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PJ Lifestyle
Sadist Vs. Narcissist
The danger in the Ukraine crisis was always that the Ukrainians — or some faction therein — would fight the Russians, escalating the crisis. Resistance from Obama was not in the cards. CNN quoted David Frum as saying that Obama had in effect gave Putin the "green light" to carve up Ukraine.
Obama's admirers think so too, though they put it differently. Ronan Farrow has advised the president to do nothing as Russia advances. "So, President Obama waiting and exercising caution isn't necessarily sitting on his hands. It may be the caution that we need right now."
Farrow's right. Obama's not sitting on his hands. He's waving Putin through. The effect is the same.
Even Obama's former diplomatic appointees can see what's happening. James Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq in the Obama administration, implored NATO to send troops to the Ukraine because nothing else would be believed. He said, "The best way to send Putin a tough message and possibly deflect a Russian campaign against more vulnerable NATO states is to back up our commitment to the sanctity of NATO territory with ground troops, the only military deployment that can make such commitments unequivocal."
Interestingly Jeffrey doesn't see Ukraine as an end-point of Putin's plots but a way station to other "more vulnerable NATO states". And he is anxious to prevent the action from shifting Westwards, may because he knows the stuff Brussels is made of.
The "fragile" EU, having expanded its remit East, now claims it is too fragile to resist Putin now that he's on the counteroffensive. An article in Bloomberg says, "the U.S. readiness to impose new economic sanctions on Russia over Ukraine is offset by the European Union's reluctance to introduce stronger measures that could threaten its already fragile economic recovery."
Translation. They won't even back serious sanctions. The soft-power superpower that is the EU has looked into its arsenal of diplomatic demarches and human rights declarations and found — nothing. So now they want Obama to ante up the lead in stopping Vlad. They'll bring up the rear, maybe tomorrow. But Obama needs the EU in the van, with its greater market share of Russian goods. We have the classic tableau.
Alphonse: After you monsieur.
Gaston: No, no. After you.
Alphonse: But I insist. After you.
The Death of the Phone Call
The radio and the telephone and the movies that we know
May just be passing fancies and in time may go.
The movies sure, the radio sure, but the …telephone? Andrea Peterson of the Washington Post notes with some surprise that president Obama's favorite comms platform, the Blackberry, was literally dying. The parent company laid off nearly half its workforce only last week. "That's bad news for the platform's most prominent user, Barack Obama." Not so long ago it was the symbol of wired power.
Obama's BlackBerry dependency was touted as a sign of modernity before his 2009 inauguration, to the point where it was a news story that he was allowed to keep the device post-inauguration. But technology that seemed cutting-edge in 2008 now seems painfully anachronistic. Obama was reportedly "befuddled" during an attempt to call a volunteer from an iPhone during the 2012 campaign.
But the phone call has been dying too. Most people now communicate by text or other types of messaging. In fact less than half of all Britons surveyed made a single call a day. By comparison young Americans send 88 text messages a day, a trend that if anything, is growing with each passing day.
Dana Brownlee, a corporate trainer based in Atlanta, says the issue of phone aversion frequently comes up in her project management training sessions. One of her clients, a manager at a large utility company, recently had to teach his young employee what a dial tone was and explain that desktop phones don't require you to press "Send."
But if the practice of "ringing people up" is falling prey to the changing habits of the young, it is withering among the politically powerful for a different reason. It is declining because of the increasing difficulty of sealing a deal by achieving agreement within a small circle. The conference call — the successor of the smoke filled room of the 19th century — can't cut it any more. The accusation that Ted Cruz has killed the dialog between the political parties with his incendiary attack on Obamacare obscures the fact that the telephone deal has been declining for a long time in this age of diminished consensus.
In a simpler time not long ago a President simply needed to make calls to the right people to make things happen. He'd call the Prime Minister of Great Britain or the President of Egypt. The very ancient will even remember something called a Hot Line with which the White House could call the leader of the Soviet Union in case the boys got out of hand. That's how things got fixed.
How Tom Clancy Reminded the World of American Exceptionalism
I related an anecdote many posts ago about flying into Jolo in late 1980s to attend a meeting on recent attacks by the MNLF on civilians. In the seat beside me on the plane was a European man, who introduced himself to me as a member of a well known humanitarian NGO. He announced his intention to travel to Patikul, or some such town. I told him, "that's Indian country. If you try that you'll be kidnapped before sundown."
His answer was "nonsense. I have humanitarian status. They won't hinder me." He mentioned an affiliation with some other International agency as proof of his immunity. "Do you think they care about humanitarian organizations?" I retorted. "The bottom line is you're a white man in Jolo and if you go ahead with your intentions … please reconsider your plans." We parted ways at the airport and I continued on to my meeting. Sometime in the mid-afternoon the discussions were interrupted by someone with urgent news at the door. "A European has been kidnapped," he breathlessly related, "and the marines are looking into now". I checked the hour on my watch. He didn't even make it to sundown.
More or less the same thing just happened to Greenpeace. AFP reports:
Moscow — Russian investigators said Thursday they had charged all 30 crew members of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship with piracy over a protest against Arctic oil exploration, an offence that carries the risk of a lengthy prison term….
"All 30 participants in the criminal case have been charged over the attack on the Prirazlomnaya platform," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
"They are all charged with… piracy committed by an organised group."
Piracy by an organised group carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years in Russia.
Investigators accused the activists of trying to seize property with threats of violence.
I guess Greenpeace got lulled into complacency by the fearful water cannons of the Japanese and the mild penalties which were formerly the price their protests. They didn't count on the Russians who don't seem to care too much about their NGO and environmental activist credentials. It's interesting to read the comments on some sites by outraged Belgians or New Zealanders proclaiming their indignation against "outlaw Russia".
But they miss the point. Who's going to stop Russia from doing what it wants? Will it be the Belgian Navy? Or the New Zealand Navy? Or the United Nations?
The great thing about the late Tom Clancy, who recently died at the age of 66, was that he reminded a cynical liberal American and European audience just what exactly stood between the world and countries like Russia.
Edward Snowden, Part 4: What He Didn't Know
Editor's Note: I've decided to cross-post together these four PJ articles about the NSA PRISM surveillance program. My colleagues J. Christian Adams, Bryan Preston, Ron Radosh, and Richard Fernandez each deliver compelling analyses and I agree with their conclusions. I've been disappointed as many conservatives and Republicans have sought to minimize the severity of what PRISM is, even siding with Democrats to support the program while encouraging focus on the IRS and other Obama scandals. They're wrong.
At this point the Ron Paul radical anarchist Edward Snowden who initiated this story in the most irresponsible means possible has overextended his 15 minutes of fame. He has ceded any scrap of moral authority he may have once had. Everything about him is a distraction from what really matters. In the coming weeks let's hope the sad tabloid story about him and his personality can pass and we can get to the serious discussion about the necessity of limiting the powers of government surveillance. - David Swindle
Click here for Part 1 by J. Christian Adams
Click here for Part 2 by Bryan Preston
Click here for Part 3 by Ron Radosh
I was originally going to write a post that started like this: The Los Angeles Times says the administration is considering accepting refugees from Syria:
Two years into a civil war that shows no signs of ending, the Obama administration is considering resettling refugees who have fled Syria, part of an international effort that could bring thousands of Syrians to American cities and towns.
The State Department is "ready to consider the idea," an official from the department said, if the administration receives a formal request from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, which is the usual procedure.
Maybe the president is feeling guilty. Or maybe not. Michael Totten writes:
What could have been a bloody but short Libyan-style revolution to oust the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has instead metastasized into a grotesque sectarian war between the Sunni Muslim majority and the ruling Alawite minority. … And what could have been a major blow for the West in its cold war against Iran—Syria is Iran's only state-sized ally in the Middle East—has instead morphed in part into a protracted red-on-red fight between an anti-American state sponsor of terrorism and the anti-American jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra (the Nusra Front), the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, which is fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army against Assad.
So it's only right to accept one set of hostiles who are fleeing the other set of hostiles and vice-versa, even if both sets of hostiles hate America, because that's what the political process is programmed to do. When they designed the refugee paradigm, nobody imagined that the refugees and their pursuers could be interchangeable.
In the meantime, Obama told Charlie Rose that nobody understood how hard it is being president. Lee Smith, watching the president describe his dilemmas, wrote:
In an appearance on the Charlie Rose show, the commander in chief told his host, "I've said I'm ramping up support for both the political and military opposition. I've not specified exactly what we're doing, and I won't do so on this show. … Unless you've been involved in those conversations," Obama told Rose, "then it's kind of hard for you to understand the complexities of the situation."
For Obama, everything about Syria is complex — its vaunted air defenses, Iran's massive investment there in men, money, and arms, Russia's intractable diplomatic position, and especially the rebels themselves.
But what did that illustrate about Obama's anxieties? I was stumped. Well, that was before I read Roger Simon's excellent post on What Snowden Knew:
Now don't get me wrong. I don't have a brief for Snowden. He seems to be a new form of narcissistic international creep, similar to Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame. I hope he gets dysentery in Ecuador or wherever he winds up.
But he may have done us a favor, putting an exclamation point on the activities of the NSA so there are no doubts. He also has made obvious the utter contempt with which Russia and China treat the Obama administration. (Evidently this was surprising to Dianne Feinstein on Face the Nation Sunday. Go figure.) … this presents an opportunity for dialogue we haven't had for many years. Who knows if it will happen?
But if it does, I hope it will be intelligent and substantive. These are not easy questions. Good reasons exist for government surveillance.
Most obvious of them is the threat and reality of Islamic terrorism, which, despite the death of bin Laden, does not seem to be going away. Quite the contrary. It appears to be growing rapidly and dangerously….
But suffice it to say I'm not so keen on dismantling, or even much curtailing, the NSA. The IRS perhaps, but not the NSA.
Still, we have to figure out how to balance this.
Roger asks an intelligent question that nobody in power is likely to answer anytime soon.
What Snowden knew was that a large surveillance apparatus existed. And in his (choose one — naivete, malice, treason, idealism), Snowden found someone to help him lay it all out. But now, let's think about what he didn't know, or should've known but didn't seem to know.
Friendships with Fictional Characters
Facebook told me two things today. The first is that I am a friend of a friend (FOAF) of Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister. The second and more important tiding is a link to the New York Daily News:
James Gandolfini, the New Jersey-bred actor who delighted audiences as mob boss Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos" has died following a massive heart attack in Italy, a source told the Daily News.
Tony Soprano has bought the farm.
Of course, Gandolfini only played Tony Soprano. He was never Soprano himself. And while I never had the opportunity to meet him even in passing, neither have I met Gillard, and possibly neither has my Internet friend who is her "friend." The question that inevitably posed itself was, who was I closer to between these two people: Gillard or Gandolfini?
In 2007, Tim Berners-Lee proposed the notion of a Giant Global Graph to represent the relationship between human beings, especially over the Internet. The nodes are people and they are tied by properties such as "likes," "comments," and shares. "The Giant Global Graph concept seems to have been a significant input in Facebook's concept and name for their 'Open Graph' project and protocol."
And it may turn out that in terms of that metric, I am probably closer to Tony Soprano than to either James Gandolfini or Julia Gillard. As someone once observed, "celebrities are who we have in common." And we know more about the characters they play than the celebrities themselves.
The Destroyer of Words
The latest scandal story about the State Department coverup of a U.S. ambassador who was allegedly soliciting prostitutes in a public park brought two things to mind. The first, unbidden and unsupported, was that factions in the bureaucracy were at war with each other and the target of the one faction was Obama and the target of the other was She Who Must Not Be Named.
But that was speculation. The more tenable line of thought was a reminder that humans are fallible and often corrupt. This has always been true, so how do we live with ourselves? At first, simply by surviving the worst we could do to ourselves.
For much of history our ability to harm ourselves was fortunately limited by the crude nature of our means. But by the dawn of the 19th century it became obvious that the lack of technology alone could not forever protect us. Men were inventing more and more lethal devices. Dynamite, when it was first introduced, produced almost the same fear in futurists as the atomic bomb. It is widely believed that Alfred Nobel endowed the "Nobel Prize" to assuage a guilty conscience.
In 1888 Alfred's brother Ludvig died while visiting Cannes and a French newspaper erroneously published Alfred's obituary. It condemned him for his invention of dynamite and is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death. The obituary stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead") and went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Alfred was disappointed with what he read and concerned with how he would be remembered.
The same kind of apocalyptic powers were ascribed to the machine gun, poison gas, and the bomber. In 1932, Stanley Baldwin wrote "the time has now come to an end when Great Britain can proceed with unilateral disarmament … the bomber will always get through." But it remained for J. Robert Oppenheimer to put the thought in its iconic form. Looking on his own creation Oppenheimer described how he was mentally transported back to the ancient battlefields of the Bhagavad Gita to face the inevitable fruit of his inventiveness: "I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds."
That was nearly 70 years ago and the world is still here. What happened to keep it going?
The Third Bullet: Concluding the Saga of Bob Lee Swagger, American Gunman
When Stephen Hunter's fictional hero Bob Lee Swagger came to bookstores with the 1993 novel Point of Impact, most of the critics attributed the character's success to Hunter's vivid writing style, especially as applied to the lore of the gun. As much or more than any other writer alive, Hunter understands that firearms and the men who wield them, what he calls the American Gunman — though not in the pejorative sense — constituted a major cultural theme in the history of the United States. He is Shane riding into a frontier town, or John Dillinger wreathed in Thompson submachine gun smoke, or Audie Murphy holding a battalion of Nazi infantry at bay. The American Gunman was a figure of myth at par with Achilles and his nodding plumes and Hunter hit the mother lode in depicting him.
But what set apart Bob Lee Swagger in 1993 was something else. He was more than just another portrayal of that myth. In Bob Lee Swagger, who we first find holed up in a trailer in Arkansas with nothing but his wits, rifle and vague unease, Hunter had created the perfect symbol of a generation betrayed. Swagger in his beginnings was really all those Vietnam vets whose superlative skill, sacrifice and prowess had been wasted by the self-appointed Best and the Brightest, sent to their doom for reasons that were too clever by half and which even the puppeteers had themselves forgotten.
So when Bob Lee Swagger is set up as a patsy for the assassination of a left-wing, Third World clergyman by Ivy League covert operatives pursuing their own doubtful agenda in Point of Impact, the reader feels the betrayal anew. When Swagger takes apart his opponents in the finale ,you can imagine a certain demographic of readers were not only reading a story, but cheering as they took vicarious revenge for the outrage perpetrated upon their idealism and youth.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Swagger's success came shortly after the popularity of the Rambo movies. It was a time when the public was beginning to realize that mainstream media Vietnam and Cold War narratives were not exactly the real story. And Swagger was the beneficiary of that growing awareness.
Canadian Cannibal Claims He Believed Victim Was an Alien
Some headlines just grab you.
US student "ate roommate's brain and heart" — Telegraph.
Canada cannibal says he believed victim was an alien — Telegraph. "A Chinese immigrant who beheaded and cannibalised a Canadian bus passenger in front of horrified travelers four years ago spoke out for the first time Tuesday, saying he believed his victim was an alien."
Cannibal on run after warning The Sun: I can't stop killing — The UK Sun. "We showed cops sick film of a live KITTEN fed to a snake and an email warning: 'Once you kill and taste blood it's impossible to stop.' Luka Magnotta, 29, fled after his male partner — a missing Chinese student — was chopped up and eaten in Canada."
And you thought the problem was going to be the Zombie Apocalypse. One way to think about these accounts is as instances of severe mental illness.
Woman kills husband, tries to cook body parts — AFP. "The police arrested Zainab Bibi, 32, and her nephew Zaheer, 22, in the Shah Faisal colony of Pakistan's southern megacity Karachi, and recovered the bowl of flesh she planned to cook, said police chief for the area Nadeem Baig."
"They killed Ahmed Abbas, Zainab's husband, and chopped his body into pieces and were about to cook the flesh in a bowl," he told AFP, adding that the knife with which they killed the man had been recovered.
Television networks showed gruesome footage of the human flesh in a bowl ready for the stove.
Or maybe times are just hard. But mental illness is a more likely cause than poverty for lurid headlines like this: "Russian cannibal ate gay date" — Global Post.
A 21-year-old Russian cannibal brutally stabbed his gay date to death and then made him into meatballs and uploaded footage of him cooking onto the internet.
The two are probably related in some way. Reuters reports that mental illness is up in Greece. "Job loss can lead to an accumulation of risks that can tip people into depression and severe mental illness which can be difficult to reverse — especially if people are not getting appropriate care." A person diagnosed with bipolar disorder writes: "Is there an alternative to being mentally ill?"
I wish there were; I'd probably have an easier time making friends. Living with bipolar disorder allows for only two courses of action, really: acknowledgment and denial. Knowing the risks associated with the latter (such as lapses into self-destructive behavior, which had gotten so bad with me that my parents and friends all but dragged me by the hair to a psychiatrist's office), I'll take acknowledgment, thank you, even if it's not always easy. It means accepting that I sometimes need to hold still for a few hours lest I do anything rash. It means checking in with a shrink at least once a year to make sure I'm getting treated appropriately. (Since I don't have health insurance, this is a lot harder to do now that Mayor Emanuel closed half of Chicago's public mental health clinics, but that's another story.) And it means admitting my vulnerability to family and friends, who do want to help me, I learned, when I feel I can't get through life on my own.
The observation above may sound funny to a healthy person but it probably isn't for the guy with the problem. For him it is all deadly serious, in a way that an unafflicted person can scarcely imagine.


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Ceisteanna — Questions - Births to Foreign Nationals.
Wednesday, 5 May 2004
Dáil Eireann Debate
1. Mr. Cuffe asked the Taoiseach the number of births to foreign nationals in the State in the past five years for which figures are available; the breakdown by births to United Kingdom nationals, European economic area nationals, United States nationals and nationals from elsewhere; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12724/04]
Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach (Ms Hanafin): Official statistics on vital events, including births, are compiled by the Central Statistics Office on the basis, of information collected through the civil registration system. Up to September 2003, statistics on births were compiled solely on the basis of a paper-based birth notification form, which did not include a question on nationality. Since last September, a new electronic birth notification system, which provides for recording of nationality, has been introduced on a gradual basis, but it only covers a minority of births. Accordingly, the information requested by the Deputy is not available from the CSO.
Mr. Cuffe: It seems absurd that we are proceeding with undue haste to a referendum when we do not even have statistics available to justify the proposed measures. When I was at school, I was told by a teacher that facts were the essence of debate and discussion. We are now told the Government does not have the facts on——
An Ceann Comhairle: A question, please. The purpose of Question Time is to obtain information from the Minister.
Mr. Cuffe: Are we now to be told the Government does not have the facts on the nationality of those coming to Ireland or born in Ireland? If so, why are we proceeding with such haste to a referendum?
An Ceann Comhairle: The first question is in order. The referendum is the responsibility of another Minister and does not arise from this question.
Mr. Cuffe: Does the Minister agree that we should have such facts at our disposal, that the [1375]Government should have an immigration policy in place before holding the referendum and that the referendum should be withdrawn?
An Ceann Comhairle: The referendum is the responsibility of another Minister.
Mr. Cuffe: I respect your judgment, a Cheann Comhairle.
An Ceann Comhairle: It is your question, Deputy.
Mr. Cuffe: Does the Minister agree that the facts should be provided before this debate is initiated? Will she outline the measures she intends to take to ensure such facts are available, given that facts will be at the heart of the wider political discussions over the next month?
Ms Hanafin: As the Deputy will be aware, I answer on behalf of the Central Statistics Office in regard to statistics compiled by it. In September of last year, a new automatic civil registration system was introduced which includes a question on nationality. Prior to that, such a question was not asked on the manual forms. While only approximately 16% of all birth notifications are dealt with by the automatic system at present, as time goes on we will have better information on this.
However, there are exceptions. The Rotunda Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, have recorded data on nationality for the majority of births as they introduced their own notification forms since 2001. While I answer on behalf of the CSO, there is also factual information from the three Dublin maternity hospitals, which I obtained from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and would like to share with the Deputy. The three Dublin maternity hospitals deal with the majority of births in the country. There was a total of 5,471 births to non-Irish nationals for 2003, of which 4,407 were to mothers from outside the US, UK or European Union. It is interesting to note that in the past two years births to non-nationals in the three hospitals totalled more than 10,000. In 2002, 20% of all births were to non-nationals and the figure was 24% for 2003.
The census of population shows that non-nationals accounted for 9% of the population in Dublin city and county yet accounted for 24% of births. Despite the fact that EU nationals represent approximately 60% of non-nationals resident in the State, they account for just 18% of births to non-nationals. Further statistical information that would be of interest in the context of the question asked is that births to Nigerian and Romanian nationals in the Dublin maternity hospitals in 2003 totalled 1,984, approximately 44% of births to non-EU nationals.
[1376]It is clear there is factual information from the three Dublin hospitals dealing with the issue. While we do not have the same facts and statistics from all the hospitals in the country because the CSO does not at present compile such information, it will be in a position to do so when the automatic registration system is extended throughout the country.
Mr. Durkan: Has the Minister information on the place of residence of mothers of various nationalities? How many are already registered or still registered in the State? The statistics do not indicate from whence they came other than that they were non-nationals.
Ms Hanafin: The information is as I have outlined and refers only to non-nationals. However, information on late bookings and mothers who simply turn up at maternity hospitals might aid the debate.
Mr. Howlin: Nobody asked about that.
Mr. Cuffe: Many Irish mothers also present late.
An Ceann Comhairle: Allow the Minister to reply without interruption.
Ms Hanafin: I stress that my interest is with the Central Statistics Office and I have limited information in this regard.
Ms Hanafin: However, information is available for 2003 in respect of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and the Rotunda Hospital. Holles Street had 251 late bookings, either not booked or booked in the last ten days before birth. Of those, 70 were to Irish nationals, the majority having been transferred from other hospitals throughout the country, eight were to EU nationals and 163 were to non-EU nationals. There were 271 late bookings in the Rotunda, of which two were to EU nationals and 269 of the 271 were to non-EU nationals. The only information I have relates to the nationality of parents, not the address, plus the information I have just given.
Mr. Rabbitte: It is the first time in my memory I have heard the Minister of State answer for the CSO, proffering information that does not come from the CSO. Does she know the number of cars driven by non-nationals which went in for the NCT last year?
An Ceann Comhairle: That does not arise out of this question.
Mr. Howlin: Neither does the Minister of State's response.
[1377]Mr. Rabbitte: That is very interesting. My question does not arise but the Minister of State's answer, which goes way outside the scope of the question, is perfectly in order.
Mr. Dempsey: She was answering a supplementary question.
Mr. Rabbitte: She was not. If I were the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, I would stay quiet for at least a week.
Mr. Dempsey: The Deputy certainly will not bully me into it.
Mr. Rabbitte: Perhaps I will send you a folder when I go back to my office.
An Ceann Comhairle: The Deputy should address his remarks through the Chair.
Mr. Rabbitte: I would never try to bully a Meath man. I am not trying to bully the Minister. I am saying I will send it to him by civilised folder.
Is the Minister of State saying that she does not have this information from the CSO, that the figures she is proffering are from the maternity hospitals? Is she saying that non-nationals are more prolific in the matter of giving birth, or is she saying that many people are arriving here to give birth and leaving again? Which is she saying? There is no point her feigning innocence that she is just giving statistics. What exactly is she saying? Are the 46,500 people to whom the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, gave permits last year included in that figure for non-national births and, if so, how many are in that category? Precisely what is the CSO doing about being enabled to provide this information officially?
Ms Hanafin: My initial answers related to official statistics. I made it clear that the Central Statistics Office does not have the information sought in the question. In response to the supplementary question, which went far beyond the remit of the original question which related to the referendum, non-nationals, births and any other information which might be available, I am sharing with the House the information available from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I am doing it without comment. I am giving the facts and figures available. The statistics and figures are simply compiled on the basis of nationality. As Deputy Rabbitte knows, and I will confirm, the statistics do not make clear why the mother of the child is in the country. I am sharing the simple facts with the House.
Mr. Sargent: Unlike the Minister of State, I will stick with the CSO by asking her if the CSO will be asked to differentiate between the issue of nationality of mothers giving birth in Irish hospitals and the citizenship of these mothers. Is [1378]she aware that the question asked in maternity hospitals is leading to the collection of extremely misleading information? The question is not about citizenship, even though the citizens may be Irish in many cases. It asks about place of birth, which for someone who came from another country as a child may be irrelevant in the overall scheme if they are Irish citizens. This is what is referred to, not citizenship.
Does the Minister of State accept that the CSO, therefore, is not just giving inadequate information but it is giving misleading information in compiling facts based on place of birth? Is she not concerned that the father of the child appears not to be of interest in gleaning this information, even though the father can quite often be an Irish citizen? Is it not a cause of great concern to the Government that the information on which it is basing policy does not reflect the reality of people attending maternity hospitals? Will she confront that issue and realise that children of Irish citizens are effectively known as children of non-nationals on the basis that the birthplace rather than citizenship is what is asked about in the hospitals? Is this not a matter of great concern to her?
Ms Hanafin: As all Deputies have agreed in the House in the past, the CSO works on the basis of best international practice. It gathers statistics so that they can be compared not just to information gathered in previous or future years, but with European countries and countries throughout the world. The question which is asked traditionally and internationally in regard to these matters relates to nationality. It also ties in with the question on the Census of Population, which allows for comparisons to be made.
Mr. Sargent: What about place of birth?
Ms Burton: Has the Minister of State statistics from the CSO on the number of Irish born people married to non-nationals? At this stage most Deputies would have one or more members of their family married to a non-national. An Irish person could have been married to a non-national when they lived abroad or they could be married to a non-national whom they met here. Are births to Irish people married to non-nationals included in the Minister of State's non-national birth statistics? While I know she is very caring and compassionate, this is a cause of great concern to people married to non-nationals.
An Ceann Comhairle: A question, please, Deputy.
Ms Burton: Has the Minister of State got that information? I listened with care to what she said about numbers. She referred to 163 non-national births in one hospital and 269 non-national births in another hospital, which comes to a total of 432 births. The Tánaiste said last year that 46,500 [1379]work visas were issued to people. The 432 non-national births——
Ms Burton: The Minister said he was concerned about this in regard to the referendum. The 432 late bookings amount to less than 1% of the 46,500 visas issued. Does the Minister of State consider these late bookings, relative to population movement, to be very high? They amount to less than 1% of visas issued. Is this the reason for the referendum?
An Ceann Comhairle: The referendum is the responsibility of another Minister. I suggest the Deputy submit a question to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The Minister of State will reply on the statistical question.
Ms Burton: I accept what you say, a Cheann Comhairle, but the statistics involved are the subject of important——
Ms Hanafin: I gave the number of births to non-nationals in 2003 as 5,471. The figures the Deputy quoted related to late bookings. Anyone would be concerned about a heavily pregnant mother turning up in a maternity hospital, irrespective of where she came from. Many of these people are putting themselves through a great deal of hardship to get to this country. We would like to see these women being better protected against having to take these steps, irrespective of where they come from.
The question which was tabled to me related to births, not marriages. If the information is available in the census, I will arrange to have it forwarded to the Deputy.
Mr. Boyle: On the question posed by Deputy Sargent in regard to the nationality and citizenship of fathers, in the statistics the Minister of State quoted from the Dublin maternity hospitals. Is it true that the CSO has no statistics in this regard and the information she has supplied to the House contains no information about the citizenship of the fathers of children born in these maternity hospitals? The question asked was not about the nationality or citizenship of the mother but about her place of birth. My birth certificate states that I was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. My father was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, and my mother was born in Cork, Ireland. This information, given in the current context in Ireland some 40 years later, would give spurious statistics such as those just quoted to the House by the Minister of State.
Ms Hanafin: The information is as I have given it.
Mr. Boyle: It is how the Minister of State wants it be.
[1380]Ms Hanafin: The information I have given comes from the hospitals and is based on the system they have devised.
Mr. Boyle: It is not national information.
An Ceann Comhairle: The Deputy should allow the Minister of State speak without interruption.
Ms Hanafin: This is the information the hospitals have given. The Central Statistics Office can gather more information on the new automatic civil registration system but it is only used on a very limited scale at present.
Mr. Boyle: Does the Minister of State accept that fathers are not taken into account and that the place of birth rather than nationality is recorded?
Ms Hanafin: People should be encouraged to ensure that the details of fathers are put on birth certificates and so on.
Mr. Rabbitte: Is the answer to the question place of birth or nationality? Do the CSO or the maternity hospitals seek any information relating to paternity? Do we have any information about who the father is in any given case? Is it not likely that most of the 40,500 people who have work permits and are here legally are sexually active? It must also be likely that a proportion of babies born to mothers from this group have Irish fathers. Is the Minister of State aware if the CSO or any other Government agency is engaged in economic research about the implications of the additional births per 1,000 head of population in the context, for example, of the pension problem which some of the Minister of State's colleagues say we will have in the years ahead?
Ms Hanafin: I am open to correction but I understand the answer is the question to which the Deputy referred is nationality. The collection of information on the nationality of the parents of new-born children is not a requirement of the Civil Registration Act 2004. The question is asked on the statistical form but only for the purpose of compiling vital statistics and registrars do not have to answer it. Some particulars must be registered, among them answers to questions asked by Deputy Rabbitte. They include the forename, surname, birth surname, address and occupation of the father, the former surname, if any, of the father, the date of birth of the father, the personal public service number of the father, the birth surname of the father's mother and other such relevant information.
Mr. Durkan: I will try again to get the information, which would be beneficial to this side of the House. Is it possible to ascertain the place of residence at the time, or for the previous year, of non-national mothers presenting at national maternity hospitals?
[1381]An Ceann Comhairle: I am not sure that arises out of this question.
Ms Hanafin: The information from the CSO is based on manual forms and the information is not uniform throughout the country, which is why the CSO is not issuing any documentation in that regard. However, that will change with the new automatic civil registration system. The information required under that system is listed under the Civil Registration Act and includes the date and place of birth, time of birth, sex of the child, forename and surname of the child, personal public service number of the child as well as the forename, surname, birth surname, address and occupation of the mother, former surname of the mother, date of birth of the mother, marital status of the mother, personal public service number of the mother, birth surname of the mother's mother, date of registration and the signature of the registrar.
Mr. Cuffe: We were told that 16% of registrations are carried out automatically. Therefore I presume the other 84% are still done on the manual paper-based system. Surely we can get some kind of breakdown of the 16%, which could well be as valid a breakdown as the information from the two hospitals, which the Minister of State has cited. Will she give us a breakdown?
In light of the remarks made in the House today, what message will the Minister of State give to the CSO about changing the methodology by which it collects its statistics? I suffer from the same issue as my colleague Deputy Boyle in so far as my late mother was from Chicago but I was born in Baggot Street and I am curious as to what the CSO would have made with my details.
Mr. Rabbitte: The Deputy is definitely a non-national.
Mr. Cuffe: I am looking behind me for the immigration police at this stage.
Mr. Eamon Ryan: He would have to be born of an Irish mother.
Mr. Cuffe: What message is being given to the CSO arising from this debate and does the Minister of State have any breakdown of the 16% from September 2003 onwards?
Ms Hanafin: As I said at the outset, the CSO does not have sufficient information from throughout the country to be able to release composite information on the matter because it only gets the 16% registered under the electronic system. The CSO has the information from non-automatic registration and the paper-based system but, in many cases, the paper-based offices are still using a form, which has been in place since before September 2003, which did not have a question on nationality. In many offices in which the new forms are being used, the [1382]information on nationality is not being given. True to form, the CSO will wait until it has more comprehensive data before it issues further information. The information which the CSO has on this matter is limited, but there is additional information which I gave in response to supplementary questions.
Ms Burton: Will the Minister of State supply information on the number of passports issued by Irish embassies to qualifying people of Irish descent abroad? For instance, in South Africa, an average of 2,000 passports are issued every year to people of Irish descent. If people like that come to live in Ireland, how do they count in the statistics? In many cases people such as this are like Deputies Boyle and Cuffe in being from mixed marriages in that one parent is of Irish nationality and the other is of a foreign nationality. How do they count in the statistics? It is important information for this debate because we live in a society in which many people are married to people of Irish descent and subsequently take an Irish passport or are married to non-nationals.
Ms Hanafin: The Deputy's first question is more relevant to the Department of Foreign Affairs which is responsible for the matter. In regard to the second question, I stress that it is not a requirement under the Civil Registration Act 2004 to give the information on nationality, and the forms to which I have referred and which are used in the maternity hospitals have been devised by the hospitals themselves.
|Last Updated: 04/11/2010 14:38:58
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Jack Wesley | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information Official Broadway League sites: - sites - broadway.org broadwayleague.com broadwayfanclub.com kidsnightonbroadway.com stagespecs.org tonyawards.com Quick Search For: In This Category: All Show People/Org. Theatre Season Jack Wesley Performer Male Productions ProductionsDate of ProductionsThe Dancing Girl[Musical, Original] Performer: Jack Wesley [Father Time]Jan 24, 1923 - May 12, 1923 Find out where Jack Wesley and are credited together © 2001-2015, The Broadway League, All Rights Reserved. (Copyright and Disclaimer)


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I read this book for a psychology class, and I soon began to enjoy it as much as my teacher did. Viktor Frankl takes you through he own experience in the concentration camps. Almost every year in history class we go over the horrendous dealings of the Holocaust, but this book gives details of how they coped. Frankl stated, " With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay." This quote truly stuck with me because if I were in the same position I do not know if I could have survived. Now, it makes me wonder if I have a strong enough belief that I could have handled the pressure or broken down. If I were in that concentration camp starving, getting beaten, and losing hope it would not have looked well for me. Throughout the book I felt heartbroken about what these families went through. These families were separated, and they did not know if they would ever see each other again. I would have been so scared if I was separated from my family. I would have felt so alone with these strange men yelling at me. I would have broken down crying.
Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Posted April 4th, 2011 by bballrach92


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According to the Cadre Harmonisé results, 13 million people in the region, including Gambia, are food insecure despite average harvests. The projected performance of the 2013-2014 crop is mixed, with above-average production in the coastal countries.
The cumulative impact of staple food price changes on the cost of the basic food basket from October to December 2013 was moderate. In a number of countries of the region seasonally adjusted prices of staples increased significantly between Q3 and Q4 2013. These include a 22% rise each for millet and sorghum in Gambia.
February 2014
Food Security


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Point of Contact:Patient Contact Representative757-953-2113/2116
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Support Groups:Diabetes Self Management Support Group meets every other month on the 3rd Thursday in the Nutrition Classroom, 2nd deck of Bldg 2, the hallway next to the Endocrinology Clinic
Additional Information:Support Group scheduled months: Sept, Nov, Jan, Mar, May, July


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Monthly Archives: May 2011
Smart Investor – Financial Review
Well land values may be down in Port Douglas, but to smart investors that means one thing. There is no better time to buy. Check out this article from the Financial Review. It rates Port Douglas as the No. 1 … Continue reading
Port Douglas Land Value Drops But Will Your Council Rates?
In today's Cairns Post you will find an article which reveals Port Douglas Land Values have dropped by 20%. The Queensland's Valuer-General Neil Bray released the annual land valuations for properties yesterday. They were sent to more than 1.6 million landowners … Continue reading
Your Port Douglas Land Value Has Dropped by 20%
It was with much enthusiasm that I recently read an article entitled "Rate Relief For Region". Unfortunately by the time I got to the end of the article I realised that whilst the Cairns Regional Council was prepared to offer … Continue reading
Interest Rates on Hold for Now …….
BUT YOU CAN EXPECTED AN INCREASE SOON…..REAL SOON Century 21 Port Douglas Real Estate believes today's decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to keep the official cash rate on hold at 4.75 per cent is positive for the residential … Continue reading


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Committee on Finance. - Courts of Justice Bill, 1959—Money Resolution.
Wednesday, 11 November 1959
Dáil Éireann Debate
Minister for Justice (Mr. Traynor): I move:
That it is expedient to authorise such charges on and payments out of the Central Fund as are necessary to give effect to any Act of the present session to increase the remuneration of Judges of the Supreme Court, High Court and Circuit Court and of Justices of the District Court.
Mr. Dillon: We explained on the Second Stage that we considered the timing of this proposal to be inappropriate. But, in addition, we desire to draw the attention of the House to the fact that if it is proposed to appropriate [968] public money for the purposes set out in the Bill, we think that the appropriation of money for the backdating of the award to the 1st January, 1959, in the year when old age pensioners had to wait four months for the increase in their pension, is unbecoming, and it is not a proper appropriation of public money.
Further, we believe that the absence of any differential in the percentage between the lowest and highest salary categories of the persons referred to in the Bill is a further reason why the appropriation of public money for the purposes of this Bill should be resisted; and for these reasons we propose to divide the House on the Money Resolution.
Dr. Browne: We have opposed the section. There is an amendment down in our name.
Acting-Chairman (Mr. Cunningham): We are on the Money Resolution.
|Allen, Denis.
Blaney, Neil T.
Boland, Gerald.
Boland, Kevin.
Booth, Lionel.
Brady, Seán.
Breen, Dan.
Brennan, Joseph.
Brennan, Paudge.
Browne, Seán.
Burke, Patrick.
Calleary, Phelim A.
Carty, Michael.
Childers, Erskine.
Clohessy, Patrick.
Collins, James J.
Cotter, Edward.
Crowley, Honor M.
Cummins, Patrick J.
Cunningham, Liam.
Davern, Mick.
de Valera, Vivion.
Doherty, Seán.
Donegan, Batt.
Dooley, Patrick.
Egan, Kieran P.
Egan, Nicholas.
Fanning, John.
Faulkner, Padraig.
Flynn, Stephen.
Galvin, John.
Geoghegan, John.
Gibbons, James.
|Gilbride, Eugene.
Gogan, Richard P.
Healy, Augustine A.
Hillery, Patrick J.
Hilliard, Michael.
Humphreys, Francis.
Johnston, Henry M.
Kenneally, William.
Kennedy, Michael J.
Kitt, Michael F.
Loughman, Frank.
Lynch, Celia.
Lynch, Jack.
MacCarthy, Seán.
McEllistrim, Thomas.
MacEntee, Seán.
Maher, Peadar.
Medlar, Martin.
Millar, Anthony G.
Moher, John W.
Moloney, Daniel J.
Mooney, Patrick.
Ó Briain, Donnchadh.
O'Ceallaigh, Seán.
O'Malley, Donogh.
Ormonde, John.
O'Toole, James.
Ryan, James.
Ryan, Mary B.
Sheldon, William A.W.
Smith, Patrick.
Traynor, Oscar.
|[969]Barry, Richard.
Beirne, John.
Belton, Jack.
Blowick, Joseph.
Browne, Noel C.
Byrne, Tom.
Casey, Seán.
Coburn, George.
Coogan, Fintan.
Corish, Brendan.
Cosgrave, Liam.
Crotty, Patrick J.
Desmond, Daniel.
Dillon, James M.
Esmonde, Sir Anthony C.
Fagan, Charles.
Flanagan, Oliver J.
Giles, Patrick.
Jones, Denis F.
Kenny, Henry.
Kyne, Thomas A.
Lindsay, Patrick.
Lynch, Thaddeus.
|[970]McAuliffe, Patrick.
MacEoin, Seán.
McMenamin, Daniel.
McQuillan, John.
Manley, Timothy.
Mulcahy, Richard.
Murphy, Michael P.
Murphy, William.
Norton, William.
O'Donnell, Patrick.
O'Higgins, Michael J.
O'Higgins, Thomas F.
O'Reilly, Patrick.
O'Sullivan, Denis J.
Palmer, Patrick W.
Reynolds, Mary.
Rogers, Patrick J.
Russell, George E.
Spring, Dan.
Sweetman, Gerard.
Tully, John.
Wycherley, Florence.
Money Resolution reported and agreed to.
|Last Updated: 19/05/2011 14:33:23
|Page of 80


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'The Bachelor' Gal Melissa Rycroft Is Pregnant
"It was a shock. We weren't even trying," says Rycroft-Strickland, who married insurance agent Tye Strickland in December after a sad end on 'The Bachelor' in 2009. "It's the most wonderful surprise in the world. It's such a blessing."
A 27-year-old former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Melissa, who appeared on 'Dancing With the Stars' and will co-host ABC's 'Bachelor Pad' in August, didn't exactly have children on her mind quite yet. "[Tye] wanted the kids right away, and I was laughing at him going, 'No, not ready!'" she tells the magazine.
Rycroft-Strickland says her husband's excitement and support has been huge. "He's actually cried more than I have. Tye is caring, he's funny. He's going to be a great dad."
The two recently purchased a home near Dallas. Melissa hopes for a boy, Tye hopes for a girl. "We're going to find out as soon as we can," she says. She also adds she's "eating everything in sight" and "knowing me, I'm going to swell and gain 90 pounds."
Read the full report at Us Weekly!
It's a girl!
Bethenny Frankel of the 'Real Housewives of New York City' gave birth to a baby girl on May 8, 2010. Bryn Hoppy was born at 8AM in New York City and weighed 4 lb. 12 oz.
Celebrity Baby Boom
- Filed under:
- Celebrity Baby -
- Good News -
- TV News
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Linda
Congratulations Melissa, im soooooo happy for you i wish u all the best.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy jeff
what do you mean you we not trying.. did you not know how this happens? has to be one of the dumbest things i have ever read..
- Thursday 29 JulyBy Lindsay
The phrase "trying to get pregnant" usually means couples keeping track of the best days to conceive and actively taking steps (or using various techniques) to try and get pregnant.
And I am pretty sure she knows how these things happen.
Congratulations to Melissa and her husband!
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy susan
i'm happy for them too! they're married and now it's baby time - but i agree with you jeff - what do you mean you weren't even trying? if you're not using birth control then you're trying! ugh!
- Thursday 29 JulyBy Sherian
If you don't know how you got pregnant then the light bulb isn't on up stairs.........this chick needs high school ed on sex.
- Thursday 29 JulyBy Shanice
Just because your having sex does not mean you want to get pregnant. Which is why most pregnancies are what you call accidents.When people try and get pregnant they are keeping track of the best days to conceive and actively taking steps (or using various techniques) to try and get pregnant.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Lindsay
So she isn't ready for kids, but she was ready over a year ago to play stepmom to Jason's son??? Ok....makes lots of sense..lol
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Rosa
Jeff ~ She knows how it happened!! I'm sure they were having normal marital fun. She is stating that they just weren't using any type of "is this the right time-of-the-month to get pregnant or not". Obviously, you aren't too smart to realize that you do certain things in order to get pregnant, and you increase your chances by doing all the right things. Oh, that's right - you're a guy! DUH
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Len
At least they got married before she got pregnant. That seems to be a rarity these days.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Julia
I second that.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Lgb
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy jodyHigh Rank Vote downVote upReport this
UMMM apperently you did. You took the time to not only read it, but post about it
- Wednesday 28 July
But yet you read the article so you most care otherwise you wouldn't have posted who cares do as I say not as I do.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy MecLowest Rank Vote downVote upReport this
Who cares is right! I dont think I'll ever understand how someone can say "we werent even trying" - how lame. Now you have to stay home and take care of your child. You've gotten everything else handed to you!
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Kelly
Oh shut up and be happy for her, don't be miserable and jealous!
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Lori
I'm sure she will stay home for awhile and make a great mom. Her smiles and enthusiasm will bring joy to a child. God Bless you
and your family.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Bill
You're right, she's a great lady. I really like her and she should have won on DWTS, she was the best. God bless her.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy ChrissyHigh Rank Vote downVote upReport this
Unless you were born yesterday, it's beyond my realm of understanding how anyone doesn't know what "We weren't trying" means. You think teenagers were "trying" when they get pregnant at 16? It's not rocket science--it merely means the baby was not planned. Some women opt against using birth control and either avoid sex during fertile periods or use withdrawal as the primary means of birth control. When someone says they weren't trying, it clearly means they weren't having sex with the intention of getting pregnant.
And as for "Who cares?" I wonder the same thing every time I read about the children of any celebrity...
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy JamesLow Ranked Vote downVote upReport this
I am tired of hearing, it was not planned or it was accident.
1. It was not planned.....Did you have sex and are you normal and everything works correctly, then there is a good chance the woman will get pregnant. Obvivous she can get pregnant.....
2. Accident-did you not know what you were doing and some how without your knowledge clothes came off and you 2 came together and she was fertile and you somehow released your stuff in her and without you knowing after the act you 2 woke up and days later you magically was pregnant....
Both ways are rediculous......
If your body is mature enough to get pregnant or be the person getting someone pregnant and you engage in the act then you have to know with that knowledge there may be a pregnancy and since everytime you have engage in intercourse you can get pregnant then even if you have sex on the spur of the moment then you plan at that moment that you want to have a baby. You can also say that when a pregnancy does not happen everytime you have intercourse that it may not be the right time for a pregnancy to happen.
- Wednesday 28 JulyBy Nick Mayor
My some folks are pretty angry with these posts. And if they were so smart, they would know that the ONLY form of birth control which is 100% reliable is abstinence. Many couples are lulled into a false sense of security by using conventional birth control methods and don't think they will get pregnant. And some of these personal attacks on a celebrity you do now know enough about are uncalled for. Take some medication before you post.
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Friday, April 2, 2010
© Copyright 2015 Gwinnett Daily Post
WEG Electric plans open houseDULUTH WEG Electric Corp. is having an open house April 16 to celebrate its new U.S. headquarters at 6655 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth. Tours of the new office and warehouse space will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. WEG Electric Corp. was incorporated in 1991 to service the U.S. market, but the company has been selling in the United States since 1977. WEG Electric Corp. employs more than 200 people in the United States and more than 100 in the Duluth location. For more information, visit www.wegopenhouse.com or call 678-534-4660. Third-graders get new dictionaries TUCKER More than 3,500 third-graders in 27 elementary schools in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties have received their own personal dictionaries this year through a community service program conducted by the DeKalb-based Atlanta Northlake Elks Lodge 78. For the past six years, members of the Elks Lodge 78 have delivered almost 20,000 dictionaries to students in the two counties. The Dictionary Project was founded in 1995 by Mary French of Charleston, S.C. The mission of her nonprofit organization which the Elks share is to distribute dictionaries to as many third-graders as possible in the United States and its environs. In 2004, the Elks became involved, and dictionaries have been distributed to every state of the union, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. More than 12 million children have received dictionaries since the program started. The dictionaries distributed by the Atlanta Northlake Elks, titled "The Best Dictionary For Students," also contains a table of weights and measures, information on the 50 states and several other factual sections. Gwinnett elementary schools that received dictionaries were Nesbit, Craig, St. John Neumann Regional Catholic School, Pharr, Lilburn, Grayson, Cooper, Lovin and Beaver Ridge. Students show off cooking skills ATLANTA Three Gwinnett students and a Winder resident are among 12 high school students that have been selected as semifinalists in The Art Institute's Best Teen Chef Local Cook-Off. The students will compete by preparing a set two-course menu in two hours Saturday in the kitchens of The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Atlanta. The gold, silver and bronze medal winners will be awarded scholarships to the culinary school, and the gold medal winner will go on to compete against the winners from 30 other Art Institute locations in the national cook-off competition on May 15 in Houston. The finalists include Emily Gain and Kobi Speight, both of Lawrenceville, Norcross resident Linh Nguyen and Winder resident John Patton. For more information, visit www.artinstitutes.edu/btc. Gwinnett Tech students honored LAWRENCEVILLE Four Gwinnett Technical College students were judged to be among the best in the state at the recent Delta Epsilon Chi (DEX) conference, earning the opportunity to compete at the DEX international event in April. Delta Epsilon Chi is an international organization for college students preparing for a variety of careers and fosters development through several avenues, including annual skills competitions, networking with industry leaders and leadership training. Taking home top honors for Gwinnett Tech were: Allis Ellis first place in the Sales Representative division Jessica Deresch second place in the Business Ethics division Cassy Schnautz second place in the Business Ethics division Lisa Barton third Place in the Restaurant and Food Service division Ellis, Deresch and Schnautz are enrolled in Gwinnett Tech's marketing management program, while Barton is in the hotel, restaurant and tourism management program. Faculty advisor Perry Hidalgo, program director for Gwinnett Tech's marketing management and sport and recreation management programs, led a contingent of five students in all. Also attending was Lisa Wilson, a culinary arts student. The students who placed will to advance to the 2010 International Career Development Conference to be held April 17 to 20 in Louisville, Ky. Tourney to help Cystic Fibrosis Foundation BRASELTON More than 80 golfers will play in the Braydon Bunch Annual Classic on April 24 at the Chateau Elan Golf Club. The tournament will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which funds research that strives to develop a cure for this disease. Registration begins at 10 a.m., and golfers tee off at noon. Taste of Grayson to raise money for schools LOGANVILLE The Grayson Cluster Schools Foundation and Grayson High School DECA are sponsoring the 2010 Taste of Grayson from noon to 2 p.m. April 17 at Grayson High School. Restaurants from the Grayson, Snellville, Loganville and Lawrenceville area will be at the school to offer samples of their cuisines. Local businesses will also be on hand with services and products for sale. Tickets are available at all cluster schools for $10. Grayson High is located at 50 Hope Hollow Road in Loganville. Gwinnett Gab appears in the Thursday and Sunday editions of the Gwinnett Daily Post. To submit an item to Gwinnett Gab, e-mail email@example.com.
More like this story
- Gwinnett Tech students earn honors at competition ( June 7, 2009 )
- GWINNETT GAB: Lawrenceville resident named GOAL winner ( March 5, 2010 )
- Gwinnett Gab ( December 4, 2009 )
- Art and essay contest winners to travel to Turkey ( March 19, 2010 )
- Feeling the heat: GTC hosts high school chef competition ( March 25, 2011 )


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« Nowhere to Go But Up? |
| That's Sir Andrew to You »
Posted by Derek
Let's see here. . .145 messages in the work e-mail queue, but most of them are automated reminders that reminded me of the same thing every day of the break. Now to the lab bench. . .now, that was a good idea, making sure that everything was labeled before leaving. As I've said here before, too many times you come back to a bunch of stuff that you were just sure that you're remember every detail of, and feel like a moron as you look at the label on the vial or flask: "Second batch". "Mostly clean". "Large run". Fascinating! Large run of what, exactly? I have, in years past, been reduced to running NMR and LC/MS on my own reactions just to try to figure out what they were, and that's not right.
Reagents that I'd ordered back before the break have come in, and I do recall why I ordered them, at least. You don't want to put in a request for anything sensitive in late December, though, not if it's going to sit out on your bench at RT for a week or ten days. I'm glad I'm not a cell-culture person or a rodent-raiser; my stuff doesn't need to be fed, washed, or watered, and I have the luxury of just walking away from it.
Big pile of junk on the desk, though, some of which never should have stopped there on its way to the recycling bin. I saved this for this morning, since I thought clearing things off would be a good way to jump-start my brain into work mode again. It's different now than it used to be, though - paper's more ephemeral. I have the PDFs of these papers stored, so the hard copy's just a convenience, and if I can't figure out what use it is by looking it it, into the bin it goes without a worry. In the days of paper files, I had to spend a bit more time wondering if I'd regret tossing something that was hard to obtain and actually useful. No more: if it looks useless or unrecognizable, into the blue bin it goes.
And then, for those of us in industry, the company starts waking up. Meeting invitations begin to arrive, to fill out the new year's calendar. Looking at your own schedule, you see the first repeating meetings from last year starting to show up, although some of these will get canceled because there's nothing to talk about yet. People who wanted something from you back in December will start to remember what it was, at about the same time that you remember the people that you wanted something from.
Time, shortly, for the first reaction, the first LC/MS trace, the first NMR, the first lab assay result of the new year. And for some of us, the first blog post. Welcome back!
Comments (15)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Life in the Drug Labs
1. LabPolice on January 3, 2012 9:49 AM writes...
'I have, in years past, been reduced to running NMR and LC/MS on my own reactions just to try to figure out what they were, and that's not right.'
That's because you spend too much time blogging! :)
2. Academic on January 3, 2012 10:16 AM writes...
Here in the 'ivory tower' things never really shut down. Sure, there are fewer folks around during the holidays, but there were many of us here most every day. Discoveries were made, papers were written and submitted, and grants were revised.
I'm always amazed that the pharma folks completely (or nearly so) shut down over the holidays.
3. BCP on January 3, 2012 10:31 AM writes...
Oh boy, did that ever ring a bell. The good old days.
4. CMCguy on January 3, 2012 11:17 AM writes...
Not sure I ever had to run analysis to re-ID my own samples after an extended break however recall a few times having to reconfirm purity of intermediates that assumed would be stable in the hood rather than the frig. Used to often set up crystallization matrix prior to long weekends/holidays as sometimes it seemed unwatched samples would give better results than those monitored more closely.
5. RB Woodweird on January 3, 2012 11:35 AM writes...
"I'm always amazed that the pharma folks completely (or nearly so) shut down over the holidays."
In grad school, I loved to work on Christmas Day, as I was sure that was the only time I was catching up to people who had more money/equipment/support and so were probably allowed to take a couple of hours off.
In industry, you have to be aware of having other people in the lab. No working alone, so in smaller labs that means that there are going to be days in the last two weeks of the year where there might not always be people around to allow you to do that reaction you were planning.
6. You're Pfizered on January 3, 2012 11:47 AM writes...
Easy, it's called Vacation Time, something graduate students and post-docs tend not to have much of.
Not to mention us not having to write grants or necessarily need to publish in our jobs...
7. OldLabRat on January 3, 2012 11:52 AM writes...
In addition, many large pharma companies do large-scale IT and building maintenance that makes working in labs impossible.
8. Dickweed Jones on January 3, 2012 12:33 PM writes...
I'm sure the world would stop if you academics took a break from step 17 in the total synthesis of epi-bullshitomycin for a week. Get over yourself.
9. Academic on January 3, 2012 1:03 PM writes...
Dickweed Jones said: "I'm sure the world would stop if you academics took a break from step 17 in the total synthesis of epi-bullshitomycin for a week. Get over yourself."
I'm not a chemist so cannot comment on that intriguing compound...
Seriously, though, I love what I do and going into the lab hardly qualifies as 'work'.
10. newnickname on January 3, 2012 2:26 PM writes...
From David Dalton's Aldrichimica Acta bio of Woodward: Upon joining RBW as a postboc, "I turned my attention [to ask of ...] any holidays I could expect. After a brief pause Woodward shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Well, I take Christmas Day off.'"
Others claim that "That statement, however, is open to doubt" since RBW named a synthetic steroid Christmasterol because it was first xtallized in his lab on Xmas day.
One version of the Christmas Factor (Factor IX, blood coagulation pathway) story is that it was finally isolated in the lab on Xmas day. (According to wikipedia, it was named after the sick child who had that defect.)
So who discovered virginiamycin and why did they give it that name? Never mind, I don't need to know.
11. Nick K on January 3, 2012 3:27 PM writes...
I'm sure this post will bring back bittersweet memories for the thousands of chemists who have lost their jobs in Pharma in recent years.
12. Lab Space on January 3, 2012 3:43 PM writes...
"I'm sure the world would stop if you academics took a break from step 17 in the total synthesis of epi-bullshitomycin for a week."
It's that thallium-catalyzed C-N bond formation step near the end that's the kicker. It only works at midnight Christmas Eve, and only in the state of Massachusetts....
13. Martin on January 4, 2012 8:11 AM writes...
Used to often set up crystallization matrix prior to long weekends/holidays
Ditto, but only 1 out of 4 of my crystallisation sets worked these holidays. On the up side all the kit in the fumehood was still there after my break, well except for the clean NMR tubes. All the dirty ones were still there though.
14. Mad Scientist on January 4, 2012 12:20 PM writes...
Couldn't remember which building I work in this morning.
Never mind the computer login password.
15. Entropically disfavoured on January 4, 2012 2:44 PM writes...
I saved a chiral separation to do my first day back... it is my New Year Resolution!!
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Jergens Skin Firming Daily Toning Moisturizer Reviews
Pretty GoodMy skin did look a little firmer after using it for about two weeks. Seems to smooth out the cellulite a "little bit" on the back of the legs as well. It's one of my top 3 favorites from the drugstore brands. — 2 years, 11 months agoEricaF123 | 451 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 2 of 2 people said helpful
Amazing!This product worked really well for me. I noticed a significant improvement in the firmness and texture of my skin. The formula is nice and thick, but not sticky. It moisturizes very well. I put it on before bed and it lasts through the next day. This product does not sit on the skin, like a body butter. Rather, like other Jergens moisturizers, it is soaked into your skin. So if you like that thic...read morek moisturized feeling, you will not like the product - or other Jergens products. The fragrance is a little odd, but not off-putting. That is the only potential negative to this product, but even that doesn't knock it down a star for me. — 4 years, 2 months agoTheLacqueredLady | 751 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 7 of 9 people said helpful
Smells greatSmells great. Cheap price. Takes a lot of rubbing to get it blending in the skin, I really think it helps with firming texture of skin. — 7 years, 1 month agomissheatherette | 393 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 2 people said helpful
Blah, Blah, Blah and So ForthProducts tend to claim that they can change something drastically and in this case, I can prove them incorrect. First of all, this lacked the lasting moisturizer my skin needed in the winter especially where I usually apply it which are my legs. I apply this to my legs and minutes later, I feel that it hasn't been taken care of. I'm in need of lotion or some sort of emulisifying product because...read more my legs not only seem to itch from this but that it feels uncomfortable and still dry. I didn't like the strong fragrance content of this either because that is certainly not a circumstance why I would buy a product that hypes up claims of firming, not that I need too much of it, but I thought it would do something more other than just play the role of an ordinary lotion at a slightly higher selling price. I still have about 3/4 of the bottle left and it's about to be tossed and by the time you guys have read this, it probably has been disposed in the receptacle. I've gotten firmer skin from running around doing errands compared to this bottle. — 7 years, 4 months agoVLA | 332 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 5 of 9 people said helpful
Firming? Not so muchI'm skeptical about firming creams in general. There isn't much you can do in terms of applying lotions or creams to tone your skin. It's all about genetics and the overall health and condition of your skin anwyay. But it is a great moisturizer that sort of plumps the skin and makes it appear firmer if you use it a lot, but don't expect miracles. — 7 years, 4 months agoModernDayWriter | 205 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 3 of 4 people said helpful
A staple in my regimenI've been using this moisturizer for 8 years. It really does improve the texture of my skin in a way that no other body lotion I've ever tried has been able to. For the price, it's unbeatable. — 7 years agoamygab1126 | 241 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 3 of 3 people said helpful
Worked a little too well...A not so funny story about how I know this crap works...at about 4 months pregnant I noticed my butt and thigh areas getting a little more jiggly. Unfortunately, this is where my body decides to store extra fat, which my body thought I needed more of when I was pregnant. That + extra water weight + this lotion = STRETCH MARKS EVERYWHERE!! Biggest mistake I ever made, I should have gone with cocoa ...read morebutter so my skin would stretch instead of shrink. Now I need to find a good stretch mark treatment. But now that I'm 4 months postpartum, I started using this again :) — 6 years, 6 months agoNotQuiteGlam | 188 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 2 of 4 people said helpful
Best for the price!You can't beat the quality of this product for the price! It doesn't feel greasy, dries quickly, no strong sent. I saw a marked improvement in the texture of my skin and slight improvement in the firmness. This is my go to body lotion. — 7 months, 1 week agotallblondemom | 21 reviews
jergens skin firminggreat moisture. I only had slight cellulite before I started using this but after a few weeks it was a lot less noticeable and it makes skin super soft — 1 year, 4 months agokfloyd01 | 37 reviews
Day 1Tonight I just used this product for the first time. It was on sale at my local Target and I immediately purchased a bottle. I used this all over my body including my face. My body feels moisturized but not greasy. My skin texture feels a bit different already. It feels slightly tight or has a bit of a pull to it. I notice this more on my arms, chest, back, and stomach. Not so much on my legs, fac...read moree, or neck. The smell was a bit of a shock. I do not find it unpleasant, but it was a bit overwhelming upon the first application. It calms down a bit after it is rubbed in and your senses have a chance to adjust. On a good note, my fiance kept wanting to smell me and found the scent very attractive and even a bit arousing to his senses. Even where I have acne on my arms, my skin feels very smooth. Obviously I still feel the bumps from the acne, but those even feel less harsh. I am going to continue with this product and see what happens. My goal is to apply it twice a day (I'm a first-time mom with a very hectic schedule so even once a day will be a miracle). It went on fairly easy and I had covered my body in under 7 minutes. I will note that I can contort my arms and reach my upper back area. Those who cannot, I suggest requesting assistance and do not strain yourself. I gave this 7 stars because of price when it is not on sale, first-time smell shock, and not having used it long enough to see the effects of continued use. I can also use the laptop finger mouse pad right after application without the lotion causing cursor issues (bonus). — 2 years, 1 month agorhaewynsmom | 9 reviews
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Ethan Iverson
Ethan Iverson (born February 11, 1973 in Menomonie, Wisconsin)[1] is a pianist, composer, and critic best known for his work in the postmodern jazz trio The Bad Plus,[2] with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King.
Prior to the forming of The Bad Plus, Iverson was the musical director for the Mark Morris Dance Group and a student of both Fred Hersch and Sophia Rosoff. He has worked with artists such as Billy Hart, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tim Berne, Mark Turner, Ben Street, Lee Konitz, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Paul Motian, Larry Grenadier, Charlie Haden and Ron Carter.
Iverson writes about jazz and other subjects at length at his blog, Do The Math.
- School Work (Mons, 1993) - with Dewey Redman, Johannes Weidermueller and Falk Willis
- Construction Zone (Originals) (Fresh Sound New Talent, 1998) - with Reid Anderson and Jorge Rossy
- Deconstruction Zone (Standards) (Fresh Sound New Talent, 1998) with Reid Anderson and Jorge Rossy
- The Minor Passions (Fresh Sound New Talent, 1999) - with Reid Anderson and Billy Hart
- Live at Smalls (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2000) - with Bill McHenry, Reid Anderson and Jeff Williams
- Costumes Are Mandatory (HighNote, 2013) - with Lee Konitz, Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy
With The Bad Plus
- The Bad Plus (2001)
- Authorized Bootleg: New York 12/16/01 (2002)
- These Are the Vistas (2003)
- Give (2004)
- Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo (1999)
- Suspicious Activity? (2005)
- Prog (2007)
- For All I Care (2008 Europe, 2009 North America)
- Never Stop (2010)
- Made Possible (2012)
- The Rite of Spring (2014)
- Inevitable Western (2014)
- The Bad Plus Joshua Redman (2015)
With Albert Heath
- Live at Smalls (2010) with Ben Street
- Tootie's Tempo (2013)
With Billy Hart
- Billy Hart Quartet (HighNote, 2006)
- All Our Reasons (ECM 2012)
- One Is the Other (ECM, 2014)
With Buffalo Collision (incl. Tim Berne, Hank Roberts, David King)
- Duck (2008)
With Avantango: Thomas Chapin and Pablo Aslan
- Y En El 2000 Tambien... (EPSA Music, Argentina)
With Patrick Zimmerli
- "Twelve Sacred Dances" (1998)
- ^ "Bad Plus". Current Biography Yearbook 2011. Ipswich, MA: H.W. Wilson. 2011. pp. 30–33. ISBN 9780824211219.
- ^ Farberman, Brad. (July, 2009). "Shorts: Ethan Iverson." Beyond Race Magazine (BRM).
External links[edit]
- Do The Math
- Bio page at Do the Math
- Iverson interviews Billy Hart
- Iverson interviews Keith Jarrett
- Iverson on Lester Young
- Iverson on Stravinsky
- Iverson on Bud Powell
- Ethan Iverson on Beyond Race Magazine (BRM)
- Federation Bells
|This article about an American pianist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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Witness in Washington - December 17, 2010
The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness wishes you blessings for a joyful Advent and a very Merry Christmas. This office will be closed in observance of the Christmas holiday beginning Friday, December 17, and returning on Monday, January 3, 2011. We wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to resuming publication then.
This week's message:
- Please join us for a special Presbyterian Training Day and Ecumenical Advocacy Days
- Topics: Advocacy
- Tags: ecumenical advocacy days, public witness, report, washington
- Ministries: Office of Public Witness
- Agency: Presbyterian Mission Agency


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See All
My Communities
My Discussions
My Email Digests
Not only do the B P meds cause problems so does the Avodart I take for controlling prostate size.
Without the urge (libido) the other two problems are irrelevant.
My Urologist suggests pump, injections, implants. No thanks all too barbaric. I'll do withoutView Thread
not so much out of bed
i take my meds at night which has helped
My pressure is more in the back of head
yet when i check B/P when feeling these symptoms it's perfectView Thread
I sent the Omron back and they returned it saying checked out. They said you have to be seated, feet flat on floor, and no activity a few minutes before taking. The arrow as to be pricisely lined up over the artery.
Been O k since then, I take it into Walgreens occasionally and calibrate it with the pharmacist'sView Thread
Meanwhile have them test for renin level and creatin. The former is an enzyme put out by the kidneys that controls B P. If high means kidneys not getting enough blood
Creatinine has been found to be a fairly reliable indicator of kidney function. Elevated creatinine level signifies impaired kidney function or kidney disease.View Thread
lot of info on the subject
http://www.hypertension-bloodpressure-center.com/morning-hypertension.htmlView Thread
Diabetes, high blood pressure.
He should be ordering a M R A for your kidneys to check for arterial blockage (renal hypertension) . running tests on creatinine and renin levels. testing for hyper adrenalism, adrenal cancer, hyperaldosteronismView Thread
Both those meds drop blood pressure by enlarging the arteries but in different ways. Could easily pass out
Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitorView Thread
Getting tired of him adding more types of meds went to a Cardio. Who said i was lucky not to be flat on my face and took me off all pills except one. Asked cardio about the Omron and he turned up his nose.
Came home and asked my Dr what he thought of these meters and he said only good for those that don't need them I.e people with good strong pulses that it can detect. Old people like me he said to get a cuff and stethescope and have my wife learn to take it. I took my meter to his office and it was 20 points higher than the cuff reading. Have sent the meter back to the factory.
Any experience one way or another. I don't like the cuff as there is a +/- 5 point reading errorView Thread
Women's Health Newsletter
Find out what women really need.
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- Filed Under
Helen L. Berry
Helen May (Ludwig) Berry, 93, widow of Edgar Russell Berry, of 415 Carter St., died Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in King's Daughters' Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
She was born Nov. 7, 1919, in Augusta County, to the late Harry G. and Ethel (Hite) Ludwig.
She was a member of First Baptist Church and taught Sunday school class for 34 years.
In addition to her husband, she was also preceded in death by two brothers, Harry Ludwig and Graham Ludwig; and a sister, Ruth Lawrence.
Family members include a son and daughter-in-law, Donald Wilson and Yvonne (Walters) Berry of Staunton.
She is the last surviving member of her family.
A funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, in the Henry Funeral Home Chapel by the Rev. Steve Traylor. Burial will follow at Thornrose Cemetery.
Active pallbearers will be Danny Pritchett, Max Lockridge, David Ludwig and Victor Ludwig.
Honorary pallbearers will be the deacons of the Church.
The family will receive friends from 6 until 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, at the funeral home.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.henryfuneralhome.net.


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Monday, December 9, 2013
It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times
If these are the best of times for the American whiskey industry, the 1980s were the worst. The business of making and selling whiskey in the United States had hit rock bottom. The business had lost half of its sales volume and although sales had more-or-less stabilized (they were, in fact, still declining but at a much slower rate) there seemed to be no revival on the horizon. Because they believed the decline would be temporary, producers kept producing far too long and the industry was drowning in whiskey that fewer and fewer people wanted.
With sales down and inventories too high, profits were under intense pressure and whiskey assets were changing hands faster than a hot potato.
Most of the large producers were no longer independent. Instead they were part of conglomerates. In those days, unlike now, diversified conglomerates were all the rage. Spirits producers shared a corporate household with all kinds of unrelated businesses.
Back then, F. Ross Johnson was the powerful CEO of Nabisco. He was played by James Garner in the movie "Barbarians at the Gate" (1993). Nabisco had a subsidiary called Standard Brands that included Fleischmann's Distilling. Ferdie Falk was the CEO of Fleischmann's and Bob Baranaskas was president.
In 1983, Johnson decided to sell Standard to Whitbred, which was part of Grand Metropolitan. A few years later, Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form Diageo.
Assuming they'd be replaced after the sale, Falk and Baranaskas resigned and decided to start their own company. Falk was previously an executive with Schenley, so he approached Meshulam Riklis, whose conglomerate now owned Schenley, about selling some assets. Riklis always needed money so he agreed to sell Falk and Baranaskas the Ancient Age bourbon brand and the distillery that produced it, then called the Albert B. Blanton Distillery, today's Buffalo Trace.
Falk and Baranaskas called their new company Age International. As the name suggests, they believed bourbon's future was outside the U.S. One of their first moves was the creation of Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon. Done at the behest of their Japanese customers, they released it in the U.S. as well.
In 1991, Falk and Baranaskas sold a 22.5% interest in Age International to Japan's Takara Shuzo, with right of first refusal to purchase the remaining shares. In 1992, Falk and Baranaskas sold their shares to Takara for $20 million. Takara immediately sold the distillery to Sazerac, but retained the corporate entity and brand trademarks.
Today, Sazerac still owns Buffalo Trace and Buffalo Trace still produces all of the whiskey for Ancient Age, Blanton's, and the other Age International brands, using a special mash bill. Buffalo Trace distributes the Age International products inside the U.S. Buffalo Trace also makes its own bourbons and other products, using a different mash bill.
Sazerac and Age International have an unusual relationship, but it has worked for both of them for now more than 20 years. It was born at a low point for the American whiskey business. This little story shows how easily things could have been very different.
17 comments:
- Josh Feldman said...
Thanks so much for explaining this mysterious little corner of the Bourbon business to me. I encountered Takara Shuzo when researching Rock Hill Farms, which is one of the Age International brands. I couldn't understand the relationship. Now, as a prior production arrangement connected with an unbundling of corporate assets, it makes sense.
- December 9, 2013 at 4:23 PM
And when one of the future owners of Seagrams/LDI/Angostura/MGP/whatever decides that it would be profitable to release brands of its own, it's going to be VERY interesting to see just how different they can become again.
- December 9, 2013 at 5:31 PM
How important was overseas sales of bourbon and whiskey to the survival of the industry?
- December 9, 2013 at 6:06 PM
- Chuck Cowdery said...
Non-U.S. sales were crucial to getting the industry going again.
- December 9, 2013 at 6:47 PM
- Chuck Cowdery said...
And they continue to be extremely important.
- December 9, 2013 at 6:47 PM
- Eric said...
I'm repeating a bit from Chuck's book on AH Hirsch but the Japanese fell in love with well-aged bourbon (15+ years) and became a big consumer of it. Essentially Japan and other Asian countries became a dumping ground for glut bourbon. Which wasn't a bad thing at all if you lived or live in those countries.
- December 9, 2013 at 7:52 PM
Didn't Riklis have a bimbo wife whose showbiz career he promoted at lavish expense? Might have been a factor in his cash flow requirements.
- December 9, 2013 at 8:09 PM
Wonderful reporting of an interesting and esoteric bit of whiskey history Chuck.
- December 9, 2013 at 9:49 PM
reply to Stacy:
That would be Pia Zidora. I was an auditor on the Rapid American audit engagement back in the early to mid-80s, when Schenley moved its headquarters to Dallas from NYC. Got a good exposure to the business. should have stuck with it. ha.
- December 9, 2013 at 10:37 PM
So does Age International own the #2 mashbill, or can Buffalo Trace make their own products with it?
- January 15, 2014 at 1:28 PM
- Chuck Cowdery said...
"Owns" may not be the right word. However, all of the bourbon brands Age owns are made with that mashbill, and none of the bourbon brands Sazerac owns are. So, presumably, the mashbill and whatever goes with it (e.g., yeast) are for Age's exclusive use.
- January 15, 2014 at 3:57 PM
That's really what I was getting at I guess. Does that exclusivity preclude a #2 Mashbill BTAC bottling at some point? I'd dearly love to see a 17+ yo Blanton's.
- January 15, 2014 at 4:49 PM
- Chuck Cowdery said...
Anything is possible, but it's up to Age, not Saz.
- January 15, 2014 at 5:21 PM
- Brock said...
Chuck, great info! Would I be correct to assume mash bill #2 has remained the same for AI brands before and after Sazerac production? Trying to get to the bottom of some questions about AI AAA10. Thanks in advance.
- September 24, 2014 at 8:11 AM
- Chuck Cowdery said...
As far as I know, mashbill #2 is the same as it always was.
- September 24, 2014 at 9:25 AM
- Brock said...
- September 26, 2014 at 8:16 AM
The title of this article caught my eye as I was looking into Schenley's sale of this distillery in 1982-1983. My interest is personal. The pending sale eventually led to a cut in salaried positions by about 50%. I thought the new owners were responsible but the lay off was in 1982. The depressed market must have contributed to the absence of similar jobs, much to my dismay. Thank you for setting my record straight.
- April 16, 2015 at 1:56 PM


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Matchday Programme: Bedford Blues
Matchday programme costs just £2.50
A special edition matchday programme to mark the 125th anniversary will be available on Sunday when Bedford Blues visit the Memorial Stadium.
Packed with a number of special features to celebrate the occasion, Freya Lee talks to former Bristol players about their memories of the Memorial Stadium.
Club Historian Mark Hoskins provides a potted history of the ground, while Bristol Post Chief Sports Writer Steve Cotton remembers 'that' drop-goal in 2006.
Jason Hobson explains what it feels like to pull on a Bristol jersey at the Mem in his popular column, while Mark Tilley looks back on some famous home victories.
Don't miss out on all the latest news from around the club, including the thoughts of Steve Gorvett, Andy Robinson, the Academy, the Rugby Paper's Neale Harvey and much, much more.
The 2013/14 matchday programme available to buy for just £2.50 around the stadium on Sunday.


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|Up a level
Hallam, Sue and Creech, Andrea and Gaunt, Helena and Pincas, Anita and Varvarigou, Maria and McQueen, Hilary (2013) Does active engagement in community music support the well-being of older people? Arts and Health, N/A (N/A). N/A.
Creech, Andrea and Hallam, Sue and Varvarigou, Maria and Gaunt, Helena and McQueen, Hilary and Pincas, Anita (2013) The role of musical possible selves in supporting subjective well-being in later life. Music Education Research, N/A (N/A). N/A. ISSN 1461-3808. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Creech, Andrea and Pincas, Anita and Hallam, Susan and Jeanes, Julia and Broad, Janet (2010) Being an 'older learner' in higher education: sustaining the will to learn. International Journal of Education and Ageing, 1. pp. 15-32.
Pincas, Anita (2009) Older learners – do they need a special approach? Journal of the Further Education Alliance, 4. pp. 11-21. ISSN 1755-9979. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita and Muncie, Sharon (2008) The FE Student, Tutor and Institutional Engagement with IT and New Technologies. Journal of the Further Education Alliance, 3. pp. 1-6. ISSN 1755-9979. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita and Saunders, Gunter (2004) Student attitudes towards ICT in teaching and learning in the UK. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 1 (8). n/a-n/a. ISSN 1550-6908. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita and Saunders, Gunter (2003) Getting started with ICT Blended Learning. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 7 (4). pp. 225-228. ISSN 1096-1453. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita (2002) Courses for e-teachers and course designers. USDLA Journal, 16 (10). ISSN 1537-5080. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita (2002) English Teaching at the Turn of the Century. NSU Studies in Language and Literature, 1. pp. 110-126. ISSN 1681-0651. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita (2001) Culture, cognition and communication in global education. Distance Education, 22 (1). pp. 30-51. ISSN 0158-7919. DOI UNSPECIFIED
Pincas, Anita (2010) An overview of Web 2.0: Its benefits for the Online Collaborative Learning work of NGOs. In: Online Collaborative Learning for Non-governmental Organizations in Developing Countries: Issues and Challenges. IGI Global, Hershey, Pennsylvania, ?-?.
Pincas, Anita (2004) Practical principles of e-literacy for the e-society. In: Unknown. International Association for Development of the Information Society, Spain, pp. 921-925. ISBN 972-98947-5-2
Pincas, Anita (2002) Borderless education: New paradigms for UK University Teachers. In: World Year Book of Education: Teacher Education: D. Kogan Page, London, pp. 227-239. ISBN 0749435747
Pincas, Anita and Saunders, Gunter (2003) Learning on-line on campus. Learning Partners, London. ISBN 1899692169