again. Thus, prehab and injury prevention need to become a key part of your training—a topic addressed in a previous blog. While there’s more to say here than space permits, it bears underscoring that a (preferably wooden) hangboard is a crucial tool for maintaining finger health. Not only are you able to train strength in a controlled and measurable fashion with a hangboard, but you’re also able to warm up gradually without the risk of a foot-slip or tweaky move catching you off guard.
To learn more about the benefits of a wooden hangboard or about any other of our climbing products, do not hesitate to reach out via our website or give us a call at 781-739-2060.
Disclaimer: This Website Does Not Provide Medical Advice
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In 1969, driven by curiosity, ambition, and an innate urge to explore, Americans landed on the Moon. Doing so at the height of the Cold War helped establish our country’s technological supremacy and gave us a fundamental edge over the Soviet Union.
Today, our reasons for returning to the Moon are even stronger than they were fifty years ago. Going back to the Moon isn’t a symbolic effort: we need an American presence there to keep us at the forefront of technological development, to identify and manage lunar resources, and to power our missions to Mars.
The technological innovations that come from human exploration of the Moon have direct practical applications here on Earth. Technology developed by NASA is now used in everything from infant formula to cell phones. We have precise robotic surgical capabilities and safer flights from deicing chemicals because of NASA innovations. Developing the technology necessary to establish a human presence on the Moon will have untold applications in the future. Direct study is also critical from a purely scientific perspective. The Moon can give us a wealth of information about our Sun, our Solar System, and our planet, giving us a better idea of our place in the universe.
The Moon also has exciting potential resources. Mining rare earth elements and platinum group metals can provide valuable commercial development. Helium-3 could be used to power nuclear fusion reactors, fueling clean energy development. And creating the technology to explore and extract the Moon’s resources can help us learn how to extract resources from asteroids.
Perhaps the most valuable resource on the Moon, however, is water ice. Lunar ice can help us replenish oxygen and create rocket fuel that propels us to Mars. The two elements that make up water can be separated and converted to rocket fuel’s basic components: liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Using the Moon as a refueling station allows us to launch from Earth without being weighed down by all the fuel needed for the entire Mars journey.
Lunar ice is just one of many reasons that our ambition to visit Mars and travel deeper into space requires us to first return to the Moon. It will give us the ability to develop and test technology, life-support, radiation protection, communications, and propulsion systems to safely send humans to Mars.
With all these benefits, the question isn’t whether humans will return to the Moon; the question is whether the United States will lead in that effort. We’re facing increased international competition and we can no longer take American leadership in space for granted. China has been vocal about plans to establish a human base on the moon. Unlike the U.S., which has a civilian agency overseeing space exploration, China’s program is managed by the People’s Liberation Army. There are very real reasons to be concerned about China having an advantage over the U.S. from the technological innovations and resource development that will come from returning to the Moon.
President Trump and Vice President Pence recognize the urgent need for American leadership in space and have set an ambitious challenge to land on the Moon by 2024 as part of a broader effort to increase human space exploration.
Returning to the Moon won’t be easy, however. We are in the process of developing the technological capabilities we will need. Reaching the Moon requires rockets far more powerful than those used to reach the International Space Station (ISS). The Space Launch System (SLS) will be the most powerful rocket built. In concert with the Orion spacecraft, a state-of-the-art crew capsule, SLS will allow us to travel to the Moon and, eventually, beyond.
We also need to make progress on new technologies which aren’t yet fully funded or developed. The space suits we currently use for extravehicular activity outside the ISS do not have the capabilities required for use on the Moon. We need to engineer new suits that are compatible with multiple mission requirements. And, of course, we need lunar landers capable of carrying humans. NASA is working with commercial partners to develop these vehicles.
Beyond the technological innovation, however, a return to the Moon requires steadfast and consistent support. It requires a true national commitment—one that doesn’t change year after year, or with political swings. For too long U.S. space exploration has been plagued by a lack of both a vision and a long-term commitment to see ideas through to execution.
I believe we now have most of the pieces in place to make a return to the Moon possible. Our President and Vice President have a bold and inspiring plan. My colleagues in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are eager to support this goal. NASA has proposed an initial plan that is budget neutral and technically feasible and gives NASA the down payment to send Americans to the Moon by 2024 without jeopardizing other critical missions.
We have the vision, we have the commitment, and we have the logistics in place. Our task is to stay the course and work together to make both the initial and long-term investments necessary to send American astronauts to the Moon and ultimately Mars.
Returning to the Moon: The First Step in a New Journey
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Thursday, December 26, 2013
Opinionations - There Once Was A Girl named Jahi...
"Religion, science, common sense and logic do not mix."
Somewhere in an Oakland hospital lies a 13 year old girl, and she is not being kept alive by the grace of God; her body is breathing merely because a machine forces it to do so. "Chief of child neurology and director of the Center for Brain and Behavior at Stanford, Dr. Paul Graham Fisher, was appointed to examine the extent of Jahi's brain damage. In his test results taken Monday night, he says she has no response to facial pain, no gag reflexes, no reflexes in her arms or legs, and a complete absence of brain stem and cerebral function."
"What part of dead are they not understanding?"
The reactions to the case of Jahi McMath have been swift and passionate, far and wide on both sides. I've seen them as close as my own social media circle (see quotes above and below) and far as the other side of the world. I've heard from the logical and emotional both;
"Wow, some of you are cold as ice. As a mother, I can only imagine the trauma involved in having to say such an unexpected goodbye to a child. The family is coming to terms with this in their own way. Leave them be."
I am not a parent. That doesn't immediately discount my own capability to feel both logical and emotional on this issue. In fact, there aren't enough words in the dictionary to get into all of the issues surrounding this case. We can begin with separating God and science.
Chief of Pediatrics David Durand, MD: "As medical professionals, it is our responsibility to ensure that we don't create hope where there is none. When one's brain ceases to function, it never restarts."
Pastor Cheryl Ward - "we believe that God is the one who has the final answer, plug pulled and all, that God is the one who gives the final 'yes' and the final 'no' to what happens in Jahi's life."
It takes a miracle not only for a brain to come back from death, but also for a body to die when hooked to a machine designed to keep it alive. A judge has ruled that the hospital keep the girl alive through the Christmas holiday, but that as of December 30th, they are within rights to disconnect her, or the family may move her to another facility.
"Attorney Christopher Dolan said the family has identified one Bay Area facility that appears willing to provide long-term care for McMath, who was declared brain-dead after complications from tonsil surgery. Dolan declined to name the facility. 'They told us there is a bed, they care for children like her all the time," Dolan said. "They believe they can provide her with care and support and treat her as if she's a living person.' "
Except... she's not.
Following Ward's logic, if it were to be in God's hands, she should never have been put on the machines to begin with. If we're to bring God into the equation, His decision was made and actions were incited to fight against that. If it is going to be left to a higher entity, remove the machines and let it be as they declare - let God give the final 'yes' or the final 'no.'
I have yet to see any fault being assigned, but no doubt there will be a lawsuit pending against the hospital. I'm not certain why the doctors felt it was a good idea for a young girl to undergo surgery when there seem to have been multiple issues to overcome and an obvious weight issue. I'm also unsure why the family demands media coverage but ties the hands of the professionals from addressing to the public certain medical information that could provide a rounder picture.
I like how the mom compared her daughter to being on death row, and how her mom complained that the doctor told her so bluntly that she is D-E-A-D - says one on my Facebook.
Human nature (especially via media outlets, particularly social media) is to consistently attack and mock the weakest among us. I have yet to see one article mocking (or even naming) the doctor who fucked up this surgery, and none of the articles are taking the hospital to task either. Exposing and suing the hospital won't bring the child back, but rolling over afterwards is impossible for mothers. It is just freaking impossible. Do not go quietly. - argues another.
No matter my love for my wife or my mother, if their brain died then so have they and the machines go off. People only keep them on to make themselves not have to grieve and it pisses me off - a statement from a child psychologist.
I am not in this situation, I am like most simply an outsider looking in. I only know that there is a little girl somewhere who is, by all definitions, gone. Not sure if I believe in purgatory, but if I were a parent I believe I'd need a definitive line of faith. I couldn't imagine keeping my child alive for my own sake. I asked my husband a few days ago, as we've never filled out our directives, if he would want to be kept in this situation. I knew the answer before he said it, and my heart wrenched at the thought of having to say "let him go." but Jahi doesn't get that option.
It isn't ever easy to let go, but there's a fine line of the needs of others and those of ourselves. The hardest thing to do is figuring out on which side of it to be.
• Click here to read an open letter from Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield
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The Olive in Ancient Art
A symbol through the ages
Dolphins in Ancient Art
A symbol of protection, love, and playfulness
by Maria Evangelatou
The Olive in Ancient Art
A symbol through the ages
by Maria Evangelatou
Those of us who love Mediterranean cuisine know how much it owes to the full flavor of olive oil.
And those lucky enough to have travelled in Mediterranean lands are well familiar with the beauty of olive trees that animate the landscape with their silvery canopies and sculptural trunks.
Being one of the most widespread, long-lived, resilient, and generous plants of the Mediterranean climate, the olive tree has offered significant gifts to civilizations past and present.
Since antiquity, olive oil has been central in food preparation, bodily care, healing, and rituals and played a prominent role in the economy of Greek cities. Therefore, the olive tree and its branches became symbols of prosperity, success, long life, and peace and they featured prominently in Greek myths and art.
Photos: Left - we see a table of local delicacies from Mani in the Peloponnese photographed by Perikles Merakos. Upper right - An old olive tree next to a temple from the ancient Greek city Akragas in modern day Sicily. Lower right - The amphora (vase) depicts the harvesting of olives in the Athenian countryside.
Ancient Tales
One of the earliest and most moving references to the olive tree comes from the epic poem of the Odyssey (8th c. BC) that recounts the adventures of Odysseus as he struggles to return home to his family after the end of the Trojan War. When he finally reunites with his faithful wife Penelope after a 20-year long absence, she comes up with a cunning test to verify his identity:
She mentions their nuptial bed as a movable structure, so Odysseus gets the chance to “correct” her by narrating how he created the bed to be immovable: He built the bedroom around an olive tree and when he cut the plant down, he used its trunk as the foundation of their bed which is therefore firmly rooted to the ground. Thus, the olive tree appears as a powerful symbol of the prosperity, longevity, and stability of Odysseus’ house and marriage and would have been easily recognized as such by the ancient Greek audience of the poem.
Odysseus was also a favorite of the goddess Athena whose sacred plant was the olive tree. According to Athenian mythology, Poseidon, god of the sea, and Athena, goddess of strategy and wisdom, competed for the naming and protection of the city.
Poseidon offered a spring of salty water symbolizing dominion over the seas while Athena offered an olive tree symbolizing the prosperity of the land. The inhabitants of the city chose her and became Athenians (children of the goddess) although they also continued to honor Poseidon. According to tradition, the olive tree that still grows on the hill of the Acropolis today is the descendant of the original tree gifted by Athena to the city.
The image to the right depicts the contest between Poseidon and Athena for the naming of Athens.
In his "Breckenridge" collection Giorgo Damaskos employs a stylized wreath of olive leaves in protective support of a large pearl.
The design was adapted from a larger version at the request of a gentleman who wanted a 25th anniversary gift for his wife.
The set was shipped directly to the Colorado resort where they first met and spent their anniversary. Upon hearing the story Giorgo promptly named the collection: "Breckenridge"
Athletic & Peaceful Endeavors
The silver tetradrachm (a coin worth 4 drachmae) of Athens that circulated widely in the ancient Mediterranean featured olive leaves on the helmet of Athena and an olive sprig next to Athena’s sacred animal, the owl. The Athenian tetradrachm (along with its olive leaves) was circulated around the Mediterranean and was used by friend and foe alike.
Here is an example of such a coin from 450-406 BC (now in the British Museum, London).
The sacred olive groves of Athens produced the oil that was given as prize to the winners of athletic competitions at the Panathenaic Games (in honor of Athena’s birthday).
The oil was presented in elegant amphoras decorated on one side with the relevant competition and on the other side with an image of the goddess. To this day vessels are commonly used as trophies (the Stanley Cup, Claret Jug, Wimbledon Trophy, and Americas Cup to name a few.
In fact, olive oil was central to athletic training, competitions and bodily care throughout the Greek world. Athletes would exercise and compete naked under the sun so they would preface any such activity by anoint their body with oil, to keep the skin hydrated, flexible, and protected (especially important during wrestling matches).
At the end of their exercise, they would scrap dust, sweat and oil from their skin with a strigil, bathe, and anointing themselves with fresh olive oil.
A prime example of the centrality of the olive tree in ancient Greek culture comes once more from the world of athletics: the most highly coveted athletic prize was the Olympic wreath made from the branches of a wild olive tree in the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia.
According to tradition, the Olympic Games were established in 776 BC and were celebrated there every four years. Originally the games were open to athletes and spectators would travel to Olympia from all over the Greek world (from modern day Southern France to the Black Sea). Since travel could take months depending on the distance, and Greeks were often at war with each other over territorial disputes, a truce was established among all cities participating in the games, to allow safe passage to travelers and foster peaceful interaction among athletes. This tradition may have contributed to the use of the olive branch as a symbol of peace in ancient Greek tradition.
When the Olympic Games were celebrated in Athens in 2004, olive wreaths were once again offered to the winners in honor of the ancient tradition.
In the 4th c. AC the adoption of Christianity led to the abolition of the Olympic Games and the gradual eradication of polytheism, but the olive tree remained deeply rooted in the evolving culture of the Greek world and took on new meanings from the Judeo-Christian tradition. The very name of Christ derives from the Greek word Christos, the anointed one (the one sanctified with the holy oil of royalty or with the grace of the Holy Spirit).
Pure oil is used today in the Orthodox rite of baptism to anoint those baptized as athletes of virtue in the name of Christ. "Chrism" (a sanctified and perfumed olive oil) is used to mark the sign of the cross on the body of the baptized and symbolize the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Since the Greek word for oil (elaion) is similar to the Greek word for mercy (eleos), a fruitful olive tree can be used as a symbol of charity. Christ himself is said to be the merciful and healing oil that mends the wounds of the world. Holy oil sanctified through contact with holy sites, bodies, and objects was used as a healing agent in the Byzantine world. Olive trees feature prominently in Byzantine art, especially in connection to Christ’s Ascension which according to the Bible took place on the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem.
The prominent presence of olive plants on that mount did not only reflect the iconic flora of the land but it also symbolized the salvation of the world through the healing and merciful message of Christ who just before his ascension ordered his disciples to spread his teachings to the four corners of the earth.
A 15th-c. Cretan icon of Christ’s Ascension, following the Byzantine iconography of the scene, with olive trees in the background.
Olives Today
The harvest of olives by Greek folk painter Theophilos Chatzimichael, 1933.
Today, Greek jewelry makers are inspired by the rich history and symbolism of the olive tree to produce delicate and auspicious treasures.
The Greek culture and economy are still closely intertwined with this gracious plant. Although Greece is only the 74th largest country in the world by population, it is the third largest producer of olive oil.
Maria Evangelatou is a Professor of Mediterranean Studies, Department of History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California Santa Cruz.
Our gratitude to Maria for her research and contributions to this page.
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