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See below for a full list of available titles by this Author
Christopher Burns is the author of five previous novels and a collection of short stories. He lives with his wife near the western edge of the English Lake District.
A Division of the Light is his first novel since Dust Raising, which was published in 1996.
Its striking opening chapter sees acclaimed photographer impulsively taking pictures of a bag-snatch before going to the aid of the victim, Alice Fell. As a man who has taken portraits of many women, he finds something irresistible about her and becomes driven by a desire to bring her to his studio. Although Gregory has seduced many of his subjects before, assisted by his ability to bring out something unique in all he photographs, the astute Anna is more wary of his motives.
Gregory's daughter, Cassie, who works as his assistant, is puzzled as to why her father is so in thrall to this one woman. Her relationship with her father has been strained ever since the death of her mother, whose slow and painful decline Gregory meticulously recorded with his camera.
The novel is one of the most striking and memorable of the year, a book that should appeal to fans of Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes or Kazuo Ishiguro. Indeed Ishiguro describes A Divison of the Light as "a strange, brilliant work", a particularly significant endorsement as it is the first time he has ever allowed his words of recommendation to appear on a book jacket.
In this exclusive interview for Foyles, Christopher discusses why Alice is such appealing subject for Gregory, how the photograph used for the cover of a novel about photography was chosen and our changing relationship with photography in the digital age.
For a novel about a visual medium, the choice of image for the cover must have required a fair amount of thought. Can you tell us anything about the photograph that's been chosen?
The striking and memorable cover portrait was chosen because it has resonance not only with the physical appearance of one of the characters, but also with a mysterious event in the narrative. A design team working for the publisher discovered the image. As soon as its use was suggested, the woman with the dark flowing hair was an obvious choice for the cover.
Is Gregory modelled after a specific photographer?
Not as such, although he shares characteristics with many of those who work in the profession. Gregory's ambition is to be compared to classic photographers who have taken iconic studies that have informed our appreciation of the human face and the human body.
The book opens with Gregory instinctively taking pictures of Alice as she has her bag snatched. Does his talent for photography rely on his ability to view his subject dispassionately?
Objectivity is necessary for any photographic study, but it is also true that a degree of involvement will enhance the result. At first Gregory does not know Alice, so it is only the dynamic of her fall, and the textures and contrasts that his lens can capture, which intrigue him professionally. Later, when he meets her again, the balance between his objectivity and involvement is to become complex, unpredictable, and emotionally charged.
Gregory believes that there is much of himself in his pictures. Would you say the same is true for your writing?
I am not an author who uses his own sensibility as a vehicle for fiction. Instead I try to create characters with their own personalities so that their individual beliefs, backgrounds, and actions govern the narrative. Until these characters begin to define themselves, I have little idea of what shape a novel will take. So that although there must surely be hints of my own personality and experience in a text, I do not believe that these are readily detectable. Of course this does not mean that my fiction is not without its own distinguishing themes, imagery and patterns. Critics could argue that these are somehow indicative of a writer's personality, but I would take issue with such an interpretation.
Gregory has gone on to sleep with many of his photographic subjects. Would you say his success with women is down more to his ability to flatter with the camera or his personal charisma?
Both personal charm and compositional talent form the beginnings of these relationships. Both photographer and model want the best results, and in their own way each flatters and guides the other. Eventually they find themselves following a predictable course of events. It's a kind of dance, with mutually understood progressions and a foreseeable end point. Of course Gregory considers himself an expert, not only in his profession, but also in the art of seduction. Perhaps the other women in his life think of themselves with similar confidence.
It seems that Gregory is more taken by Alice than most of his previous subjects. Is that because she remains too mysterious to him, leaving Gregory unable to strip her bare with the gaze of the camera?
Alice does not obey the rules of the dance. She and Gregory have different outlooks and different aims. She is obstructive, enigmatic, not conventionally beautiful, and from the start she refuses to collaborate with his plans. To Gregory, Alice becomes a challenge. And yet he continues to believe that eventually he will be able to pin down her personality with his lens. Alice has other ideas.
"Gregory obtains both aesthetic and intellectual satisfaction from photography." [p.72] Do you find that you take the same pleasures from writing as he does from photography?
Photography and writing are different disciplines and their practitioners must exercise very different means of selection, application, and control. A blank sheet of paper has more potential and is more unsettling than a camera with nothing to focus on. A photograph can be framed, shot and assessed within seconds, and it usually stands on its own. A novel will often take two or three years to write, will have several false starts, and by its very nature is comprised of hundreds of interconnecting components. And it may be a very long time before its value is recognised. Take one photograph from a sequence and print it on its own and it will still be a powerful image: take several pages from a novel and publish them separately and they will be pale ghosts of a greater whole. So although we may discuss each art (or craft) using similar categories, their intellectual, aesthetic, and other qualities must be very different, and satisfactions and frustrations of their creation must be different, too.
Does the tension in the relationship between Gregory and his daughter, Cassie, stem from the intrusive photographs of his wife's/her mother's death or is there something deeper to it?
There is something deeper to it. Although it may appear unconventional, there is something of a traditional father -- daughter relationship between Gregory and Cassie. As readers will discover, in this case the daughter is often wiser than the father. However Gregory's behaviour as Cassie's mother was dying can never be forgotten by either of them.
Do you think the ease of digital photo manipulation and ubiquity of cameras today has changed our relationship with the photographic image?
Gregory understands that the invention of photography led to a revolution in human consciousness. The print gave us the opportunity to gaze at people we would never meet and countries we would never visit, just as it gave us the ability to stare on the nakedness of strangers and the faces of those who died before we were born. These new insights could be consoling, enlightening, troubling, or frightening. Early portraits were treasured not only because they were expensive, but also because they were taken infrequently - often only once. And what the viewer saw was the truth, or what was believed to be the truth. Nowadays anyone with a camera or phone can take hundreds of images and not be concerned about expense, or framing, or image quality. We are still too close to this new revolution to fully understand its social or psychological effects. What does seem certain is that photography, although increasingly democratised, is shedding its traditional qualities of permanence and display. Instead its images are becoming both easily transferable and disposable. Characters in A Division of the Light may operate with the new technology, but they also recognise that photography has always been associated with a kind of continuity. They understand, too, that the image has given new perspectives on truth, beauty, exploitation, and death. Which are some of the broader themes of the novel as a whole.
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Remember the Alamo Vector Line Art Illustration Document comes with 1 each high res 8×10 JPEG, 1 PDF, 1 SVG file formats sized for 11×8.5 for easy at home printing. Features a hand drawn picture of the Alamo. Simply print at home and frame or add to your own project.
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Once your payment is complete, you will be shown a link that leads you to the download page where you can download the files for your order directly from your Etsy account. You will also receive an email from Etsy where you can download your files by selecting the "View your Files on Etsy" link or button. If the email is not in your inbox, please check the spam folder.
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subset: commoncrawl


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"A speeding ticket has roughly the same stigma as an overdue notice from the library. There's no Mothers Against Fast Driving. But there is a Speed Channel."1
Videogames, commercials and films link speed to glamour and excitement, but the reality is much grimmer. In 2015 alone, 9,557 people died in speed-related crashes, accounting for nearly 30% of all traffic fatalities.
But unlike drunk driving, speeding 10, 15, or even 20 mph over the posted limit is routinely practiced by most American motorists with little thought to the danger involved, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, in 2017 more cars than ever before can be purchased which can exceed triple the top posted speed limit in most states. Surveys continuously find that although people name speeding as a threat to their safety when other drivers around them are speeding, most people still admit they speed when driving.
Media campaigns led by NHTSA have successfully reduced drunk driving fatalities and increased seat belt use, but have had little effect on speeding. Little progress has been made in reducing speed-related fatalities in the last 20 years. The 2015 number is down just 9% from the early 1980s, a reduction largely accounted for by safer vehicles. Compare this with drunk driving, which has been reduced by over 38% in the same time period.
Research shows that exceeding the speed of surrounding traffic results in precipitously higher crash risks, as seen in the following chart. 2
Accelerating Danger
An analysis conducted by USA Today of speeding tickets from 1991, 1996, and 2002 confirmed the following:
- Although highway speed limits have increased by as much as a third, Americans are speeding farther above the new limits than they did above the old limits;
- Law enforcement are focusing on the most egregious offenders, largely ignoring those going 10 to 15 mph over the limit;
- Law enforcement ticketed three times as many people for going 100 mph or more in 2002 than they did in 1991.3
This, and the 41 million speeding tickets issued in 2015 suggests that Americans' preoccupation with speed-heightened by increasingly fast cars and a prevalent societal tolerance-is becoming more extreme. Unfortunately, this radicalization of America's love affair with speed is paid for in lives.
1 Rick Hampson and Paul Overberg. "Speeders outgun new limits," USA Today , February 23, 2004.
2 "Travelling Speed and the Risk of Crash Involvement," Centre for Automotive Safety Research, University of Adelaide http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/speed/results.html
3 Rick Hampson and Paul Overberg. "Speeders outgun new limits," USA Today , February 23, 2004.


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(Poem #58) The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams Turns mine to wax. And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. The hand that whirls the water in the pool Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind Hauls my shroud sail. And I am dumb to tell the hanging man How of my clay is made the hangman's lime. The lips of time leech to the fountain head; Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood Shall calm her sores. And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind How time has ticked a heaven round the stars. And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
Few poets manage to be simultaneously as lyrical and as powerful as Dylan Thomas. The poem above is a perfect example - images are stark, yet with a compelling beauty that both attracts and chills the reader. This poem did take me a while to appreciate, but it is definitely one of those that improve with rereading. The insistent rhythm, the reinforcing of images and the repetitive construction all combine to stick it in the reader's mind, in a manner characteristic of Thomas. Note, in passing, the thematic similarity to 'Do Not Go Gentle'. m.


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The following athletes have qualified and been endorsed to move on to the 2013 Provincial Summer Games. Congratulations to all of the athletes who will be representing their communities in York Region this summer.
Remember, this is only the INITIAL team announcement - we are currently in the midst of the second round of endorsement of athletes.
SOO News > News Flash >


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How to install Steam on Ubuntu 16
Community and official content for all games and software on Steam. We can install Steam and play games in community.Read More
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Putty app is using to manage your server you may need to have some remote login tool and putty is most easy to use and quick to deploy remote login application.Read More
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Codeblocks is very popular open source IDE for C, C++ development.
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VLC media player is an opensource, cross platefrom multimedia player, and framework that plays most of the multimedia files.Read More
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For security issue, we recommend to disable Guest login on your Ubuntu. For that, you need do as this guide.Read More
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How to configure SSH login banner and MOTD on Ubuntu 16
When you login through my ssh client, you will receive the same message and I'm getting tired of seeing it, so I decided to change the message to something else.Read More


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Previous issues of MJR&L are now available at the MLaw Journal Repository
Volume 23 (Winter 2018)
Batson for Judges, Police Officers & Teachers: Lessons in Democracy From the Jury Box by Stacy L. Hawkins
In our representative democracy we guarantee equal participation for all, but we fall short of this promise in so many domains of our civic life. From the schoolhouse, to the jailhouse, to the courthouse, racial minorities are underrepresented among key public decision-makers, such as judges, police officers, and teachers. This gap between our aspirations for representative democracy and the reality that our judges, police officers, and teachers are often woefully under-representative of the racially diverse communities they serve leaves many citizens of color wanting for the democratic guarantee of equal participation. This critical failure of our democracy threatens to undermine the legitimacy of these important civic institutions. It deepens mistrust between minority communities and the justice system and exacerbates the failures of a public education system already lacking accountability to minority students.
But there is hope for rebuilding the trust, accountability and legitimacy of these civic institutions on behalf of minority citizens. There is one place where we have demonstrated a deeper commitment to our guarantee of democratic equality on behalf of minority citizens and exerted greater effort to that end than perhaps in any other domain of our civic life—the jury box. This paper recounts this important history and explores the political theory underlying the equal protection jurisprudence of jury selection. It then applies these lessons gleaned from the jury context to the constitutional defense of efforts to achieve greater racial diversity within the judiciary, law enforcement, and public education, all of which are as important to the legitimacy of our democracy today as the jury has been throughout American history.
Vulnerability, Access to Justice, and the Fragmented State by Elizabeth L. MacDowell
This Article builds on theories of the fragmented state and of human and institutional vulnerability to create a new, structural theory of "functional fragmentation" and its role in access to justice work. Expanding on previous concepts of fragmentation in access to justice scholarship, fragmentation is understood in the Article as a complex phenomenon existing within as well as between state institutions like courts. Further, it is examined in terms of its relationship to the state's coercive power over poor people in legal systems. In this view, fragmentation in state operations creates not only challenges for access, but also opportunities for resistance, resilience, and justice. Focusing on problem-solving courts, and family courts in particular, the Article examines the intersection of human and institutional vulnerability within legal institutions and provides a framework for identifying ways to create greater access to justice. The Article contributes to state theory and the feminist theory of vulnerability, while providing a new way to understand and address an increasingly coercive state and its punitive effects on low-income people.
The Case Against Police Militarization by Eliav Lieblich & Adam Shinar
We usually think there is a difference between the police and the military. Recently, however, the police have become increasingly militarized – a process which is likely to intensify in coming years. Unsurprisingly, many find this process alarming and call for its reversal. However, while most of the objections to police militarization are framed as instrumental arguments, these arguments are unable to capture the core problem with militarization.
This Article remedies this shortcoming by developing a novel and principled argument against police militarization. Contrary to arguments that are preoccupied with the consequences of militarization, the real problem with police militarization is not that it brings about more violence or abuse of authority – though that may very well happen – but that it is based on a presumption of the citizen as a threat, while the liberal order is based on precisely the opposite presumption. A presumption of threat, we argue, assumes that citizens, usually from marginalized communities, pose a threat of such caliber that might require the use of extreme violence.
This presumption, communicated symbolically through the deployment of militarized police, marks the policed community as an enemy, and thereby excludes it from the body politic. Crucially, the pervasiveness of police militarization has led to its normalization, thus exacerbating its exclusionary effect. Indeed, whereas the domestic deployment of militaries has always been reserved for exceptional times, the process of police militarization has normalized what was once exceptional.
Distant Voices Then and Now: The Impact of Isolation on the Courtroom Narratives of Slave Ship Captains and Asylum Seekers by Tara Patel
Part I compares the nineteenth century cases of the Antelope and the Amistad to identify why they resulted in different outcomes despite having similar fact patterns. The Antelope concerned the fate of approximately 280 African captives discovered on a slave trade ship upon its interception by a U.S. revenue cutter. Since the slave trade in the United States was illegal at the time, the captives were transported to Savannah for trial through which their status—free or slave—would be determined. After a lengthy trial and appeals process in which Spain and Portugal laid claim to the captives, the Supreme Court determined that those captives claimed by a non-U.S. nation were slaves. The Court reasons that however "abhorrent" the slave trade was, the United States was obligated to recognize the rights of other nations to participate in it. In comparison, the Amistad concerned the fate of captives aboard a slave trade ship in which the captives committed mutiny, attempted to sail to Africa, but were captured by a U.S. vessel. The Supreme Court ordered them free despite the Spanish government's claim that the captives were its property. Part I explores these different outcomes and argues that the absence of Antelope captives' stories in the litigation process was partly due to the decision to isolate captives in slavery before their status was determined. In particular, it argues that this isolation affected the outcome of the Antelope by preventing captives from sharing their anecdotes and translating them to a format that would resonate with their legal counsel, the public, and judges. In contrast, the Amistad captives, while also detained, were situated close to those who could help them. They were able to transform their truths into a winning narrative for the court by understanding and leveraging the talents and expertise of counsel, and the biases of judges and the public.
Part II argues that 200 years later, a similar environment of isolation suppresses the stories of another group with undetermined legal status: asylum seekers. Although slave ship captives were forced into the country with chains, while asylum seekers are driven into the country by fear, the legal status of both groups in their respective time periods was undetermined upon their arrival. Both groups deserved, by legal and moral standards, the opportunity to present the truth behind their arrival and to prove their legal status. Part II argues that the detention of asylum seekers mirrors the isolation of the Antelope captives by removing detainees from those most able to help them develop a persuasive narrative truth. Detention silences important voices, aggravates ineffective representation, damages public perception, and ultimately harms case outcomes.
Fairness in the Exceptions: Trusting Juries on Matters of Race by Virginia Weeks
Implicit bias research indicates that despite our expressly endorsed values, Americans share a pervasive bias disfavoring Black Americans and favoring White Americans. This bias permeates legislative as well as judicial decision-making, leading to the possibility of verdicts against Black defendants that are tainted with racial bias. The Supreme Court's 2017 decision in Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado provides an ex post remedy for blatant racism that impacts jury verdicts, while jury nullification provides an ex ante remedy by empowering jurors to reject convicting Black defendants when to do so would reinforce racially biased laws. Both remedies exist alongside a trend limiting the role of the jury and ultimately indicate that we trust juries to keep racism out of the courtroom in the exceptions to our normal procedures.
Volume 22.2 (Winter 2017)
A Modest Memo by Yxta Maya Murray
A MODEST MEMO is a satire in the form of a legal memo written for President-Elect Donald Trump circa November 2016. It counsels Mr. Trump to obtain Mexican funding for a United States-Mexico "Wall" via United Nations Security Council sanctions. These sanctions would freeze remittances (that is, "hold them hostage") until Mexican President Enrique Pen ̃a Nieto wired the United States sufficient monies for construction. The memo, which is entirely the product of my imagination and legal study, contemplates one of the many possible worst case scenarios threatened by the Trump presidency. Through the arts of law and literature, I aim to show how the rule of law may so easily buckle and splinter beneath the increasing tide of United States, as well as global, nationalism and racism. I take inspiration, of course, from Jonathan Swift's A MODEST PROPO- SAL (1729), as well as the legal-literary experiments found in DERRICK BELL'S FACES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL: THE PERMANENCE OF RACISM (1993) and Richard Delgado's Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative, 87 MICH. L. REV. 2411 (1989)
Executive Disorder: The Muslim Ban, Emergency Advocacy, and the Fires Next Time by Abed Ayoub and Khaled Beydoun
On January 27, 2017, one week into his presidency, Donald Trump en- acted Executive Order No. 13769, popularly known as the "Muslim Ban." The Order named seven Muslim-majority nations and restricted, effective immediately, the reentry into the United States of visa and green card holders from these states. With the Muslim Ban, President Trump delivered on a central campaign promise, and as a result, injected Islamophobia into American immigration law and policy.
The Muslim Ban had an immediate impact on tens of thousands of Mus- lims, directly affecting U.S. visa and green card holders currently outside of the country, while exacerbating fear and hysteria among immigrant and citizen Mus- lim populations within the country. This Essay memorializes the advocacy taken by the authors in the immediate wake of the Muslim Ban, highlighting the emer- gency legal and grassroots work done by the authors during a moment of national disorder and disarray, and within Muslim American communities, mass confusion and fear.
This Essay highlights efforts, coalition building, and the necessary resources that contributed to the effective defense and education of impacted Muslim popula- tions. It further examines the heightened vulnerabilities of and compounded inju- ries to often-overlooked Muslims at the intersection of race and poverty, as a consequence of Islamophobic policies such as the Muslim Ban.
The Resilience of Noxious Doctrine: The 2016 Election, the Marketplace of Ideas, and the Obstinacy of Bias by Leonard M. Niehoff and Deeva Shah
The Supreme Court has recognized the central role that free expression plays in our democratic enterprise. In his dissenting opinion in United States v. Abrams, Justice Holmes offered a theory of how free expression advances our search for truth and our cultivation of an informed electorate. That model—often called the "marketplace of ideas," based upon the metaphor used by Holmes—has proven to be one of the most persistent and influential concepts in First Amend- ment jurisprudence.
The marketplace of ideas model essentially holds that free expression serves our democratic goals by allowing differing proposed truths and versions of the facts to compete with each other for acceptance. The theory maintains that the best ideas and the most reliable information will emerge and prevail. The well-informed elec- torate that results from this process will then make better decisions in our par- ticipatory democracy.
During the 2016 presidential election, however, it became apparent that a number of statements made by then-candidate Donald Trump proved difficult to rebut in the public dialogue, even though they were clearly and demonstrably false. Of particular concern, some of those statements fed into biases against and stereo- types of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities and women. This disinformation stubbornly resisted efforts at correction.
This Article discusses the marketplace of ideas model and its underlying assumptions about how human beings process information and make decisions. It then proceeds to explain, through recent social science research, why the dynamic envisioned by the marketplace of ideas theory often fails to provide an effective counter-narrative to statements that reinforce racial, ethnic, religious, and gender biases and stereotypes. The Article concludes with some necessarily preliminary and exploratory thoughts about potential curative measures.
Legacy in Paradise: Analyzing the Obama Administration's Efforts of Reconciliation with Native Hawaiians by Troy J.H. Andrade
This Article examines how military automated surveillance and intelligence systems and techniques, when used by civilian police departments to enhance predictive policing programs, have reinforced racial bias in policing. I will focus on two facets of this problem. First, I investigate the role played by advanced military technologies and methods within civilian police departments. These approaches have enabled a new focus on deterrence and crime prevention by creating a system of structural surveillance where decision support relies increasingly upon algorithms and automated data analysis tools and automates de facto penalization and containment based on race. Second, I will explore these militarized systems, and their effects, from an outside-in perspective, paying particular attention to the racial, societal, economic, and geographic factors that play into the public perception of these new policing regimes. I will conclude by proposing potential solutions to this problem that incorporate tests for racial bias to create an alternative system that follows a true community policing model
"Why Should I Go Vote Without Understanding What I Am Going to Vote For?" The Impact of First Generation Voting Barriers on Alaska Natives by James Thomas Tucker, Natalie A. Landreth, Erin Dougherty Lynch
This article explores the many forms of discrimination that have persisted in Alaska, the resulting first generation voting barriers faced by Alaska Native voters, and the two contested lawsuits it took to attain a measure of equality for those voters in four regions of Alaska: Nick v. Bethel and Toyukak v. Treadwell. In the end, the court's decision in Toyukak came down to a comparison of just two pieces of evidence: (1) the Official Election Pamphlet that English-speaking voters received that was often more than 100 pages long; and (2) the single sheet of paper that Alaska Native language speakers received, containing only the date, time, and location of the election, along with a notice that they could request language assistance. Those two pieces of evidence, when set side by side, showed the fundamental unequal access to the ballot. The lessons learned from Nick and Toyukak detailed below are similarly simple: (1) first generation voting barriers still exist in the United States; and (2) Section 203 of the VRA does not permit American Indian and Alaska Native language speaking voters to receive less information than their English-speaking counterparts. The voters in these cases had been entitled to equality for 40 years, but they had to fight for nearly a decade in two federal court cases to get it.
Concealed Motives: Rethinking Fourteenth Amendment and Voting Rights Challenges to Felon Disenfranchisement by Lauren Latterell Powell
Felon disenfranchisement provisions are justified by many Americans under the principle that voting is a privilege to be enjoyed only by upstanding citizens. The provisions are intimately tied, however, to the country's legacy of racism and systemic disenfranchisement and are at odds with the values of American democ- racy. In virtually every state, felon disenfranchisement provisions affect the poor and communities of color on a grossly disproportionate scale. Yet to date, most challenges to the provisions under the Equal Protection Clause and Voting Rights Act have been unsuccessful, frustrating proponents of re-enfranchisement and the disenfranchised alike.
In light of those failures, is felon disenfranchisement here to stay? This Note contemplates that question, beginning with a comprehensive analysis of the history of felon disenfranchisement provisions in America, tracing their roots to the large- scale effort to disenfranchise African Americans during Reconstruction, and identi- fying ways in which the racism of the past reverberates through practices of disen- franchisement in the present day. Applying this knowledge to understandings of prior case law and recent voting rights litigation, a path forward begins to emerge.
Volume 22.1 (Fall 2016)
Content titles link to full text on the MLaw Scholarship Repository.
The Tyranny of Small Things by Yxta Maya Murray
In this legal-literary essay, I recount a day I spent watching criminal sentencings in an Alhambra, California courthouse, highlighting the sometimes mundane, sometimes despairing, imports of those proceedings. I note that my analysis resembles that of other scholars who tackle state over-criminalization and selective law enforcement. My original addition exists in the granular attention I pay to the moment-by-moment effects of a sometimes baffling state power on poor and minority people. In this approach, I align myself with advocates of the law and literature school of thought, who believe that the study (or, in this case, practice) of literature will encourage calls for justice by disclosing buried, yet critical, human experience and emotions.
Am I My Client? Revisited: The Role of Race in Intra-Race Legal Representation by Julie D. Lawton
This Article examines the challenges of intra-race legal representation for lawyers of color, law students of color, and those teaching law students of color by analyzing how the dynamics of the lawyer's and client's racial sameness impact legal representation. This Article brings together three strands of lawyering theory – the role of race in lawyering, critical race theory, and the role of the lawyer in intra-race legal representation. In doing so, this Article explores a number of provocative questions: Does being the same race as their clients make lawyers better legal representatives? Should lawyers of color embrace or resist race's influence on intra-race legal representation? How do lawyers balance their desire to remain representative of their race with their responsibility to their clients? This Article also scrutinizes the role of the lawyer of color in intra-race legal representation by examining questions that are under-reviewed, such as: Do lawyers of color engage in the same explicit and implicit biases against their clients of color that lawyers of color similarly suffer? Do racial stereotypes tempt the lawyer to be more sympathetic towards, and understanding of, their same-race clients, or does it cause the lawyer to view the same-race client as an 'other'? For lawyers of color and clients of color who seek same-race legal representation, this Article explores a difficult question— Is the lawyer of color representative enough of the race to be a representative for the client, particularly when the lawyer of color and the client of color live in different socio-economic environments? Given the resurgent examination of the role of race in interactions between persons of color and persons of power, this Article presents a timely opportunity to examine and question the role of race and the impact of divergent socio-economic status in intra-race legal representation.
Black Health Matters: Disparities, Community Health and Interest Convergence by Mary Crossley
Health disparities represent a significant strand in the fabric of racial injustice in the United States, one that has proven exceptionally durable. Many millions of dollars have been invested in addressing racial disparities over the past three decades. Researchers have identified disparities, unpacked their causes, and tracked their trajectories, with only limited progress in narrowing the health gap between whites and racial and ethnic minorities. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the movement toward value-based payment methods for health care may supply a new avenue for addressing disparities. This Article argues that the ACA's requirement that tax-exempt hospitals assess the health needs of their communities and take steps to address those needs presents a valuable opportunity to engage hospitals as partners in efforts to reduce racial health disparities. Whether hospitals will focus on disparities as they assess their communities' health needs, however, is uncertain; preliminary reviews of hospitals' initial compliance with the new requirement suggest that most did not. Relying on Professor Derrick Bell's interest-convergence theory, this Article explores how hospitals' economic interests may converge with interests in racial health justice. It presents two examples of interventions that could reduce disparities while saving hospitals money. The Article closes by identifying steps that health justice advocates, the federal government, and researchers should take to help, in Professor Bell's words, "forge [the] fortuity" of interest convergence between hospitals and advocates for racial justice, and lead to progress in eliminating racial health disparities.
Tightening the OODA Loop: Police Militarization, Race, and the Algorithmic Surveillance by Jeffrey L. Vagle
This Article examines how military automated surveillance and intelligence systems and techniques, when used by civilian police departments to enhance predictive policing programs, have reinforced racial bias in policing. I will focus on two facets of this problem. First, I investigate the role played by advanced military technologies and methods within civilian police departments. These approaches have enabled a new focus on deterrence and crime prevention by creating a system of structural surveillance where decision support relies increasingly upon algorithms and automated data analysis tools and automates de facto penalization and containment based on race. Second, I will explore these militarized systems, and their effects, from an outside-in perspective, paying particular attention to the racial, societal, economic, and geographic factors that play into the public perception of these new policing regimes. I will conclude by proposing potential solutions to this problem that incorporate tests for racial bias to create an alternative system that follows a true community policing model
Pushing an End to Sanctuary Cities: Will it Happen? by Raina Bhatt
Sanctuary jurisdictions refer to city, town, and state governments (collectively, localities or local governments) that have passed provisions to limit their enforcement of federal immigration laws. Such local governments execute limiting provisions in order to bolster community cooperation, prevent racial discrimination, focus on local priorities for enforcement, or even to a show a local policy that differs from federal policy. The provisions are in the forms of executive orders, municipal ordinances, and state resolutions. Additionally, the scope of the provisions vary by locality: some prohibit law enforcement from asking about immigration status, while others prohibit the use of state resources to enforce federal immigration laws. Despite these variations, such local provisions intend to stifle cooperation with the federal government to adopt a more inclusionary local enforcement policy. Immigration policy is unanimously understood as a federal power, suggesting that federal immigration laws preempt the local governments' provisions. Such preemption challenges have been brought to court, yet sanctuary cities remain largely untouched.
The July 2015 murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, CA, renewed political discourse on the topic. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant who had been previously deported five times, was charged for the murder. Mr. Lopez-Sanchez's long history of crime and immigration violations fueled critiques of city policies and put the federal spotlight back onto sanctuary cities. The House of Representatives has since passed H.R. 3009, which would deny some federal assistance to localities that enact provisions prohibiting officers from taking certain actions with respect to immigration. President-elect Donald Trump recently announced his bold plan to cancel all federal funding to such localities. Other immigration-focused measures continue to be introduced and discussed in Congress.
If passed, what practical impact would H.R. 3009, or similar legislation, have on local immigration enforcement? The bill still has considerable obstacles to overcome. However, enactment of such legislation has the p
How the E-Government Can Save Money by Building Bridges Across the Digital Divide by Alison Rogers
As government agencies and federal aid recipients begin to build a presence online, they must recognize that language accessibility is morally required, fiscally responsible, and compulsory under federal civil rights law. This Note explores statutes, federal policies, and case law that purport to protect the rights of limited English proficient ("LEP") individuals in cyberspace. The Note suggests reforms, policies, and programs that should be adopted by federal aid recipients to ensure that LEP individuals have meaningful access to online services.
Volume 20.2 (Winter 2015)
Foreword: Reflections on Our Founding
Professor Guy-Uriel E. Charles '96, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Vol. 1
& Professor Luis E. Fuentes-Rohwer '97, Founder & Executive Editor, Vol. 1
There Are No Racists Here: The Rise of Racial Extremism, When No One is Racist
Professor Jeannine Bell '99
Founding Member; Book Review Editor, Vol. 4 CV
At first glance hate murders appear wholly anachronistic in post-racial America. This Article suggests otherwise. The Article begins by analyzing the periodic expansions
of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the protection for racist expression in First Amendment doctrine. The Article then contextualizes the case law by providing evidence of how the First Amendment works on the ground in two separate areas —the enforcement of hate crime law and on university campuses that enact speech codes. In these areas, those using racist expression receive full protection for their beliefs. Part III describes social spaces—social media and employment where slurs and epithets may be used frequently. The final portion of the Article briefly explores two forms of unacknowledged racial violence—violence directed at minorities who move to white neighborhoods and extremist killings. Our inaccurate approach to bias-motivated crime and the culture of protection around racist expression, the Article concludes, leaves American society vulnerable to the danger created by racial extremists.
Blackness as Character Evidence: The Strategic Use of Racial Stereotypes in Establishing an Individual's Propensity for Violence
Professor Mikah K. Thompson CV
Trajectory of a Law Professor
Professor Meera E. Deo '00
Editorial Board, Vol. 5 CV
Women of color are already severely underrepresented in legal academia; as enrollment drops and legal institutions constrict further, race and gender disparities will likely continue to grow. Yet, as many deans and associate deans, most of whom are white, step down from leadership positions during these tumultuous times in legal education, opportunities have arisen for women of color to fill those roles in record numbers. However, there are individual and structural barriers preventing access to the leadership level. Significant hurdles have long prevented women of color from entering law teaching. Thus, this Article provides evidence to support the thesis that ongoing changes in legal education will likely continue to create barriers both to entry and advancement for women of color law faculty members and those who aspire to join legal academia. This Article draws from quantitative and qualitative analyses of data drawn from the Diversity in Legal Academia (DLA) project, a landmark mixed-method study of law faculty diversity, which utilizes an intersectional lens to focus on the experiences of women of color in legal academia while also incorporating those of white men, white women, and men of color. Empirical findings reveal that structural barriers (i.e., outright discrimination) as well as more indirect obstacles prevent women of color from joining legal academia in meaningful numbers and also preclude women of color who are already legal academics from taking on leadership positions. Law school administrators and policy makers should work against these structural and individual barriers to increase and improve faculty diversity at all levels. Greater diversity in legal academia generally, and leadership in particular, will not only provide greater opportunities for particular law faculty members, but will also have a positive effect on law students, legal education, legal academia, and the legal profession overall.
Justice and Law Journals
Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin '88 CV
Professor Adam B. Wolf '01
Editor-in-Chief, Vol. 6 CV
What is the role for a law journal in advancing justice? What is the of a justice-minded practitioner in furthering legal scholarship? And what is the intersection—practically and normatively—for law journals, legal scholars, practitioners, and justice?
This brief Article attempts to lay a foundation for answering these important, but oft-neglected, questions. In the following conversation, a frequent contributor to the Michigan Journal of Race & Law (MJRL) and a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal posit some ideas on how legal scholarship engages with justice, and how race-conscious practitioners can interact with race-conscious legal scholars.
Disparaging Trademarks: Who Matters
Professor Jasmine Abdel-Khalik '00 CV
For more than a century, non-majority groups have protested the use of trademarks
comprised of or containing terms referencing the group—albeit for various reasons.
Under the 1946 Lanham Act, Congress added a prohibition against registering
disparaging trademarks, which could offer protection to non-majority groups
targeted by the use of trademarks offensive to members of the group. The prohibition
remained relatively unclear, however, and rarely applied in that context until a
group of Native Americans petitioned to cancel the Washington NFL team's trademarks
as either scandalous, offensive to the general population, or disparaging,
offensive to the referenced group. In clarifying the appropriate test for disparaging,
however, the decision makers have overly analogizing the two prohibitions, rendering
the disparaging trademark prohibition less effective in protecting non-majority
groups from offensive trademarks.
Mainstreaming Equality in Federal Budgeting: Addressing Educational Inequities with Regard to the States
Elizabeth K. Hinson '11
Executive Articles Editor, Vol. 16 CV
Great Society reformers targeted poverty as the defining characteristic for a novel federal education policy in the United States in 1965. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reincarnated within the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, distributes financial aid to disadvantaged students within public schools solely based upon students' socioeconomic status. This Article does not dispute that financial resources improve student outcomes, but this Article argues that Title I's funding formula is ineffective, and a new funding scheme – specifically, a mainstreaming equality funding scheme – must replace it. The implementation of this funding scheme will require Congress to acknowledge that poverty in the United States is not a mere set of behaviors and attitudes but is intricately linked to race and class.
Mainstreaming equality schemes require that public bodies assess the impact of their policies on equality of opportunity and monitor any adverse impact on the promotion of equality of opportunity. This Article describes how such a scheme would address disparities among students. Second, this Article argues that Congress should define beneficiary groups based on characteristics additional to socioeconomic status, including measures of cultural isolation and local tax revenue contributed to public education. Third, this Article establishes that a federal mainstreaming school funding scheme based on "layered disadvantage" and its multiplicative effects will both acknowledge and address long-time, covered attitudes about race, poverty and privilege in the United States and the ways in which those attitudes continue to enforce a paralyzed outcome, especially for African American students within public schools. Finally, by examining mainstreaming equality models implemented in the European Union, this Article considers in detail the methodology for conducting mainstreaming equality within a federal school funding scheme as implemented by Congress with respect to the individual states.
Functionally Suspect: Reconceptualizing "Race" as a Suspect Classification
Professor Lauren Sudeall Lucas CV
In the context of equal protection doctrine, race has become untethered from the criteria underlying its demarcation as a classification warranting heightened scrutiny. As a result, it is no longer an effective vehicle for challenging the existing social and political order; instead, its primary purpose under current doctrine is to signal the presence of an impermissible basis for differential treatment. This Symposium Article suggests that, to more effectively serve its underlying normative goals, equal protection should prohibit not discrimination based on race per se, but government actions that implicate the concerns leading to race's designation as a suspect classification. For example, a possible equal protection violation would no longer be triggered by the mere act of racial categorization, but by classifications targeting groups characterized by a history of past discrimination, political powerlessness, or a trait that has no bearing on its members' ability to participate in or contribute to society.By directly integrating the values underlying suspect classification into equal protection analysis, this Article attempts to replace the categorical use of race with a substantive approach that is less vulnerable to arguments grounded in colorblindness or postracialism and more focused on deconstructing existing racial hierarchies.
The Keyes to Reclaiming the Racial History of the Roberts Court
Professor Tom I. Romero II '00 CV
This Article advocates for a fundamental re-understanding about the way that the history of race is understood by the current Supreme Court. Represented by the racial rights opinions of Justice John Roberts that celebrate racial progress, the Supreme Court has equivocated and rendered obsolete the historical experiences of people of color in the United States. This jurisprudence has in turn reified the notion of color-blindness, consigning racial discrimination to a distant and discredited past that has little bearing to how race and inequality is experienced today.
The racial history of the Roberts Court is centrally informed by the context and circumstances surrounding Brown v. Board of Education. For the Court, Brown symbolizes all that is wrong with the history of race in the United States— legal segregation, explicit racial discord, and vicious and random acts of violence. Though Roberts Court opinions suggest that some of those vestiges still exits, the bulk of its jurisprudence indicate the opposite. With Brown's basic factual premises as its point of reference, the Court has consistently argued that the nation has made tremendous strides away from the condition of racial bigotry, intolerance, and inequity.
The Article accordingly argues that the Roberts Court reliance on Brown to understand racial progress is anachronistic. Especially as the nation's focus for racial inequality turned national in scope, the same binaries in Brown that had long served to explain the history of race relations in the United States (such as Black-
White, North-South, and Urban-Rural) were giving way to massive multicultural demographic and geographic transformations in the United States in the years and decades after World War II. All of the familiar tropes so clear in Brown and its progeny could no longer accurately describe the current reality of shifting and trans-
forming patterns of race relations in the United States.
In order to reclaim the history of race from the Roberts Court, the Article assesses a case that more accurately symbolizes the recent history and current status of race relations today: Keyes v. School District No. 1. This was the first SupremeCourt case to confront how the binaries of cases like Brown proved of little probative value in addressing how and in what ways race and racial discrimination was changing in the United States. Thus, understanding Keyes and the history it reflects reveals much about how and in what ways the Roberts Court should rethink its conclusions regarding the history of race relations in the United States for the last 60 years.


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11th & 12th July 2020Weymouth Harbour, Dorset
The website content relates to the 2019 festival, 2020 information will appear early in the new year.
Watch videos of the Dorset Seafood Festival below.
© Copyright Seafood Festivals Limited
Website design and development by Resort
Please note that all quoted times / schedules and guest appearances are subject to change. If you attend the festival your photograph may be taken and used as part of our marketing campaign for future years. If you do not wish this to happen, please contact us. By using this site, you agree we can set and use cookies. For more details of these cookies and how to disable them, see our privacy policy and cookie usage page.
Access Statement


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Moomin and Family Life, by Jansson, Tove
Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 11/1/2016
The heartwarming tale of Moomin's reunion with his parents
After losing both his fortune and his girlfriend, Moomin has hit rock bottom. Luckily, in his darkest moment, he stumbles across the beloved family he lost as a child--Moominmamma and Moominpappa--and together, the Moomins embark on their first adventure. Moominmamma struggles to balance her husband's desire for danger with her own homebody sensibilities, while Moomin fears his new parents will eventually tire of him. Moomin and Family Life is a poignant story of love and reunion that unwinds in this classic Moomin caper from Tove Jansson.


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- Goals – What do you want to get from the retreat? Write a chapter of your novel? Complete a book? Start a book? Write an article? Try out some new writing prompts.
- Location – Do you want to stay local or go out of town? If spending at least one night away from home, where might the group want to stay? Hotel, bed and breakfast, cabin by a lake?
- Length – Will it be for one day, a weekend, a week or longer? What about a particular day, week or month?
- Writing time – How long do you want to write? Maybe the entire retreat, half of it, a few hours a day? Are there other things you would like to do besides writing during the retreat?
- Work area – Will you be sharing your work area or will you be working alone? Indoors, outdoors, table, bench, library, café. Are there a number of cafes on the street or neighborhood where you plan to go? Try café-hopping while you write.
- Social activities – What other activities and sites are available? Walking trails, shopping, museums, theaters or spas might be nearby. Get some exercise, do something besides writing, relax, have fun.
- Meals – Will you eat together as a group or separately? Share the cooking, dine at restaurants, pack a picnic lunch, have some snacks. And don't forget beverages, including wine.
- Writing kit – What do you need to bring with you to help you write and to provide inspiration? A tote bag filled with items such as notebooks and pens, laptop, books, magazines, photos/art, music, etc.
- Conversation – What will the group talk about? Bring a book on the craft of writing to discuss, an experience you want to share, suggestions on how to overcome writers block.
- Online or offline – Will you forgo email and social media? It might be ok to do some research for the book or article you are working on, but for most of the retreat, try to stay away from the internet.
- Types of clothing - What kinds of clothing do you want to wear/pack? If you wear a literary or writing t-shirt when writing, would that make you work harder? Perhaps it's a shirt you got at a writing conference, ordered from NaNoWriMo or purchased from another source. You might get some compliments and comments on it when you are out and about!
Writing, publishing, book marketing, all offered by experienced authors, writers, and marketers
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Planning a Writing Retreat
4 comments:
Hi Debbie, this is a great idea. I want to try it with my group. When I went to a Highlights retreat where there were presenters, I looked up their websites and learned about them and read books by them beforehand. It was a big help in making comments during the retreat. Writing prompts are a good way to get going but I suggest having everyone bring a piece of writing to critique and in addition, maybe even focus on a writer and a current work. I'm listening to The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd right now and when I'm done I'm going to go back and take notes on the way she put her paragraphs together, something like Action--thought--description--exchange + action. Also, I want to learn about her, see if she has a blog. It's just so interesting, I'm enthralled by it which of course is what I want my readers to feel like about my stories.ReplyDelete
Wow - this is a big thing to take on, but you map it out well and provide excellent tips. hope yours goes smoothly.ReplyDelete
Debbie, this is an amazing and 'can do' writing retreat idea. You created an in depth list. I agree with Linda, it'd be a good idea to bring something each of you want critiqued. Have fun!ReplyDelete
What a great idea. Please share with us how your experience after the retreat.ReplyDelete
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What do the camera shutter auto ranges represent for Solo/Reflex?
These ranges affect the minimum and maximum allowed shutter speed for the camera. However, these values are not represented in any units of time. Unfortunately, these ranges for the shutter speed cannot be easily converted to milliseconds (the conversion changes depending on many factors). Therefore, you will need to use trial and error by increasing/decreasing the values and taking note of the resulting shutter speeds displayed directly above these range values. To try and further explain, below is an example of its behaviour. However, the below numbers are NOT necessarily correct and are used only for demonstration.
Let's say a system has the shutter limits set to 10-100.
You introduce a lot of light and find the shutter never goes below 0.3ms (while the image remains too bright), then 10=0.3ms.
You take away light and the shutter never goes above 3ms (while the image remains too dark), then 100=3ms.
However, the entire shutter range of the camera cannot be expressed with a linear equation and you will probably find that solving for values outside of this range will be incorrect. For example, you may expect 1=0.03ms, but you should expect to find that this is incorrect once you actually enter these values into the software.
Can Reflex be calibrated?
Reflex cannot be accurately calibrated.
Can WipFrag Momentum be Calibrated?
WipFrag Momentum can be calibrated. The process does take some time and requires multiple analyses and sieve samples.
Stop belt with the material present.
Manually capture an image with Momentum, analyze the image and save results.
Remove the section of material from the belt (that was in the image) and sieve.
Repeat this procedure at least 5 times to get adequate representation of the material. Email all of the results to firstname.lastname@example.com. We will use our calibration tools to get a Rosin-Rammler or Swebrec calibration target and email you back the figures. You can then set these values by connecting to the system using WipFrag 3.
Edge Detection Parameters
Note to online system users:
Please remember that if you change the zoom on your cameras or alter the lighting, you will most likely need to reset your EDP. Take 20-30 images over a day and find an EDP that works well on all of them. Recheck the EDP after 1 week to verify it is still working well. EDPs should not be altered during studies, projects, etc. Unlike scaling errors, EDP mistakes cannot be corrected for when post-processing the data. EDPs will not work perfectly for all images. A few small fusion and disintegration errors are common in all photo analysis software.
Do we need another system to monitor more feeds?
WipFrag Momentum systems are designed to accept up to 6 cameras into a solitary workstation.
We are looking for an online analyzer for an alumni export plant.
WipFrag Momentum would allow you to monitor material on as many as 6 conveyor belts at one time in real time. If you need to measure anything from prills and pellets to fines and boulders, WipFrag Momentum may be what you are looking for. Please contact us and we can send you more information on the topic.
What are network keys?
WipFrag for Windows software keys support network license sharing. The license is attached to the hardware of one computer and can be shared across a company's local network. Only one computer at a time can use the license. WipFrag hardware keys do not have network license sharing, however it can be moved from computer to computer because the license is contained on the USB-type license key. For more information, please refer to WipFrag Product Information Sheet available in our Download area or go to Products & Services - WipFrag.
When is the best time for outdoor image acquisition?
It is recommended to avoid acquiring images early in the morning or late in the day when the sun is at a low point. It is during these times that long shadows are created around the particles (especially oversize) making it harder to find an adequate edge detection parameter. From our experience, the most ideal images are taking late morning or early afternoon on overcast days. Lighting is usually very even during these times creating a slight shadow around all particles. This makes finding an EDP very easy and greatly reduces editing times.
How do I account for fine material?
If you see a great deal of fines when acquiring the images, capture some zoomed in images of the material. WipFrag's ability to merge analyses will allow you to incorporate these fines into your overall study. When analyzing images containing material that cannot be delineated, you can choose to mark areas as fines using the 'Mark as Fines' edit tool. These areas will be treated as material that is the size of 1 pixel based on the current scale factor of the image.
How many images should I take of the material?
The number of images needed to properly analyze muckpiles or another sample is dependant on a number of things and changes from project to project. The main question to ask yourself when you think you are done obtaining your images is "did I gather an adequate statistical representation of the material in question?". If you have missed the smaller particles, or feel that perhaps they were too small to be delineated, you should take a few zoomed in images of them. As well, if you have neglected the oversize material, you may need an image of them as well. Remember, you can merge multiple analyses together within the software very easily.
What operating systems can be used with WipFrag?
WipFrag 3.0 is designed to run on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 10. It is available as an app on the App Store and can be used on any iOS devices. If you wish to download the app, click here. Unfortunately, WipWare no longer supports the use of the software on older operating systems.
Can a single WipFrag iOS license be used on more than one device?
All iOS licenses are tied to your Apple ID. As per Apple, you are allowed to have up to 10 devices connected to any single Apple ID.
Important information for new WipFrag iOS users!
Newly created Apple IDs should wait 24 hours before purchasing WipFrag 3 from the App Store. Making a large purchase immediately after creating a new account highly increases the chance that your purchase will be blocked (for your protection) and your account will become flagged. Contacting Apple directly is the only way to resolve this issue if it happens. You can find a list of Apple support phone numbers at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232
User Bias
The user should take special care not to inadvertently bias the sample by altering the method in which image samples are taken, setting the scale improperly, selectively editing the net or changing the EDP between samples that will be merged to each other. All analysis of a study should be performed in the same way. Be systematic and develop a routine for image acquisition and analysis.
Please refer to section 3.0 of the Sampling and Analysis Guide for more information.
What can we do to resolve more fines?
If you wish to resolve smaller particles, there are two options. You can choose to use a higher zoom lens. Zooming in allows the system to resolve the smaller particles much easier. It can, however, reduce the number of the larger particles analyzed. The other option is to update your camera. New camera technology has allowed us to greatly increase the minimum resolvable particle size within images and still keep the larger particles within the results. By moving from the standard 0.3Mp camera to one of our 2.1 or 10.7Mp options, you can increase your resolved particle magnitude from 43x to 267x. Simply put, your system will be able to analyze particles up to 1/8th the size of the smallest particle that your system is measuring now.
Why should I avoid wide angle lenses and digital zooming?
Digital zooming reduces the definition in your images. When you choose to digitally zoom, your camera is actually cropping and expanding the image. This effect makes it appear as if the image has been zoomed in. The problem is, when the camera expands the image, it needs to interpolate pixels which reduces the clarity and definition of your photo. Wide angle lenses should be avoided as well. In order to obtain a wide format image, distortion is created at the edges of the photo. The wider the lens, the more distortion there is.
What should I use as a proper scale?
WipWare recommends using any solid scaling device with a contrasting colour to the material which can be laid down flat onto the material in question. Range rods, yard/meter sticks and customized frames can all be used. WipWare discourages the use of balls as they can expand and contract with changes in temperature and altitude. Be sure to have the scaling device perpendicular to the camera. Be sure to use two scaling devices when you cannot be parallel to the sample. This will allow you to use the tilt-correction within the software for more accurate results. If in doubt, use two scales. One in the foreground of the sample and one in the background.
Are high resolution images better than small resolution images?
Large and small images each have their pros and cons. Fines can be delineated easier with larger images and tend to get fused together with smaller images. Oversize is usually analyzed properly with smaller images but tends to get slightly disintegrated in larger images. Smaller images analyze and are edited much faster than large images. WipWare always recommends taking the original images at a high resolution. It is always possible to downsize the image without distortion, but nearly impossible to make an image larger while keeping clarity and definition. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot delineate the particle with your eye, the software will be unable to as well.
Digital Image Sampling Basics
When acquiring image samples each image should:
- Contain an easy to read scale (two for tilt correction).
- Be high definition – Not necessarily high resolution.
- Never be taken with a wide-angle lens.
- Contain clearly visible particles (if you can outline each individual particle, the software can too).
- Have even lighting (avoid hot spot/shadow areas if possible).
For more information please read the Sampling and Analysis Guide
Image Acquisition
The most important thing about photoanalysis software is the quality of images that are used for the analysis. Image Acquisition – The better the images, the better the results. Develop a sampling strategy. Taking images is like taking samples for sieving or other tests. The results must statistically represent the product as a whole. To adequately compensate for rockpile segregation and heterogeneity, each image must contain a sufficient number of fragments, and the results from dozens of images per blast must be merged and averaged. Accurate estimation of larger blocks in particular requires merged data because of the scarcity of such blocks. High-fidelity, high-speed automatic edge detection is essential – methods that rely on tracing or manual editing are incapable of processing sufficient data and so are prone to large sampling errors.
- Fill the field of view with fragmented rock, preferably at least 200 particles.
- Include all sizes. No single block should occupy more than 20% of the width of image. For improved resolution of fines, use WipFrag's zoom-merge capability to combine images at different scales of magnification.
- Beware of rockpile segregation. Large blocks tend to roll to the outer edges and fines may cover the surface or become hidden as a result of gravity or rainfall. The effects can be minimized by increasing the number of images per sample but only with careful selection of image locations.
- Don't waste an image. Get images of the particles in question, not the sky and area around it.
- WipFrag measures what it can see. If your pictures are far away, fines will not be resolved. If the image is taken too close, oversize may be missed. Get a good mix of images of the sample in question.
For more information please read the Sampling and Analysis Guide
Can a lost license key be replaced?
Lost license keys cannot be replaced; WipWare recommends that the license key is insured for the replacement value of the software product to protect against loss or theft. Damaged license keys can be exchanged for a nominal cost; Keys that have been damaged due to tampering may be replaced at the discretion of WipWare.


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The Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation has $20 Million in matching funds available for their renewable energy technology development challenge. CCEMC is an Alberta Canada-based not-for-profit corporation whose mandate from the Alberta Government is to expand climate change knowledge, develop new clean technologies, and explore practical ways of implementing them. They have partnered with NineSigma and their goal is to find innovative renewable energy technologies that have a strong potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to energy produced from fossil fuels. The submission deadline for statements of interest is September 27, 2012.
Additional Information - http://www.ninesigma.com/viewrequest.aspx?request=68454
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Cash-flow problems have just a few possible causes. More often than you might think, business is all about the basics
From: Inc. Magazine, May 2009 By: Norm Brodsky
…Consider Andrew Blitstein, who took charge of his family's cleaning service a few months ago after his father passed away. … I started … by asking Andrew general questions about himself and his company. It was a more or less typical commercial janitorial service. In addition to cleaning offices on a regular basis, the company did special jobs, like shampooing the rugs and washing the windows. As for problems, he said he was having a tough time with cash flow. …
Now, cash-flow problems are common in business, and people often have a hard time figuring out what's behind them, but there are actually just a few potential causes. You could have too much cash tied up in receivables or -- if you have a product-based business -- in inventory. Or you could have too many deadbeat customers. Or you could be spending too much on overhead. But if receivables, inventory, bad debt, and overhead are all under control -- as they appeared to be in Andrew's case -- there really is only one other likely culprit: weak gross margins, which could mean prices are too low, direct costs are too high, or some combination of the two.
I asked Andrew how much he was paying his employees. He said they earned about $20 an hour. "No," I said. "I mean, what's the hourly cost fully loaded with all the taxes, benefits, and so on?" He didn't know, which is not unusual. …"So you don't know what your costs are," I said. "It's hard to make a sale -- at least a good sale -- if you don't know your costs. How do you price a job?"
"Well, when we do the carpet cleaning or the window cleaning, I figure out approximately how much it's going to cost us, and then I try to double it."
"OK," I said, "that's good. But how do you price the regular cleaning service?"
"We just try to be competitive," he said. "We have a lot of competitors, and we want to get the long-term contracts. We make our money on the extras."
…"Let's take your two biggest clients," I said. "How much business do they do?" He said he had one contract that paid about $350,000 a year and another that paid $300,000. "How much money do you make on those contracts?"
"I don't know," Andrew said. "Not much. But they also use us for the extras."
"And how much do they pay for the extras per year?"
"About $20,000 or $25,000," he said.
"So, given how you price the extras, they contribute $10,000 or $12,500 to covering your overhead," I said. "That's not a lot for accounts of that size. My guess is that you're losing money on them."
Andrew gave me a skeptical look. "No, that's impossible," he said. "Besides, you don't understand. We need those accounts for cash flow."
"How do they help your cash flow?"
"They pay us on the first of the month with an American Express credit card," he said. "It's automatic. We can count on it."
"OK, but American Express is charging you an extra 3 or 4 percent for that service," I said. "That just steepens your loss." … "Listen," I said. "Why don't you go back and take those two largest accounts and break them down. I'd be shocked if you weren't losing money on them. Then, if you want to come back, I'd be glad to sit down with you."
… But four days later, Andrew contacted me and said he wanted to get together again.
"You were right," Andrew said as he sat down in my office. "We're losing money on those accounts. I figure that, fully loaded, I'm paying $31 an hour."
"OK, well, let's see what fully loaded is," I said. We started to go through his numbers on one of the accounts, and it quickly became apparent that he had underestimated the costs. By the time we finished, we could see he was losing from $50,000 to $60,000 annually on the account. "Think of it this way," I said. "If you stopped doing business with this customer today, you'd make an extra $50,000."…
"I'm not telling you to get rid of the client," I said. "There may be reasons to keep the account. But do you really think any of your competitors would take this account away from you and lose $50,000 a year on it?"
He smiled at the absurdity of the idea. "But I'd have to increase my price something like 20 percent just to break even on the account," he said. "I can't do that."
…I suggested that he put everything down in writing -- every single direct cost he had -- and then go to the customer. "Show him the numbers. Tell him it's [been] going on for a long time, but you accept responsibility for the past. You just can't go on losing $50,000 a year on the account. You have to at least break even, or you'll go out of business."
Andrew said he would think about it. …Meanwhile, he has made significant changes in the way he sells. He told me about one prospect who wanted to use him but felt that his bid was a little high. Rather than reduce the price, Andrew stood his ground. "You're talking about saving 10 cents an hour, but look what you get for those 10 cents," he said. "Our service is far superior."
He got the account. More to the point, he got the concept. And he realizes that you don't need to be a genius to deal with cash-flow problems. You just have to know how business works.
Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur. His co-author is editor-at-large Bo Burlingham. Their book, The Knack, was published by Portfolio in October.


text: Tiffany Kirk, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, struggles to make ends meet from $2.13 an hour and fluctuating bartending tips. 3.3 million workers earn the federal minimum wage for tipped workers, and it is difficult for these people to support themselves when living costs are rising. Employers are required to make up the difference if workers do not earn at least $7.25 an hour from tips, but not all employers are paying the differential. Legislation is not helping the situation; the governor of Maryland signed a bill that will gradually raise the minimum wage but excluded tipped restaurant workers. Taco Bell, KFC, and Olive Garden are among the many restaurant companies that have supported similar legislation, effectively freezing the minimum wage. According to the White House, those in "predominantly tipped occupations are twice as likely as other workers to experience poverty."