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Whiteville Primary School
805 Barbcrest AvenueWhiteville, NC 28472
Fax 910-642-4506
Principal:Kimberly Ward
Assistant Principal:Cheryl Russ
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Vision: Whiteville Primary's Vision is for ALL students to be Ready to Care, Ready to be Safe, and Ready to Learn
Mission: Everyone committed to the success of ALL students.
At WPS, we cultivate students' individual interests, sense of curiosity, and desire to learn through nurturing differentiated materials in all subjects. Our Core Reading program, Reading Wonders, and other supplementary materials, exposes young children to literature and also reinforces vocabulary, grammar, and writing instruction. Our Core Math program, EnVision Math 2.0, along with materials provided by North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, stresses creative, collaborative problem-solving in order to reach effective and accurate mathematical solutions. Daily differentiated instruction is provided according to students' abilities and achievement levels. Fluid and closely monitored instruction stresses creative and critical 21st. century global skills. Teachers are involved with explicit professional development on student differentiation in order to best meet the needs of ALL of our students.
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February 6-25
Make a date for the Botanical Conservatory and bring your sweetie down in February to enjoy our lovely indoor gardens and a special display of orchids. Take a moment with camera or cell phone to capture your darling under a heart-shaped arbor planted with a cascade of fragrant and colorful orchids or against a backdrop of lush Tropical Garden plants. Treat your special friend to a lunch or snack at the Empyrean Café and have fun browsing the Conservatory gift shop for an orchid or other sweet gift. Included in Conservatory admission.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
tl;dr: Use
RWSand feed the
Wto the
Rfor great justice.
A few weeks ago, while working on a side project, I went through some epic gyrations with the help of Stack Overflow, trying to figure out a good way to tie a particular kind of "knot" in Haskell. A bit of background first:
In an imperative language, where mutable data structures are common, if you want to build a data structure containing cycles (such as a circular linked list), you typically construct your nodes and then fix up the links after construction. For example:
public class Node<T> {
private final T value;
private Node<T> next;
public Node(T value) { this.value = value; }
protected void setNext(Node<T> next) { this.next = next; }
Node<Integer> n0 = new Node<Integer>(0);
Node<Integer> n1 = new Node<Integer>(1);
Fine, this was Java, so you got what you paid for. Let's say you want to do this in Haskell now, in which data is immutable (unless you do some shenanigans with
STRefs, for example). You'd declare your data type:
data Node a = Node {
value :: a,
next :: Node a
And you can, as if by magic, write:
let n0 = Node { value = 0, next = n1 }
n1 = Node { value = 1, next = n0 }
Of course there isn't any magic occurring here; I don't believe in magic. There are two behaviors at work:
- First,
letbindings are recursive, meaning that variables declared and bound within a single
letblock can all reference one another regardless of order. In other words, the variable name
n1is in scope for the declaration of
n0(and vice-versa, of course).
- Second, expressions in Haskell are evaluated lazily by default. When we declare
let n0 = Node 0 n1, it merely promises that when somebody needs the value of
n0, it will be computed as a node containing the integer 0 and referencing the node
n1, whatever that ends up being. We know that there is a node named
n1, because (as discussed above) it was declared within the same
letbinding, but we don't care about its value until the point when somebody eventually "forces" it.
These are very different from a typical imperative language, in which you'd expect a statement like to construct a node immediately and blow up, because
n1 is "uninitialized" or "null" or some such nonsense. Anyway, this is a simple form of a technique called tying the knot. If you want to declare a bunch of interdependent variables, comprising some sort of recursive data structure, then declare them all in a single
let binding, make sure nothing prematurely forces their strict evaluation in the scope of the
let, and you're golden.
But what if you're trying to build up a big, possibly cyclic data structure based on some user input? You're going to be doing some sort of parsing, probably using monadic parser combinators or something similar, and because your "knot" depends on user input, there isn't any obvious way to structure your code such that the knot is tied in a single
let binding. This problem was the essence of my thrashing and flailing about on Stack Overflow.
Let's talk about monads for a minute. I won't get into much detail on this, as it's sort of a separate large-ish topic, but I want to introduce the
Writer and
State monads for anybody who's not seen them before:
Readermonad, sometimes called the
Environmentmonad, simply lets you ask for some bit of immutable "global" state in the midst of a computation. For example:
printenv :: Show r => Reader r String printenv = do env <- ask return (show env)
This example is simplified in applicative style:
printenv :: Show r => Reader r String printenv = show <$> ask
But whatever. Question: how is this different from regular function application?
printenv :: Show r => r -> String printenv env = show env
Answer: it's not. The
>>=operations just represent function composition and application. You provide the function's argument when you run the monad, and that argument is what
askgives you. That is all.
Writermonad sounds intuitively like it should be the opposite of
Readersomehow, but it's probably best understood as its own separate thing. So never mind the fact that it has a function called
tell(the obvious counterpart to
Writergives you something like a stream you can output to in the midst of a computation. To be precise, that stream can be any monoid, but just for an intuitive real-world example let's say it's a list of strings representing some logging information. For example:
log :: Show a => a -> Writer [String] () log a = tell [show a]
Show and tell, nice.
Writerprovide a good way of isolating their respective effects from some other stateful monadic computation. We have a number of common monads representing computations that may not be idempotent or referentially transparent, such as
ST, but one of the simplest and most common is
State. So let's roll with that.
preincrement :: State Int Int preincrement = do i <- get put (i + 1) return (i + 1) postincrement :: State Int Int postincrement = do i <- get put (i + 1) return i
Here we're emulating the unary
i++operations from languages like C. The
putfunctions are sort of the primitive operations to read and write the
State. For fun, we can simplify these further using a common helper,
modify, and applicative style (thanks to Reddit user LordGreyhawk for the comment):
preincrement = modify (+1) *> get postincrement = get <* modify (+1)
Writer and
State are three great tastes that taste so great together, that there's another monad called
RWS which simply lumps them into a single type. For example, we can write:
type Contrived a = RWS Int [Int] Int a
contrived :: Contrived ()
contrived = do
env <- ask -- read from the fixed environment
s0 <- get -- grab the current state
let s1 = s0 + env -- increment the current state by the environment value
put s1 -- update the state to the new, incremented value
tell [s1] -- log the new value
Finally, you probably want to run one of these things eventually, which looks like:
runRWS :: RWS r w s a -> r -> s -> (a, s, w)
This is the combination of
runWriter and
runReader :: Reader r a -> r -> a -- consume a reader environment, produce a value
runWriter :: Writer w a -> (a, w) -- produce a value and some writer output
runState :: State s a -> s -> (a, s) -- consume an initial state, produce a value and final state
In other words, running an
RWS computation consumes a reader environment and an initial state, and produces both a value, a final state and some writer output.
Okay, monadic digression time over. This all turns out to be very convenient for knot-tying in general: all we need to do is feed the writer output back into the reader environment. Doing so, exploiting lazy evaluation, makes it so that you can indirectly reference your eventual output before you have produced it! The Ouroboros in question looks like this:
type Knot k s a = RWS k k s a
tie :: Knot k s a -> s -> (a, s, k)
tie knot s0 =
let (a, s1, k) = runRWS knot k s0 -- this is fucking interesting
in (a, s1, k)
First, we say that
Knot is a type synonym for an
RWS monad, in which the reader and writer types are declared to be the same
k thing. We haven't talked yet about what might be a useful concrete type for
k; we'll get to that shortly. Next,
tie takes a
Knot and some initial state, and just like
runRWS, it produces a triple containing some output value, the final state, and again one of these
k things.
So check out the
let binding: we call
runRWS, which produces a triple containing a value
k as its writer output. And what parameter do we pass as the reader environment for
runRWS? Aha:
k again. This is how we feed the snake its tail.
Note that if you're feeling sassy, you can also implement
tie using the fixed-point combinator:
tie :: Knot k s a -> s -> (a, s, k)
tie knot s =
fix $ \ ~(_, _, k) -> runRWS knot k s -- this is severely fucking interesting
Now, let's try to figure out an appropriate concrete data type for
k. There's no single correct answer for this, it depends on the problem you're trying to solve, but let's figure one example out just to get some satisfaction here.
Take our circular linked list example from before. I'll simplify it just a little bit here, and add a
Show instance so we can see what happens when we run our stuff:
data Node = Node {
value :: Int,
next :: Node
} deriving Show
Okay, now we want to parse a list of pairs of
Ints into our structure. For example, we want
[(0, 1), (1, 2), (2, 0)] to be equivalent to the following code:
let n0 = Node { value = 0, next = n1 }
n1 = Node { value = 1, next = n2 }
n2 = Node { value = 2, next = n0 }
Since the second component of each pair is referencing some other node by its list offset, this means we need a
Map from list offsets to the nodes that will eventually be found there. The
Map will be our
k type for this example. We'll write to this map (which is conveniently a monoid) using
tell, and query it using
ask. We'll also want some state to keep track of what our current offset is and what raw data we have left to parse. Let's do this:
data ParserState = ParserState {
current :: Int,
remaining :: [(Int, Int)]
type NodeParser a = Knot (Map Int Node) ParserState a
So far so good…
parse :: NodeParser ()
parse = do
s <- get
case remaining s of
[] -> return ()
((val, ref) : rest) -> do
m <- ask
tell $ Map.singleton (current s) (Node val $ m ! ref)
put $ ParserState (current s + 1) rest
We get the current state and see how much input we have remaining. If we're done, we're done. Otherwise, pull the current node's value and reference to the next node off of the list. Look the reference up in our map (which we will have constructed by the time we're done) to find the next node, and write the newly constructed current node to the writer output. Update the state and recurse.
Finally, let's feed this thing some data:
example :: Node
example =
let (_, _, m) = tie parse $ ParserState 0 [(0, 1), (1, 2), (2, 0)]
in (m Map.! 0)
main :: IO ()
main = putStrLn $ show example
And we get an infinitely recursive traversal of our three-node, circularly linked list:
Node {value = 0, next = Node {value = 1, next = Node {value = 2, next = Node {value = 0, ...
Prologue: Two quick comments as I wrap up here.
This was obviously a toy example. It would be much more realistic to be accepting input from some external source such as a file, in which case your input is monadic. The
Knotmonad can be easily adapted into a
KnotTmonad transformer, on top of whatever underlying monad is needed (e.g.
IO). Just implement it in terms of
RWSTinstead of
I demonstrated knot-tying here in the context of parsing, but it works just as well in the context of serialization. The
Mapin that case is flipped: you need to look up the offsets at which each
Nodewill eventually be stored, before they have necessarily been written there. This requires a bit of care to ensure that you don't force strict evaluation of these offsets while writing. That also probably means you can't do any nice output buffering performance tricks, but I'll just say "whatever" to that for now.


text:
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European Commission
Brussels, 20 February 2014
Questions and Answers on the European strategy for coastal and maritime tourism
What is coastal and maritime tourism?
Coastal tourism includes beach-based tourism and recreation activities (e.g. swimming, surfing, etc.), and other recreation activities in coastal areas (e.g. aquariums). Maritime tourism covers water-based activities (e.g. boating, yachting, cruising, nautical sports) and includes operations of landside facilities (chartering, manufacturing of equipment and services).
In geographical terms coastal areas are defined as those bordering the sea or having at least half of their territory within 10km of the coast.1 Coastal and maritime tourism has been highlighted as one of the sectors with a high potential for growth and jobs in the EU's Blue Growth Strategy.
Why does the Commission focus on the coastal and maritime tourism sector?
Due to its economic weight and its direct and indirect impact on local and regional economies the Coastal and Maritime Tourism has a great potential for jobs and growth, particularly for remote regions with otherwise limited economic activities. However, coastal destinations face a number of challenges which affect its further development. Whilst any of these problems also affect other tourism activities, they are exacerbated in coastal and maritime tourism:
In 2010 the Commission, with the support of the Council and the European Parliament, launched the Communication "Europe, the world's No 1 tourist destination" which includes a reference to the need for developing a strategy on sustainable coastal and marine tourism. The 2012 Blue Growth Strategy2 highlighted coastal and maritime tourism as one of the five focus areas in the 'blue economy' to drive jobs in coastal areas.
What does the Communication propose?
This Communication outlines the main challenges faced by the sector and presents a new strategy to address these challenges.
The Commission has identified 14 actions which can help the sector grow sustainably and provide added impetus to Europe's coastal regions. The Commission will work with Member States, regional and local authorities and the industry to implement these actions.
For example, the Commission proposes to:
What are the Member States, stakeholders, and regional and local authorities expected to do?
The proposed strategy framework offers a coherent response to the challenges facing the sector by complementing and adding value to existing initiatives by Member States, regions and other stakeholders.
Member States, who have the primary competence on tourism, are invited to develop and implement national and regional strategies, make use of the available funds, and exchange best practice.
The strategy seeks to promote transnational and inter-regional partnerships, dialogue and cooperation, whilst building coastal and maritime tourism issues into existing programmes and policies.
The industry and stakeholders are invited to develop new business models as well as innovative and diversified products to strengthen the sector's response capacity and growth potential. The proposed actions also aim to enhance the accessibility, connectivity and visibility of the tourism offer and to promote sustainability by curbing the environmental impact of tourism activities.
What is the economic importance of coastal and maritime tourism?
It is the largest sub-sector of tourism, the largest single maritime economic activity and the key economic driver in many coastal regions and islands in Europe. It employs almost 3.2 million people; generating a total of € 183 billion for EU's GDP (2011 figures for 22 EU Member States with a coast, without Croatia).
Almost one third of all tourism activity in Europe takes place in coastal regions, and around 51 % of bed capacity in hotels across Europe is concentrated in regions with a sea border.
In 2012, cruise tourism alone generated a direct turnover of €15.5 billion and employed 330,000 people whilst European ports had 29.3 million passenger visits. Over the past 10 years, the demand for cruising has roughly doubled worldwide whilst the cruise industry grew in Europe by more than 10% each year.
In 2012, the boating industry (boat builders, equipment manufacturers for boats and water sports, trade & services such as chartering) was made up more than 32,000 companies in Europe (EU not including Croatia, European Economic Area and Switzerland), representing 280,000 direct jobs.
Total gross added value (GVA, in billions) and employment (x 1000) in coastal and maritime tourism in EU 2011 (exc. Croatia).
Tourism is a growing business, and Europe is the world's n° 1 tourism destination. There were 534 million tourist arrivals in Europe in 2012, up 17 million from 2011 (52 % of arrivals worldwide) whilst revenue reached € 356 billion (43% of the world total).5
How can this strategy contribute to achieving the EU 2020 targets?
The development of coastal and maritime tourism contributes to achieving EU2020 targets in several ways:
For more information
Coastal tourism webpage on Directorate General Maritime Affairs website:
Tourism webpage on Directorate General Enterprises and Industry website:
See also IP/14/171
As defined by Eurostat.
E.g. the Enterprise Europe Network A study on the perspectives for clustering in the Mediterranean has been launched in autumn 2013.
Concrete available ICT tools include, for example, the Virtual Tourism observatory (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/vto/index_en.htm); Tourism Link Platform (http://www.tourismlink.eu/tourism-link); e Calypso Platform (http://www.ecalypso.eu/steep/public/index.jsf)
UNWTO Annual Report 2012.
Source: UNWTO (Tourism 2020 Vision). Data available for overall tourists not just coastal regions.
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text:
Affordable Tree Services Breinigsville PA Relies On
If you are searching for top-notch tree removal in Breinigsville,Pennsylvania, look no further than J & S Brothers Tree Service. For several years, we have been serving the good folks of Breinigsville – offering high quality services with your satisfaction as our #1 priority. As a local family-owned business, our owners live and work in the community, and we take great care to operate in an environmentally friendly way to ensure long-term sustainability for those that live here.
When you need to take out a tree, it can be a difficult job. Call on the professionals at J&S Brothers Tree Service to make sure it is done right.
Why J & S Brothers Tree Service is Different
Breinigsville Pennsylvania area residents have come to rely on us for a wide range of tree services. Our professionals take the utmost care to ensure that you are satisfied with our work, and we go above and beyond to provide exceptional customer service. There are several other reasons to consider J&S Brothers Tree Service, including:
- Our professionals are fully licensed, bonded, and insured.
- A family owned and operated business.
- Pride of local ownership – we care for our local community.
- All types of tree services offered in Breinigsville Pennsylvania, including stump grinding and stump removal.
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There are many times when getting rid of a tree on your property might be the best thing to do. Sometimes, trees suffer damage from major rainstorms, heavy winds, etc. Other times, they become diseased and slowly deteriorate over time. In either case, there often comes a time when there is a danger that the tree may fall and cause damage to your property or even endanger your family. When this occurs, you need to call in an expert for a free assessment.
Because every customer has a unique circumstance, it is important for our specialists to first assess the situation and recommend the best course of action in your particular case. Our tree care experts in Breinigsville Pennsylvania will look everything over and decide which equipment will be needed and how we will go about getting rid of the tree. If you decide to go ahead with the job, we will send the right specialists and the best equipment to perform it in the safest, most efficient manner.
If your property has sustained more serious damage due to a recent storm or other occurrence, we may need to bring out heavier equipment to do the job. Along these same lines, if this is an emergency situation where one or more trees is an immediate threat to your property, we will send a crew out as soon as possible so as to prevent any further damage. In addition, once we take out the trees, branches, and other debris from your home in Breinigsville Pennsylvania, stump grinding and possibly stump removal may be needed as well.
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If you decide to remove one or more trees from your property, there are some other things you need to consider to ensure that you are going to be happy with the result:
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- Should all the waste materials be hauled away?
- Are you planning to grow something where the tree used to be? If so, will you need screened topsoil installation and area seeding?
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Please Visit our Tree Care Page for Lehigh County
For your FREE, no obligation Breinigsville Pennsylvania tree services estimate, get in touch with the friendly professionals at J&S Brothers Tree Service today by calling . You can also use our free estimate consultation form on the right.
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text:
Royal Tekke Bokhara
8'4" x 5'1"
PLEASE CONTACT US Sizes are approximate. Photographs are not necessarily exact for color.
New rugs are of the highest quality in their category and are handpicked overseas by the Bashir family.
Bokhara rugs are woven in almost any color, but they are perhaps best known for their red colors, as seen in this fine red brick example. In oriental carpet culture, the color red signifies wealth, courage, beauty, luck and joy. To produce this piece's color, natural plant dyes have been used. It has also been carefully hand-knotted by weavers residing at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains using pure hand-spun wool. This piece embodies the traditional aesthetic found in carpets from the Caucus region. Its all-over design enhances any room thanks to the pleasing symmetry of its Tekke and Butterfly guls repeated in rows and columns throughout the field and border. With its thick, soft piles and warm, earthy palette, this piece also adds a cozy atmosphere to homes of both traditional and modern décor.
Bokhara is a term widely used in the West to refer to carpets and rugs made by various Turkmen tribes of Central Asia. Their history dates back centuries. The Turkomans were situated to the north of what is now called Afghanistan. During the early 1900s, the name of Bukhara, a city in Uzbekistan, was given to these rugs. In fact, few Turkmen live in or around Bukhara, which has a population made up principally of Tajiks and Uzbeks. The Turkomans were an industrious people who would barter their trade for food, clothing, etc. As a result, their weavings would invariably show up in bazaars (a type of market) in cities such as Bukhara, hence the name. The city did serve as a transit point for some Turkmen rugs on their way to the West.
Bokharas are considered among the finest carpets in Afghanistan and Pakistan, distinguished by their extra fine knots and soft, silky touch. They are also popular worldwide due to their suitability to almost any space. Their octagonal guls are sometimes referred to by industry experts as the 'elephant's foot,' in reference to the elephants that would traditionally transport Mughal Empire royalty on their journeys. Other industry experts claim that it represents jewels resembling those that adorned the palace walls and crowns of Mughal royalty.
Today, such rugs are mainly produced in Pakistan and Iran. In Pakistan, they are mainly produced in a region around the city of Lahore. To view more Bokhara rugs, please visit our Bokhara Collection page.
Sources and inspiration: Bérinstain, Valérie, et al. L'art du tapis dans le monde (The art of carpets in the world). Paris: Mengès, 1996. Print.; Jerrehian Jr., Aram K.A. Oriental Rug Primer. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1980. Print.; Herbert, Janice Summers. Oriental Rugs, New York: Macmillan, 1982. Print.; Hackmack, Adolf. Chinese Carpets and Rugs, Rutland and Tokyo: Tuttle, 1980. Print. ; De Moubray, Amicia, and David Black. Carpets for the home, London: Laurence King Publishing, 1999. Print.; Jacobsen, Charles. Oriental Rugs A Complete Guide, Rutland and Tokyo: Tuttle, 1962. Print.; Bashir, S. (n.d.). Personal interview.; Web site sources and dates of consultation vary (to be confirmed). Without prejudice to official usage.


text:
Keeping it real
Mbanna Kantako is still on the air
Mbanna Kantako is on a roll.
From his rental house just off North Grand Avenue in Enos Park, the 54-year-old blind man talks about the advent of spring and the need to till the soil. He speaks of pollution, the Great Spirit, expectations that people gain responsibility with age and the Boston Marathon bombing, not knowing how many people might be listening via a radio signal that covers just a tiny portion of the city.
"You know the government set this shit up," he intones. "It's the government. They the ones that did 9/11. They the ones that did the Oklahoma City bombing. You have every reason not to believe what the government says."
The program segment Kantako calls "Notes On The Devil's News" continues with a tape of Springfield police tasing a pregnant woman in a parking lot, a recent in-broad-daylight incident that police say was justified because the woman had inserted herself into a physical altercation between an officer and her boyfriend while a bystander videotaped everything. Then it's back to the bombing.
"And you're going to believe what happened in Boston?" he asks sarcastically at the conclusion of the tasing tape. "You're out of your damn mind. For real, these devils have issues."
Moving right along, Kantako delves into robotic surgery, which some say is no improvement over work performed by human surgeons and might actually be worse in some circumstances.
"Ain't no medicine better than the Lord," Kantako says.
In the space of less than 15 minutes, Kantako covers all of this and more in stream-of-consciousness style. He doesn't sound a bit winded. He's been doing this more than quarter-century, and this broadcast last Saturday marks his 8,697th show "from the criminal enterprise that is Springfield, Illinois, located in the criminal enterprise that is the United States." Or so says Kantako from the far end of your FM dial, much to the consternation of the Federal Communications Commission that wants him to get a license or shut up. The signal reaches barely a mile. By the time you travel south to city hall or the federal building or downtown law firms, it fades considerably. In more ways than one.
"Is he still around?" asks Bruce Stratton, an attorney and former Kantako nemesis who knew the man decades ago when he was still known by his birth name, Dewayne Readus. "I haven't thought about him for years. Mostly, I remember that he was some kind of activist."
Back in the day, Kantako was a fixture in the pages of the State Journal-Register and a leading figure in the long-since-demolished John Hay Homes, where the city's black population was concentrated in a crumbling 600-unit public housing project. He had a zest for organizing, and if he didn't always get his way, the activist who became a broadcaster certainly made a lot of noise.
Nearly 30 years ago, he pushed for the Springfield School District to bus children from the Hay Homes to school instead of making them walk. He was a controversial figure even within the projects, where he formed the John Hay Tenants Rights Association after resigning from the existing resident council over a spat about the busing issue. Some resident council leaders thought him too radical.
He fought against both sides in the late 1980s when the city, after being sued under the federal Voting Rights Act, reluctantly changed its form of government, establishing 10 wards and replacing commissioners with aldermen to help ensure black representation on the city council. He led marches to protest police brutality. He was a constant at Springfield Housing Authority board meetings when Stratton was board chairman.
"He would have banners and placards," Stratton recalls. "There was one large one I wish I'd kept. It was a placard with a picture of me dressed up as some sort of banana republic dictator. It was really well done. In many ways, he was kind of the perfect activist and the perfect advocate. He could get a lot of attention and yet he was a really nice guy."
Engaging. Charming. Pleasant. Not the sort of adjectives one would expect from a man whom Kantako painted as the enemy. But Stratton says that Kantako never got under his skin. He remembers off-the-record conversations outside the limelight when Kantako would outline plans for future protests and ask for thoughts.
"He just infuriated lots of people," Stratton says. "I wasn't among them. I liked the guy. I really did."
Black, poor and blind
For an archetypical angry black man, Mbanna Kantako is a great conversationalist.
He easily recalls his childhood, saying he can remember the car ride up from Memphis where he was born to Springfield when he was less than three years old in the early 1960s. He has five brothers, ten sisters and no clue as to why his family ended up here.
"I think a lot of people really believe in that Lincoln stuff, and I think that might have been why," he guesses. "Nobody in my family has ever made it clear why they chose Springfield. Maybe someone got paroled here. I don't know. It doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense to stop here."
Kantako was nine when he transferred from Springfield public schools to the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville. He could still see, but just barely, owing to congenital glaucoma. But he knew black from white. His first day at the school for the blind, he befriended a student from Collinsville. Both Cardinals fans, they were swapping baseball cards at bedtime when he heard a staff member outside the room say that his new friend's father wouldn't appreciate his son being in the same room with a "nigger."
"Nine years old, night time, you know – it was a hell of a thing to think about," Kantako says. "I think I was about the nicest cat they'd probably ever met the next morning. I didn't want to piss off nobody. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't run home."
Kantako became an athlete at the Jacksonville school, setting a national record in the high jump by clearing five-foot-eight-inches with a two-step approach. He also wrestled at 112 pounds. Initially, he professes that there was nothing he liked about being a wrestler, having to spend hours in the gym while his friends goofed off. He is not convincing.
"It really helped me shape my attitude about different things," he allows. "It had a big influence on me. … There's a confidence I think it gives you. Once you get a joker in your hands, your hands are like your eyes. You can tell by grabbing a person by the wrist what's going on – you grab them by the arm, you can tell, once you learn a few techniques. That was, in fact, my way of evening the playing field with the sighted world. OK, you can outrun me, you can definitely outdrive me, but let's go to the ground. Let's see what we can do down here."
After graduation, Kantako returned to Springfield. He studied computers at Lincoln Land Community College, then switched to courses aimed at becoming a probation officer, a short-lived plan that ended, he says, when he was beaten by police and lost his remaining eyesight. He next tried communications, but the classes didn't make sense.
"I went out there (to Lincoln Land) and they were trying to make me listen to Beethoven and shit," he says. "I didn't feel that was very important for me to be learning that stuff. That's when I drifted away from school."
He was young, living in the projects and very much sure of himself. He DJ'd at parties and rapped a bit: Reagan economics won't you stand aside/Because there's unemployed people trying to stay alive. His first brush with political activism was born from ulterior motive: One of his sisters had promised him $2 if he would attend a neighborhood meeting at the Hay Homes the night before a city council meeting. He doesn't recall the issue.
"I'll be honest with you: I went to get $2 so I could get me a beer," Kantako recalls. "And she wouldn't give me the $2 until the meeting was over. I was just agreeing with everything to get the meeting over – 'Oh, yeah, that's a great idea, that's a good idea, sounds good to me.' Finally, one of the older ladies there who was a real good friend of my mom said to me 'Wayne, you know how to talk on the microphone, you-all go with us.'"
The thirsty young man agreed, having no intention of actually following through, but he was in the audience at the next day's city council meeting. He says he went because he didn't want his mother to find out that he hadn't kept a promise. He didn't plan on going back.
"I heard the way the mayor was talking to people – Mike Houston, he's the same mayor today," Kantako recalls. "He's crazy. He was just talking down to these people like they was stupid and shit like that, you know. I guess that's when my time in the gym kind of got to me. In the gym, you just don't do that. You've got someone that's on your level, bang with him. But he was just tossing up weak people. So I got up and said something to him. He started off the same way with me. So I just said, 'First of all, I'm not your nigger.'"
For Kantako, it was a point of no return, even if Houston today says that he doesn't recall ever talking to the man who became the face of black radicalism in Springfield. The mayor, however, does recall the man.
"He was against whatever we were doing," Houston says.
Exactly right.
A proud rabble rouser
Springfield was deeply torn as Kantako turned radical during the Reagan Revolution.
The city gained national attention when a lawsuit filed under the federal Voting Rights Act, the first of its kind north of the Mason-Dixon Line, sought to change the form of government in a town where no black had been elected to the city council for 75 years. The case laid bare backroom dealings in a place where Democratic and Republican leaders agreed on who should run for mayor and how jobs should be filled. Blacks had no chance.
At first, Kantako tried working within the system, running for Democratic precinct committeeman. He lost, and badly. He says the election was rigged.
"I went over to the Democratic headquarters that night, Dick Durbin was there," Kantako says. "He comes over to me and says 'Are you ready to play?' Me, being a little cocky fool, I said, 'Play? Man, we got the votes. We don't play with you motherfuckers.' Shit, I got fifth place."
After that, Kantako and others who supported his views began picketing polling places, urging blacks to boycott elections and passing out fliers headlined, "Have You Ever Felt More Like A Nigger?" The voting rights lawsuit, he decided, was a "pacification program." The plaintiffs were educated black males, not anyone who represented the average Springfield black resident. And so Kantako became a thorn, intent on embarrassing the powers that be by any means necessary.
He came to relish city council meetings and led protestors from the Hay Homes to 26 consecutive council meetings, recalls Michael Townsend, a retired University of Illinois Springfield professor of social work.
"It was absolutely amazing that he could get anyone to go down there," Townsend says. "Trying to organize anyone in public housing is practically an impossible task."
Townsend recalls Kantako once sitting a four-year-old girl in the front row of a council meeting with a sign reading "Pat Ward Is A Big Fat Slob," right in front of Ward, who served on the council as the city's public safety commissioner. Kantako smiles at the memory.
"It became a game with us," Kantako says. "We would ask (former Mayor Ossie) Langfelder if racism was a mortal or venal sin. … After awhile, it got to be fun to go down there and send the streets commissioner up, make him jump up and slam his shit down on the table. Boy, they would get so mad."
The point, he says, was to prove that city fathers had clay feet.
"I wanted to show people that they weren't like the Wizard of Oz – people go down there and they're like, 'These guys breathe fire and shit,'" Kantako says. "I wanted to show them that they're not that tough."
So far as Kantako was concerned, neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants in the voting rights lawsuit had the best interests of black people in mind and so he skewered both sides. His vitriol for James and Don Craven, the father-and-son legal team that handled the voting-rights case for the plaintiffs, matches his disdain for Houston.
The printer who created the fliers with the n-word had charged a considerable amount, Kantako says, and an old copying machine at the Craven law office represented a chance to save money in the future. A new machine was being delivered, with the vendor offering the Cravens a $100 discount if they turned in the old one, recalls Kantako, who initially supported the lawsuit and was attending meetings with the plaintiffs at the law office. He says that he and his supporters offered to buy the old machine for $100.
"They wouldn't give us that machine for nothing in the world," Kantako says. "That's when the shit hit the fan, right there. I went from East Side activist family man to radical, all that shit. After that copying machine thing, we just broke off from everything."
Don Craven says he doesn't remember anything about a copying machine, nor does his father.
"Trust me on that," Craven says. "But if it was that event that propelled him into his activist-radical days, I am proud to have been a part of it."
Going live
"I can't read, first of all, so I'm not very enthusiastic about it," Kantako says. "Half the people I know can't read, so that was just not viable."
Given his experience as a DJ, Kantako decided a radio station would be better than a newspaper, so, with Townsend's help, he got a mail-order transmitter for a few hundred bucks and plugged in. Some money for equipment came from the Catholic church, which had given a grant to the tenants rights association.
They could not have picked a better time than the fall of 1987.
With a substantial percentage of the city's black population clustered in the Hay Homes, Kantako's audience was within reach of the tiny transmitter. There were few, if any, radio stations that catered to a black audience, and certainly none that played uncensored songs by Ice T, NWA, Public Enemy and other then-controversial hip-hop groups that spiced messages of defiance with plenty of four-letter words. Over-the-air television with just a few stations was still dominant, and there was no Internet. And so Kantako's pirate radio station became popular in the projects as much for jams that couldn't be heard anywhere else as for the political proselytizing.
It wasn't long before Kantako was in the headlines for a new reason.
Shortly after Kantako took to the airwaves, Springfield police complained to the Federal Communications Commission. They insisted they weren't motivated by Kantako's near-constant criticism and use of the word "pigs." Rather, they were simply passing along complaints from citizens upset by naughty words.
"There were people in the Hay Homes complaining about him," recalls former police chief Mike Walton, who now works for the Sangamon County sheriff's office. "It's his right to broadcast. He just shouldn't use language that's not acceptable to children."
In 1989, police and an FCC official paid a visit and ordered him to unplug. He did, but only for a week. Then he sent a statement to the press and invited reporters to attend the reopening of his radio station.
"Mr. Readus will make a statement to the press and will respond to questions prior to his being taken into police custody," reads the press release typed on tenants rights association stationary.
After speaking to reporters, Kantako went back on the air and called police, with a tape recorder rolling. Come and arrest me, he told an officer. He was put on hold, then told that local police didn't have jurisdiction over violations of federal law. So he went to the federal building and tried to surrender himself, but no one was interested in locking him up. He has been daring authorities to arrest him ever since.
"On several occasions, I've tried to set them up, but they won't go for it – 'Nah, you have a nice day, sir,'" says Kantako, who dropped his birth name in the early 1990s and made it official by having a judge sign paperwork in 2003.
A letter campaign aimed at building support after his first confrontation with the FCC met with mixed results. The NAACP said no thanks, as did Bill Cosby. Noam Chomsky, however, provided advice and wrote a check for $50. The Catholic church held back the final check of a grant awarded to the tenants rights association after expressing concerns about illegal broadcasts.
But Kantako became a darling of the underground, with articles appearing in alternative newspapers as far away as Germany. Major newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sent reporters to Springfield to write about the blind man who defied the FCC and proved an inspiration to other pirate radio broadcasters throughout the nation. Pump Up The Volume, a 1990 movie starring Christian Slater as a high school student who starts his own radio station, fueled interest, and there were mentions of Kantako in Playboy, Spin, Mother Jones and The Utne Reader. He even made mainstream airwaves with a segment on All Things Considered broadcast on National Public Radio. Dozens of people around the country wrote letters voicing support and asking Kantako for advice on how to set up pirate radio stations.
"He started a whole movement that's never been acknowledged or recognized in Springfield," Townsend said.
He has proven unstoppable. Federal agents seized his equipment in 2000 after air traffic controllers at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport said that his signals were reaching pilots who could, potentially, believe that Kantako was providing directions. No planes fell from the sky, however, and Kantako has refused to pay fines levied by the FCC.
Interest and controversy has faded with the advent of the Internet. Now, anyone with a laptop can say most anything they want, and the message goes considerably farther than a mile or so. But there are still sprouts of celebrity in unexpected places. In 2011, a Danish hip-hop group with anarchist appeal released Viva Kantako Destroy Sony, an album anchored by a track called "Mbanna Kantako Radio" that features clips from Kantako broadcasts.
While pirate radio might seem a throwback, Kantako isn't about to quit. Perhaps he is stubborn – he and his wife were, after all, the last people to move out of the Hay Homes before they were demolished in 1997.
Has he made a difference?
That's hard to measure, Stratton says. It is hard to point out a concrete accomplishment, the former housing authority board chairman says, but Kantako raised awareness about important issues.
"I think he was effective in that," Stratton allows.
Kantako wouldn't necessarily disagree. We're better off than we were 25 years ago, he says – if nothing else, people today cannot hide from the truth, and he hopes that he has helped educate people.
"I think we're better off because that gives us a chance to get our act together," he states.
Kantako still gets threatening letters from the FCC, most recently in 2011. But he is most proud of a 2000 restraining order signed by former U.S. District Court Judge Jeanne Scott, who commanded him to get a license or get off the air. He has it framed, hanging at the entrance to his living room.
"It says I will 'cause immediate and irreparable damage to the United States,'" Kantako says. "I thought that was so cool."
Contact Bruce Rushton at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
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(Item: IT-GI-P297)
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text:
Andrew Malcolm is bored, too
Blog ››› ››› JAMISON FOSER
Los Angeles Times blogger/former Laura Bush press secretary wasn't impressed by President Obama last night. Surprise, surprise.
Tuesday morning The Ticket examined the White House's current political strategy and asked the question who would show up at Barack Obama's second nationally-televised news conference that evening: the president or the senator?
The answer: Neither.
Professor Barack Obama showed up.
And if you remember one of those required college lecture courses in the large auditorium at 8:10 a.m. listening to a droning don, and how it felt, slumped in the cushy seats having skipped breakfast for an extra 13 minutes of ZZZZ.
this news conference seemed anticlimatic. (See video below.) At times the president appeared to be mailing in his delivery.
The result for anyone who stayed for the entire presentation was another lengthy, somber less-than-animated sales pitch for the need to spend trillions to jump-start the economy...
Now, I don't want Andrew Malcolm to be bored. That's a less-than-ideal way to go through your workday.
So here's a suggestion, Mr. Malcolm: Quit. Do it now. Hand in your press pass. There are plenty of out-of-work and soon-to-be-out-of-work-reporters who actually give a damn and who won't have any trouble staying awake for a presidential press conference and who are capable of producing a substantive article that will actually help readers understand what is happening in the world, instead of simply whining that they are insufficiently stimulated. Let one of them have your job. Take up skydiving or running with the bulls or whatever it takes to get you sufficiently excited, and let serious people do your serious job.
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Latest content added for Digital Library Partner: UNT Librarieshttps://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/partners/UNT/browse/?sort=added_a&display=grid&fq=dc_type:text_etd&fq=str_degree_department:Department%20of%20Geography2008-01-14T23:13:32-06:00UNT LibrariesThis is a custom feed for browsing Digital Library Partner: UNT LibrariesGeography of Tuberculosis in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana2007-09-25T21:32:35-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2763/

In Ghana, spatial patterns of TB vary for different regions and variations may occur within the same region. This study examines TB distribution in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Behavioral, cultural and economic variables associated with TB morbidity are examined. From January 1998 to June 1999, data obtained from the Ghana Ministry of Health revealed that, men had a higher TB rate than women, TB was common among the age groups 20-29 and 30-39, and the average TB rate of 67.7 per 100, 000 population in the Greater Accra Region was higher than the national average (58.6 per 100,000 population). Using the human ecology model, this study attempts to explain the spatial distribution of the disease.
Distribution and Probable Sources of Nitrate in the Seymour Aquifer, North Central Texas, USA2007-09-25T21:32:50-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2759/

This study utilized GIS and statistical methods to map the spatial variability of nitrate and related groundwater constituents in 30 counties above the Seymour Aquifer, analyze temporal patterns of nitrate pollution, identify probable sources of pollution, and recommend water development strategies to minimize exposure to nitrate and reduce future aquifer contamination. Nitrate concentrations in excess of 44 mg/L (US EPA limit) were commonly observed in the Seymour Aquifer region, especially in the central agricultural belt. Data indicated that this is an ongoing problem in the Seymour Aquifer and that agricultural activity and rural septic systems are the likely sources of the nitrate. Inconclusive results emphasized the need for a more comprehensive spatial and temporal water quality monitoring.
Rail Transit and Its Influence on Land Use: A Dallas Case Study2007-09-25T22:20:17-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2847/

Mass transit investments continue to be utilized in many cities as means of dealing with various transportation issues. In Dallas Texas, light rail transit was developed with the hopes of encouraging compact and orderly growth. This research uses the DART system as a case study in examining transportation/land use relationships in Dallas. As such, this thesis reviews past research that examined transit systems impacts on urban areas, analyzes historical changes in land use pattern development around the existing twenty stations of the DART light rail starter system, and summarizes the progression of land use trends in the transit corridor as they relate to DART impacts. Results of this study suggest that DART's light rail system has been an effective tool used in achieving the transportation and land use goals for the region. Finally, recommendations are presented with respect to what can be expected for future light rail development in Dallas.
Use of GIS to Identify and Delineate Areas of Fluoride, Sulfate, Chloride, and Nitrate Levels in the Woodbine Aquifer, North Central Texas, in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s2007-09-25T22:38:31-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2869/

ArcView and ArcInfo were used to identify and delineate areas contaminated by fluoride, sulfate, chloride, and nitrate in the Woodbine Aquifer. Water analysis data were obtained from the TWDB from the 1950s to 1990s covering 9 counties. 1990s land use data were obtained to determine the relationship with each contaminant. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to calculate relationships between variables. Land uses had little effect on distributions of contaminants. Sulfate and fluoride levels were most problematic in the aquifer. Depth and lithology controlled the distributions of each contaminant. Nitrate patterns were controlled mainly by land use rather than geology, but were below the maximum contaminant level. In general, contaminant concentrations have decreased since the 1950s.
Spatial Analysis of Teen Births in North Central Texas2007-09-25T22:56:34-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3056/

The United States has the highest teen birth rate among western industrialized countries and the highest levels of pregnancy among adolescents (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994). While the rate of teen births is high throughout the country, considerable variations exist between and within regions. Texas is one of the 5 leading states with the highest teen birth rates to mothers less than 18 years of age. This research provides a detailed analysis of births to mothers aged between 10 and 19 years in North Central Texas counties. Due to the modifiable area unit problem and to provide a finer geographical scale of analysis, teen births in Dallas County zip codes were examined as a special case study. Statistical and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis reveal that race/ethnicity, education and income are significant factors in teen births in the region. Single parent households and receipt of public assistance were not statistically significant. Suggestions for reducing vulnerability to teen births are presented.
Use of geographic information systems and infrared-triggered cameras to assess white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) habitat in Denton County, Texas.2007-09-26T02:39:52-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3214/

This study utilized geographic information systems, remote sensing, and infrared-triggered cameras to assess white-tailed deer habitat in Denton County, Texas. Denton County is experiencing tremendous growth in both population and development. Despite their presence here historically, white-tailed deer were all but extirpated by the beginning of the 20th century, and there are no data available which support their presence in Denton County again until the 1980's. This study attempts to equate the increase in white-tailed deer population to Denton County's transformation from an agricultural to an urban economy and lifestyle. Eighteen sites were chosen throughout the county to research the following metrics: geology, soils, landcover, landscape ecology, streams, shorelines, land use, population, roads, structures, and census methods.
The Geologic and Archaeological History of the Dickie Carr Site 41PR262007-09-28T21:51:55-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3697/

This thesis is an analysis and synthesis of the geologic and archaeological history of the Dickie Carr site, 41PR26, on Mill Creek in north central Texas. Included are analyses of the stratigraphy, sedimentary environments, and soils of the locality. A regional comparison is made with respect to the Late Quaternary geology of the upper Trinity River basin, Texas to interpret the geologic data. Two stratigraphic units were identified that record the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. The buried lower unit is comprised of terrace, floodplain, and channel deposits with extensive pedogenesis. The unit is Late Pleistocene in age and contains the remains of Mammuthus columbi. The upper stratigraphic unit is comprised of terrace and floodplain sediments with well-expressed pedogenesis. The unit is Early Holocene in age with Late Paleoindian and Late Archaic occupations. The archaeological components are compared and contrasted with documented sites from the Elm and East Forks of the Trinity River. The occupations are examined in a geoarchaeological context. The Late Paleoindian occupation is post-depositional and located in terrace deposits. The Late Archaic occupation is syndepositional and located in floodplain deposits.
Assessment of Sediment Runoff from Natural Gas Well Development Sites.2007-09-28T21:56:59-05:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3665/

Storm water sediment runoff from disturbed landscapes has the potential to impair aquatic environments. Small construction sites of 1-5 acres in the United States are currently regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to minimize storm water runoff damages to the environment. Gas well construction sites are similar to other construction sites in how the landscape is altered, but are not similarly regulated. This study identified sediment runoff from gas well development sites by collecting it in traps and weirs, and by measuring sediment debris lobes. Sediment primarily consisted of silt and clay sized particles. Sediments from two gas well sites formed five debris lobes that ranged in size from 325 to 3,290 square feet. Sediment loadings estimated from the debris lobes averaged 57.1 tons per year/acre. Future studies should focus on further quantification of sediment movement off of gas well sites and identify effective erosion control methods.
Estimating Buruli Ulcer Prevalence in Southwestern Ghana2008-01-14T23:10:19-06:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3981/

Mycobacterium ulcerans is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa, but little is known about the mode of transmission and its natural reservoirs. Since the only effective treatment is excision of the infection and surrounding tissue, early diagnosis and treatment is the only way to reduce the havoc associated with Buruli ulcer. Using data from a national case search survey conducted in Ghana during 2000 and suspected risk factors this study tests the hypothesized factors and probes the challenges of developing a spatial epidemiological regression model to explain Buruli ulcer prevalence in the southwestern region of Ghana representing 42 districts. Results suggest that prevalence is directly related to the degree of land cover classified as soil, elevation differential, and percent rural population of the area.
Measuring the value of transit access for Dallas County: A hedonic approach.2008-01-14T23:13:32-06:00https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3948/

Advocates of urban light rail transit argue that positive developments around station area(s) should offset the costs of implementing a transit system by creating more livable communities and enhance surrounding residential property values. In some cases, decreased urban landscape aesthetics have been reported. The purpose of this study is to contribute to this debate via an analysis of the impact of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system on residential property values in Dallas County. By examining the impact of distance on property values of two features of the DART system: the transit station and the rail line, and by holding a series of structural variables constant, a net change in value can be calculated using a multi-regression model.


text:
$150 00
Interface Kit has been discontinued
Interface Kit makes it easy to add and use additional System controls that are not available in REALBasic. The Interface Kit cross-matches controls across Mac & Windows, making it easier to provide similar experiences while keeping consistent with each platform. Most of these controls are drawn by the system and use the very latest code for maximum speed and compatibility. These controls take are Core Graphics Powered on the Mac.
Some of the controls available with the Interface Kit
- Buttons: Gradient, Textured, Help, Rounded Rect, Windows Command Link
- Sliders: non-directional, down, up and Relevance bar
What's New in Interface Kit
Version 1.0.4:
- [Mod] Now works with the newly released 2008r2
- [Add] Segment View Pieces can now specify their width
- [Add] Segment View Pieces can now be Unclickable.
- [Add] Metal Elements now auto engrave icons.
- [Add] New Button Icons '+', '-', action, Home & Full Screen.
- [Add] ifkSplitter.AddControl and ifkSplitter.RemoveControl for automatic management of
Requirements for Interface KitREALBasic 2006 or later
*Previously available here
Similar Software
Suggest other similar software


text:
- Price list must be added as a filter as sometimes you want to pick products that never have been ordered before
- Consumption days concept does not make much sense and is tucked away too deeply. Extend date range filter to more human ranges such as "last week" or "last quarter"
- Most frequently ordered makes sense as it is likely that popular orders will be repeated
- Most recently ordered makes sense as it is likely that recent orders will be repeated
- Product category makes sense as a filter ("I only want to order hardware")
- Show for each product the sales/purchase order they belong to. Clicking the order will open it on a new tab so you can peek into it and see the rest of the order
- Use extra dedicated filters for the most important attributes. Use column filters for the less relevant filters
- Set default filters to avoid massive volumes
- Save filter settings for reuse per window type and user
I plan to keep Copy Lines and Copy From Order in separate windows (in fact, they are layers in 3.0 style) but the user can easily switch between them. I believe that a user either wants to select products from price lists or recent orders OR wants to reuse and merge all order lines from entire orders OR wants to duplicate a past order, including all its header and lines data. This last option can also be done in a grid by duplicating the row. So we´ll have three flavors to reuse order lines. The proposed solution tries to satisfy all three methods.
The Price List is the most important attribute in order line picking. The Price List is now set in the header. The lines to pick should have it as a default filter, although it should also still be possible to choose products from other price lists. The Price List Version is currently not used in the header. The new proposal does have it in the header although I am not certain if this is a good idea or not, so help me out here.
Then there is a whole set of business logic we need to rethink when adding products from a non-default price list or even more than one, which can get quite complicated when products exist in more than one price list.
I have attempted to model all of the above thoughts in an extended sales order scenario, see the first PDF document via the link below. The second PDF shows some background on Price Lists. I also noticed that the price list setup is very tedious. We must tackle this as well at some point but let´s first focus on the sales order flow.
Please have a good look and let us know if this all makes sense to you. Find the proposed solution and the discussion thread on this Forge forum.


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The socioeconomic context of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests and its imitators has been most astutely analyzed by Volokh Conspirator Kenneth Anderson and blogger Megan McArdle. Riffing on columns by Anne Applebaum on the bifurcation of the American middle class and Ross Douthat on privilege protection by liberal interest groups, Anderson and McArdle identify the OWS movement as a cry of despair from the newly downwardly-mobile lower tier of the upper-middle class.
Applebaum's observations on the divided middle class are nothing new--I noted the phenomenon some twenty years ago, and it was one of my early blog topics. During the 1960s, America's white-collar middle class, having grown explosively and prospered spectacularly during the entire postwar boom, began to assert itself as a separate class, with economic, social and cultural interests that diverged sharply from those of the blue-collar lower-middle class. Much of the political and cultural turmoil of that decade and subsequent ones--the takeover of the Democratic Party by the (upper-middle class) New Left, with its emphasis on (white-collar-run) services for the poor, rather than the (blue-collar-run) union movement; the sexual and feminist revolutions, driven primarily by the more libertine mores of the upper-middle class; and of course the rise of the coalition uniting the blue-collar lower-middle class with the wealthy to form the modern conservative movement, as embodied by the Republican Party--can be traced to this historic schism within the American middle class.
The schism has also evolved over the decades since the 1960s. Most notably, the boom of the 1990s sharply reduced the political significance of serving the poor, as large numbers of them became gainfully employed, effectively joining the lower-middle class. At the same time, the wealth accumulated by the upper-middle class during that boom caused their interests to shift closer to those of the wealthy. By the crash of the late 2000s, in fact, the left-right partisan divide had come to resemble a straightforward split between the white-collar upper-middle class and their wealthy allies, on the one hand, and the blue-collar lower-middle class on the other.
The effects of that crash are the subject of Anderson's and McArdle's observations. As they point out, the upper-middle class is itself now splitting, with its more tenuously affiliated members--"the helping professions, the culture industry, the virtueocracies, the industries of therapeutic social control", as Anderson puts it--rapidly losing socioeconomic ground. (To that list of losers can also be added the legal profession, which now finds itself in the midst of a terrible glut, and journalism, which is being demolished by the Internet revolution.) Hard times, government budget cuts, and student loan debts imposed by skyrocketing college tuition rates, have conspired to markedly dim the once-bright futures of college graduates with ordinary liberal arts degrees and no other marketable skills--that is, a large portion of the less fortunate scions of the upper-middle class.
The "Occupy Wall Street" movement--and the protests in Israel which preceded it, I might add--appear to be this cohort's cri de coeur, as they demand what everyone would have assumed to be their natural birthright a decade ago: a comfortable, satisfying white-collar job, with all its accompanying economic security and social status. Although their official demands are incoherent--a hodgepodge of vaguely radical leftist and populist proposals to be funded by taxes extracted from "corporations" and "the rich"--their overall theme is society's obligation to pour billions of dollars into addressing the concerns of (and, implicitly, valuing--and appropriately remunerating--the contributions of) young, privileged-but-unambitious left-wing liberal arts graduates. Student loan forgiveness, money for environmentalist projects, anti-corporate regulatory regimes (presumably staffed by activist investigators)--these are hardly the stuff of revolution, but they certainly resonate among the protestors' demographic.
What, then, of the ostensible focus of the protests--wealth and income inequality, as symbolized by the supposed depradations of the "1 percent" at the top? Ironically, the protests themselves are proof that the problem is resolving itself as we speak. As Applebaum notes, "[d]espite all the loud talk of the "1 per cent" of Americans...the existence of a very small group of very rich people has never bothered Americans. But the fact that some 20 per cent of Americans now receive some 53 per cent of the income is devastating." In other words, it's not the richest 1 percent, but rather the bifurcation of the American middle class itself, that has generated the most class friction and resentment in American society. And by slipping down and out of that coveted upper tier into a kind of hopeless socioeconomic limbo, the OWS protesters and their supporters are doing more to bridge the gap between the middle class' estranged upper and lower halves than any of their radical proposals could ever hope to accomplish. Eventually, once the howls of entitled indignance have trailed off, we may well see a resurgence of "middle-middle-class" solidarity, uniting middle-income white-collar and blue-collar workers to protect their common interests.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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The Kansas Historical Foundation honors outstanding achievements by individuals and organizations through several awards. The Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports the Kansas Historical Society's programs.
Edgar Langsdorf Award for Excellence in Writing - for articles published in Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains.
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A billionaire named Nick Hanauer recently wrote an editorial for Bloomberg in which he destroyed the argument that the jobs in America are created by rich entrepreneurs and investors.
In our current "class war" climate, this argument has been repeated so often that it's now regarded as fact. And it is frequently and passionately invoked to defend the idea that we should make further tax cuts for rich people — so rich people can have an incentive to create more jobs.
As I explained yesterday, the argument that rich people create the jobs is flawed for many reasons, starting with:
- Taxes on rich people are already historically low relative to other (very prosperous) periods, and
- Many billionaires and entrepreneurs like Hanauer have already gone on record to ridicule the idea that raising capital gains and income taxes a few points would suddenly reduce the incentive to start companies.
(The entrepreneurs would take home slightly less money from their companies, but they'd start them anyway. So cutting taxes for rich "job creators" would just make the job creators richer.)
But Hanauer's more profound point, which explains one of the things that is ailing our economy, is that rich people actually don't create the jobs.
What creates the jobs is a healthy economic ecosystem. Specifically, a healthy ecosystem that starts with the company's customers.
An entrepreneur can have the most brilliant idea in the world and plenty of funding to develop and sell it, but if customers can't afford to buy the company's products, the entrepreneur and his or her investors won't create a single permanent job.
Saying "the entrepreneur and investors create the jobs," in other words, is like saying a seed creates a tree.
A seed does not create a tree. The seed starts the tree, and contains the blueprint ( idea) for the tree. But the tree is created by a combination of this blueprint plus soil, sunshine, nutrients, water, and a climate that has perfect temperature and atmosphere with enough of the above resources to go around.
Plant a seed in an inhospitable environment, and it won't create anything. It will die.
And the same is true for entrepreneurs and investors. Without their future customers and employees, and a legal and societal environment that can nurture their growth, they're done for.
And who are the customers who have the power to create and destroy jobs and fix the economy?
For the most part, the middle class — a.k.a., "the 99%." (Yes, there are some companies that cater exclusively to the 1%, but not many.)
One of the fundamental problems in our economy right now is that the percentage of the national income taken home by the 1% at the expense of the 99% has radically shifted in the past 30 years. And this ( and other factors) has left the 99% strapped and unable to provide the buying power necessary to create as many jobs as we need.
Anyway, as expected, Hanauer's argument struck a nerve, especially among folks who take pride and comfort in the fact that, as rich people, they're the ones who create the jobs.
(The original post has 300+ comments and counting, and my email box has exploded with praise and vitriol.)
The logic in the smarter arguments about why rich people DO create the jobs sounds persuasive, but it's wrong. This logic, too, has also been repeated so often that it is regarded as fact. So it's worth exploring.
The smarter arguments about why rich people DO create the jobs boil down to this:
- Just look at the number of jobs created in Silicon Valley, where there is a unique combination of a highly developed venture capital system, an entrepreneurial culture, and brilliant entrepreneurs.
- Brilliant entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs create products that createdemand. No one knew they wanted an iPhone before Steve made one. Therefore, Steve created all the jobs that are required to make and sell and service the iPhone.
Again, these arguments are seductive, but they're wrong.
In both cases, what actually created the jobs were the combination of the companies and the customers of the products and services that the companies created and the ecosystem in which those companies operate. Without the customers, the iPad and hundreds of other Silicon Valley products would have remained little more than cool prototypes. And the jobs of those who made them, which were initially funded with investment capital, would quickly have disappeared. And the invested capital would have disappeared, too.
How do we know that entrepreneurs and investors don't create the jobs?
Let's look at a couple of examples.
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs start a lot of cool companies, and Silicon Valley investors provide the risk capital necessary for these companies to develop.
These contributions are very important to the health of the economy, and they should not be played down.
And this combination of entrepreneurs plus capital can certainly create a handful of temporary jobs — jobs that last until the invested capital runs out. But without healthy customers to buy the products and services created by these entrepreneurs and investors, whatever jobs are temporarily created will quickly go "poof."
If you need proof of this, just look at the late 1990s.
In the late 1990s, and especially in 1999, hundreds of thousands of investors poured tens of billions of dollars into Internet-related investments. The entrepreneurs and companies that received these investments used it to create tens of thousands of jobs — very temporarily.
If entrepreneurs and investors really could singlehandedly "create jobs," these jobs would still exist. But by 2001, when the Internet bubble had burst, and the investment capital dried up, most of the jobs created by those 1999-era entrepreneurs and investors disappeared. Because it turned out there was no real demand for their products.
But what about the companies that survived the Internet bust — Amazon, Google, Yahoo?
Didn't Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, and Jerry Yang each create tens of thousands of jobs?
Jeff, Larry, and Jerry started cool companies, and they deserve a ton of credit for that. And investors provided the initial capital necessary to get the companies going. And Jeff, Larry, and Jerry hired smart people to help them build the companies. And Jeff, Larry, and Jerry built products that people wanted, which is obviously critical. And Jeff and Larry (if not Jerry) have managed their companies well for the past 10-15 years. But to say that Jeff, Larry, and Jerry and their initial investors "created" the ~100,000 jobs that Amazon, Google, and Yahoo now have is ridiculous.
What has created the ~100,000 jobs is the combination of the companies, the companies products and services, and the market's ability to pay for those products and services.
How can we be certain of this?
Because as Yahoo is painfully learning, once the market demand for your products and services wanes, the jobs you have "created" disappear.
But how about Steve Jobs? Didn't he single-handedly create tens of thousands of jobs when he invented the iPhone and iPad? After all, no one even knew they wanted an iPhone or iPad before Steve and Apple invented them.
No, Steve Jobs didn't create those jobs.
Steve and Apple did invent a couple of awesome products that about a hundred million people have bought, and he and his team deserve tons of credit for that.
But they didn't "create the jobs."
Why not?
First because, if the 100+ million people who bought iPhones and iPads had not been able to afford iPhones or iPads, Apple wouldn't have sold any of them.
It doesn't matter how much "demand" is created by a product that is so awesome that everyone wants it. If no one has the money to buy it, they won't buy it. (Unless they can borrow the money to buy it, which is another story, and is another part of the problem with the U.S. economy.)
Furthermore, the money used to buy iPhones and iPads was not created out of thin air. When the money used to buy iPhones and iPads was spent on iPhones and iPads, it was not spent on something else. In other words, if Steve Jobs and Apple had NOT invented the iPhone and iPad, the money used to buy them would likely have been used to buy something else — and the companies that made the something else would have "created" the jobs.
Apple's building of a better mousetrap, in other words, did not suddenly "create jobs." It moved the jobs. It moved the jobs from the companies that were making the older mousetraps to the one that was making the better mousetrap (and, in this case, it mostly moved them to Asia, which is another issue). In fact, to the extent that Apple created a more efficient manufacturing process for its better mousetraps, Apple and Steve Jobs may actually have destroyed jobs, not created them.
If you still don't believe it, think of it this way:
Imagine if Steve Jobs and Apple had only been able to sell their miraculous new iPhones and iPads in Bangladesh, where the average per-capita income is about $1,700 a year.
How many jobs do you think Steve Jobs and Apple would have "created" then?
Not many.
Entrepreneurs and investors do not create the jobs in our economy. The economy itself creates the jobs. and it does this most effectively when it is healthy, meaning that all of the key components, including the middle class, have enough disposable income that they can buy what our companies produce.
Henry Ford is legendary for his decision to make sure he paid his rank-and-file production workers enough that they would be able to afford the company's cars. This decision was not just based on kindness and generosity. Ford knew that his employees would become his customers--and that without his customers, he wouldn't have a company.
Entrepreneurs and investors are very important to our economy. They keep the economy vibrant and nimble, and they help the "gale of creative destruction" that creates innovation and progress and wealth and allows the economy to remain competitive. And they deserve credit for that.
But we are all in this together.
And what "creates" most of the jobs in our economy is the healthy economic ecosystem, not one privileged part of it. Without healthy potential customers, in other words, entrepreneurs and investors can't do jack.
SEE ALSO: Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction That Rich People Create The Jobs


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One of the last drips of federal aid for unemployed workers will expire next summer -- and few people even know it exists.
Under federal legislation passed in 2012, the program provides funding for states that allow workers who have been forced into part-time positions to receive unemployment benefits. The payments are prorated for hours worked, and economists say the benefits encourage struggling companies to keep their employees rather than lay them off. Economists say the program could help millions of struggling, part-time workers.
States have until December to apply for federal funding to administer and market the program. Uncle Sam is also reimbursing states for payouts to workers through August 2015. But only two states, Ohio and Washington, have asked for money to set up the so-called worksharing programs, according to the Labor Department. Together, they have received about $6 million. And less than half of states have taken advantage of the federal reimbursements, which have totaled $195.5 million since the law was enacted.
What gives?
Part of the logjam is the way unemployment benefits are administered. States are responsible for running their own benefits program. Qualifying for the federal work-sharing incentives often requires a change in local legislation -- a slow and often tedious process.
Before the recession, 17 states had adopted work-sharing programs on their own. Interest spiked when the downturn hit, but almost all the programs set up before the national legislation took effect had to be tweaked to qualify for federal funding, said George Wentworth, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for the jobless.
Nebraska recently became the 27th state to adopt a work-sharing program, and bills are pending in Virginia and four other states. Both NELP and the Labor Department expect more states to apply for the federal grants to administer the program as the December deadline gets closer.
The other problem is marketing. Businesses must enroll in the program and submit a plan for reducing employees' hours that has to be approved by state officials. Some companies are hesitant to sign up because they do not want others to know they are struggling. But many businesses do not know worksharing is an option. Even in Rhode Island -- the home state of Sen. Jack Reed (D), who sponsored the federal legislation -- coming up with the money to promote the program has been challenging. In a statement in the fall, Reed acknowledged that the program is often under-publicized and under-utilized by businesses.
"This is a proven, cost-effective program that helps more workers earn a steady paycheck and allows companies to save when they're forced to temporarily scale back," said Reed. "Giving states an incentive to expand their work sharing programs is a smart investment in preventing future layoffs and blunting economic downturns."
Economists on both the right and the left say the program can be highly effective in reducing unemployment. According to government data, worksharing saved half a million jobs between 2008 and 2013. New applications have fallen off as the economy has strengthened, but an average of about 20,000 people a week are still enrolled in the program.
Still, that is a minuscule sliver of the number of people who might be eligible for the program. According to government data, 7.4 million people are working part-time for economic reasons -- namely, slack business conditions. The statistic has been cited by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as a troubling sign of underlying weakness in the labor market.
Meanwhile, a worksharing program in Germany is credited with helping that country avoid the spike in unemployment that plagued the United States and recover more quickly from recession. At one point, more than 1.4 million Germans were receiving worksharing benefits at 63,000 businesses. If it were as popular in America, more than 5 million employees would be taking advantage of the program, according to a recent paper by American Enterprise Institute economists Kevin Hassett and Michael Strain for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
"A lot of it is just a lack of information," Strain said. "You're kind of caught in this spiral where nobody knows about them in the states that have them and that makes it less likely that states that don't have them will adopt them."
The authors argue worksharing could be more effective than traditional layoffs for three reasons. First, the pain of an economic downturn is spread across a broader spectrum of workers, instead of being concentrated on the few who lose their jobs. That could help shore up demand because workers would feel less pressure to build their savings for fear of getting laid off.
Finally, they say worksharing could help ward against hysteresis, an economic malaise characterized by the deterioration of skills among the unemployed. A growing body of literature suggests that long-term unemployment is an economic trap, and Hassett and Strain argue that worksharing helps employees stay connected to the labor market even through a downturn.
The clock is ticking for states to help themselves to this federal money. But even after those incentives expire, economists and jobless advocates say they hope states will realize the potential of worksharing to soften the sting of an economic downturn -- and put their programs in place before the next one hits.
"Employers use it most when they are trying to avert layoffs," NELP's Wentworth said. "It's basically a program that states should have going into the next recession."


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Jamaica's Golden Voice: Bobby Fray (Former Sports Announcer From TVJ) Spotted In The Streets.. Needing Help
Former Jamaica's sports commentators in a sad situation.
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Tune in, turn on, chill out!
We could all use a little more healing these days. In this healing circle by phone, you'll join people from all over the world, from all religious and political beliefs (and non-beliefs), to take 30 minutes for our collective sanity.
It's relaxing, and free!
Join by phone every Thursday at 7 pm Pacific time for 30 minutes. By signing up on this event page, you'll get email reminders about the healing circles - or you can just mark your calendar with the dial-in info:
Dial: 1- 712-770-5505
Access code: 983-521#
For other time zones, you can click here.
Healing Circles Facebook Page
Format: Very simple. It is all about healing. We will not introduce ourselves or chat.
There are three sections, approximately 7 minutes each:
1. I send healing to reduce stress (only for folks who want it).
2. Together, we send blessings, healing energy, or good thoughts for our communities and our country.
3. Together, we send blessings, healing energy, or good thought for the planet and our world community.
If you come late to the call, or have to leave early, that is fine.
Who can come? Everyone, of all political and religious persuasions and non-persuasions, as long as you have the intention of making the world a better place.
Be aware that as people come onto the call, you will hear beeps. Please welcome them in your heart and continue with whatever healing/blessings we are doing.
Why I started these healing circles
After the 2016 presidential election, I was anxious, and depressed, like many people across the political spectrum and around the world. I contemplated: "How can I be of service to the world?"
In trying to answer the question, I contemplated how to best take action, and found the answer in my heart - in my work as a healer. As a nurse for 16 years and as a Reiki Master for 25 years, my whole goal has always been to make connection with people and to heal pain – especially emotional pain.
When we feel upset, it affects others we encounter. For us to be of service in the world, we need to take care of ourselves. I always start these calls with lowering stress for me and for everyone on the call who wants that.
My contribution towards healing the world is simple and manageable - a weekly conference call, so participants can easily join whenever it's convenient. Neither prayer nor sending blessings, love, or healing energy has to take very long.
Who should be included? Anyone in the world who wants good things for themselves, their neighbors, their country, and the world.
Some years ago, my husband and I were at odds - on opposite ends of the spectrum on an issue. So we started a daily practice of spending several minutes each day looking into each other's eyes, focusing on the bond of love between us, like a band of golden light between our hearts, and imagining that bond of love and light holding the problem situation. Over time, the tension gradually dissolved and we *Felt* the warmth and love between us again. Since that situation, we have used this many times, always to good effect.
Believing that love is always at the core of each one of us, my goal is to have people with different faiths (or no faith), different political beliefs, (or no political belief), and different backgrounds coming together, focusing on the goodness that we all long for – and letting that Love resolve the differences in ways we can't imagine.
Please invite people to these healing circles, as well as to the Facebook Page - people who agree with you, and people who disagree with you. With our hearts connected, we can bring about good things for our communities and our world.
Questions? Comments? Send me feedback at siddheshwari AT reikicentereastbay DOT com. What worked, and what you would like to see changed?
May these healing/blessing sessions support us, our communities, our country, and our whole world!
With love and blessings,
- Siddheshwari (Meg)


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Have Any Overdue Books?
As faithful "Heard it from Hoard" readers know, this blog is usually about baseball in general and the PawSox in particular, but today I'm venturing off the beaten path after reading about Stanley Dudek in Wednesday's Boston Globe.
Stanley is from Mansfield, MA and made a trip to the New Bedford Public Library this week to return an overdue book.
It was overdue by 99 years, 7 months, and 4 days!
The book had been in the possession of Stanley's mother, and he found it while going through her stuff after she passed away. After reading a story about an Ohio man returning a book that was 60 years overdue, he decided to act.
"I have 40 years on that guy," Dudek told reporters, after bringing the book back.
The name of the book is "Facts I Ought to Know About the Government of My Country." It was written by William Bartlett and published in 1894. The book will be placed in the library's special collections department as a historical artifact.
I know what you're wondering – how much was the fine? At the time the book was loaned out, the New Bedford Public Library charged a penny a day for overdue books, so the fine came to $363.78. Fortunately for Mr. Dudek, the library waived the fee.
This story has inspired me to come clean. I'm fairly certain that there's a copy of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at my parents' house in upstate New York that I checked out of the library in approximately 1973. If our local library waives the fee, I promise to return the book the next time I visit my folks.
Shoot, it's only been 36 years.
I'll get back to baseball on Friday.
I'd love to hear from you. The address is email@example.com.
And if you Twitter, you can follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/Dan_Hoard