text:
Race Doesn't Exist
by Jim Walsh | Posted March 27, 2012
The Trayvon Martin shooting has resulted in predictably absurd conclusions and ridiculous behavior. On first impression, the circus that gathered around the Sanford, Florida, site of the killing (featuring race-baiting clowns like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) looks and sounds a lot of a scene from the satiric Tom Wolfe novel The Bonfire of the Vanities.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jackson sputtered that "blacks are under attack," adding that "targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business. . . . No justice, no peace."
This cynical circus is so predictable because it's based on a false premise. Not that the shooting didn't take place; George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. The false premise is that the shooting was race-related.
It's false because there's no such thing as race.
What we call "race" is a social construct invented hundreds of years ago by slave traders and colonial powers. It's been kept around because it suits lazy people and statist governments looking for cheap ways to categorize individuals.
It's time that reasonable people abandon this slothful shortcut.
I make the argument about the falseness of race in detail in my book Libertarian Nation (if you have a Kindle, you can "borrow" the book from Amazon for free). Much as I hate to interfere with commerce that channels some money my way, here's the gist of the argument.
The pigment of your skin and acidity of your hair don't have much to do with your personal identity. And they don't make you similar to or different from anyone else.
Race is a social construct. And an old one. The idea that people can be categorized into supposedly objective — or, more recently, "scientific" — groups has been around for as long as human civilization. It's always been subject manipulation, usually by the state. And its categories are always shifting, usually according to the political needs of the people running the state.
The libertarian notion of a colorblind society is closer to reality than advocates of identity politics — racists and multiculturalists — like to admit.
So, contemporary notions of race are more . . . contemporary . . . than most people realize. Skin color wasn't the controlling characteristic of race until the end of the 16th century; and then it had something to do with slavery and something to do with the birth of colonialism. The states that stood to profit from the import of cheap materials and slave labor began a 500-year campaign to convince the world that Africans with dark brown skin were a different class of humans than Europeans with lighter brown or pink skin. The Portuguese and Dutch were especially dedicated to the concept. They defined "race" to suit their needs; but popular culture seems to have forgotten their roles in promoting the fiction.
All people are a mix of genetic traits. This fact raises various questions — and the dread of both hardcore racists who lament "mongrelization" and race-obsessed multiculturalists (who, intellectual brothers of the racists, are heavily invested in the notion of distinct racial identities).
What's the relationship between genes and race?
Most anthropologists and biologists agree that race is a fuzzy concept. By various estimates, 20 to 30% of the genes in the average "black" American come from light-skinned European stock. As Time magazine has noted: "science has no agreed-upon definition of 'race': however you slice up the population, the categories look pretty arbitrary." And, in a similar vein, the Chicago Tribune reported:
In a 1998 "Statement on 'Race'," the American Anthropological Association concluded that ordinary notions of race have little value for biological research in part because of the relatively minor genetic differences among racial groups.
And, the anthropologists might have added, the broad genetic variation that exists within racial groups. In the New Statesman magazine, the often-quoted science writer Steven Rose pointed out:
. . . the idea that there is a genetically meaningful African "race" is nonsense. There is wide cultural and genetic diversity amongst African populations from south to north, from Ethiopians to Nigerians. There are, for example probably genetic as well as environmental reasons why Ethiopians make good marathon runners whereas Nigerians on the whole do not.
The normally statist British newspaper The Guardian has stumbled to the same conclusion:
Other scientists point out that our species is so young — Homo sapiens emerged from its African homeland only 100,000 years ago — that it simply has not had time to evolve any significant differences in intellectual capacity as its various groups of people have spread round the globe and settled in different regions. Only the most superficial differences — notably skin colour — separate the world's different population groupings. Underneath that skin, people are remarkably alike.
So, the libertarian notion of a colorblind society (often dismissed by statists as an unrealistic ideal) is closer to reality than advocates of identity politics — racists and multiculturalists — like to admit.
These advocates have more influence over mainstream media and popular culture than they should. People like Jackson, Sharpton, and Derrick Bell have devoted their lives to a fiction. That must leave them with a hollow feeling, in their solitary moments or when they look themselves in the mirror.
Derrick Bell may have been the saddest of the bunch. He was intelligent enough and well-trained enough that he should have been able to see through the fiction. Instead, he spent his life popularizing Critical Race Theory — which is the intellectual rationalization of a false premise.
The critical document that stands in contradiction to the ultimately bankrupt rationalizations of the Critical Race Theorists and base manipulations of the race hustlers is Martin Luther King's rightly immortal "I Have a Dream" speech. To the point:
In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. …We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. …Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. …I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
That speech drew its undeniable moral force, in part, from its recognition of the falseness of the concept of race. The triviality of the color of a person's skin.
(Take a few minutes to read — or reread — that speech. Would any left-wing speaker today use the metaphor of a bounced check to criticize failed promise? It's so…bourgeois.)
A side note: I've always thought there were two Kings, the libertarian defender of individual dignity who fought for fair treatment and delivered the August 1963 speech and the less-inspiring socialist who muddled through the last years of his life.
Compared to King's image of free individuals treating one another with mutual respect, the current discussion of race is insect-like. The mainstream media tries to turn Trayvon Martin's shooting into clicks and readers and ratings. The pathetic New York Times concocts the term "white Hispanic" to emphasize that Martin's shooter was, er, something different from black.
Race is a dubious social construct that serves most effectively as a shortcut for lazy statists trying to put hard-to-manage individuals into easy-to-manage boxes.
Not everyone is so small. Former NAACP leader C.L. Bryant accused the likes of Jackson and Sharpton of "exploiting" the Martin shooting. "His family should be outraged at the fact that they're using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions," Bryant told The Daily Caller. He said that "race hustlers" were acting like "buzzards circling the carcass" of the teen.
Race doesn't exist. Population ancestry influences the patterns of an individual's genotypical and phenotypical traits (what people commonly think of as "racial" appearance and characteristics) but single variables — for example, skin color — do not. It may seem counterintuitive, but skin color is actually a poor indicator of race.
Race is a dubious social construct that serves most effectively as a shortcut for lazy statists trying to put hard-to-manage individuals into easy-to-manage boxes. No one who loves liberty should buy into the fiction.
Jim Walsh owns Silver Lake Publishing, which has recently published Seven Principles of Good Government — Gary Johnson's 2012 presidential campaign book.
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Jim, here is a great idea: why don't you and I march down to the offices of the NAACP, or La Raza, or any university black studies department, or race-based student activist group such as MECHA, and tell them that since race is just a construct they should dissolve their organization and instead embrace the libertarian notion of a colorblind society. Or that since "racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism," they should end their collectivist based political demands for affirmative action, minority grants, special history months, reparations for slavery, "diversity" indoctrination, speech codes, the DREAM Act, and all the rest.
Then let's see what they do. Heck, I'll even accompany you on just such an expedition (if in the vicinity, I live in southern California). And if you can get any of these groups to agree with your position and dissolve themselves, then I'll cede your points.
The dilemma is, these groups do believe in race, and do act on a racial basis. They believe that race is so real that something that happened to someone with a similar skin pigment four hundred years ago entitles them to the redistribution of other people's property and the diminishing of other people's liberties. This is the position of the current attorney general of the US, and it is perhaps one of the reasons he has gotten involved in the railroading of Mssr Zimmerman--a human sacrifice of sorts for 400 years of slavery and segregation. If Mr Holder is a barnyard collectivist, then what do you propose we should do about it?
(For more on Holder's position promoting affirmative action: http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/02/24/holder-talks-financial-crime-affirmative-action-low)
The flip side of the dilemma is that because minorities or people of color or whatever the correct term is these days do organize along collective lines, this puts other groups which do not similarly organize in a real bind. There is no mainstream mass political group which promotes the interests of white people in the same manner as the NAACP, MALDEF, et alia promote the interests of their own race-based popular clientele. Even groups which appear to be largely white, such as the ACLU (and I am a former marching member), inevitably take the pro-collectvist party line on such topics as affirmative action.
Often, when white people do try to organize to defend their rights -- say by opposing affirmative action -- they are the subject of mob violence which goes unpunished. See, for example, the attack on a conservative group which tried running a press conference about discrimination against white students near the University of Wisconsin.
Maybe I missed it, but has AG Holder gotten involved in prosecuting members of the mob for civil rights violations?
Given all this, what precisely do you propose for white people who are tired of seeing their most basic civil rights (such as free speech) being wrecked by race-based militant groups? Or who do not want to be taxed to support activist groups who promote policies contrary to their own interests? Or who do not want to see their children conscripted into "diversity" indoctrination or forced busing? I don't mean in a theoretical libertarian society. I mean in the real world, here and now, for people who want to end the minority based collectivism.
The only effective way to deal with this in the real world is to get organized. And organized in the same manner as the NAACP, La Raza, and so forth. Because the alternative will be a growing disintegration of liberty.
Here's a last question: do you think that white people have a constitutional right to organize groups to advocate for their own interests?
Sun, 2012-06-03 13:50
I'll try to be as concise as possible. It seems to me that, when people talk about race, they tend to conflate a number of different things--some of which have a biological basis, and some of which are "social constructs". There are genetically-based physical differences between groups of people that allow them to be put into categories that can be easily identified. If we were to put, say, 100 Nigerians in one group, and 100 Danes in another, I doubt if anyone would have much trouble determining which was which. There may well be legitimate scientific and medical uses for such classifications. African-Americans, for example, are more prone to certain diseases than Whites or Asians--and vice versa. Everyone benefits from taking such facts into account.
But other implications of the differences are more problematical. We cannot assume, for example, that a member of any group is more similar genetically to another member of the same group than he/she is to a member of another group. It has been well-documented that genetic differences within groups account for a vastly larger percentage of human genetic diversity than differences between groups. Nor can we be certain that a member of any group is superior or inferior to a member of any other group in any trait or characteristic. So, to the extent it is used to ascribe mental or behavioral characteristics to people on the basis of their physical appearance, race is a "social construct" -- and an extremely harmful one at that.
I believe the question of the relative importance of genetic vs environmental factors in assessing group differences is a scientific one, and should be answered scientifically rather than turned into philosophical dogma, one way or another.
Thu, 2012-05-31 23:04
I don't want to be long winded so I will just focus on one statement about race and genetics that results from an equivocation of the use of the word "minor". The writer quoted the APA as concluding that ordinary notions of race have little value for biological research in part because of the relatively minor genetic differences among racial groups.
This attempts to show that since the differences in genetics of race are "minor" then therefore the differences in human races are minor (minimization).
The reality of genetics is that "minor" genetic differences can have MAJOR consequences for an organism. Humans and chimpanzees share 98.8% of the genome. Minor difference?
Wed, 2012-04-25 23:52
Great observations about MLK. He did veer into the popular socialists' views of the day, just as JFK, LBJ, etc. did.
But I will always love him for his stance against US involvement in Vietnam, and his belief that all humans have basic rights. Even Jefferson did not recognize all humans' rights. Just as we must except the founders' faults in terms of liberty, we must also except MLK's faults. But we should also celebrate their core beliefs in liberty. However flawed they were, it was definately a step in the right direction.
Fri, 2012-03-30 18:42
Daniel Browning
I can't tell if your post is a fiendishly brilliant trap for grammar nazis or just a run-of-the-mill conflation of except and accept. Well played. Oblig. xkcd.
Mon, 2012-04-02 15:42
This is confusing to me. I get that scientifically race doesn't exist. I mean, no duh, right? But where does that get us? Does coming to that conclusion further the conversation? What conversation? How?
I am certain that racism still exists, so it seems that race must also exist. Maybe not in the way you're describing, but in the minds of everyone in America it certainly does. I don't really think it's about race as it is scientifically defined. I think it is about race in terms of how every individual perceives every other individual, i.e. racism. The question: As a white person, do you act differently when you interact with a black person? Do you compensate in some way? Why? To me, these are the important questions related to race. The scientific question is a no-brainer and doesn't further any conversation as far as I'm concerned.
Wed, 2012-03-28 10:56
Bob Straub
Henry, your letter is a well-written and thought-provoking supplement to the article. I think you are onto something with your redefinition of race as an effect of the opinions, ignorance and prejudices of some groups of people about others. I'll be thinking about that. Thanks.
Sun, 2012-04-01 09:24
Racism does still exist amongst the feable minded. Not everyone, as you claim.
For example, in today's highly mobile world how does one distinguish who to fear? Do you feel discriminatory of a person who is very light skinned, the product of a "white" father and a "black" mother? Do you adopt the one eighth rule of the 19th century?
Living in today's South, I've seen a great many "racist" grandparents become suddenly not so racist when their own grandchildern are born of "mixed" race. True racists are rare these days. But, unfortunately, alot of the racists have been replaced by xenophobs. People who think that because someone was born in Mexico, or China, or Greece, that "they" are out to "take over".
Xenophobia is the real problem these days. Just look at the Republican candidates pandering to that crowd. My fence will be bigger than yours. All immigrants are criminals to them. They are "illegal". Law breakers that must be punished. But let's not reconsider the law.
Fri, 2012-03-30 18:30
I never claimed that everyone was racist. Reread my comment again if you want. Never said it.
I think your question of 'how do we decide who to fear?' is pretty odd. We don't get to decide. It's all in our heads already, that is, the imprint of society, family, upbringing, friends, etc, and we don't get to change that stuff that's already there; our prejudices, that is. What we DO get to decide is how to react and deal with those prejudices, at least to a large extent I think. And it is possible to overcome our prejudices! We just have to be honest about how we feel (how a white person interacts with a black person versus a white person, for example) and go from there. That is, not let prejudice(s) control how we interact with anyone. The fact that you're saying racist grandparents from the South have overcome their prejudice makes me think: how deeply ingrained was their racism? I guess not so deep that they would disown their grandchildren. But still, I think you have to just make sure you're not reacting based on prejudice, which takes some thought and compassion.
I had this thought a while ago and I think it is appropriate to share here: It is every individual's responsibility to deal with his or her own racism.
Thu, 2012-04-19 12:31
Van Brunt
You guys are good! This article best represents the reason I come here first thing every afternoon to catch up on "what's happening." Thanks.
Wed, 2012-03-28 03:03
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text:
Biplane ballet
Wingwalkers are young, female and pretty limber. Our reporter is none of these – but he is intrepid
"Why?" we ask ourselves all our lives. Strapped on a biplane, I found the question inescapable. And also this one: Does the UK have anything like Germany's technical inspectorate (TÜV) for aircraft? If so, how good is it? And this one: How is this going to feel? Stick your head out the window of a car traveling along a highway at 180 km/h and you get an idea. My 85 kilos of body mass spread over 1.86 meters creates so much resistance that we mess up the acrobatic number we had planned, but I don't find this out until we land. The trouble starts at takeoff.
Emily Guilding, professional wingwalker, 30, weighing just 52 kilos and 1.57 meters "tall," hops lightly onto the wing ahead of me. As I haul myself up after her, I hear my jeans rip. Luckily, I'm wearing an overall on top. Only step where the markings are, she reminds me, making me wonder whether I risk treading a hole in the wing – and also about England's technical inspectors.
I want to do things that people feel can't be done
She pats me down to make sure there's nothing in my pockets that could fall into the plane and cause it to crash. I assure her of the complete emptiness of my pockets. She screw-fastens my chest strap and secures me to the pole at my back. I can barely breathe, but it has to be this tight as it will work loose during the flight. I pull in my stomach and ask her to cinch it one last time. She explains what I need to do if we crash, or if there's a fire or I feel ill. My thoughts turn to the declaration of consent I signed earlier without reading it properly. Emily puts a pair of skydiver goggles on me. It has air holes to stop them from steaming up. We take off, and the air from the holes knocks my contact lenses right out of my eyes. England is a blur.
My new perspective on the world below only makes the already latently surreal experience of buzzing high above the English countryside even more otherworldly. We take off from Rendcomb Airfield in Gloucestershire, a two-hour drive west from London, and circle high above an animal crematorium, gently undulating hills and the heavily guarded hangar that Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason uses as a garage for his vintage car collection. Pilot Dave "DAVE" Barrell's sensitive handling gives us a 180 km/h roller coaster ride 550 meters above the ground. At moments like these, I find a calm approach helpful: Ultimately, it makes no difference whether I spend the next 12 minutes on top of a biplane or in the bathtub as long as I'm safely back on the ground when the 12 minutes are up. Until then, I am chiefly concerned with wiping away the drool the airstream blasts from my mouth and nostrils, and getting used to the entirely new sensation of having my cheeks clinging to my ears.
At least this madness was not invented by design. The story of how it came about goes like this: In 1918, Ormer "Lock" Locklear, a trainee military pilot from Texas, encountered technical problems during a training flight and decided to climb out onto the wing and put things right. While his instructor manned the controls in the air, down on the ground, his fellow trainees cheered and clapped. Lock had tasted blood. He went on to try out increasingly death-defying wing-top stunts with other pilots and became famous for his motto "safety second," his precarious airborne handstands and leaps onto planes from speeding cars. That such antics undertaken without any safety precautions could not pass off without incident for very long should have been obvious to the daredevil stuntman, but then, his contemporaries did describe him as having "more spunk than sense." His career came to an untimely end after just 16 months, when he died, age 28, during the filming of The Skywayman.
Like Lock, many young pilots found themselves unemployed after World War II and took advantage of the surfeit of biplanes standing around unused to make a living wingwalking at air shows. In order to attract more spectators, they would pick pretty women from the audience and set them on the wings. Sadly, they were not all as talented as Ethel Dare, a former circus trapeze artiste, who went down in history in late 1919 as "Queen of the Air," when she became the first woman to step from one airplane to another in flight. Many of the other, wholly unprepared ladies tumbled from the wings. When the deaths multiplied, tight restrictions were imposed on barnstorming, as this kind of "circus flying" was called, and finally it disappeared. It was not until the 1970s that wingwalking was revived in the USA. In 1985, English race driver and pilot Vic Norman hit on the idea of introducing wingwalking to the UK and paid a visit to Mr. Airshow himself, Californian stunt pilot Art Scholl, the only person with the technical paperwork and licenses for the wingwalk apparatus, a trade secret Scholl had never before shared. He took to young Vic, but fell to his death on the Top Gun set soon after they met. In the end, Scholl's widow gave the documents to Vic, who sent his first wingwalker into the air in 1987. Watchmaker Breitling is now his sponsor. Emily is one of the latest generation of six wingwalkers working with a team of pilots for Vic.
And their work up here among the clouds is tough – strenuous, cold, and deafeningly loud. There's nothing I would like better right now than a motorcycle helmet with a visor. To my left, Emily strikes a pose on her biplane – and smiles! How on earth can she smile? Standing on her head, she pivots – still smiling. Unbelievable! She looks lovely in her black gym suit with its striking silver stars, her blond hair streaming in the wind. With an effort, I twist my head round in her direction and attempt a grin. Weeks later, my facial contortions and windswept hair still elicit mockery from my photographer and colleagues. Gracefully, Emily stretches her arms out to her sides, gives a cheerful wave, and performs the half-splits – a veritable ballerina in the sky.
Emily loves her job, she tells me later, except in the rain – the raindrops feel like needles. She has four days off a month, works out a lot, and flies with the team to a different air show every weekend. The girls practice climbing out of the cockpit onto the wing and back in again over and over again. With only a steel rope to secure them, that is the riskiest moment of a show. Norman's motto is "safety first" so he doesn't employ pregnant women or mothers. The team's two- and four-woman formations are the only ones of their kind in the world. His is a flying circus with shows in Dubai, Australia, China, and France. Even Hollywood stars have been known to book the troupe for a party turn in L.A.
Pilot Martyn Carrington, thankfully in Emily's biplane, flips the airplane over onto its back. I squint at the strap around my chest. It looks safe enough. Emily is hanging upside down, Martyn emits a long billow of smoke from his tail – our signal! We should really be flying directly below Emily now so that our hands can touch. That's "the mirror" maneuver, the wingwalkers' handshake. But I am no wingwalker, my 85 kilos are too much even for a 450 HP engine, so we can't get close enough. And Martyn can't slow down any more because to turn the plane on its head, he needs to fly 210km/h minimum. We veer away and land.
Our landing on the field that serves as a runway is bumpy. My thighs ache – but we are down on the ground again. Emily laughs. Martyn and Dave laugh. I laugh – mainly because it's all over. But also because it's actually been great fun. So: why not?
Tim Cappelmann
Tim Cappelmann planned to start his career in journalism at Cóndor, a German-language weekly based in Santiago, Chile. Instead, he spent a year traveling from Santiago to Brownsville Texas, using only public transportation and a sailboat the whole time. After that, he developed an appreciation for airplanes, and now writes and reports for Lufthansa Magazin. His favorite subjects: pilots and astronauts, adventure travel and extreme sports.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Air Time
Just what is the price of time these days?
For about $50, you could get a decent hardbound edition of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. For about $12,000, you could get a gold Rolex watch with diamonds encrusting the bezel. For about $26 million, you could get a Gulfstream IV, the ultimate time machine of the private aviation industry. You could check the Rolex on the way to Kuala Lumpur to see how time flies.
"These planes are all about time," says Gulfstream executive vice president Bob Cooper.
More precisely, they are about the value of time. They are about New York-Little Rock-Memphis-Cleveland-New York ina day.They are about Mansfield, Ohio-South Bend, Indiana nonstop. They are about London-Paris-Munich-Vienna-Rome without touching down or passing through a major international airport. They are about Houston-Aspen right now.
Private jets, from the light, midsized Cessnas and Lears to the junior jumbos of Gulfstream, Falcon and Canadair, are the answer, however expensive, to O'Hare, LaGuardia and LAX. They take people precisely where they want to go whenever they want to go. Of course, unlike the airlines, they don't take just anybody.
Bill Cosby's Gulfstream IV takes him anywhere he likes. Sid Bass flies the friendly skies in his Falcon 900. Golf legend Arnold Palmer, who elevated the sport to international prominence, elevates himself at the controls of his Cessna Citation VII. And there are any number of CEOs--from Disney's Michael Eisner to IBM's Lou Gerstner to Cox Communications' Anne Cox Chambers--who race about the United States and the world at Mach .80 without ever having to fish a boarding pass out of their pockets.
Deep pockets are required of such time travelers. New private-jet aircraft come with multi-million-dollar price tags. For a small six-seat Cessna or Lear it might be $5 million. For a Falcon 900 or Canadair's Challenger 601 (planes on the same level as the Gulfstream IV), the cost is $23 million and up. For the new long-range Gulfstream V, with New York-to-Tokyo capability, the price will be about $35 million, fully fitted. Gulfstream has a backlog of $1 billion in orders for the plane, which will be test-flown next fall and is scheduled for delivery in early 1996.
Operating expenses aren't exactly pocket change, either. A pilot and a co-pilot will run $100,000 or more annually. There are hangar fees, mechanics' fees, fuel, airport charges,mandatory Federal Aviation Administration inspections and the like. A Gulfstream IV (G IV for those in the know--or in the cabin) can cost $3,000 an hour to operate, a midsized Cessna Citation V something less than half that. It takes a substantial corporation or individual to own and operate one of these "thundering thrones."
Jack Nicklaus is such a substantial individual/businessman. (He still plays a little golf, too.) The greatest golfer of all time has become the most prolific golf-course designer, traveling around North America and the rest of the world in his Gulfstream II Air Bear to visit sites from Vienna to Malaysia. He will be taking delivery of a new G IV this fall; its maiden voyage will take him to Hawaii and several sites in the Far East in a two-week trip.
"It has allowed me to do twice as much work and still be fresh," says Nicklaus. "If I had to do this trip to Asia commercially, it would probably take 30 days and I'd probably walk off the airplane dead half the time."
His old G II glided to a graceful stop recently at Westchester County Airport, a small facility about 25 miles north of New York City. Nicklaus had come to visit the country club of Purchase, New York, and a course he is building a little more than a mile from the airport. When the gangway dropped, Nicklaus, dressed casually in shorts and tennis shoes, departed for the waiting car 100 feet away carrying fruit from the trees on his North Palm Beach, Florida, estate. To Nicklaus, Air Bear is his second home, especially when he travels overseas.
"In a country where I don't speak their language and don't eat their food, this plane is my sanctuary," says Nicklaus. "I've had the same CDs and tapes on here for the last six years so that when I come back from a long site visit or meeting with the builders, I can whistle familiar tunes. With all the travel I do I have to keep my sanity somewhere."
Nicklaus can often use smaller airports when he travels internationally. With immigration and customs clearances expedited by an international air-routing company, he can breeze in and out of countries as a generation of travelers ages while waiting for the appropriate passport stamp.
A gold-plated "Golden Bear" wall figure at the top of the gangway is offset against the understated interior of Air Bear in chocolate-colored leather and muted tones. (The "Golden Bear" is Nicklaus' nickname as well as his corporate logo.) Each of the seats converts into a berth, and the two sets of two facing seats convert into something approaching a double bed, good for overnight flights from Boston to the British Isles or from Alaska to Japan. The jet can hold enough food for a week.
The plane is ideal for the kind of work Nicklaus does. Onboard, Nicklaus can meet with members of his design team and review large site maps of golf courses under construction. Together they can spend hours going over the routing of fairways, the shaping of the greens, the positioning of the bunkers. It is work that would be next to impossible to achieve in the first-class cabin of a commercial airliner unless the Pittsburgh Buick dealer and the Baltimore insurance executive agree to move their glasses of Perrier-Jouet or sit in coach.
Air Bear has wider uses, not the least of which is put to use when the Golden Bear is playing golf. Nicklaus still plays competitively and travels from tournament to tournament without fear that his golf clubs are going to be sent to St. Louis by mistake. He uses Air Bear when he's filming commercials or doing promotional work. And occasionally he has a little fun with it, whether it's vacationing with wife Barbara in the Colorado Rockies or filling all 12 seats with friends and flying from Palm Beach to New York to watch his daughter-in-law dance in Madonna's World Tour concert.
Both Jack and Barbara have been actively involved in designing the interior of the new G IV, which will seat 15 people. The advantage of the G IV isn't so much the size. It is range--which translates into time by saving on those pesky fuel stops. Ron Hurst, Nicklaus' captain, will be able to fly the new G IV from Palm Beach to Hawaii nonstop, with a range of 4,200 nautical miles. Palm Beach to Europe will be a snap, though they won't be able to pick up live lobsters in Bangor, Maine, anymore. That might be just as well. When they tried to cook 10 of them in the small galley it was an adventure worthy of Harrison Ford.
And speaking of movie stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a G III and John Travolta has a G II. The Hollywood heavyweights are definitely jet-setters, often for reasons that supercede ego. The primary reason that stars of the entertainment industry use private aircraft is security. Getting Schwarzenegger through an airport full of fans would be a production of Terminator II proportions.
Stars flying the across the heavens is a glamorous image the private-aircraft industry does not want to promote. In fact, the industry constantly battles the idea of the airplane as celebrity bauble or executive accessory. "Movie stars flying around in airplanes is not what our industry is about," says Jeff Miller, director of public relations for Learjet. "It's a problem the industry faces; these planes are looked upon as toys. [But] they are used by corporations to enhance their business. They are used generally for fairly mundane reasons."
"Business executives flying from New York to Hong Kong using onboard computers and satellite fax don't make for much of a story," says Gulfstream's Cooper. "People would much rather read about a celebrity or a corporate executive misusing one of these planes than the everyday uses to which they are put."
"Business jets exist to transport people quickly, efficiently, safely and discreetly," says Falcon spokesman John House. "I'm not talking about Hollywood types who buy junkie old airplanes."
Corporate jets are not only for the sole use of chairmen as they pursue the next Big Deal. Xerox runs a shuttle from Westchester County to Rochester for midlevel executives. Other companies send out a large sales team that can leave at eight in the morning and be back before sunset. Increasingly companies are reaching out to customers by using the big jets to bring them to production facilities or corporate headquarters and using the air time to begin the sales pitch.
Both airplane builders and buyers are reluctant to talk about planes in other than general terms. Builders and buyers often cite the fact that corporate airplanes are used in highly competitive situations where discretion is the watchword, hence the need for muting conversation about the jets. Some cite the fact that corporate boards often cast a critical eye on flight departments in times of recession--so it's better not to catch their ears with too much talk about the planes. An additional point is madethat the recession of the early '90s appears to have been only a minor flak barrage on the private-airplane industry in comparison with the surface-to-air missile attack of the early 1980s when flight departments were eliminated and planes were sold or mothballed.
Sometimes you can get a tidbit out of an aircraft executive when it comes to the charitable use of these planes, however. Russ Meyer, CEO of Cessna, is proud of the Cessna ownerswho participated in the 1991 Special Olympics in St. Paul, Minnesota. His company organized the airlifting of 1,500 Special Olympics athletes on more than 200 Cessnas in two days' time. "I think it was the largest peacetime airlift since Berlin," says Meyer.
"I'm proud of the way Bill Cosby uses his aircraft," says Cooper of Gulfstream. "It's used very efficiently for business, which they don't want to talk about, and it's used for some charity purposes, which they also don't want to talk about."
Most of the talking about these planes is done within their elegant cabins. With the possible exception of gold-plated fixtures in the head, the elegance of private jets and international first-class cabins is comparable. What is incomparable is the sheer privacy of speeding at 540 miles per hour at 33,000 feet to a place that you and your companions want to go--and having the ability to change your mind en route. Try telling the captain of a British Airways 747 that you would rather go to Amsterdam than London, a request that is likely to result in your arrest or banishment to coach.
Besides, if you wake up in the middle of the night while your steward is catching a nap, you can toast your own bagel.
Sales of used aircraft are a flourishing business, largely because of the federally mandated maintenance standards that require that planes remain in superior flying condition. Buying a new airplane, however, is an unparalleled experience. "It usually marks a significant passage in an individual's life," says Gulfstream's CEO Bill Boisture.
It means that he or she can afford to buy time.
Jeff Williams is a senior sportswriter for Newsday.


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Full TitleHereditary Colorectal Cancer Family Registry
The purpose of this study is to establish a registry of families who are affected with various forms of hereditary colorectal cancer. This registry will help researchers learn more about the genetic causes of colorectal cancer and aid in the development of new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat colon and rectal cancers. Participation in the Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Family Registry can be educational for families by helping them learn more about their colorectal cancer risk. For patients already diagnosed with a hereditary colon cancer, the registry will help to keep them abreast of new research that may affect their medical care.
Study participants will complete one questionnaire about their medical history and another about their family history of cancer. Participants may be contacted periodically in the next several years so researchers can follow-up on their health status.
To be eligible for this study, patients must meet several criteria, including but not limited to the following:
- Patients must have a clinical diagnosis of a hereditary form of colorectal cancer, such as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) or hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC), or early-onset colorectal cancer (diagnosed in patients age 40 or younger), or other polyposis syndromes.
- Family members of patients with hereditary colorectal cancer are also eligible regardless of whether they themselves have been diagnosed with hereditary colorectal cancer.
For more information and to see if you are eligible for this study, please email email@example.com.


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NEW Indigo Blue & Aqua - Adult Ponchofrom
NEW Indigo Blue & Aqua Cushion - 18"
Handmade; limited edition; reversible colour weave; 100% wool; zip fastening at base of cushion.
This item is unique to TWG. Woven on traditional looms and handmade in Wales. Only a small number of cushions are made from each colour way. No two colours are ever repeated.
SIZE: 18" x 18" / 45cm
CUSHION PADS / LINING: 100% cotton with 100% duck feather filling (cushion pads only available with UK orders).
DELIVERY & RETURNS - click here. Items in stock will be dispatched within 48 hours. At times, due to the handmade nature of TWG products, orders may take a little longer. If this is the case you will be notified when we receive your order. Alternatively if you're in the Hay on Wye area then you might like to pop in and collect your order.
TO CLEAN - (see Care Guide).
COMMISSIONS: Please contact us if you wish to discuss a custom order, always happy to oblige if material is available.


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It's just what we need, as the weather heats up in Sacramento: the prospect of another heated battle, as Gov. Jerry Brown outlines the latest bleak budget numbers.
Facing an unexpectedly high $16 billion deficit, Brown will seek to cut the usual suspects, health and welfare programs.
And he'll seek to negotiate pay cuts with state workers. But there's a notable exception this year.
U.S. & World
Under terms of Prop 98, the state's constitutional guarantee for school spending, schools are actually looking at a budgetary increase. But that respite may be fleeting.
The governor's budget plan will include a "doomsday scenario" which outlines a series of automatic spending cuts...if California voters reject his plea to approve a package of temporary tax increases in November.
Yes, education would be part of those trigger cuts.
Those cuts would be so severe that the teachers union in one of the largest districts in the state, San Juan Unified, is circulating a letter describing the "bleak financial picture" that emerges.
The letter, obtained by Prop Zero, says voter rejection of the governor's tax plan "would likely bring a proposal from the state to shorten the school year by 10 to 15 days.
Although this is a negotiable issue, given the circumstances it will be difficult to avoid." Election-year politics will play a big part in this budget drama.
Brown, having learned last year that he could not strike a tax deal within the legislature, wants to bypass the Capitol this year. His tax initiative would raise the sales tax for four years, and income tax rates for high-income Californians for seven years.
The plan, if passed, would raise somewhere around $7 billion in its first year. And if it fails? A new round of cuts...to schools, universities, and public safety programs. Brown's challenge is to answer skeptics who say he's engaging in scare tactics. His strategy is to tell voters, if they're unhappy with a tax increase, they'll be more unhappy with cuts to programs they care about.
Public schools would be Exhibit A.
Author Kevin Riggs is an Emmy-winning former TV journalist in Sacramento. He is currently Senior Vice President at Randle Communications.
Send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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Oil Exploration Games
- Tom AndersonUnited States
I thought it was time to provide a new Geeklist with this subject. The one from 2004 by skelebone (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/3570) is getting dated and wasn't limited to my criteria.
The one from 2006 by Champion Eternal (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/14564) started getting silly by including Pit and Popeye. I am an oil exploration geologist as a profession, so I admit I'm picky, but I wanted a Geeklist of games that at least tried to simulate the exploration and production functions, plus of course the economics, as there has to be sales of oil to make it all work.
Some definitions: The oil industry is broadly divided into "Upstream" and "Downstream", where Upstream includes Exploration and Production, and Downstream includes Refining, Transportation, and Marketing. So my Geeklist is limited to Upstream only -- no pipelines, supertankers, or gas (petrol) stations, unless the Upstream functions are also included. A classic case is McMulti, which has refineries and gas stations, but it also has drilling derricks and oil pumps.
In the Upstream oil business we refer to the "Oilfield Life Cycle":
Reconnaissance -
Prospect Generation -
Discovery -
Reservoir Delineation -
Facilities -
Primary Production -
Enhanced Recovery -
The first three are in the "Exploration" phase, the next two are "Development", and the last three are lumped as "Production". A good oil exploration game should include most of these, and absolutely must have drilling/discovery. With that background in place, let's proceed to my narrow criteria for a game to be included on this Geeklist:
1. MUST HAVE: drilling (usually by including one or more derrick bits)
2. Should have: leasing and production
3. Will NOT include:
- primarily economic (acquire properties, produce oil, buy/sell crude, ONLY)
- stock trading (company with "oil" in its name only)
- Monopoly-like roll-and-move (only)
- wargames (based in Middle East or other OPEC hot spot)
- downstream only (pipelines, tankers, refineries, gas stations)
- other types of oil, not petroleum (such as olive oil)
- any other not listed above where oil is only remotely related to the theme
I have applied these criteria using "rejection codes" to all the games listed on the two previous Geeklists mentioned above to exclude those by name that don't fit, IMO. Any interested BGG user that is geeky enough to want to see this, just send me a PM and I'll email back an attached XLS spreadsheet with all the gory details. That spreadsheet also lists (on a second sheet) for the included games below, numerous comments and classifications by map type, mechanics, and game bits.
A note on Monopoly clones -- several games that made my list use the familiar around-the-perimeter track of properties and a roll-and-move mechanic, but they also have an interior "map" with drilling locations (or a separate added board) and a mechanic to drill and discover oil deposits. Games that are simply Monopoly with the properties being oil-related, but no drilling, didn't make the list.
One criteria I've used to define these games is map type, with these categories: abstract (grid); made-up (fictitious country, island, or continent); United States (or portions thereof); world (or portions of world or continents); and North Sea region.
The list below is roughly listed in my ranking order, of how they best fit the goal of exploration simulation, starting with the top two BGG-ranked games. First, a disclaimer -- I've only played these top two, and tried to categorize the rest based on BGG descriptions, images, forums, reviews, and files posted. I haven't actually played any of the rest, at this time. So let's get started.
Note: feel free to add to this list if you find something I missed, but please respect the criteria I have listed. Thanks.
- Posted Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:36 am
- [+] Dice rolls


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Learn how to reuse graywater, harvest rainwater, and install composting and dry toilets.
In this google Tech Talk (recorded in May 2010) Laura Allen and Gregory Bullock show how to reuse graywater, harvest rainwater, and install composting and dry toilets.
Laura Allen is a founding member of Greywater Action (formerly the Greywater Guerrillas). Gregory Bullock is the founder of Bang for your Green Buck, an environmental enterprise that designs sustainable, productive landscapes that grow food through greywater irrigation and rain harvesting.
Take a peak into a graywater renegade's backyard.
To listen to the companion radio segment, click here. Note that this radio show was produced in 2007, and legislation has since changed, making it legal and more affordable to recycle your own graywater.
This slide show was produced by Quest, a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment, and nature.
- Greywater Action: Learn more about your graywater from this group of educators, designers, builders, and artists who empower people to build sustainable water culture and infrastructure.
- Compost Toilets and Self-Rule: The ecological toilet is one of today's most hope-filled expressions of people's power. How composting toilets help us take back our power and autonomy.


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It wasn't dealt with much in the movies, but in the Iron Man comic books Tony Stark is constantly battling alcoholism. And that's what makes these light-up glowing coasters ironic. On the big screen, he used the technology he developed to fight crime and make the world a better place. But, in the comics, he would have probably been more inclined to turn the arc reactor into drink coasters just like these.
Available exclusively from ThinkGeek in a set of four for $US30, each aluminium coaster is powered by a pair of watch-sized CR2032 batteries. The embedded LEDs make any drink placed on the coasters glow a eery blue tint, and to maximise the life of those tiny batteries the LEDs automatically shut off after five minutes. The life of a superhero isn't easy, but who says it has to be dry? [ThinkGeek]


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Choose your room
Ideally situated in Dublin's thriving Temple Bar district, Farringtons is a beautiful pub featuring a Victorian bar with partitions over 120 years old, and a modern, comfortable lounge upstairs. We are now offering five beautifully appointed rooms, comtemporary design. Built to the highest specifications, these rooms must be seen to be believed. All the rooms are ensuite with Power Shower or Jacuzzi bath. Tea/coffee making facilities, Flat screen TVs, continental quilts, orthopedic beds and complimentary toiletries are standard throughout. Popular with both young and older customers, Farringtons offers a pleasant environment and our spacious lounges ensure that you find space to enjoy a quite drink and a chat. Our friendly staff will do all they can to guarantee your stay is an enjoyable one.


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Jordan on Monday reopened its main border crossing with war-torn Syria, a key Middle East trade route, after a three year closure, an AFP photographer reported. Source: France 24
GEFIRA provides in-depth and comprehensive analysis of and valuable insight into current events that investors, financial planners and politicians need to know to anticipate the world of tomorrow; it is intended for professional and non-professional readers.
Yearly subscription: 10 issues for €225/$250
Renewal: €160/$175
The Gefira bulletin is available in ENGLISH, GERMAN and SPANISH.
In Montpellier, traders in the city center are worried: weakened by the coronavirus crisis , they are the target of unaccompanied minors – MNA – who rob at night and attack customers during the day.
Every night, unaccompanied minors and former unaccompanied minors, young adults who are homeless, carry out raids: they kick violently at store doors, at random. When they give in, they steal everything that can be sold, as well as cash. They climb buildings to take goods, including bikes. Source Actu France
After hours of peaceful protest in downtown Atlanta, some demonstrators suddenly turned violent, smashing police cars, setting one on fire, spray-painting the iconic logo sign at CNN headquarters, and breaking into a restaurant. The crowd pelted officers with bottles, chanting "Quit your jobs." Source New York Post
Five British mercenaries involved in an operation to fly assault helicopters for Libya's renegade General Khalifa Haftar were offered bounties of up to $150,000 each for their role in the daring plot which went awry.
The men, comprised of former Royal Marines and RAF personnel, were among 20 foreign mercenaries who traveled to Libya last June in an operation to pilot assault helicopters and speed boats to intercept Turkish ships ferrying weapons to Haftar's opponents – the UN-backed government in Tripoli. Source Telegraph


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Framed Black and White Dahlia Giclée
$ 150
Substitute botanical photography for a fresh, modern update on classic botanical illustrations. The Black and White Dahlia Giclée is fantastic in a small size hanging on a gallery wall, or makes a gorgeous impact in a large scale size on its own.
This giclée is matted in white and framed in your choice of three mouldings shown in the options image. The following is a list of materials used in the printing and framing process:
Premium Art Paper
Archival Inks
Wood Mouldings
UV-Protective Acrylic
Conservation Mat Board
Acid-Free Foam Core Backing Custom Kraft Paper Finishing Premium Hanging Wire and Hardware Hanging and Care Instructions
Shipping costs are included in the prices shown.
Measurements in parentheses indicate size with mat and frame.
Photography by Jennifer Royal, founder and owner of The Pink Pagoda, LLC.


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Friday could not have begun more differently from the same date eight years ago, when a bright sun greeted New Yorkers as they prepared to vote in a mayoral primary. It was a day brimming with possibilities -- one that made you feel alive.
Eight years later, Sept. 11 featured gray skies and a steady rain. A day well-suited for grieving and remembrance. As New Yorkers hear the solemn roll call of the 2,700 who died at the twin towers the Obama administration called for Americans to dedicate themselves to public service.
Trying to inspire meaning from such an awful moment, is laudable, but many Americans still long for something else: closure. No, not in the New Agey way of some emotional comfort. We want the man behind the hideous attacks brought to justice. We want Osama bin Laden's head.
U.S. & World
In the eight years since bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network launched a war on the U.S., we have routed them from their safe haven of Afghanistan, turning the rugged land into something resembling a democracy. To some, that suggests that bin Laden is a "failure." Technically, that is true. But it does not obscure the glaring fact that our foreign policy and national security -- and much of our national sensibility -- is guided by the reality of this bogey man that perpetually lingers out there.
Would everything suddenly change if there was certainty that bin Laden was dead? Probably not. But something would change. There would be sense of real assurance that the primary mission coming out of 9/11 -- getting the mastermind behind the worst attack on American soil -- had been achieved.
For that matter, even definite evidence (more than some videotape that could be bootlegged from who-knows-where) that he is still alive could give Americans a new sense of renewed purpose and concrete resolve that there remains unfinished business.
Grieving is necessary. Service to one's fellow citizens is a good thing. But what Americans really need eight years down the road is some certitude. Where is Osama bin Laden?
Because unless he is dead, he most certainly is not where he belongs
New York writer Robert A. George blogs at Ragged Thots. Follow him on Twitter.


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Tools is a publication conceived as a workbook with examples and instructions as to how the SUPERFLEX tools might be used. The first section – primarily image based with brief texts – examines some of SUPERFLEX's projects. The second part is a collection of essays presenting various reflections on tools and their users written by Doris Berger, Charles Esche, Mika Hannula, Andreas Spiegl and Barbara Steiner. The third section focus's on SUPERFLEX's activities and the people involved. Edited by Babara Steiner in collaboration with Superdesign. Designed by Rasmus Koch. Published by Verlag Der Büchhandlung Walther König, 2003. Format: 210 x 270 mm, soft cover, 295 pages, offset. ISBN 3-88375-612
SUPERFLEX/ TOOLS is now available as a free pdf:
Download TOOLS
Introduction from the book
In their projects, SUPERFLEX provide tools that are based on their specific interest in social and economic commitment. The starting point for creating a tool is a belief in a heterogeneous, complex society. The set-up is developed in co-operation with diverse experts who, in turn, add their own specific interests. It can then be taken over and put into operation by various users. The tools invite people to do something: to become active. Tools are framed by and shaped in specific social and local situations and generate their meanings out of this specific context. Through the tools SUPERFLEX investigates communicative processes in which power, hegemony, assertion and oppression, the gain and loss of terrain become evident. Various parties, individuals or groups, enter the scene with strong personal and specific interests. They constantly influence how the tool is constructed and/or used. The set-up structures can be redefined by users, which can finally lead to changes in the tool itself. The resulting scenarios, a constantly changing succession of possibilities and meanings, are then continued as long as the interest remains alive. The use of the tools mirrors the contradictions and contentions of the users and their commitment in economic, cultural and political discourses. When SUPERFLEX assemble not only the project and development team, but also the users, they take into account the specific interests of individual groups, their different opportunities for articulation, their interests and projections. All tools share the aspect of empowerment: e.g. having their own energy supply, becoming an independent producer of energy, having their own channel, joining a political/economic discussion. Taken in this sense, artistic praxis means a concrete cultural intervention that mediates between different interests or at least, makes them visible. In their tools SUPERFLEX attempts to create conditions for the production of new ways of thinking, acting, speaking and imagining. To this end, they make as much use of their aesthetic proficiency as of their social commitment. This book consists of three main sections: tools, texts and activities. The first section, which is primarily picture based, contains brief descriptions of the tools and introduces some of the users. In the second section a number of authors present diverse reflections on tools and their uses. Finally the third section focuses on SUPERFLEX´s activities and the people involved in them. This book is intended as both a fund of information and a tool in its own right.
Read and use!
The Editors
Author: Andreas Spiegl, 2000
Author: Barbara Steiner, 2003
Author: Mika Hannula, 2003
Author: Charles Esche, 2003
Author: Barbara Steiner and Doris Berger, 2002
Author: Barbara Steiner and Doris Berger, 2001
Author: Edda Hoefer, 2002
Author: Barbara Steiner and Doris Berger, 2001


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All The President's Men
Watching the recent excellent documentary, Page One: Inside The New York Times, which questioned the potential end of print media and mature fact-based journalism, made me hanker to rewatch the greatest film about how journalists can seek the truth, and the standards and hoops they need to jump through in order to have their stories reported. Based on the true-story, autobiographical, political thriller by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, All The President's Men details the young reporters' involvement in the Watergate scandal that worked its way through the cover-ups run by President Nixon's staff, eventually reaching him and ending his presidency prematurely. All The President's Men is a riveting account of the Watergate story from war zone reporters covering it, but today it's also a reminder of the hard work and fact checking that goes into the coverage by these old dinosaurs, in this case the Washington Post, and the good that old media can sometimes bring to our democracy.
Aggressive young reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) is put on the story of a small time, but suspicious burglary of the Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate Building in Washington DC. What makes the case more intriguing to Woodward and his superiors at the Washington Post is that the burglars all have pre-arranged high powered lawyers. He then discovers that the burglars have ties to the CIA and White House, meaning this wasn't any old burglary; it was an attempt to bug the Democrats. Always poking his head in at the news room is the sloppier, but equally driven reporter, Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman). He eventually gets himself teamed up with Woodward and as the ...
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The massive hit from 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is often cited as a "Western that people love, who usually don't like Westerns." But it also often makes "all-time most overrated" lists, especially from folks who do like Westerns. That contradiction may be because the film is completely carried by the charisma of its two superstars, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Also it's closer in spirit to a light comedy or even the "outlaw reexamination" genre started by Bonnie and Clyde than the landmark Westerns of its era that Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone were directing at the same time. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an incredibly simple tale, and regardless of its place on the Western checklist it's perfect entertainment.
The script seems to have very little dialogue and often the same lines are repeated, "You keep thinking, Butch," which is ironic since the script by William Goldman (Marathon Man, All The President's Men) has been hailed for its perfect three-act structure (pre-film school era Goldman wrote a number of books about screenwriting and the business which also helped elevate his status as a quintessential writer). Act One is an introduction to Butch (Newman) and Sundance (Redford), two charming but frustrated bank robbers who are now hitting trains. Butch is the brains and Sundance the gunman. They also share a woman, schoolteacher Etta Place (the mumbly Katharine Ross of The Graduate), Sundance is her lover, while Butch flirts but is more the big brother. Act Two is one long chase as a hardcore posse follows Butch and Sundance over miles of picturesque Western plains (shot by the legendary cameraman Conrad L. Hall), ending famously with the two jumping off a cliff into a raging river. Act Three has the heroes and Etta traveling to Bolivia where they work as muscle for a paymaster (Strother Martin) and culture clashes impede their bank robbing career, finally ending with a shoot out with the Bolivian army.Continue Reading
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Most of the movies directly about the horrors and political terrorism of the McCarthyism of the 1950s usually center on a dim schmuck who accidentally finds himself involved in the blacklistings. They've ranged from the good (The Front with Woody Allen working as an actor-for-hire), the bad (Guilty by Suspicion, the beginning of Robert De Niro's slid towards mediocrity) and the terrible (Frank Darabont's awful The Majestic with Jim Carrey, a movie that makes "Capra-esqe" a mortal sin). The usually simplistic genre helps make mega-star actor George Clooney's second directing effort, Good Night, and Good Luck. (after the interesting but far from perfect Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), seem positively genius in comparison. Instead of piercing the blacklisting from the streets he sets it upstairs in the newsroom of the TV show See It Now, where the legendary broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn in the performance of his career) dared to take on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Committee on Un-American Activities. Clooney (who also wrote the script with another one-time journeyman TV actor Grant Heslov) not only makes one of the most pointed films about this ugly period in American politics but also gives us a fascinating glimpse into the working of 1950s television. Shot in color and then transferred to a stunning black & white in post by cinematography all-star Robert Elswit (he's shot all the Paul Thomas Anderson joints up to There Will Be Blood), Good Night, and Good Luck. really is a marvelous film, beautifully realized in its simplicity and a triumph on all fronts.
Murrow and his trusty producer, Fred Friendly (Clooney), fluctuate their television news magazine show between lightweight celebrity interviews (Liberace!) and more meaningful political pieces, where their heart really is - the fluff is a way to appease their sponsors and the higher-ups at CBS. Knowing that it could start a battle, they decide to take on the dangerous bullying tactics of Senator McCarthy, who was at the height of his powers. He was ruining careers of American citizens by accusing them of being Communists unless they groveled and told McCarthy what a great job he and his Committee where doing, and they were often forced to name others who may be Communists, just to give more names and more power to the often drunk lout Senator. Murrow and Friendly have to walk a tightrope when the Government begins to hint at an investigation of the station's employees and McCarthy himself falls on his old standby trick, accusing Murrow of being a Communist. Meanwhile the head of CBS, William Paley (Frank Langella, wonderful in the role), is forced to defend his star but also tries to keep him on a short leash (the moments between Langella and Strathairn are the best in the movie). The staff is under their own pressure. Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson play a secretly married couple (CBS policy did not allow employees to wed), and in another captivating performance, Ray Wise plays CBS News Correspondent Don Hollenbeck who admires Murrow but lives in terror of having his own lefty political background exposed.Continue Reading
Jeremiah Johnson
"The mountain's got its own ways." --Jeremiah Johnson
Among those who are big fans of the Western genre, I find myself having to defend this delightful movie. Aside from the repetition in the soundtrack, I couldn't come up with a single complaint. It is known and kept in high regard for its breathtaking cinematography (Duke Callaghan [Conan the Barbarian]) and for the fact that it was shot entirely on the mountains of Utah. We find Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford), a man fresh from a war, and set on avoiding the coming Mexican War, who also wants to make a clean break from society. He decides to learn how to become a trapper, hunting various types of game in order to survive and trading furs with local tribes. His quest was both to define himself and to break free of social constraints, and yet he discovers that every land has a law. These rules are breakable, but not excusable merely by ignorance. Soon he finds out that the mountain and its tribes intend to put him in his place.Continue Reading
Ordinary People
Back in the day, if there was one historical injustice that could get any red blooded film-geek or cinaphile extremely agitated, it was the fact that Martin Scorsese had not won an Oscar. Of course in 2006, he finally did win for the overrated The Departed, putting that controversy to bed. But before that, film-geeks would foam at the mouth, especially knowing that the Godly director had lost twice to actors making their directing debuts.
In 1990, Goodfellas was robbed by Kevin Costner's goody-goody Western Dances With Wolves. And ten years earlier Raging Bull lost to Robert Redford's Ordinary People.Continue Reading
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a quintessential tragic American story. The great subject of the film is television and the point at which it came to define American culture for better or worse (mostly worse). With television itself having an almost operatic power as a thematic backdrop, the film tells the story of a son tarnishing his family's good name, the architects of television's pop cultural dominance cynically duping an entire nation, the casual anti-Semitism of the 1950s, the cultural clash of WASPs and ethnic New Yorkers, and a young Washington investigator who wants to make a name for himself and winds up destroying his friend in the process.
The year is 1958. An NBC quiz show called 21 is a national obsession that 50 million people tune into each week to see what they think is an honest display of intellectual acumen and knowledge. What they don't know is that the show's producer, Dan Enright (played by character actor David Paymer), in cahoots with the show's principal sponsor Geritol and with the implicit approval of NBC itself, is fixing the results of the show to boost the ratings. The film begins as the current reigning champ of 21, Herbert Stempel (played with wiry desperation by John Turturro), is given the boot for being too goofy looking, too unrefined, and, though they won't say it, it's clear that he is too Jewish. As the president of NBC muses, they want a guy on 21 who looks like he can get a table at 21. Enter the elegant, educated, and super dreamy Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes playing the Ralph Fiennes type) who innocently drops by NBC to try out for a different game show at the behest of his friends. When Enright and his sleazy sidekick Albert Freedman (played by Hank Azaria) spot him, they can barely contain themselves. Charles Van Doren is from a celebrated American literary family. His father Mark (played by the recently deceased Paul Scofield) is an English professor at Columbia University, where Charles also teaches. Charles has amazing hair and Ivy League manners. He is the perfect little lamb for Enright to lead to the proverbial slaughter.Continue Reading


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Commercial, Personal/Corporate, Products
By Staff Writer | March 26, 2013
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Honeywell's 15th Turbine-Powered Civil Helicopter Purchase Outlook, released earlier this month, forecasts a market for 4,900-5,600 new civil helicopters from 2013 to 2017. The report identifies "very strong" demand over the next three years from all regions of the world, with delivery rates expected to reach 1,000 units per year. For 2016 and 2017, similar delivery rates are possible "if economic recovery trends continue," the outlook notes.
Purchase plans for the North America region are up for the first time in five years, rising 35 percent for the initial three-year period vs. Honeywell's 2012 Outlook. Brian Sill, vice president of aftermarket helicopter sales, noted that rotorcraft usage is up in the offshore oil & gas, utility, training and corporate sectors.
Info-graphic courtesy of Honeywell.
The United States and Canada represent 27 percent of the total worldwide demand over the next five years, with the Western Hemisphere accounting for 47 percent of the total. Europe comes in at around 28 percent, with Asia/Oceania at 19 percent and Africa/Middle East at 6 percent of the total global demand.
Honeywell asked survey respondents to indicate their current level of satisfaction with the models they operate, asking the question, "How likely is it that you would recommend this model to a friend or colleague?" While the engine maker noted that "there were many other make/models currently in production that also received excellent scores," the top six variants receiving 25 responses or more were (in alphabetical order): the AgustaWestland AW139, Bell 206 series, 407 and 412, Eurocopter EC130/AS350 and Sikorsky S-76. Those six types accounted for more than 50 percent of the customer satisfaction responses.
Operators are also indicating an increase in fleet utilization, with 10 percent in North America planning increases over the next 12 months and only 3 percent planning decreases. In Europe, the numbers are 16 percent increases/7 percent decreases, with Latin America 27 percent increase/5 percent decrease; Middle East and Africa 33 percent increase/15 percent decrease; and Asia coming in at 35 percent higher/6 percent lower.Related: Engine News


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Is TIOBE Fatally Flawed?
update: As Bogdy mentions in the comments, my reasoning here was based on false assumptions. It still seems clear that ranking APL above Haskell, along with other anomalies, disqualifies TIOBE for any serious purpose, at least past the top ten or so languages. My rankings should be ignored, though.
During a debate at work about using Haskell for a project, a coworker pointed out that Haskell is ranked #41 on the TIOBE. On further investigation, things look really fishy. Common interpretations of TIOBE include the amount of "community", "buzz", or "excitement" around a language. By none of these standards can APL reasonably edge out Haskell. I dug further.
Summary of findings: the TIOBE is severely broken. It is falling victim to the fact that search engines grossly overestimate their number of results. For example, if I search Google for "haskell programming", as TIOBE does, the resulting page proudly estimates 44,500 results. However, if I click through the results, I hit the end of the list after only 652. Nice for marketing Google, perhaps, but it seems the estimate was rather poor. Similar things happen with other languages.
TIOBE, despite using several search engines, seems to correlate well with Googles estimated (i.e., phony) number of results. It correlates very badly with the actual number of results. Here's my corrected TIOBE list, built only from the top 50 languages in the original list. In order to comply with Google's terms of service, I painstakingly did this by hand; so I didn't go any further.
There are some things that are initially surprising; but some thought indicates they may be reasonably expected. Languages near the top tend to be those that are somewhat old (more time to write about them) or commonly used – past or present – in business and/or the academic world. That's because these languages have a reason to have a lot of web pages written about them. One example: Prolog clearly isn't a commonly used language nor one with a lot of community, but it's taught by just about every computer science department in the world's "programming languages" intro courses, because they feel better including something besides imperative and functional languages. Hence, it's been written about a lot. One can see the effect of the "big community" effect though, if only in languages that appear above where you'd expect to see them.
I also split Lisp/Scheme into Lisp and Scheme separately, and dropped Natural because Googling for "natural programming" turned up more irrelevant results than relevant ones.
Without further delay, the "Chris" update to the TIOBE list.
- Fortran
- Logo
- JavaScript
- Prolog
- Pascal
- Lingo
- Scheme
- Forth
- Smalltalk
- Icon
- Tcl
- FoxPro
- Haskell
- Bash
- Java
- ColdFusion
- Delphi
- Perl
- Objective C
- Erlang
- Lua
- Ada
- Awk
- ActionScript
- VBScript
- Ocaml
- Dylan
- Python
- Ruby
- Transact-SQL
- LabView
- S-lang
15 CommentsLeave a Comment
Bill Mill / Jun 18 2007 8:26 pm
By a similar standard, in no way is Ada drawing more community, buzz, or attention than Python.
Let's just write the whole thing off, shall we?
LeCamarade / Jun 18 2007 11:24 pm
In my opinion, this kind of ranking just can't be done by one formula. You're generally right, cdsmith. Your ranking is correct for your aims. The TIOBE one is wrong for their aims, which would require a lot more-refined querying.
Ivan Tikhonov / Jun 19 2007 1:08 am
Search "XXX language". With quotes. These numbers are more accurate. But useless too.
Tony BenBrahim / Jun 19 2007 1:14 am
Are you telling me you got less than 652 hits for Java? I see you rank Haskell 2 spots above Java.
Bogdy / Jun 19 2007 1:34 am
Actually google limits the results to 1000. For any keywork/search phrase. From this 1000 it cuts the non relevent ones like similar content pages. So what you get here is very wrong.
To check my affirmations you should search for "computer" and see there are less than 900 pages containing the word :P.
taw / Jun 19 2007 3:53 am
Just like Bogdy said, you cannot get more than 1000 results from Google. And after Google removes duplicates from the list you get something like 652 ;-)
Assen / Jun 19 2007 7:40 am
Your ranking downgraded Lua from #21 to #35, therefore you are a bad person and deserve to die.
Jim Fredricks / Jun 6 2008 5:11 pm
Give me a break! TIOBE is much more than just a googlefight. Read the TIOBE pages to learn how they generate this. You're just going to make up your own ranking based on what google's supposed "real" hit count is after going next, next, next to the end and then make your "own" ranking based on this? You've got to be kidding me. What a joke.
Ola Hola / Jun 6 2008 5:25 pm
Do think the fact that Java was ranked behind Haskell was a small clue? Or maybe that Logo was ranked 4th. Wow, Haskell programmers (the religious kind) really do live in another world….
Crusher / Jul 22 2008 3:55 am
I wonder… why ASP.NET does not belong to the list?
Tom / Jul 23 2008 9:03 am
ASP.NET is not on the list because it's not a programming language. You can use C#, VB.Net, Boo, or any .NET language to write an ASP.NET web application.
And, that is another problem in TIOBE index, at least regarding .NET languages. The fact is that the main language names (C#, VB.NET) are seldom used in blog posts. They are more used in basic articles or overviews of the language. .NET blogs are more concerned with some technology within .Net, so there are blogs about ASP.NET, Ajax, WCF, WPF, CLI, but rarely people write about C# or VB.NET itself.
Tom / Jul 23 2008 9:09 am
As an argument for this, take a look here:
and you'll see that graphs that show language USAGE show much higher rate for C# than the search for c# programming. Also, if they looked at the Codeplex repositories, they'd probably see even more of C# in the big picture.


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This was published 15 years ago
Two found guilty in spam case
A man and his sister, who sent unsolicited junk email to millions of America Online customers, have been convicted in the first felony prosecution of distributors of spam in the US.
Jurors who convicted Jeremy Jaynes, 30, and Jessica DeGroot, 28, yesterday, later sentenced Jaynes to a nine-year prison term and fined DeGroot $US7500 ($A9931) for three convictions each of sending emails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.
A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted of similar charges. Jurors deliberated for a day and a half, not including the penalty phase.
Prosecutors compared Jaynes and DeGroot, both of the Raleigh, North Carolina, area, to modern-day snake-oil salesmen who used the internet to peddle junk like a "FedEx refund processor" that supposedly allowed people to earn $75 an hour while working from home.
In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor.
"This was just a case of fraud," said state prosecutor Samuel E. Fishel IV. "This is a snake-oil salesman in a new format."
Prosecutors asked the jury to impose a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Jaynes, and to consider an unspecified prison term for his sister.
Defence lawyers asked jurors to spare the defendants prison terms.
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Orne has not yet ruled on an earlier motion asking that the case be dismissed. He said during the trial that he had a hard time allowing the prosecution of DeGroot and Rutkowski to go forward to the jury.
The case against Rutkowski was the weakest, said his lawyer Leo Andrews Jr., "and I would think the commonwealth would agree about that as well."
Virginia prosecuted the case under a law that took effect last year that bars people from sending bulk email that is unsolicited and masks its origin. AOL, which is a unit of New York-based Time Warner Inc., is based in Dulles, Virginia.
Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore called Virginia's anti-spam law the toughest in America.
"Spam is a nuisance to millions of Americans, but it is also a major problem for businesses large and small because the thousands of unwanted emails create havoc as they attempt to conduct business," Kilgore said in a statement.


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This hasn't happened to me, but I keep hearing stories about situations like the following: 1) startup raises a seed financing round while working on a preliminary idea, 2) founders later "pivot" into a new idea that looks more promising and/or gains traction, 3) founders decide to raise a new round of financing, 4) founders argue that the new idea is so different from the original one that it should be part of a new company, and that the original seed investors shouldn't own any part of it.
At Founder Collective, we think of ourselves as investing primarily in people, and only secondarily in ideas or products. I have to admit that until I heard about these situations happening, I hadn't even conceived of the possibility of "pivots into new corporate structures". In retrospect, I suppose it was inevitable given the founder-friendly market and the rapidly evolving venture environment.
As a legal matter, assuming the founders worked on the idea on the original company's time and/or money, the seed investors probably have a strong claim. Founders and employees normally sign "invention assignment" agreements that would make the new ideas and products property of the original company (again, these aren't situations I'm personally involved in so I am just speculating on the specifics). The reality is that most professional seed investors aren't going to sue founders and will likely instead try to work out some compromise.
This is not to suggest, by the way, that founders are indentured servants to investors. It is perfectly fine, if an idea isn't working out, to wind down the company, return the remaining capital, and go off and work on new ideas. If one of those new ideas shows promise, the founders are then (legally and morally) free to form a new corporate entity and raise new financing from whomever they choose. From news reports, it sounds like this is what the Odeo team did before they pivoted to Twitter. It's the conventional and, in my view, correct way to handle these situations.
Here's what really worries me. If it becomes a norm for founders to jettison seed investors when their company's focus changes, seed investors who invest "primarily in people" will stop doing so. I think that would be a real shame: we'd lose an important source of capital and a lot of innovative startups wouldn't get funded.
Read more posts on cdixon.org »


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I just received a notice from Margaret Gervais of BIFHSGO that John Grenham from Dublin will be in the city on August 9th to present an afternoon of talks on Irish ancestry.
Here is the press release I received -
The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa — with the cooperation of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, the Irish Society of the National Capital Region, and the Monterey Inn Resort & Conference Center — presents:
When: Sunday, 9th August 2009 – 1:30 p.m.
Where: The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive in Nepean (Ottawa)
Free Parking on site.
Admission: $10/person at the door.
"Tracing Your Irish Ancestry" with John Grenham, M.A.
Professional Genealogist, Fellow of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, and well-known author from Dublin, Ireland
Visit: www.Johngrenham.com and www.IrishTimes.com/ancestor
Chasing Shadows: Irish Genealogy Online
Few large sets of Irish genealogical records are available online; however, there are many highly valuable local or partial record-sets, which can be difficult to track down. The presentation starts with an outline of the main Irish records and where any on-line transcripts can be found.
Whatever you're having yourself: Irish Census Substitutes
Brief summary of better-known substitutes, but focuses on more useful and lesser-known records, including: Loan Funds, Charleton Marriage Fund, agricultural surveys, official petitions and electoral records. Since the range is infinite, a complete account is impossible; the aim is to sketch the main areas in which these records are being uncovered, to show how they can be used, and to bring hope to those who have run out of the standard Irish sources.
For more information or queries, contact BIFHSGO at:
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com / Website: www.bifhsgo.ca / Tel. 613-234-2520
Postal address: BIFHSGO, PO Box 38026, Ottawa ON K2C 3Y7
I'll be there and hope to see you there, too!


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Judge Weighs Missouri Disturbing Worship Law
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A federal judge will decide whether to issue a temporary injunction against Missouri's new law making it a crime to disturb a worship service.
The law makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally disturb or interrupt a "house of worship" with profane language, rude or indecent behavior or noise that breaks the solemnity of the service.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Anthony Rothert argued at a hearing Tuesday in St. Louis that the law is too vague and could apply to protests outside a church or other place of worship. But Andy Hirth, an attorney for the state, says the law would not apply unless protesters intentionally disrupt a service.
It isn't clear when U.S District Judge E. Richard Webber will issue a ruling on the injunction request.


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NEA, Celebrities, Promote Education To Blacks
The National Education Association (NEA) in a groundbreaking campaign designed to strengthen relationships with the nation's Caribbean and African communities has recruited the help of major celebrities and business executives.
They include: Actor Idris Elba, Golden Krust Bakery Founder/CEO Lowell Hawthorne, New York Assemblyman Nick Perry, soca queen Alison Hinds, VP Records, Atlanta Falcons' Ovie Mughelli, Joseph Addai of the Indianapolis Colts, Marlon Hill of the Jamaican Diaspora Southern U.S., Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin, Commissioner Dale V.C. Holness of Lauderhill, FL, and Senegalese rap group Gokh-Bi System.
The NEA effort, entitled "I Love My Child," is part of an overall grassroots outreach program targeting America's ethnic minority groups, including Asian Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, and Caribbean and African communities.
"In our desire to achieve great public schools for every child, we must make building strong relationships and strategic partnerships with the ethnic minority community a top priority," says NEA President Reg Weaver. "We recognize the Caribbean and African communities as a significant voice in the national dialogue on education."
As part of the outreach, the NEA has partnered with respected individuals from the Caribbean and African communities who will act as campaign "ambassadors."
"I think it is very important for us as parents to understand the public school system and know the people that are responsible for teaching our children," says Elba. "A better relationship with the administration will give the student a better future."
"VP Records is truly proud to support the efforts of the NEA, and we are very excited to participate in the I Love My Child Campaign," says Randy Chin, CEO of VP Records. "As a company with firm Jamaican roots, we recognize the importance of working with our community and its leaders, teachers and parents to ensure that all of our children receive the best education possible."
The NEA will run a series of radio and television public service announcements as well as host several Town Hall Meetings in New York, Atlanta, and Miami. A website with the urls www.ilovemyjamaicanchild.com, www.ilovemytrinichild.com, www.ilovemyhaitianchild.com, www.ilovemyafricanchild.com has been created to inform Caribbean and African parents about various public school issues, including English as a Second Language (ESL), parental involvement, and teacher quality.
"Public school education needs to be preserved because it still provides an essential foundation on which to build future leaders, provided that the resources are in place," explains Hawthorne, a native of Jamaica who started his Golden Krust empire in 1989. "All my children are the product of the public education system and they are well rounded individuals of whom I am very proud."
To comment or to subscribe to or advertise in New York's leading Pan African weekly investigative newspaper, or to send us a news tip, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to firstname.lastname@example.com
Also visit out sister publications Harlem Business News www.harlembusinessnews.com and The Groove music magazine at www.thegroovemag.com
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Ann GarrisonFebruary 22,2018 @ 08:03 PM
I think you have "Filtered HTML" turned on here. If you switch to "Full HTML," it will probably...


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Reality star Bethenny Frankel has split from her husband after two years of marriage.
Former "The Real Housewives of New York" star married Jason Hoppy in March, 2010, and they later welcomed a baby girl, Bryn, now 2.
The couple has been dogged by rumors of a rocky relationship in recent weeks, and have now called it quits.
A statement from the TV personality-turned-talk-show-host reads, "It brings me great sadness to say that Jason and I are separating. This was an extremely difficult decision that as a woman and a mother, I have to accept as the best choice for our family.
"We have love and respect for one another and will continue to amicably co-parent our daughter who is and will always remain our first priority. This is an immensely painful and heartbreaking time for us."
Frankel's new talk show, Bethenny, is scheduled to air next year.


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- Hosts may offer hospitality consisting of a couch, a room, or a place to camp.
Read more in the Frequently-Asked Questions.