text:
HOUSTON, TX -- Motor control system designers can now concentrate on differentiating designs rather than spending weeks and months tuning their motor control systems. With the new InstaSPIN-FOC (field-oriented-control) solution from Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN), designers can now identify, tune and fully control (through variable speeds and loads) any type of three-phase, synchronous or asynchronous motor in five minutes or less. This new technology removes the need for a mechanical motor rotor sensor to reduce system costs and improves operation using TI's new software encoder (sensorless observer) algorithm, FAST (flux, angle, speed and torque), embedded in the read-only-memory (ROM) on TI's 32-bit C2000 Piccolo microcontrollers. InstaSPIN-FOC joins the previously introduced InstaSPIN-BLDC technology and will be followed with future InstaSPIN variations to make motor control development easier and more efficient.
Improve Motor System Reliability and Efficiency
Many industries have delayed the use and adoption of sensorless FOC motor techniques because of the lack of motor control system knowledge, despite the many system benefits these techniques provide. InstaSPIN-FOC eases development and reduces system cost and complexity for designers — even those with limited motor control experience —and enables premium solutions that improve motor efficiency, performance and reliability in all variable speed and load motor applications. In traditional FOC motor designs, the use of a rotor sensor can impact a system with increased costs (sensor, power supply, special cabling and connectors, installation and maintenance) and potentially lower reliability (performance degradation in harsh conditions, electrical noise, temperature and humidity). In addition, using a sensor in many applications, such as an enclosed compressor or a large traction machine, is also completely impractical.
Features and benefits of InstaSPIN-FOC technology:
- Save months of design time with nearly fully automated identification and control tuning, allowing designers to differentiate their products with capabilities beyond full motor torque.
- Near encoder performance with embedded on-chip FAST observer algorithm calculating a reliable and robust estimation of flux, angle, speed and torque across use conditions. Accurate, sensorless "estimator" performance eliminates the need for a physical encoder in most cases.
- Accommodate all three-phase motors, synchronous (BLDC, SPM and IPM) and asynchronous (ACI) with the same solution.
- Identify and tune with off-line motor commissioning that identifies the needed electrical parameters of the motor, tunes the FAST algorithm, and initializes the current controllers for stable operation. An optional online resistance re-estimation mode which tracks changes for robust observer performance in the harshest use cases is also offered.
- Eliminate start-up challenges of other sensorless techniques with built-in start-up modes and observer angle lock in less than one electrical cycle.
- Slow speed performance with angle integrity preserved at steady state below 1 Hz (typical) with full torque, reversals through zero speed and stall conditions with smooth stall recovery.
- Gain flexibility with the ability to implement a single function call FOC torque controller (supports up to two motors from the same ROM) or a completely custom control system with FAST as the motor sensor.
- Allow most efficient motor sizing with built-in field control, providing manual or automated field-weakening (higher speeds) or manual field-boosting (higher torque) applications.
- Gain massive energy savings for induction motors using the PowerWarp mode, eliminating energy waste during times when torque is not immediately required.
- Develop easily and evaluate quickly using the new motor control library (modules, drivers, system examples, documentation) through MotorWare, which offers latest in C object-oriented and API-based coding techniques. Conduct lab instrumentation through TI's free, new GUI Composer tool.
Pricing and Availability
InstaSPIN-FOC is available today on the production-ready, 90 MHz, 32-bit floating point Piccolo F2806xF microcontrollers starting at $6.70 USD per 10 Ku. InstaSPIN-FOC will be featured on several other Piccolo microcontrollers in the near future. Designers can begin their latest InstaSPIN-FOC motor designs with a low-voltage, low-current motor control kit for $299 (DRV8312-69M-KIT), low-voltage, high-current motor control kit for $299 (DRV8301-69M-KIT) or high-voltage motor control kit for $699 (TMDSHVMTRINSPIN). If designers have a previously purchased a TI motor control development kit, they can order the modular InstaSPIN-FOC-enabled Piccolo controlCARD for $99 (TMDSCNCD28069MISO).
TI's Broad Portfolio of Microcontrollers (MCUs) and Software
From general purpose, ultra-low power MSP microcontrollers, to Stellaris Cortex-M microcontrollers to real-time control C2000 microcontrollers, and Hercules safety microcontrollers, TI offers the broadest range of microcontroller solutions. Designers can accelerate time to market by tapping into TI's complete software and hardware tools, extensive third-party offerings and technical support.
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 90,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be—smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun. Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do—from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities. This is just the beginning of our story.


text:
Lecturer in Film and Screen StudiesMonash University
Tessa Dwyer
As contributor
As commenter
Peripheral VisionThanks Richard for this insightful comment. Yes, I too am fascinated by peripheral vision and the challenges it presents for eye tracking research. This is something we tried to gesture towards in this video essay. There is interesting eye tracking work d ...
Eye Tracking & FilmmakingThanks so much for this feedback Miklos, and so good to hear that this video essay matches up so well with your own teaching! The question you raise about the influence of eye tracking research on filmmaking strategies is certainly fascinating to consider ...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Dalrymple writes that in R v Penguin Books Ltd, the prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones,
seemed not to have noticed that society had changed since his upper-class youth.
opened the case with such pomposity that he became a figure of fun ever afterwards,
and is remembered only for what he said in his opening remarks to the jury:
It does tend…to induce lustful thoughts. It sets upon a pedestal promiscuous and adulterous intercourse. It commends…sensuality almost as a virtue. It encourages…coarseness and vulgarity of thought and of language…It must tend to deprave…One of the ways in which you can test this book, and test it from the most liberal outlook, is to ask yourselves the question, when you have read it through, would you approve of your young sons, young daughters—because girls can read as well as boys—reading this book? Is it a book you would have lying around in your own house? Is it a book you would even wish your wife and servants to read?
The court erupted in laughter, Dalrymple reminds us, and
later, after the not guilty verdict, in a debate in the House of Lords on an unsuccessful motion to strengthen the law of obscenity, one of the noble Lords was reported to have replied to the question of whether he would mind if his daughter read Lady Chatterley's Lover that he wouldn't mind in the least, but he would mind very much if his gamekeeper read it.


text:
How we met these Eagles:
You are sitting in the veld looking at the southern slopes of a mountain, you pick up a slight movement on the rockface and pick up your binoculars... As you fight to get the movement focused, you realize that you are looking at not one but two eagles that have dropped from a near vertical rockface. You follow them through your binoculars and see that they are not flapping their wings at all, they are rather soaring - their flight is effortless, they follow each other in circles, with the completion of each circle they gain 5 to 7 meters in height.
You continue watching, folowing their climb through the binoculars, they reach a height of about 750 meters, they are difficult to pick up without the binoculars - being only two circling dots in the sky. As you watch through your binoc's your heart suddenly misses a beat as you realize that first one and then both eagles have toppled over and have their wings tucked in. They pull their wings into a tight 'V' close to their body and plummet to the ground at remarkable speed you are so awe struck that it takes you a few seconds to register that they have fallen more than two thirds of the height they had gained only a few moments earlier.
Your awe is replaced with concern and then panic as it looks like these eagles you have just picked up a few minutes earlier for the first time through your binoculars, are now going to crash to the earth, did something go wrong, is it going to be all over in the next few seconds? You want to look away, but their impeding doom has you rivetted, you no longer need the binoculars, they are within 30 meters of the tops of the trees in front of you, 25 meters, 20 meters, 15 meters, 10 meters - It is going to be all over in the next two or three seconds, five meters!!! Then first the one then the other opens it's wings and they turn out of this steep dive, only a few centimeters between their bodies and the impending tree tops, such great speed that the leaves are tucked at by the vortices created by their wings through the air, you hear the whistle of the air passing over their wing feathers.
With a slight adjustment of their wings the two birds head towards each other, like they are testing each others nerve, in a second the distance between them shrinks from 15 meters to nothing, they pass within centimeters of each other and then both of them shoot up towards the sky again, they head up weaving in and out to where their airspeed is null, just like an airplane climbing well beyond its capabilities, they stall in mid air and topple over, again they fall down towards the earth like they did a few seconds ago.
This time they push the limits even farther and you start thinking that they are not going to pull out of their dive in time, they will hit the trees and this will be the end of them... They pull out just in time doing the same weaving to about two thirds the height they originally fell from, then the serenity returns as they drop down like feathers, parachuting using their wings. They slowly glide down to the area where they originally took off from and watching them through your binoculars it takes you a second or two to realise that there is a pile of sticks precariously wedged into one of the cracks in the mountain face... Could it be a nest??? They drop down and perch just above this pile of sticks on a dry Rock Breaker Fig Tree, the one bird rustles her feathers and the second bird drops from the branch as if leaving, but quickly turns back towards the branch and mounts the Female bird, they copulate for only seconds before dismounting and perching next to one another once more, preening their feathers, bathing in the sliver of sunlight that has just started to pierce the shadows on the southern side of the mountains...
I watched this reality unfolding in front of my eyes, forgetting that I was only a stone throw away from Pretoria CBD, nestled not in the embrace of nature on some Game Farm or Rural Reserve, NO, I was in a 2 square kilometer island of nature surrounded by the tormenting seas of civilisation. Overhead powerlines less that 600 meters from us, Metro Rail lines less than 400 meters away, one of the main access routes to Northern Pretoria within 200 meters from us, an airport approach path above us... And yet these majestic eagles had decided to make their nest here in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Urban Jungle!!!
My wife (and Joint Project Co-ordinator) once, after a display just like the one above, commented:"The Lord must have been in a GREAT mood when He created these majestic creatures, for they are truly perfect". Which seems fitting as our Creator even 'branded' them with the sign of an angel on their rump.
Welcome to the Official Wonderboom Urban Verreaux's Eagle Monitoring Project (W.U.V.E.P.) Website!
Please take the time to read through the tabs above to see the plight of these majestic creatures...
We work in conjunction with: We are also Affiliated to:
And Supported by:


text:
Day 40 is the first day I have a repeat from one of the Max workouts I did earlier in this week with Max Interval Circuit. That's one of the things I wish was different with this program. I wish there were no repeat workouts within the same week. Nonetheless I can't do anything about that now so I'll keep trucking along and working hard to get through this Insanity Challenge.
Day 40 Max Interval Circuit
Max Interval Circuit is the longest of the Month 2 Max workouts in Insanity. I find it, as of now, the hardest of these type of workouts. My goal on day 40 was to try to consciously push myself harder and do each set longer than I did on the first time I did this routine on day 36. I feel like I did much better today but I still didn't get my heart rate as high as I thought it might go. I'm still really sore and I think that is playing a role in why I can't seem to break through the barrier. I ended up cutting this workout short when my brother from out of town showed up at my door. I had about 10 minutes left in the routine so it wasn't that much of a big deal anyway it terms of time. I was also starting to feel fatigued at that point which was half way through the 3rd circuit. I only have one more workout before a day of complete rest which I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to.
Day 40 Max Interval Circuit Nutrition
I started my day 40 nutrition off with a bowl of the Proatmeal recipe. If you have been following me you can probably see a pattern now where I have been alternating my breakfast and having Proatmeal every other day. At lunch I went with a deli sandwich with a side of almonds. I just love sandwiches and they are probably my one weakness during this Insanity Challenge. Not saying they are "bad", but eating processed food is not exactly "healthy". Being it's Friday family night, the kids wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A so I had to schedule out my nutrition early to see what I could eat to keep inside of my goals. I had a grilled chicken sandwich (minus the bun) and a small fruit cup. As I said the other day I have been struggling with my nutrition in terms of staying strong and not "wanting" any cheat meals. After sitting at Chick-Fil-A for about an hour I decided to treat myself with a small ice cream. No, it didn't fit into my nutrition goals but I felt that it might ease the struggle in my mind to have a little treat. I finished day 40 over my calorie goal with 2146 calories and my macro-Nutrients were high on the carb side at 42-39-19.
Day 40 Nutrition
Click here to learn more about joining my Exclusive Insanity Group.
Yours In Success,
Work With Me - Join Us!
WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, or ideas below in the comments!


text:
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Each one of you wishes to exercise her/his free will and experience happiness.
These are attributes that were shown to us and to which we now have access. Your free will depends upon the knowledge you have of your own power. Your happiness depends upon the love that you give and receive.
Like all conscious races at this stage of progress, you may feel isolated on your planet. This impression makes you sure of your destiny. Yet, you are at the brink of big upheavals that only a minority is aware of.
It is not our responsibility to modify your future without you choosing it. Consider this message as a worldwide referendum! And your answer as a ballot!
This video is meant to further explain 'The Message'
Who are we ?
Neither your scientists nor your religious representatives speak unanimously about the unexplained celestial events that mankind has witnessed for thousands of years. To know the truth, one must face it without the filter of one's beliefs, however respectable they may be.
A growing number of anonymous researchers of yours are exploring new knowledge paths and are getting very close to reality. Today, your civilisation is flooded with an ocean of information of which only a tiny part, the less upsetting one, is notably diffused.
What in your history seemed ridiculous or improbable has often become possible, then realised, in particular in the last fifty years. Be aware that the future will be even more surprising. You will discover the worst as well as the best.
Like billions others in this galaxy, we are conscious creatures that some name "extra-terrestrials", even though reality is subtler.
There is no fundamental difference between you and us, save for the experience of certain stages of evolution. Like in any other organised structure, hierarchy exists in our internal relationships. Ours is based upon the wisdom of several races. It is with the approval of this hierarchy that we turn to you.
Like most of you, we are in the quest of the Supreme Being. Therefore we are not gods or lesser gods but virtually your equals in the Cosmic Brotherhood.
Physically, we are somewhat different from you but for most of us humanoid-shaped.
Our existence is a reality but the majority of you does not perceive it yet. We are not mere observations, we are consciences just like you. You fail to apprehend us because we remain invisible to your senses and measure instruments most of the time.
We wish to fill this void at this moment in your history. We made this collective decision but this is not enough. We need yours. Through this message, you become the decision-makers! You personally.
We have no human representative on Earth who could guide your decision.
Why aren't we visible?
At certain stages of evolution, cosmic "humanities" discover new forms of science beyond the apparent control of matter. Structured dematerialisation and materialisation are part of them. This is what your humanity has reached in a few laboratories, in close collaboration with other "extra-terrestrial" creatures at the cost of hazardous compromises that remain purposedly hidden from you by some of your representatives.
Apart from the aerial or spatial objects or phenomena known about by your scientific community, that you call 'UFOs, there are essentially multidimensional manufactured spaceships that apply these capacities.
Many human beings have been in visual, auditory, tactile or psychic contact with such ships, some of which are under occult powers that "govern" you. The scarcity of your observations is due to the outstanding advantages provided by the dematerialised state of these ships.
By not witnessing them by yourself, you cannot believe in their existence. We fully understand this.
The majority of these observations are made on an individual basis so as to touch the soul and not to modify any organised system. This is deliberate from the races that surround you but for very different reasons and results.
For negative multidimensional beings that play a part in the exercise of power in the shadow of human oligarchy, discretion is motivated by their will to keep their existence and seizure unknown.
For us, discretion is motivated by the respect of the human free will that people can exercise to manage their own affairs so that they can reach technical and spiritual maturity on their own. Humankind's entrance into the family of galactic civilisations is greatly expected.
We can appear in broad daylight and help you attain this union. We haven't done it so far, as too few of you have genuinely desired it, because of ignorance, indifference or fear, and because the emergency of the situation did not justify it. Many of those who study our appearances count the lights in the night without lighting the way. Often they think in terms of objects when it is all about conscious beings.
Who are you?
You are the offspring of many traditions that throughout time have been mutually enriched by each others' contributions. The same applies to the races at the surface of the Earth. Your goal is to unite in the respect of these roots to accomplish a common project. The appearance of your cultures seems to keep you separated because you substitute it to your deeper being. Shape is now more important than the essence of your subtle nature. For the powers in place, this prevalence of the shape constitutes the ramparts against any form of jeopardy.
You are being called on to overcome shape while still respecting it for its richness and beauty. Understanding the conscience of shape makes us love men in their diversity. Peace does not mean not making war, it consists in becoming what you are in reality: a same Fraternity.
To understand this, the number of solutions within your reach are decreasing. One of them consists in contact with another race that would reflect the image of what you are in reality.
What is your situation?
Except for rare occasions, our interventions always had very little incidence on your capacity to make collective and individual decisions about your own future. This is motivated by our knowledge of your deep psychological mechanisms.
We reached the conclusion that freedom is built every day as a being becomes aware of himself and of his environment, getting progressively rid of constraints and inertias, whatever they may be. Despite the numerous, brave and willing human consciences, those inertias are artificially maintained for the profit of a growing centralising power.
Until recently, mankind lived a satisfying control of its decisions. But it is losing more and more the control of its own fate because of the growing use of advanced technologies, which lethal consequences on the earthly and human ecosystems become irreversible. You are slowly but surely losing your extraordinary capacity to make life desirable. Your resilience will artificially decrease, independently of your own will. Such technologies exist that affect your body as well as your mind. Such plans are on their way.
This can change as long as you keep this creative power in you, even if it cohabits with the dark intentions of your potential lords. This is the reason why we remain invisible. This individual power is doomed to vanish should a collective reaction of great magnitude not happen. The period to come is that of rupture, whichever it may be.
But should you wait for the last moment to find solutions? Should you anticipate or undergo pain?
Your history has never ceased to be marked by encounters between peoples who had to discover one another in conditions that were often conflictual. Conquests almost always happened to the detriment of others. Earth has now become a village where everyone knows everyone else but still conflicts persist and threats of all kinds get worse in duration and intensity.
Although a Human being as an individual, yet having many potential capacities, cannot exercise them with dignity. This is the case for the biggest majority of you for reasons that are essentially geopolitical.
There are several billion of you. The education of your children and your living conditions, as well as the conditions of numerous animals and much plant life are nevertheless under the thumb of a small number of your political, financial, military and religious representatives.
Your thoughts and beliefs are modelled after partisan interests to turn you into slaves while at the same time giving you the feeling that you are in total control of your destiny, which in essence is the reality.
But there is a long way between a wish and a fact when the true rules of the game at hand are unknown. This time, you are not the conqueror. Biasing information is a millenary strategy for human beings. Inducting thoughts, emotions or organisms that do not belong to you via ad hoc technologies is an even older a strategy.
Wonderful opportunities of progress stand close to big subdual and destruction threats. These dangers and opportunities exist now. However, you can only perceive what is being shown to you. The end of natural resources is programmed whereas no long-term collective project has been launched.
Ecosystem exhaustion mechanisms have exceeded irreversible limits. The scarcity of resources and their unfair distribution - resources which entry price will rise day after day - will bring about fratricide fights at a large scale, but also at the very heart of your cities and countrysides.
Hatred grows bigger but so does love. That is what keeps you confident in your ability to find solutions. But the critical mass is insufficient and a sabotage work is cleverly being carried out.
Human behaviours, formed from past habits and trainings, have such an inertia that this perspective leads you to a dead end. You entrust these problems to representatives, whose conscience of common well-being slowly fades away in front of corporatist interests, with those difficulties. They are always debating on the form but rarely on the content.
Just at the moment of action, delays will accumulate to the point when you have to submit rather than choose. This is the reason why, more than ever in your history, your decisions of today will directly and significantly impact your survival of tomorrow.
What event could radically modify this inertia that is typical of any civilisation? Where will a collective and unifying awareness come from, that will stop this blind rushing ahead?
Tribes, populations and human nations have always encountered and interacted with one another. Faced with the threats weighing upon the human family, it is perhaps time that a greater interaction occurred.
A great roller wave is on the verge of emerging. It mixes very positive but also very negative aspects.
Who are the "third party"?
There are two ways to establish a cosmic contact with another civilisation: via its standing representatives or directly with individuals without distinction. The first way entails fights of interests, the second way brings awareness.
The first way was chosen by a group of races motivated by keeping mankind in slavery, thereby controlling Earth resources, the gene pool and human emotional energy.
The second way was chosen by a group of races allied with the cause of the Spirit of service. We have, at our end, subscribed to this disinterested cause and introduced ourselves a few years ago to representatives of the human power who refused our outstretched hand on the pretext of incompatible interests with their strategic vision.
That is why today individuals are to make this choice by themselves without any representative interfering. What we proposed in the past to those whom we believed were in a capacity to contribute to your happiness, we propose it now to ... you!
Most of you ignore that non-human creatures took part in the exercise of those centralising powers without them being neither suspected nor accessible to your senses. This is so true that they have almost very subtly taken control. They do not necessarily stand on your material plan, and that is precisely what could make them extremely efficient and frightening in the near future. However, be aware that a large number of your representatives are fighting this danger! Be aware that not all abductions are made against you. It is difficult to recognize the truth!
How could you under such conditions exercise your free will when it is so much manipulated? What are you really free of?
Peace and reunification of your peoples would be a first step toward the harmony with civilisations other than yours.
That is precisely what those who manipulate you behind the scenes want to avoid at all cost because, by dividing, they reign! They also reign over those who govern you. Their strength comes from their capacity to distillate mistrust and fear into you. This considerably harms your very cosmic nature.
This message would be of no interest if these manipulators' tutorate did not reach its peak and if their misleading and murderous plans did not materialise in a few years from now. Their deadlines are close and mankind will undergo unprecedented torments for the next ten cycles.
To defend yourselves against this aggression that bears no face, you need at least to have enough information that leads to the solution.
As is also the case with humans, resistance exists amongst those dominant races. Here again, appearance will not be enough to tell the dominator from the ally. At your current state of psychism, it is extremely difficult for you to distinguish between them. In addition to your intuition, training will be necessary when the time has come.
Being aware of the priceless value of free will, we are inviting you to an alternative.
What can we offer?
We can offer you a more holistic vision of the universe and of life, constructive interactions, the experience of fair and fraternal relationships, liberating technical knowledge, eradiction of suffering, controlled exercise of individual powers, the access to new forms of energy and, finally, a better comprehension of consciousness.
We cannot help you overcome your individual and collective fears, or bring you laws that you would not have chosen, work on your own selves, individual and collective effort to build the world you desire, the spirit of quest to new skies.
What would we receive?
Should you decide that such a contact takes place, we would rejoice over the safeguarding of fraternal equilibrium in this region of the universe, fruitful diplomatic exchanges, and the intense Joy of knowing that you are united to accomplish what you are capable of. The feeling of Joy is strongly sought in the universe for its energy is divine.
What is the question we ask you?
How to can you answer this question?
The truth of soul can be read by telepathy. You only need to clearly ask yourself this question and give your answer as clearly, on your own or in a group, as you wish. Being in the heart of a city or in the middle of a desert does not impact the efficiency of your answer, YES or NO, IMMEDIATELY AFTER ASKING THE QUESTION! Just do it as if you were speaking to yourself but thinking about the message.
This is a universal question and these mere few words, put in their context, have a powerful meaning. You should not let hesitation in the way. This is why you should calmly think about it, in all conscience. In order to perfectly associate your answer with the question, it is recommended that you answer right after another reading of this message.
Do not rush to answer. Breathe and let all the power of your own free will penetrate you. Be proud of what you are ! The problems that you may have weaken you. Forget about them for a few minutes to be yourselves. Feel the force that springs up in you. You are in control of yourselves !
A single thought, a single answer can drastically change your near future, in one way as in another.
Your individual decision of asking in your inner self that we show up on your material plan and in broad daylight is precious and essential to us.
Even though you can choose the way that best suits you, rituals are essentially useless. A sincere request made with your heart and your own will will always be perceived by those of us whom it is sent to.
In your own private polling booth of your secret will, you will determine the future.
What is the lever effect?
This decision should be made by the greatest number among you, even though it might seem like a minority. It is recommended to spread this message, in all envisageable fashions, in as many languages as possible, to those around you, whether or not they seem receptive to this new vision of the future.
Do it using in a humorous tone or derision if that can help you. You can even openly and publicly make fun of it if it makes you feel more comfortable but do not be indifferent for at least you will have exercised your free will.
Forget about the false prophets and the beliefs that have been transmitted to you about us. This request is one of the most intimate that can be asked to you.
Making a decision by yourself, as an individual, is your right as well as your responsibility!
Passivity only leads to the absence of freedom. Similarly, indecision is never efficient. If you really want to cling to your beliefs, which is something that we understand, then say NO. If you do not know what to choose, do not say YES because of mere curiosity. This is not a show, this is real daily life, WE ARE ALIVE! And living!
Your history has plenty of episodes when determined men and women were able to influence the thread of events in spite of their small number.
Just like a small number is enough to take temporal power on Earth and influence the future of the majority, a small number of you can radically change your fate as an answer to the impotence in face of so much inertia and hurdles! You can ease the mankind's birth to Brotherhood.
One of your thinkers once said: "Give me a hand-hold and I'll raise the Earth".
Spreading this message will then be the hand-hold to strengthen, we will be the light-years long lever, you will be the craftsmen to ... raise the Earth as a consequence of our appearance.
What would be the consequences of a positive decision?
For us, the immediate consequence of a collective favourable decision would be the materialisation of many ships, in your sky and on Earth.
For you, the direct effect would be the rapid abandoning of many certitudes and beliefs.
A simple conclusive visual contact would have huge repercussions on your future. Much knowledge would be modified forever. The organisation of your societies would be deeply upheaved for ever, in all fields of activity. Power would become individual because you would see for yourself that we are living. Concretely, you would change the scale of your values!
The most important thing for us is that humankind would form a single family in front of this "unknown" we would represent!
Danger would slowly melt away from your homes because you would indirectly force the undesirable ones, those we name the "third party", to show up and vanish. You would all bear the same name and share the same roots: Mankind!
Later on, peaceful and respectful exchanges would be thus possible if such is your wish. For now, he who is hungry cannot smile, he who is fearful cannot welcome us. We are sad to see men, women and children suffering to such a degree in their flesh and in their hearts when they bear such an inner light.
This light can be your future. Our relationships could be progressive.
Several stages of several years or decades would occur: demonstrative appearance of our ships, physical appearance beside human beings, collaboration in your technical and spiritual evolution, discovery of parts of the galaxy.
Every time, new choices would be offered to you. You would then decide by yourself to cross new stages if you think it necessary to your external and inner well-being. No interference would be decided upon unilaterally. We would leave as soon as you would collectively wish that we do.
Depending upon the speed to spread the message across the world, several weeks, or even several months will be necessary before our "great appearance", if such is the decision made by the majority of those who will have used their capacity to choose, and if this message receives the necessary support.
The main difference between your daily prayers to entities of a strictly spiritual nature and your current decision is extremely simple: we are technically equipped to materialise!
Why such a historical dilemma?
We know that "foreigners" are considered as enemies as long as they embody the "unknown". In a first stage, the emotion that our appearance will generate will strengthen your relationships on a worldwide scale.
How could you know whether our arrival is the consequence of your collective choice? For the simple reason that we would have otherwise been already there for a long time at your level of existence! If we are not there yet, it is because you have not made such a decision explicitely.
Some among you might think that we would make you believe in a deliberate choice of yours so as to legitimate our arrival, though this would not be true. What interest would we have to openly offer you what you haven't got any access to yet, for the benefit of the greatest number of you?
How could you be certain that this is not yet another subtle manoeuvre of the "third party" to better enslave you? Because one always more efficiently fights something that is identified than the contrary. Isn't the terrorism that corrodes you a blatant example?
Whatever, you are the sole judge in your own heart and soul! Whatever your choice, it would be respectable and respected! In the absence of human representatives who could potentially seduce into error you ignore everything about us as well as from about those who manipulate you without your consent.
In your situation, the precautionary principle that consists in not trying to discover us does no longer prevail. You are already in the Pandora's box that the "third party" has created around you. Whatever your decision may be you will have to get out of it.
In the face of such a dilemma, one ignorance against another, you need to ask your intuition. Do you want to see us with your own eyes, or simply believe what your thinkers say? That is the real question!
After thousands of years, one day, this choice was going to be inevitable: choosing between two unknowns.
Why spread such a message among yourselves?
Translate and spread this message widely. This action will affect your future in an irreversible and historical way at the scale of milleniums, otherwise, it will postpone a new opportunity to choose to several years later, at least one generation, if it can survive.
Not choosing, stands for undergoing other people's choice. Not informing others stands for running the risk of obtaining a result that is contrary to one's expectations. Remaining indifferent means giving up one's free will.
It is all about your future. It is all about your evolution.
It is possible that this invitation does not receive your collective assent and that, because of a lack of information, it will be disregarded. Nevertheless no individual desire goes unheeded in the universe.
Imagine our arrival tomorrow. Thousands of ships. A unique cultural shock in today's mankind's history. It will then be too late to regret about not making a choice and spreading the message because this discovery will be irreversible. We do insist that you do not rush into it, but do think about it! And decide!
The big medias will not be necessarely interested in spreading this message. It is therefore your task, as an anonymous yet an extraordinary thinking and loving being, to transmit it.
You are still the architects of your own fate...
46 comments:
I am pleased this piece has been posted here shuny I watched and read and shared the other day. It matters not who but the why is what's important to us all. Thanks and helloReplyDelete
They're late if anybody is listening ;)ReplyDelete
- James Horak25 September 2011 at 13:30
They are not late, Charles. Rather, people of earth have not shown as of yet the consensus that off-earth presence, actually manifested in any indisputable manner, would not be worked into the fear-driven agendas of the NWO to promote the hostile alien thesis. With the false perceptions and control of a prostituted mess media you should know by now how accomplishable that is by the multitude of films and mess media preparation for it. So the appeal is more subtle...and not enough support has yet been shown by an awareness that can turn things another way. JCHReplyDeleteReplies
Zoran firstname.lastname@example.com
Is The Ongoing Assumption That People Can Handle Anything
Except Knowing That Others Have Better Gadgets?
Your Expert Are As Ethnocentric As Ours.
If E.T. Is Huminoid Shape And Under 300lbs gross wt. a
Texan Might Say They Look More Like Me Than My Neighbor.
To The Average Person You Will Be Nothing But A Great
If There Is A Fake Invasion In The Works, Are They Waiting
For When Its At Everybodys Disadvantage?
Earth To E.T. Get Show On Road Or Go Find Another Planet
To Deluded Yourselves With.
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 02:58
Its so sad - here we stand at the brink of something wonderous for this planet and the population. We could clean up the mess that the soul-less corporations have created, take steps to eradicate poverty and greed, make sure that every single person has their needs met and work towards restoring this planet into a true garden of eden.ReplyDelete
But no, all for the lust and greed of a few powercrazed certifiably insane families that will try and keep control of the planet and brainwashed masses to the bitter end.
It seems so close and yet so far.
All for the want of a horseshoe nail...
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 04:29
Thank you for this - after I read it I was reminded of a dream I had many years ago. I was standing outside at night and looking at the stars. Then I realised that they weren't stars, but lights from banks and banks of ships that were moving slowly across the sky. This dream was so real I feel I have lived it. These times are so exciting and we all need to carpe diem. kindest regards from CallistaReplyDelete
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 05:39
This has been the first thing that ive read since researching my own thoughts and ideas, that really touched my soul, my collective conciousness is alive and well and ready. Scary, yet exciting at the same time...you visited me once...come back againReplyDelete
This comment really rang true to me, appealed to basic common sense.ReplyDelete
"How could you be certain that this is not yet another subtle manoeuvre of the "third party" to better enslave you ? Because one always more efficiently fights something that is identified than the contrary. Isn't the terrorism that corrodes you a blatant example? "
People would HAVE to react, decide, wake up and be aware if the truth were right in front of them, and I agree that humanity does need galvanizing at this point in time. Too many prefer to sit on the fence or ignore our true state of being on this planet and in the Universe.
I say "bring it on".
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 10:11
We need this message translated to all languages.ReplyDelete
Many thanks.
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 11:10
Suggestion: The decision can also be made after a "free sample" of "show up", or what, as already happened to some people (representatives?), it should happen to all for all, same conditions, same constraints, for a fair choice for all, without ego as far as a soul choice?ReplyDelete
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 11:24
We are going to see you all after death, so why do we need a choice now? In order to be able to decide if we want to learn more, we need to know what are the true meaning of more, words may be missunderstood, so it could be a choice of how. Before a fair referendum, the purposals are fully debated and shown up, or what?ReplyDelete
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 11:27
First you show up:ReplyDelete
Smiling means YES
Running away means NO
Life is good
Love is simple
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 11:52
Free book on demand:
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 11:58
Free books:
The Hermit - (Originally published in 1971) Lobsang meets a blind hermit to further his learning and discovers about the people who first placed life of this earth and who are known as the "Gardeners of the Earth". We are not the only inhabited planet in our; or any other, solar system and galaxy. A true insight into Moses & Jesus Christ who was, but a messenger.
Tibetan Sage - (Originally published in 1980) the final book by Dr. Rampa. Dr Rampa recalls experiences with his guide within the "inner temple" of the cave of the ancients. How the world started by the big bang and what was the big bang. Explaining further on how it going and the evils of petroleum which is NOT a fossil fuel.
- Anonymous26 September 2011 at 12:00
- James Horak26 September 2011 at 15:08
All these responses are from the heart. They show the concerns for which those that originated the message are looking. There is indeed something more than words here. An element of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Something achieved through an higher order of language. One of you responded in a similar way, poetically.ReplyDelete
This is important for it allows us to penetrate beyond the barriers carefully laid and reinforced in our mundane world where so many limitations are placed on perceptions. On our ability to comprehend what is possible. Where even the most compelling of resorts is removed from our hopes.
Many of our thinkers have ventured beyond these limitations, some even finding followings. Look though, at how they've been treated, sometimes even infiltrated and brought to ruin. Implanted with scandal and the involvement of such agencies as the CIA and FBI found out only too late.
Too protect a status quo as if it were a god. There and there only is your Satan, merely the elimination, not just of answers, but of possibility.
good site bro.ReplyDelete
Live Long & Prosper May the force be with you.ReplyDelete
Ha James,ReplyDelete
Thank you very much for your confirmation of the message. I read it a couple of years ago, said Yes whole heartedly but after a while it disappeared from my memory. Great to know that it is still valid. I like to inform people and am looking for and finding ways to get the message across, sometimes straight-forward, sometimes with humour. Today I told colleagues that intelligently controlled craft are present in our solar system and will soon be visible, in other words; we are not alone in the universe. Nobody gave any comment but looked up at the sky that was good!
I have read the book by Dr. Bergrun -skipping the calculations though-, love your interviews and have developed trust in the goodness of the universe because of your input. Thank you.
Love from Anna
- Anonymous29 September 2011 at 05:04
My heart is pounding yes. My thoughts are screaming yes into space.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous2 October 2011 at 18:12
- Anonymous4 October 2011 at 18:39
Earth, as an inhabitable ecosystem for the support of human occupation as we know it is in fast decline. Our resources are finite yet our elite drivers' intentions infinite. In the absence even of any politically or scientifically supported Plan B for the future security of sustainable systems on this planet, this bizarre yet strikingly considered 'galactic offering' serves not only as a far flung possibility for such a Plan B, but Provides us a window of Hope... A deeply needed vehicle on which to base our Personal spiritual salvation in the face of it's Intended annihilation. As a collective our chances for survival hold. Status quo will see us GO!ReplyDelete
The appearance of galactic brother beings is one of the few goods we have left to hope for. MVL. Melb. Aust.
- Anonymous4 October 2011 at 19:20
I said YES! Show us your presence. It's individual choice not the government nor religious institutes nor traditions.ReplyDelete
The old system has to be end. Period. I love to see thousands ship come right in the sky and make people think about the greater reality.
Each individual has to make own choice either stick to the old system and would be ended in shit place or move to new place with unlimited possibilities.
- James Horak8 October 2011 at 13:56
If you wonderful people have noticed, when you go about any of the online forums, any time that a spiritual aspect is suggested to the ET presence, hit artists-in-residence immediately attack. Ideas like the immortality of the soul, the establishment of evolutionary certainty that such highly advanced people have long dispensed with war and individual and collective aggression, and that the emphasis should be on a social stability wrought of strong moral core rather than technology; are repugnant to those for whom these plants either consciously or unconsciously serve. To see through this veil of tears constructed by monsters, we must first recognize possibility and focus on the very best of our hopes with expectation. That alone will keep us from falling back into the human drift that carries us to oblivion. JCHReplyDelete
- Helvetic10 October 2011 at 12:22
Here you have the source of this "Message".ReplyDelete
"For those who take the time to read the below document, I will tell you how it was received. A colleague was handed this by a man at a conference, and then virtually disappeared quickly, my colleague was the only one to receive this 8 page document, which has since been circulated too many. You may not take any of the below seriously, but I place this in the public forum for all to read anyway. Roy."
- Anonymous19 October 2011 at 01:54
I will be honest.ReplyDelete
My mind is telling me that all hell will break loose... but as I shed continually what I think it means to be alive, human and what is real, my heart tells me that it's only a matter of time before all will be well.
Maybe it's the desire of life to triumph against all evil... that necessary lesson from which many will learn and blossom.
I just need to remain grounded.... and peek my head in here every so often.
- James Horak19 October 2011 at 02:18
Very compelling reply, Joey. One for which I've no argument. Keep an eye on what's going on around you and continue to be wise. JCHReplyDelete
- Anonymous21 October 2011 at 12:07
James, for the past few days I have the terrible feeling something has gone wrong. Can you update us?ReplyDelete
- James Horak21 October 2011 at 14:07
You may simply be sensitive to the lull created by all the doomsayers-gone-silent after not having their way with any end of the world scenario. How many phenomena have been touted as Nibiru or Planet X now? In the rush to evade mankind's personal responsibility to let the few proceed along monstrous agenda's these people have followed, now facing no other way out but to face a truth (for some astounding reason) they find unsavory, they are left to look upon the actual causes, man's evil upon man. Still, many are too narcissistic themselves to contemplate this. JCHReplyDelete
- Anonymous22 October 2011 at 04:31
Thank you for the reply, James. It is very painful to see the ugliness of the status quo. Another political murder, the build-up toward senseless war, the deceptions of money. The end of the world would be a convenient way to end all of this, wouldn't it? Eyes opened.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous22 October 2011 at 11:24
a - YES - is obvious for most who read all the above.ReplyDelete
the ones that hesitate, are simply not as far down the road of enlightnment, but are continuing their journey of discovery.
- Anonymous26 October 2011 at 10:26
i bow before the presence of this truth, and duly bid thee to come. 93 93/93ReplyDelete
- Anonymous22 January 2012 at 17:25
how many people in the world must say yes, so that they decide to show themselves to us?ReplyDelete
- James Horak22 January 2012 at 19:02
Enough to organize a resistance effective enough to support those on the inside (Faction II) to act in their own way against the monsters. We will then have the stage set for discovering if the human presence here can beReplyDelete
worthy enough to erect something self-sustaining that is not elitist. Once begun steps will be taken to prevent any all-out war leading to annihilation to buy you the time to see if you have learned enough to know that technology is not the answer. Then and only then will you establish official relations and begin to have the benefit others can offer to restore your planet to health. JCH
- Anonymous22 February 2012 at 16:55
NEW UPDATE 21st of february, 2012
- Anonymous1 March 2012 at 13:12
American Kabuki Updated List 2-29-12… "102 Resignations From World Banks"
Posted on March 1, 2012
Well, we can certainly sing our praises for American Kabuki's upated list (found here at RMN). The list keeps growing. Mahalo American Kabuki! (note: all of the links in the article redirect to another actual link at cli.gs) ————————————————————————— 102 … Continue reading →
- James Horak1 March 2012 at 16:28
Actual reverses in the adaptation of police state agendas and the upholding of citizen's Constitutional guarantees in the United States will speak more to the NWO's backing off than anything else. But that is merely the beginning of what needs to be done. The law IS the social contract and the powers that be cannot lawfully assert their authority at the same time they don't uphold their own oaths of office to uphold it...i.e., the Constitution. JCHReplyDelete
- Anonymous16 September 2012 at 17:44
Ashtar On The Road Teleconference 9-11-12
"My Fellow Citizens of Planet Earth, I thank you so much for being here in this togetherness. For those of you who have not heard the story, I shall confirm once more. I live in my body. I have been welcomed upon the ships. I have attended many, many, meetings all these years that have gone by in the time of Plant Earth, and I can assure you, never has the Flame of Love, the Flame of Freedom been so bright, and so powerful as it is now.
"Now those of you in service as humanity members, members of humanity, may be thinking, or feeling, that it's just the opposite. But I can promise you, the groundwork I laid during my short time as the leader of this great country of the United States of America, and indeed as a representative of Freedom to the entire World - that groundwork lives! It never died. It was hidden over.
"There were those who saw me as the greatest impediment upon the Planet to their plans, to their ambitions. You know who some of them are. There was an unelected president named George Bush, Sr. He was the head of what you call the C.I.A. in Texas. He helped - his people were liaisons with certain of the, what you call, the mafia families. They supplied the shooters, and there was more than one. Lee Harvey Oswald was in a way, well he was mind-controlled, and he was the one that was blamed.
"And when he was shot in the jail it was so that he could not have his mind unraveled, and come forth with some Truth that would have been quite damaging to those who had planned all of this. Suffice it to say that the president who succeeded me, Lynden Johnson, profited quite handsomely from the opening of the drug trade in Southeast Asia.
- James Horak16 September 2012 at 20:53
I can easily attribute such concerns to JFK. And that he would stay "at the gate" to remain in touch with those for whom he made the supreme sacrifice. Soon others will show how close to such brave virtue they may come. Let us hope the effort will not go so long unrewarded. Two things I can assure everyone here about. You are all equal in potential to all other children of the universe and the ideal of what we all would share with all brothers and sisters in equality is realizable. JCHReplyDelete
- Anonymous22 September 2012 at 22:05
The Arcturians Speak:
We are so pleased to see how many of our wonderful Ascending Ones are enjoying our journey to the Mothership. Before Mytre continues his tour of our multidimensional components, we wish to speak with you about how you can best see us in your skies. Of course, you will not see our Mothership, but we, meaning ALL the Galactics, are making ourselves more and more visible to you each day.
You have already been instructed how to communicate with your Pineal Gland to allow "novel perception" into your conscious mind. However, there is more we wish to explain to you. Many of you have been awakening in the night with the feeling that we are very close.
These awakenings are often because we have been communicating with you while you are in your fourth dimensional night body. We communicate in this manner because you are very receptive at that frequency of your consciousness. We also encourage you to awaken while these messages are fresh within your mind.
Furthermore, many of you are visiting us in your night body, but you may or may not be remembering that adventure. A way to remember your visit with us is to "imagine" that you are on one of our Solar Ships. We call these Star Ships our Solar Ships, as they are small enough to enter a Solar System without damaging the gravitation of the planets. However, they are still very large by earthly standards.
We also have Scout Ships that are small enough to land on your planet. Even our Solar Ships are too large to land on a planet. Therefore, all our inter-planetary visitations are done via our Scout Ships. These Ships are the ones that are most commonly seen. We often travel in groups of three to distinguish ourselves from stars. Also, we will blink in and out of your vision to catch your attention. We also do this to differentiate our lights from that of your stars.
Many times we feel you, our Ascending Ones, looking up into the night sky asking, "When will they come?" Yes, we can register your thoughts, especially the thoughts of those who think about us. When you think about us, the Arcturians or other members of your Galactic Family, you send out a resonance similar to what you have known as an S.O.S. call.
- Anonymous22 September 2012 at 22:09
Indeed, many of you are so deeply longing for our arrival that it feels like an emergency to you. In fact, our landing is a bit of an emergency. Gaia needs Her people to Wake Up and assist with Planetary Ascension NOW. Those of you who are actively assisting Gaia are more deeply appreciated than you can imagine. However, She needs more humans to participate in releasing old, lower frequency thoughts, emotions and attachments so that She can more easily lift off, so to speak.
By "lift off" we mean that Gaia must lift the great mass of Her body beyond the third dimension of polarity. She cannot just ascend Her loving polarity and leave behind her fearful polarity without causing great damage to Her planet. She does not want to harm her beautiful form in any manner. She sees that your plants, animals, cetaceans and many humans have released much of your dross vibrations. Therefore, Gaia knows that Her full Ascension is near.
Unfortunately, even though we Galactics have been working to constrain and contain the Dark Ones both on the planet and in the Lower Astral Field, there are still too many humans "on the fence." You have a lovely child's book, Horton Hears the Who, which is about an elephant that found a small fluff and is about to damage it. Horton is a very kind Being, as all elephants are, and does not know that an entire world exists within that fluff.
Therefore, everyone in Whoville must make a noise so that Horton hears their voices. In the end, it is one small voice from one small boy sitting alone in a tower that saves their world. Therefore, dear Ascending Ones, not one of you is too insignificant to make a difference. We need every voice from every ONE of you, from every corner, every valley and every high mountain, to call "We are READY for you NOW."
Your personal state of readiness is more significant than you can imagine. You are all very accustomed to individual consciousness in which you alone are often insignificant to the masses of the many. However, whether or not you are aware of it, Gaia is now within the frequency of Unity Consciousness. The animals know that, the plants know that, the Cetaceans know that and the Elementals know that.
Fortunately, more and more humans know that each day. However, there are many humans who are only followers. They have become too beaten down by their polarized reality to take any form of initiative. Therefore, those of you who have found the strength within to remember your SELF, must call loud enough to assist those who have lost their voice.
Of course, we are not speaking of "calling" in the same manner that the members of Whoville called. We are speaking in terms of calling with your magnificent force of unconditional love that our dear Ascending Ones have embraced. If each of you can remember to send your force of unconditional love into the hearts of EVERY member of humanity and visualize them turning to our light and choosing ascension, you will make a HUGE contribution to Planetary Ascension.
At the same time, you can visualize that you are releasing ALL that does not resonate to the frequency of the fifth dimension and beyond. In this manner, you will assist to lighten Gaia's load. Just as the wagon trains that travelled across the great wilderness of North America to seek a new home left a trail of abandoned possessions behind, you too will leave behind all that cannot resonate to the fifth dimension.
Suzanne Lie, you certainly have not read or understood anything on this blog. What you are presenting us here is what James, Torz, Crystal and I (if I may speak for my fellow publishers here) are deeply concerned about because so many people fall for this kind of what we call esoteric woo woo.ReplyDelete
Your verbiage, lining up catchphrases and buzzwords (see my article 'How Catchphrases and Buzzwords are used as Stumbling Blocks' is either indicating that you have read too many books of the authors who coined those or that you are under mind control being fed what you are feeding us.
There are also many groundbreaking articles about mind control, artificial telepathy and the mind as a field on this blog that might help you to find out what is really going on.
Thank you for posting the great content…I was looking for something like this…I found it quiet interesting, hopefully you will keep posting such blogs.solar water heatingReplyDelete
- Patricia Lagrange14 June 2015 at 04:53
Yes and the best for all.ReplyDelete
My use of design designated by "children of the universe" is an acknowledgement of commonality that should begin all dialogue in an event of formal contact. The question is how many here at this very time can appreciate this common ground on which all peoples can meet? Good will is indeed its own reward. The avowed intention it represents overcomes even the most programmed of hostility. Elitism is to this simple understanding like Satanism is to moral core, both dissolving of any ideal of universal harmony. That's why the latter serves the former so often. The breeding of false values and discordant goals that disrupt society and foster war and social strife are intentions fostered purposely and have never before been so obvious in these intentions than what we see exhibited among proponents of this NWO. The machinery and support for such a monstrosity must be ended and stop gap measures put into place that prevent its rise ever again. Yes, a big bill to fill, but one easily seen today as necessary to anyone viewing the damage these evil policy makers have, and are progressing, to the earth. JCHReplyDelete


text:
This Is James Frank from Manchester, UK. Today let me share an interesting story with you guys. I have a college friend named Jessic Eliasson and we met in a shopping mall about a month back from now. After exchanging greetings, I asked her what she was doing lately. I got a bit surprised to know that she was doing a couple of home based jobs. One of them was reviewing restaurants/activities online. I got pretty much interested to this as this wont require me to attend office and I can work from home. When I shared this with her, she explained me how to earn money doing this. Another information that surprised me a lot is that she was the founder of AsianPornVideos.xxx. Since my teenage years, I had addiction to Asian porn sites and AsianPornVideos.xxx is one of my favorites. I browse this site 2-3 hours everyday during my weekend days.
I got even more surprised to know that she is making thousands of bucks from this site per month. Earlier I dreamt to be the founder of such of popular site but I never thought that one of my friends is the owner of such a popular site while I am the visitor of it!! I was thinking silently about how many ways Jessic was going to surprise me that day!!
I asked her for some tips to build up such a site and make it popular enough to earn at least few hundred bucks per month. And she shared some vital tips with me without any hesitation. Currently I have started my own porn site and a Dutch online casino portal named portals as I am also half Dutch.
The porn website I am building it in the way Jessic instructed me to do it. I am pretty much sure that it will start getting few hundred in daily visitor traffic within next 1-2 months. I am already getting 50-60 Visitors per day and my site is only 20 days old!!


text:
According to Computer Weekly/TechTarget 's* survey IT Priorities 2017, most UK respondents do not plan to increase the IT budget of their enterprises and only 33% think it will increase slightly. Within this framework, budgets will be primarily allocated to cloud services, software and disaster recovery.
The same survey of companies in the Benelux indicates that the IT budget will increase by 28% in total, while most resources are outsourced due to lack of internally available talents.
Besides the typical needs of a company in relation with customers (ERP, CRM…), big data analysis is at the top of the list of new projects for 2017. On the security side, with access being increasingly common through mobile devices, one third of respondents are seriously considering increasing their use and thus security of access points should be reinforced first. Automation is also a subject that comes top of the overall ranking.
The largest slice of the pie will be allocated in 2017 to the cloud, not just for data storage purposes, but also for messaging and accounting applications.
One might almost think that the IT department has become, in a way, the poor relation inside the organization, which is ironic at the age of digital transformation!
Why this evolution which is contrary to the very principle of the utility of IT? How come the Big Data era was not better anticipated, for example, and why did companies take so long to (re)act? One can go so far as to imagine that if the relevant departments had better anticipated the situation, such an urgent need to upgrade information governance might not be necessary today.
Small and medium-sized companies : lack of material and human resources, but also lack of ambition?
If it's true that every stakeholder at all levels must play the game by accepting innovations for what they are – an opportunity to produce more and better – the corporate culture must invite this natural evolution. Department managers should be the first convinced of the need for optimization of tools and processes, except that in real situations, we've all had the experience of a manager who was refractory to change. In such a case, how to inspire the teams to accept with open arms the technological evolution? Inspiration must come from the top of the pyramid if the base is to be solid.
But is a certain immutability of the management solely responsible for the generalized status quo? IT services are not just there to ensure the proper functioning of tools, yet many companies are faced with this established fact. If, in a bygone era, companies could be satisfied with a certain operational efficiency which was long considered sufficient, digital technology has exploded the amount of collected data and therefore the need to develop storage and processing environments has become crucial. If the work in a silo approach could be justified at the beginning, it quickly became evident that a more efficient type of storage would be absolutely useful for processing big data. Still, how many companies still work in 2017 with an archaic environment, coming up with patches when the system threatens to explode?
The other danger of an ill-anticipated digital transformation is that employees more easily take the initiative to find solutions for sharing and communicating, for their own professional needs, without going through the IT department. This way of bypassing the responsible department may prove to be a security risk, but it is a form of initiative and need for efficiency that the IT department is too often not able to provide quickly because of lack of human and/or material resources; but let's also admit it, sometimes it's just because of corporate policy or some form of internal attachment to the past.
More than ever, the heads of the IT departments must think of themselves as leaders, not just in their IT field, but in a more global vision of the company. Their role is not only to meet the IT needs of the organization, they must show initiatives to add value to their department, and ultimately to the company.
*Sources : 2017 IT Priorities: Benelux IT leaders least confident of budget increase and IT Priorities 2017: What will IT decision makers be focusing on?


text:
AT&T: Yet another name for Giants ballpark: Delivered.: "The San Francisco Giants said Friday their ballpark will be known as AT&T Park beginning March 1." ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. From PacBell Park to SBC Park to AT&T Park. Did anybody really care about the name? What's the best pro ballpark name that's still being used?
posted by worldcup2002 to baseball at 01:16 PM - 73 comments
why dont they just call it giant stadium.oops i forgot,ownership sells the name to the highest bidder or corporate thief
posted by arturo at 01:22 PM on February 03
What's the best pro ballpark name that's still being used? Football included? Easy, Paul Brown Stadium.
posted by tselson at 01:25 PM on February 03
Fenway? Wrigley? Or are those technically corporate sponsored names?
posted by NoMich at 01:33 PM on February 03
Hockey included? Gaylord Entertainment Center
posted by fabulon7 at 01:34 PM on February 03
What's the best pro ballpark name that's still being used? You didn't stipulate a particular sport so I'll say Soldier Field. It may look atrocious, but it has yet to fall victim of sponsorship and is, in fact, a memorial to soldiers. For baseball, I'd have to say Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I know it's a newer park, but it almost has that resortlike sound to it.
posted by willthrill72 at 01:41 PM on February 03
You can forget every park that has a corporate name. I think that leaves three Little League fields.
posted by ?! at 01:46 PM on February 03
We play softball on Cow Patties#1 and #2. Dangerous baselines. Nice mountain views from all sides. Bringing your own beer sucks however. You ever try to get a keg of PBR on a mountain bike?
posted by GoBirds at 01:58 PM on February 03
I wouldn't place Wrigley Field in the category of corporate sponsorship/naming rights, because it is also the name of the man who owned the team. There was, and is, a personal connection between the city and the Wrigley name. The same used to be true for Comiskey Park. You could put a face on the name, whether you loved him or hated him. Both Wrigley and Comiskey are part of Chicago lore. Too bad the Sox sold out this connection for a couple extra mil. That said, naming rights are sadly here to stay it would seem. I dare say in our lifetimes, we will see corporate purchases of actual team names. Sound unbelievable? Maybe, but I personally don't see an end to it.
posted by qubit at 01:59 PM on February 03
Call it whatever you want. To me it is Candlestick Park.
posted by dbt302 at 02:07 PM on February 03
I dare say in our lifetimes, we will see corporate purchases of actual team names. Holy shit! That'll be the day. I can see it now. The Golden State Googles The New England Razors The LA Yahoos That'd be some crazy stuff.
posted by ProSam at 02:12 PM on February 03
I like the idea that the Toledo Mud Hens play at Fifth Third Field. I'm guessing that's the street corner it's on, but it just rolls off the tongue like a mouthful of hair, don't it?
posted by chicobangs at 02:17 PM on February 03
As nasty and old and gross as it was, Veterans Stadium will always have a special place in my heart. Also the Snow King Center, home of the Jackson Hole Moose.
posted by GoBirds at 02:27 PM on February 03
Fifth Third is actually the name of a bank. And it's the worst friggin name. What the hell does it mean?
posted by willthrill72 at 02:29 PM on February 03
i was thinking that qubit meant like the news corporation dodgers or tribune cubs or rogers blue jays, etc. the best name still around probably has to be madison square garden. even though its not located there anymore, it still rolls off the tongue and has some prestige to it. yankee and dodger stadiums are a close 2nd and 3rd.
posted by nyfan at 02:38 PM on February 03
Fenway? Wrigley? Or are those technically corporate sponsored names? Wrigley maybe, but Fenway is named after the swamp it was built on, The Fens.
posted by yerfatma at 02:39 PM on February 03
I have to vote for Busch stadium, the home of my beleived Cardinals. I like the fact that the new stadium is keeping the name.
posted by dropzone at 02:47 PM on February 03
You're right, nyfan. That's exactly what I meant. Either corporations will replace city names or team names, or any combination of both. It sounds cynical, but I really do think this can happen in the not-too-distant future. There has already been talk, here in Chicago, of selling the naming rights to city parks, playlots, plazas and other public spaces. Let's brace ourselves, shall we?
posted by qubit at 02:51 PM on February 03
the best name still around probably has to be madison square garden. even though its not located there anymore, it still rolls off the tongue and has some prestige to it. yankee and dodger stadiums are a close 2nd and 3rd. posted by nyfan Well, as long as we're gonna be all "homer" about it, I think there's something magical about the name fenway park. Baseball sounds better in a park. Stadium? Eww. Soldier Field has a nice ring to it also.
posted by justgary at 02:51 PM on February 03
>>>Call it whatever you want. To me it is Candlestick Park. posted by dbt302 at 2:07 PM CST on February<<< You can't call it candlestick because that is monster park now . Also they are 2 different stadiums that would be the other reason you can't call it candlestick. I personally like Madison square garden
posted by htilammi at 02:56 PM on February 03
dbt302, you are aware that Candlestick and PacBell (I can't think of it is anything else, sorry SBC and AT&T) are not the same place, right? I like Camden Yards but I also like the BOB, Bank One Ballpark because I think its funny calling a stadium Bob.
posted by fenriq at 03:02 PM on February 03
Busch is the same category as Wrigley and Comiskey.
Call it whatever you want. To me it is Candlestick Park. That's how most people in San Francisco feel. They still call Candlestick "Candlestick" and not whatever the corporate name-du-jour is. The Giants moved to Pac Bell Park in 2000. People still called it Pac Bell Park when it was renamed SBC Park in 2003. (a lot of people grew up with Pacific Bell as the phone company, so they're nostaligic even though it's a corporate name, too.) The best idea is to name it Willie Mays Field.
I dare say in our lifetimes, we will see corporate purchases of actual team names. Sound unbelievable? Didn't that already happen with the Mighty Ducks?>
posted by kirkaracha at 03:04 PM on February 03
Worst Name - U.S. Cellular Field. The best part about it is that those who haven't continued to call the park "Comiskey Park" or "Sox Park" call it "The Cell," which delivers exactly zero bang for the corporate sponsorship buck.
posted by ChiSox1977 at 03:06 PM on February 03
I'm partial to Coors Field in Denver. It's a naming deal, but it extends indefinitely, and the Coors name is synonymous with the city. It's also a great stadium plagued by the curse of altitude.
posted by rcade at 03:39 PM on February 03
Arrowhead baby Lamar Hunt go cheifs
posted by Yvonnne at 03:44 PM on February 03
NHL - Calgary Saddledome is one of my favourites. It's got local meaning (Stampede) and it is appropriately named (it looks like a saddle). MLB - Fenway Park or Wrigley Field are the ones I like. Kids play baseball in parks and fields. NFL - Soldier Field narrowly edges out Lambeau Field for me. However, if it's the old NFL-Films guys saying the names, then I'd vote for the home of the Green Bay Packers. NBA - Uh. Um...
posted by grum@work at 03:48 PM on February 03
I cant believe that you all have forgotten the stadium that will be on the other side of the pearly gates YANKEE STADIUM the greatest ballpark on the face of this earth
posted by USAGTO at 03:48 PM on February 03
grum... it's actually called the Pengrowth Saddledome and I'll be there in a couple hours from now. Cheers
posted by camcanuck at 03:54 PM on February 03
...Fenway is named after the swamp it was built on, The Fens. I did not know that. Thanks for the edjimication fatty. And USAGTO, we didn't forget, we just chose not to bring that team up. Heh, just kidding. That's got to be the most obvious answer. Maybe too obvious? I don't know. Maybe it's because we all huffed too much glue in 5th grade Arts class.
posted by NoMich at 03:57 PM on February 03
MLB - Fenway Park or Wrigley Field are the ones I like. Isn't Wrigley the original corporate sponsored field???? Its so classic that we consider it majestic, but really its the same thing as at&t, or safeco, or any other corporately sponsored name.
posted by everett at 03:57 PM on February 03
uhhhh... sorry, i really slipped when i didn't read the whole thread.
posted by everett at 03:59 PM on February 03
it's actually called the Pengrowth Saddledome Really? I've gotta stop watching those old Olympic highlight videos. I'm becoming one of those stereotypical Ontarians. ("West of Thunder Bay? Isn't that just flat lands then mountains?")
posted by grum@work at 04:09 PM on February 03
I personally like "Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field". The ultimate homer. :) For all of the uninitiated masses here, I guess it would be, Lambeau Field, Arrowhead and unfortunately..Yankee Stadium.
posted by stockman at 04:10 PM on February 03
kirkaracha, you're getting warm. True enough, the Mighty Ducks are named after a Disney product, but I'm talking about the next, inevitable step: replacing city names with corporation names. Like, right now they are the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, right? What I'm talking about is the day when they will simply be the Disney Mighty Ducks. Or, the Mighty Ducks presented by Disney.
posted by qubit at 04:16 PM on February 03
I can't wait for the texas rangers to be renamed: Walmart rangers of texas. (sarcasm)
posted by chuy at 04:33 PM on February 03
Either corporations will replace city names or team names, or any combination of both. Here, you can watch the Blue Jays play in the Rogers Centre on Rogers Sportsnet with Rogers cable, or listen on Rogers FAN590, or get updates on your Rogers Wireless phone. TSN, the other sports network, does its share of Jays games, but even then the broadcast is named "Rogers Blue Jays Baseball". At least they've stopped using actual players in their wireless/cable/whatever ads.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 04:44 PM on February 03
I've always thought that Petco Park in San Diego was an aptly named home for the Padres. Ruff, ruff!!
posted by Termite at 04:44 PM on February 03
Here, you can watch the Blue Jays play in the Rogers Centre on Rogers Sportsnet with Rogers cable, or listen on Rogers FAN590, or get updates on your Rogers Wireless phone. You guys are getting right rogered with that corporate sponsorship. heh
posted by NoMich at 05:06 PM on February 03
why dont they name it the willie mays barry bonds park?
posted by arturo at 05:15 PM on February 03
Call it "The highest bidder".
posted by mykle at 06:01 PM on February 03
the BOB has since been renamed, Chase Field. Chase bank took over Bank One a few months ago.
posted by nyfan at 06:31 PM on February 03
NFL: Soldier Field NBA: Madison Square Garden MLB: Yankee Stadium My favs don't play in any of these, unless they are visiting. mykle, I like the way you think. :o)
posted by Steeler_Fan at 06:33 PM on February 03
what about Municipal Stadium? The original multi-sport facility
posted by Clevelander32 at 06:38 PM on February 03
Busch Stadium. It has stood the test of time and a demolition!
posted by cardsfan at 07:01 PM on February 03
Actually, Busch Stadium is the first case of corporate renaming of a sports facility, but in a roundabout fashion. Supposedly, when Anheuser-Busch brewery owner August Busch Jr. bought the St. Louis Cardinals and its home field, Sportsman's Park, from the departed St. Louis Browns (which moved to Baltimore), he wanted to rename it "Budweiser Stadium" after his premier product. The idea was nixed by the Commissioner and other owners. However, they had no problem with Busch naming the stadium after himself. So Sportsman's Park became "Busch Stadium" in 1953. In 1955, Anheuser-Busch began brewing Busch beer.
posted by L.N. Smithee at 07:37 PM on February 03
NoMich: Here, you can watch the Blue Jays play in the Rogers Centre on Rogers Sportsnet with Rogers cable, or listen on Rogers FAN590, or get updates on your Rogers Wireless phone. There is no truth to the rumor that the Dodgers will move to Toronto and be known as the Rogers Dodgers.
posted by L.N. Smithee at 07:43 PM on February 03
nyfan: the BOB has since been renamed Chase Field. Chase Field? If it's Sally, I certainly will, and I hope I catch her! I like her, I reeeeally like her!
posted by L.N. Smithee at 07:45 PM on February 03
Pro Sam: The Golden State Googles...The LA Yahoos As a lifelong resident, I think "Yahoos" should be saved for San Francisco. What about Los Angeles? Perhaps the "L.A. Coke."
posted by L.N. Smithee at 07:49 PM on February 03
ChiSox 1977: Worst Name - U.S. Cellular Field. The best part about it is that those who haven't continued to call the park "Comiskey Park" or "Sox Park" call it "The Cell," which delivers exactly zero bang for the corporate sponsorship buck. Hey, "The Cell" fits perfectly with the gritty "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" South Side image. The Sox play in pinstriped unis just like Capone's gang. Why wouldn't they play at a place called "The Cell?" Ain't that where guys like them belong? (Just kidding...except for Pierzynski.)
posted by L.N. Smithee at 07:59 PM on February 03
Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park in that order.
posted by jmizeski at 08:50 PM on February 03
My top 10: 1. Doubleday Field, Cooperstown, NY. Yeah, it's only a "pro ballpark" one day a year, but it was the field of dreams before anyone knew about the "Field of Dreams." 2. Madison Square Garden, New York. Every time I hear the name, its in the voice of Howard Cosell. And for some reason I like that. 3. Legends Field, Tampa, FL. Yeah, it's a spring training site, and everyone hates the Yankees, but if it was located in Iowa and hosted a small market team, you would love this name. 4. Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY. Coliseum is about the best name you can give to an arena. If it wasn't called "Nassau" (and it wasn't located on Long Island) this would be my absolute #1. 5. Soldier Field, Chicago, IL. Similar to MSG in that the name invokes the voice of the guy that narrates NFL Films. 6. Wimbledon, London, England. Pro ball park? It's "pro." There are "balls." It's a "park." 'Nuff said. 7. Churchill Downs, Louisville, KY. Pro ball park? It's "pro." There are... alright, I'm going to stop there. Cool name, either way. 8. The ComcastSpectacor Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA. You scoff, but I bet you said it five times to yourself before you read this sentence. 9. Cow Palace, San Francisco. How the hell did "Cow" and "Palace" end up in the same name? 10. The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI. Sounds like the title of a Jane Austen novel.
posted by BullpenPro at 08:54 PM on February 03
Toledo Mud Hens play at Fifth Third Field. We have a Fifth Fhird Field in Dayton as well.
posted by tselson at 09:46 PM on February 03
The Corporate Park,they all own the it! Come-in-ski Park, where the snow?
posted by ZGMAD at 09:47 PM on February 03
By ballpark, I was referring to baseball (given, the thread was about a baseball stadium, duh). And who refers to anything but a baseball stadium as a ballpark? Football fans? C'mon! I'd think you SpoFites would know better. Anyway, I'm pleased to see this post generated some good discussion. And yeah, even tho it's not baseball, I like Madison Square Garden (MSG! what an acronym!), and Wrigley stadium (it may be corporate, but at least it's got a human-sounding name - I think it's the chewing gum family, no?). I also like Fenway Park and Oriole Park. Agree, too, that Candlestick Park is a good name. And, yeah, kirk, Willie Mays Field sure beats AT&T Park, but then again, that name sure ain't hard to beat. On a soccer-related note, I'm glad to see the EPL still has most of its traditional stadium names, although that doesn't look like it will last for long.
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:03 PM on February 03
Bullpen, re: Cow Palace naming origins, I heard that they used to graze and/or auction cattle round about those parts where the stadium now sits. Lemme check with my friends, the Internets ... Ah, yes: Looks like my story isn't as funny (I don't know if it was any less true) as the ones they have listed here. No definitive naming history but still a good read. Formerly home to the SF Warriors and San Jose Sharks, now the home of the Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show. Yeehaw!
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:19 PM on February 03
By ballpark, I was referring to baseball Fair enough -- I was clearly using the loosest of loose interpretations, but you can consider my main contribution to be "Doubleday Field" and the rest to be bonus (if you liked them) or egregiously off-topic (if you didn't). Bullpen, re: Cow Palace naming origins... Having done no research, I just assumed the name came from the Grand National's connection to cattle in general. Whatever the rationale, those are two funny words to put together. No Fifth Third, but funny. If we're including minor league parks, I'll go with Zephyr Field (New Orleans), Ballpark at Harbor Yard (Bridgeport, CT), Lackawanna County Stadium (Moosic, PA), Isotopes Park (Albequerque, NM), Jackie Robinson Ballpark (Daytona Beach, FL), The Sandcastle (Atlantic City, NJ), Mike Lansing Field (Casper, WY), and Oldsmobile Park (Lansing, MI). All-time favorite ballpark name, though, is Elysian Field.
posted by BullpenPro at 12:42 AM on February 04
Enron Field and Minute Maid Park . . . way to go Texas!
posted by Sundog at 01:17 AM on February 04
good thread WC02..Pro Player Stadium no.Miami/so. Lauderdale,altho the way The Fins have played lately might make it a misnomer, but the other sea critters did bring a Wld Series to Sofla...How about the Worst sports venue or single event..Poulan-Weedeater Independence Bowl in S'port,La or Nokia Sugar Bowl? kinda like Cow Palace,you definately don't want to drop your cell phone in your coffee in the morning (tho some of us probably have)...
posted by bobacane at 02:25 AM on February 04
Here you go...Angels Stadium of Anaheim. That's the name no matter of the team name.
posted by samtana at 02:43 AM on February 04
Detroit has four major sports teams. Two with stadiums named after sponsors (Lions, Ford Field and Tigers, Comerica Park). The other two do not (Pistons, Palace of Auburn Hills and Red Wings, Joe Louis Arena). Funny how the two teams without the corporate name have done so well recently while the Lions and Tigers continue to suck. Palace of Auburn Hills is my favorite name (although I am kind of biased).
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:02 AM on February 04
The Sioux Falls Caneries play in the "Birdcage"
posted by daddisamm at 06:16 AM on February 04
Everybody here seems to be missing the BIG picture. Player salaries have been driven since the seventies by this kind of thing. Corporate sponsorship of stadiums along with the TV deals is what the players make their money on in the end, by the time taxes, leases and other running expences are paid by the stadium owners, there is very little left to go into the players' pockets. Fans do not pay for players in the end anymore, TV and things like "naming rights" do. That is why the fan base is shown no respect by owners or players.
posted by SAVANX at 07:36 AM on February 04
savanx: That sounds like a dose of flav-r-aid. Do you have a link to any numbers on that? With so many stadiums built by the communities I don't see how "taxes, leases, and other running expenses" are that high. These days, I just don't see owners buying teams that lose tons of money. Remember, MLB owners are (1) businessmen, (2) businessmen, and (3) businessmen. BullpenPro: Re: Churchill Downs. I fear the renaming of the Derby to "Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands" is only the first step to renaming the Downs.
posted by ?! at 08:24 AM on February 04
Busch may have been one of the first coporate names, but the brewery owned the Cards at the time and old man Busch did have a big say so in the operation of the team. He might have been one of the biggest fans around. I wonder if the high ups at AT&T even know where the stadium is or even name a current player with the Gaints.
posted by dropzone at 09:35 AM on February 04
Does anyone know if the water channel in right field (McCovey's Cove?) is considered part of the stadium? If so, do the kayakers need tickets? If its open to the public, I can only imagine watching the hand to hand combat when Baroid launches one to pass Ruth & Aaron. There will be 50,000 UFC type of characters tearing each other to pieces.
posted by sandman at 09:43 AM on February 04
Everybody here seems to be missing the BIG picture. Player salaries have been driven since the seventies by this kind of thing. Corporate sponsorship of stadiums along with the TV deals is what the players make their money on in the end A tiny thought experiment: if the players played for free, would the owners turn down this money?
posted by yerfatma at 10:46 AM on February 04
Yankee Stadium.....I have chills just thinking about all the ghosts of the past that played there.
posted by 1BronxGirl at 01:04 PM on February 04
I thought I'd sneak this in - before we moved to Pride Park, Derby County (now Championship, but EPL passim) played at The Baseball Ground. Problem is, baseball was never played there. It originates from a rather rude traditional folk song...
posted by owlhouse at 04:27 PM on February 04
Problem is, baseball was never played there. It originates from a rather rude traditional folk song... See, American pro sports just cannot get that kind of humor into the mix and, corporate naming rights aside, would never allow a rude anything to be part of an official name.
posted by billsaysthis at 05:57 PM on February 04
We have a Fifth Fhird Field in Dayton as well. posted by tselson at 9:46 PM CST on February 3 We have one in Grand Rapids, MI too.
posted by skydivemom at 07:52 PM on February 04
Yeah, but this American wonders what you're talking about. If you're talking about "The Baseball Ground" in Derby, UK then baseball was played there. Fifth Third is easy: The Fifth National Bank merged with the Third National Bank. They considered averaging their names, but someone already ran the Fourth National Bank. Today, some Ohio residents think of the bank as the 125th due to a poor typeface choice in the copy advertisements.
posted by ?! at 08:00 PM on February 04
We have one in Grand Rapids, MI too. Pretty fun place to enjoy a summer night? A little scary down the baselines, I bet! You guys are in the same league as the Dragons, I think. We've been lucky to see players like Willy Mo Pena, Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns. Any success stories out of Grand Rapids? By ballpark, I was referring to baseball Baseball only... Wrigley, Fenway and (gulp) Yankees Stadium. (Riverfront was great but...it's gone.)
posted by tselson at 10:49 PM on February 04
Baseball? Great American Ball Park. Where the sponsor's name doesn't sound corporate. Perhaps it's just me, but 'Madison Square Garden' is the kind of name that can confuse a person. I still can't accept that it's so-called because it's in Madison Square, rather than being a a square garden. As for 'TD Banknorth Garden'? What the hell?
posted by etagloh at 06:00 AM on February 05
Well, if you insist on allowing corporate names: Slugger Field in Louisville, KY. Home of the
Redbirds, River Bats, Bats
posted by ?! at 09:23 PM on February 05


text:
Catholic Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize – a first for an African woman and a first for environmentalism – for her work with the Green Belt Movement, the largest community-based environmental organization in Africa.
Maathai (1940-2011), who died this week of ovarian cancer, was particularly known for leading poor Kenyan women in a reforestation movement that has planted 30 million trees and for actively resisting the corruption of Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi. At the announcement of the prize, the international press ran photos of Maathai standing tall, proud, beaming – and alone – in the spotlight.
"The Nobel Prize is absolutely a singular recognition," explained Kenyan activist Njoki Njehu, director of the Washington, D.C.-based "50 Years is Enough" debt-relief campaign to Sojourners. "But it is also a collective recognition…[of] African women in terms of a way of valuing women's work that has not been valued." (Taking Root, a film about Maathai and the Greenbelt Movement, has just been released.)
Wangari Maathai opened her memoir with an scripture from Ezekiel. "The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them" (34:27). Below is an excerpt from the opening chapters of her extraordinary autobiography.
I was born the third of six children, and the first girl after two sons, on April 1, 1940, in the small village of Ihithe in the central highlands of what was then British Kenya. My grandparents and parents were also born in this region near the provincial capital of Nyeri, in the foothills of the Aberdare Mountain Range. To the north, jutting into the sky, is Mount Kenya.
Two weeks into mbura ya njahi, the season of the long rains, my mother delivered me at home in a mud-walled house with no electricity or running water. She was assisted by a local midwife as well as women family members and friends. My parents were peasant farmers, members of the Kikuyu community, one of forty-two ethnic groups in Kenya and then, as now, the most populous. They lived from the soil and also kept cattle, goats, and sheep.
At the time of my birth, the land around Ihithe was still lush, green, and fertile. The seasons were so regular that you could almost predict that the long, monsoon rains would start falling in mid-March. In July you knew it would be so foggy you would not be able to see ten feet in front of you, and so cold and frosty in the morning that the grass would be silvery-white with dew. In Kikuyu, July is known as mworia nyoni, the month when birds rot, because birds would freeze to death and fall from the trees.
We lived in a land abundant with shrubs, creepers, ferns, and trees, like the mitundu, mukeu, and migumo, some of which produced berries and nuts. Because rain fell regularly and reliably, clean drinking water was everywhere. There were large, well-watered fields of maize, beans, wheat, and vegetables. Hunger was virtually unknown. The soil was rich, dark red-brown, and moist.
When a baby joined the community, a beautiful and practical ritual introduced the infant to the land of the ancestors and conserved a world of plenty and good that came from that soil. Shortly after the child was born, a few of the women attending the birth would go to their farms and harvest a bunch of bananas, full, green, and whole. If any of the bananas had ripened and birds had eaten them, the women would have to find another full bunch. The fullness expressed wholeness and wellness, qualities the community valued. Along with the bananas, the women would bring to the new mother's house sweet potatoes from their gardens and blue-purple sugarcane (kigwa kia nyamuiru). No ordinary sugar cane would do.
In anticipation of the birth, the expectant mother would fatten a lamb that slept and ate inside her home. While the women gathered the ritual foods, the child's father would sacrifice the lamb and roast a piece of the flesh. The bananas and the potatoes would also be roasted and along with the meat and the raw sugarcane given to the new mother. She would chew small pieces of each in turn and then put some of the juice into the baby's tiny mouth. This would have been my first meal. Even before breast milk, I would have swallowed the juice of green bananas, blue-purple sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and a fattened lamb, all fruits of the local land. I am as much a child of my native soil as I am of my father, Muta Njugi, and my mother, Wanjiru Kibicho, familiarly known by her Christian name, Lydia. Following the Kikuyu tradition, my parents named me for my father's mother, Wangari, an old Kikuyu name. –Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed: A Memoir